Google Earth Fusion Help

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Googe Earth Fusion Version 2.4

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Copyright © 2005 Google Inc., Copyright © 2005 . All rights reserved. GOOGLE, GOOGLE EARTH, KEYHOLE, and the Google and Keyhole logos and graphics are trademarks or registered trademarks of Google Inc. in the United States and elsewhere. Other trademarks not owned by Google Inc. are the property of their respective owners. The content of this publication is furnished for informational use only, is subject to change without notice, and should not be construed as a commitment by Google, Inc.

This publication is provided pursuant to and subject to the terms of the Google Earth Fusion license agreements. This publication and the information therein may not be reverse engineered, reproduced, duplicated, modified, altered, disclosed, published, printed or distributed to any third party whatsoever without the express written permission of Google Inc.

Use, reproduction, or disclosure is subject to restrictions set forth in Contract Number 2002*A964800*000 and Contract Number Keyhole-DA001.

Contents

Googe Earth Fusion

1 Getting Started. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

1.2 The Google Earth Fusion GUI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

1.3 System Requirements and Materials. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181.3.1 Materials List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18

1.3.2 Required System Setup. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18

1.3.3 Recommended System Hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19

1.4 Installing & Launching Google Earth Fusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191.4.1 Installing the Google Earth Fusion Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19

1.4.2 Migrating from Google Earth Fusion 2.3 to 2.4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20

1.4.3 Upgrading Existing Google Earth Fusion Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20

1.4.4 Configuring Google Earth Data Location . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20

1.4.5 Installing the Tutorial Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21

1.4.6 Starting the Google Earth Fusion System Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .211.4.6.1 Verifying the System Manager with khtop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

1.4.7 Troubleshooting a Failed System Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .231.4.7.1 Restarting the System Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231.4.7.2 Verify Correct Hostname Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231.4.7.3 Viewing the System Manager Log File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

1.4.8 Launching Google Earth Fusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24

1.5 Google Earth Fusion Fundamentals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241.5.1 Workflow. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24

1.5.2 Source Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27

1.5.3 Google Earth Fusion Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .281.5.3.1 Assets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

5

1.5.3.2 Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291.5.3.3 Databases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311.5.3.4 Data Relationships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

1.6 Using the Google Earth Fusion Workspace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321.6.1 The Tool Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

1.6.2 The Workspace Panes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331.6.2.1 Customized Pane Locations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331.6.2.2 Toggle Pane Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

1.6.3 Setting Google Earth Fusion Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

2 Google Earth Fusion Tutorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

2.2 Tutorial Source Data Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

2.3 Setting Up Your Work Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392.3.1 Defining Source Providers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

2.3.2 Setting Up Asset Manager Subfolders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

2.4 Creating Imagery Assets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 412.4.1 Exploring Raw Source Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

2.4.2 Importing Imagery Assets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

2.4.3 Building the Imagery Asset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

2.4.4 Viewing the Imagery Asset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

2.4.5 Complete the Remaining Imagery Assets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

2.5 Creating the Imagery Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 462.5.1 Adding The Imagery Assets to the Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

2.5.2 Building the Imagery Project. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

2.5.3 Adding the Imagery Project as a Base Map. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

2.6 Creating Vector Assets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 492.6.1 Exploring Source Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

2.6.2 Importing and Building Vector Assets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

2.7 Creating a Vector Project. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 542.7.1 Adding Assets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

2.7.2 Configuring Highway Data. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 552.7.2.1 Renaming the Vector Layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Contents6

2.7.2.2 Default Display Rule for Surface Roads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 562.7.2.3 Display Rules for Interstates and Other Freeways . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

2.8 Creating Terrain Assets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 662.8.1 Exploring Raw Source Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .67

2.8.2 Importing Terrain Assets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .68

2.8.3 Building and Modifying the Terrain Asset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .69

2.9 Creating a Terrain Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

2.10 Creating a Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 722.10.1 Defining the Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .72

2.10.2 Building the Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .73

2.10.3 Publishing and Viewing the Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .74

3 Working with Assets and Source Data . . . . . . . . . . . . 753.1 Managing Data Providers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

3.2 Creating Assets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 773.2.1 General Asset Creation Steps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .79

3.2.2 Creating Vector Assets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .80

3.2.3 Creating Imagery or Terrain Assets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .813.2.3.1 Entering the Acquisition Date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 823.2.3.2 Selecting the Provider . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 833.2.3.3 Setting Mask Type and Values. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 833.2.3.4 Setting Options for Mosaic Import . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 843.2.3.5 Choosing Elevation Units (Terrain Assets Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

3.3 Viewing and Browsing Assets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

3.4 Organizing Assets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

3.5 Modifying Assets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

3.6 Building Assets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

3.7 Debugging Asset Builds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 893.7.1 Resuming Failed Asset Builds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .91

3.7.2 Cleaning Assets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .923.7.2.1 Rules for Asset Version Cleaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 933.7.2.2 Cleaning an Asset Version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

3.7.3 Marking Asset Versions as “Bad” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .94

Contents 7

3.8 Creating Your Own Point Data. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 943.8.1 Defining a Configuration File. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

3.8.1.1 File Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 963.8.1.2 File Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 963.8.1.3 Data Location . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 973.8.1.4 Indicating Header Rows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 973.8.1.5 Field Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

3.8.2 Creating a Point Data Source File. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

3.8.3 Importing Your Own Point Data as an Asset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

3.9 Supported Data Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

4 Authoring Google Earth Fusion Projects . . . . . . . . . 1014.1 Previewing Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

4.1.1 Opening a File for Preview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

4.1.2 Dragging and Dropping a File for Preview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

4.1.3 Preview Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

4.1.4 Previewing Raw Imagery or Terrain Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

4.1.5 Previewing Vector Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

4.2 Authoring Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1064.2.1 Project Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

4.2.2 Creating a New Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1074.2.2.1 Using the Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1074.2.2.2 Using the Pop-Up Menu. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1074.2.2.3 Starting with an Untitled Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

4.2.3 Naming and Saving a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

4.2.4 Opening Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

4.2.5 Closing Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

4.2.6 Adding Asset Layers to Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

4.2.7 Ordering Asset Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

4.2.8 Removing Asset Layers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

4.3 Using Vector Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1114.3.1 Naming and Displaying Vector Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

4.3.2 Exporting Vector Projects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

4.3.3 Ordering Vector Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

Contents8

4.3.4 Grouping Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1134.3.4.1 Creating Layer Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1144.3.4.2 Adding Layers to a Group. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1154.3.4.3 Removing Layers from a Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

4.3.5 Configuring Data Display. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1154.3.5.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1164.3.5.2 Exporting Display Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1174.3.5.3 Importing Display Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1184.3.5.4 Setting Line Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1184.3.5.5 Setting Line Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1194.3.5.6 Setting Line Scale. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1194.3.5.7 Setting Feature Visibility Range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1194.3.5.8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Setting Normal/Highlight Styles for Point Features1204.3.5.9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Setting Decimation of Point Features1204.3.5.10 Setting Up Road Text Labels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1204.3.5.11 Using Custom Road Shields. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1214.3.5.12 Setting Up Feature Text Labels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1224.3.5.13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Text Layer Visibility1234.3.5.14 Using Icon Labels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1234.3.5.15 Adding Pop-up Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1234.3.5.16 Creating Custom Icons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1244.3.5.17 Using . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Custom Layer Panel Icons125

4.3.6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . Automatically Suppressing Redundant Point Features126

4.3.7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Specifying the Maximum Pixel Error126

4.3.8 Defining Height. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

4.3.9 Using Streaming Filled Polygons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

4.3.10 Filtering Vector Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1274.3.10.1 Filter Conventions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1284.3.10.2 Filter Actions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1294.3.10.3 Filter Wildcard Matching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

4.4 Using Imagery or Terrain Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1314.4.1 Project Size Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

4.4.2 Asset Order Within Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

4.4.3 Resolution Differences in the 2D Viewing Pane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

4.5 Viewing Data in the Viewing Pane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1324.5.1 Navigating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

4.5.1.1 Zoom Box Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1334.5.1.2 Zoom Drag Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1334.5.1.3 Pan Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

4.5.2 Managing Placemarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

4.5.3 Resetting the View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Contents 9

4.5.4 Working with Vector Data Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1354.5.4.1 Selecting and Viewing Vector Data Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1354.5.4.2 Controlling Automatic Display of the Data View Pane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1364.5.4.3 Manipulating Data in the Data View Pane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

4.5.5 Adjusting Vector Data Display Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

4.5.6 Viewing Imagery Insets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

4.5.7 Showing and Hiding Imagery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

4.6 Building Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

4.7 Debugging Project Builds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

4.8 Resuming Failed Project Builds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

4.9 Cleaning Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

4.10 Marking Projects as “Bad” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

5 Creating Google Earth Fusion Databases . . . . . . . . . 1475.1 Building a Google Earth Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

5.1.1 Defining a Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

5.1.2 Building a Database. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1495.1.2.1 Using the Feature Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1505.1.2.2 Viewing Data Details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1505.1.2.3 Importing KML/KMZ Files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

5.1.3 Troubleshooting Database Builds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

5.1.4 Resuming Failed Database Builds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

5.1.5 Cleaning Databases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

5.1.6 Marking a Database as “Bad” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

5.2 Publishing a Google Earth Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

6 Google Earth Fusion System Reference . . . . . . . . . . 1576.1 Setting Up Devices for Google Earth Fusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

6.1.1 The khvol Naming Convention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

6.1.2 Single Machine Setup. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1606.1.2.1 Using khconfigure for Single Machine Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1606.1.2.2 Mount Point Name Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

6.1.3 Default System Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

6.2 Google Earth Fusion System Commands. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

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6.2.1 Using the khconfigure Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1636.2.1.1 Adding Volume Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1646.2.1.2 Editing Volume Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

6.2.2 Starting or Stopping the System Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

6.2.3 Monitoring System Processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

6.2.4 Modifying systemrc Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

6.3 Asset Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1686.3.1 Creating and Modifying Assets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

6.3.1.1 Vector Assets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1686.3.1.2 Imagery and Terrain Assets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

6.3.2 Building Assets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

6.3.3 Handling Asset Build Failures. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

6.3.4 Querying Asset Properties. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176

6.3.5 Cleaning Assets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

6.3.6 Marking an Asset as “Bad” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

6.4 Project Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1816.4.1 Creating and Modifying Imagery and Terrain Projects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

6.4.2 Creating and Modifying Vector Projects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182

6.4.3 Adding Assets to Terrain and Imagery Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

6.4.4 Adding Assets to Vector Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

6.4.5 Removing Assets from Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

6.4.6 Building Projects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

6.5 Database Commands. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1856.5.1 Defining a Database. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

6.5.2 Building a Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

6.5.3 Publishing a Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1876.5.3.1 The khpublishdatabase Command. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

6.5.4 Publishing Multiple Databases to a Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188

6.5.5 Using Separate Authentication, YP, or Geocoder Servers . . . . . . . . . . . 188

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1 Getting Started

The Google Earth Enterprise solution is a network-based, rich 3D mapping solution that makes vast amounts of data easily accessible from a desktop application. With the Google Earth Enterprise solution, you can create a central GIS database that can be simultaneously distributed to thousands of users.

Note: “Keyhole” is the legacy brandname of Google Earth products. Occasionally, the Keyhole name appears in sections of this document and in portions of these products.

1.1 OverviewThe Google Earth Enterprise solution consists of three fundamental products:

• The Google Earth Client (Google Earth EC or Google Earth Pro)

With the Google Earth client, users with no previous experience or special training can connect to your imagery database to view map imagery merged with roads, points of interest (POIs), and other features from the Google Earth Server. The Google Earth client offers a turn-key solution for end users: simply connect and view. Google Earth client users can connect to your database from anywhere in the world.

• Google Earth Fusion

The Google Earth Fusion™ software is the integration component of the Google Earth Enterprise system designed for businesses that want to create their own GIS and

15Google, Inc - Google Earth Server

imagery data. With the Google Earth Fusion software, businesses can choose two methods for authoring their own GIS data:

• Create a standalone GIS database including imagery, terrain, and vector data and serve it via the Google Earth Server™ Enterprise solution (Google Earth Fusion PRO only).

• Create vector-based data to be used in a hybrid configuration with imagery and terrain data served from Google, Inc. servers (Google Earth Fusion LT).

Google Earth Fusion LT users can either add vector layers to the existing base vector layers from Google Earth (our ASP) or supplant Google base layers with customer layers wholesale. Users cannot add to or remove from Google base layers.

• Google Earth Server

The Google Earth Server is the distribution component of the Google Earth Enterprise system. Businesses can serve their own data along with existing imagery streamed from the Google, Inc. servers, or they can distribute all data entirely from their own servers if they have a standalone database. Additionally, businesses can use the secure server login feature of the Google Earth Server to deliver sensitive data in a secure environment.

This document discusses the Google Earth Fusion software and how you can use it to create graphically-rich GIS databases for distribution to your customers or in-house end users. With

16 Google Earth ServerGetting Started

the Google Earth Fusion software, you can integrate your own geospatial data, publish it to the Google Earth Server™, and view it using a Google Earth client.

1.2 The Google Earth Fusion GUIThe Google Earth Fusion software integrates the Google Earth patent-pending streaming software with your data—imagery, terrain, vector, even your own character-delimited data. With the Google Earth Fusion workspace, you can configure data sets for enterprise use. You can also use the Google Earth Fusion workspace to import data sets, configure the display of data, and publish your work to a Google Earth Server.

Note: In Google Earth Fusion, an asset is a internal representation of your source data.

The Google Earth Fusion GUI provides a multi-paned workspace that you use to manage assets and projects and to view data. You can also view the internal data fields for vector files, and see additional data you have entered for imported assets.

Figure 1: Google Earth Fusion Workspace

Project Manager pane. You can manage different types of projects and explore imagery and vector assets in preview mode.

Data View pane. Here you can view the data contained in a vector file selected from the Open Files list, or you can select shape objects in the preview plane and view the data associated with that shape.

2D Viewing pane. You can use this pane to preview the vector and imagery data that you will be serving with Google Earth Server.

17The Google Earth Fusion GUI

1.3 System Requirements and MaterialsThis section covers the system requirements recommended to run the Google Earth Fusion software as well as the materials included with your distribution.

1.3.1 Materials ListThe complete Google EarthStream™ package includes:

• Google Earth Fusion Installation CD

• Google Earth Server Installation CD

• Google Earth Fusion Tutorial CD

1.3.2 Required System SetupThe following lists the software, hardware, and network setting requirements in order for the Google Earth Fusion software to successfully run.

• SuSE Enterprise 8.0 ) plus Service Pack 3 or higher) or 9.0 (SLES 8 or SLES 9)

You should have prior knowledge of how to install and upgrade SuSE for Linux.

When you install the SuSE operating system on your machine, proceed with the default selections and from there select the Package Group filter. Select Sources under the Development option and select Kernel-source as the additional Package to install. This is necessary if you need to install the NVIDIA graphics driver without using YaST2.

If you are using SLES 8, you must download and install Service Pack 3 or higher from the Novell/SuSE website and upgrade your system.

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux (both AS and ES) v.4 or higher.

• NVIDIA GeForce4 or higher graphics card - 64MB

If you are configuring the graphics card for the first time or updating the graphics driver, be sure to read the SuSE NVIDIA Installer HOWTO before installing the NVIDIA driver. You can either use YaST Online Update (for registered users), or recompile the NVIDIA kernel module. You can obtain the NVIDIA driver and instructions from the NVIDIA Web site. Select the correct Linux/processor combination for your system from the driver download section of the Web site. Once you download the driver, there is a nvidia-installer-howto in the NVIDIA source directory.

• Proper network configurations

In particular, settings such as hostname should be the full DNS name of your destination server. For example, myserver.mydomainname.com. This is necessary for the Google Earth Fusion software to connect to the Google Earth Fusion daemon.


http://www.nvidia.com

You can verify the hostname of your machine by typing hostname at a shell prompt, and you can verify network connection by using the ping command to reach other hosts in the same network.

1.3.3 Recommended System Hardware• Dual Intel 3.0GHz or Dual AMD Opteron 248 CPU's

• Minimum 2GB RAM per CPU

• 500 GB of total hard disk storage ( >= 7200 rpm)

• DVD drive

1.4 Installing & Launching Google Earth FusionThe installation process for the Google Earth Fusion software involves the following basic steps:

1. Install the Google Earth Fusion and Google Earth Server software.

2. Upgrade existing Google Earth Fusion data (existing Google Earth Fusion installations only).

3. Configure Google Earth data locations (new installations only).

4. Install the Google Earth Fusion tutorial files (optional).

5. Start the Google Earth Fusion system manager and verify its status.

6. Launch the Google Earth Fusion workspace.

1.4.1 Installing the Google Earth Fusion SoftwareFollow these steps to install the Google Earth Fusion software and the Google Earth Server software.

1. Login as root.

2. Insert the CD-ROM labeled Google Earth Fusion.

3. Change to the CD drive:cd /media/cdromIf you don’t see the installation files in the /media/cdrom directory, mount the CDROM drive manually before changing to the CD drive:mount /dev/cdrom /media/cdrom

4. From there, type the following:./InstallKeyholeFusion

5. Repeat the steps above for the Google Earth Server CD-ROM.

19Installing & Launching Google Earth Fusion

The Google Earth Fusion software is installed on the system and, depending upon the type of installation, the following occurs:

• Existing installations—the Google Earth upgrade script automatically upgrades the asset tree for the host machine. You can then manually upgrade asset trees on other volumes. See “Upgrading Existing Google Earth Fusion Data” on page 20.

• New installations—the Google Earth configuration script helps define asset root and other volume locations. See “Configuring Google Earth Data Location” on page 20.

1.4.2 Migrating from Google Earth Fusion 2.3 to 2.4 To upgrade to Google Earth Fusion Version 2.4 from Version 2.3, you need to upgrade all asset roots by running khfusionupgrade. Note that the khfusionupgrade utility automatically runs as part of the 2.4 upgrade (the installer invokes it).

This upgrade changes internal icon sizes to 32x96 pixels (older icons were 32x64).

Note that once you have upgraded to Google Earth Fusion Version 2.4, you cannot go back to using Fusion 2.3 tools; this upgrade converts all custom icons to the new 32x96 pixel format.

1.4.3 Upgrading Existing Google Earth Fusion DataIf you have a previous version of the Keyhole Fusion software and are upgrading to Google Earth Fusion Version 2.4, the Google Earth Fusion upgrade script automatically updates the asset tree on the host machine to make it compatible with the latest version. However, if you have additional asset trees on other network volumes, you will need to manually upgrade those asset trees.

To upgrade an asset tree, use the following command as root from a shell window:

khfusionupgrade --assetroot=</vol/machinename/location1/assetTree/>

In the above command, /vol/machinename/location1/assetTree/ indicates the path of the asset tree you want to upgrade. All output from the command is delivered to the console, so pipe the command to a file if necessary for subsequent use.

1.4.4 Configuring Google Earth Data LocationFor first-time Google Earth Fusion installation, the Google Earth configuration script automatically runs and prompts you to enter information about your system so that Google Earth Assets and your source data location can be properly configured.

Important: Run this part of the installation using the default, recommended options. In this way, the location of both the Google Earth asset root and your source data will be configured in a way to allow network access to be set up if you choose. See “Setting Up Devices for Google Earth Fusion” on page 158 of Google Earth Fusion System Reference for details on network-based data sharing and processing.


If you are upgrading the Google Earth Fusion software from a previous version and have existing configurations, use the configuration script if you want to define new volumes or modify existing ones. To manually run the configuration script, type the following from a shell prompt as root:

khconfigure

The data configuration script is modularized so that you can choose from among the following items specified at the prompt:

• Create a source file directory

For new installations, a source file directory is created as an access point for source data that you will convert to assets. This directory is named /khvol/src.

• Add new asset volumes

You can add new volumes for each network volume you want to make accessible as a source directory for the Google Earth Fusion software.

Note: If you want to later add additional volumes as source directories to be used for creating assets, you can run the khconfigure script again.

• Edit volume definitions

Existing volumes can be deleted or modified (i.e., change the local path and/or the hostname).

For more information on system settings and how to modify them, see “Setting Up Devices for Google Earth Fusion” on page 158 of Google Earth Fusion System Reference.

1.4.5 Installing the Tutorial FilesOnce you have defined source file directories using khconfigure, you can copy the source files on the tutorial CD to a location within the source directory. For example, if you have created the default source directory /khvol/src, you can install the tutorial files to that location and they will be accessible from the Google Earth Fusion workspace. The tutorial files will be placed in a directory called FusionTutorial. Beneath that directory are sub-directories for the included imagery, terrain, and vector data. See “Tutorial Source Data Installation” on page 38 of Google Earth Fusion Tutorial for details.

Note: If you install the tutorial files to a location other than the default source file defined in khconfigure, you must use the khconfigure script to add that directory as a volume. See “Configuring Google Earth Data Location” on page 20.

1.4.6 Starting the Google Earth Fusion System ManagerOnce you have completed the installation and configuration steps described above, you are ready to start the Google Earth Fusion system manager. The system manager is required for


all data processing tasks by Google Earth Fusion. This section covers the process for starting the system manager as well as steps to follow to verify that it is properly running.

To start the system manager:

1. From a shell window, make sure you are logged in as root.

2. Type the following command:/etc/init.d/khsystem start

3. Check the shell output as the system starts to see that the following two processes have started:

• system manager

• resource provider

These processes are required for the Google Earth Fusion software to function correctly. Follow the sections below to check to determine that these processes are running or to troubleshoot a failed system manager.

1.4.6.1 Verifying the System Manager with khtopBecause a properly running system manager is critical to using the Google Earth Fusion software as well as for converting your source data to Google Earth assets, you should verify that the system manager is running after the initial installation and whenever you encounter problems with building assets, projects, or databases.

As root, type the following command at a shell:

khtop

The location of the asset root(s), the name of the host(s), and a list of running processes appears. At the top of the list should be two processes:

• khsystemmanager

This process is necessary in order to be able to configure or build assets, projects, and databases with the Google Earth Fusion software. If you see this process, the Google Earth Fusion software is correctly connected to the Google Earth daemon.

If you do not see this process in the list, follow the troubleshooting suggestions below to correct this.

• khresourceprovider

Manages the machine resources on the behalf of the system manager. It also monitors free disk space on the volumes for the connected machine.

If you receive a connection refused message, see the troubleshooting section below.


1.4.7 Troubleshooting a Failed System ManagerIf the Google Earth system manager fails to run, you can use the suggestions in the order described below to resolve the problem.

1.4.7.1 Restarting the System ManagerStopping and restarting the system manager often resolves most minor problems.

1. Log in as root

2. Make sure the Google Earth system manager is stopped./etc/init.d/khsystem stop

3. Start the system manager./etc/init.d/khsystem start

1.4.7.2 Verify Correct Hostname SettingsIf the khresourceprovider process is running, but the khsystemmanager is not, be sure the hostname of the machine running the Google Earth Fusion software matches the hostname specified during installation.

1. Find out the hostname of the machine you are using to run the Google Earth Fusion software. You can determine this using the hostname command at a shell prompt:hostname

2. Change to the asset root directory for your Google Earth Fusion installation. Determine the location of the asset root from the <assetroot> listing in the /usr/keyhole/etc/systemrc file.

3. Change to the .config directory within the asset root directory.

4. Open the file volumes.xml in an editor.

5. Change all instances of the <host> </host> entry in the volumes.xml file until they correspond with the host name displayed in the hostname command.

6. Exit and restart the Google Earth Fusion software and system manager (see “Restarting the System Manager” on page 23).

7. Check for the system manager process by running the khtop command.

1.4.7.3 Viewing the System Manager Log FileIf you are still having problems starting the system manager after trying the suggestions above, you can view the log file for the system manager to see what errors have been reported. The log file is located in:

/usr/keyhole/log/khsystemmanager.log


Any errors are listed after the started message for that instance of the system manager.

Note: If you receive a connection refused message when running the khtop command, but don’t see anything in the log file, make sure that the log directory is writable by the Google Earth user.

1.4.8 Launching Google Earth FusionTo launch the Google Earth Fusion application, open up a terminal window and type fusion at the prompt.

After the Google Earth Fusion applications starts, the Google Earth Fusion workspace appears (see Figure 1 above).

1.5 Google Earth Fusion FundamentalsBefore using the Google Earth Fusion software, review the following, which covers concepts and components fundamental to the software.

1.5.1 WorkflowThe Google Earth Fusion workflow is based on four basic processes. For simplicity, these tasks are listed in the most typical order that you would follow when first creating your own database for deployment on a Google Earth Enterprise system.

1. Managing Assets

2. Authoring a Google Earth Project

3. Creating a Google Earth Fusion Database

4. Publishing a Google Earth DatabaseThe steps described here can be done from either the Google Earth Fusion workspace or from the command line.

1. Managing Assets Import imagery, terrain and vector source data as Google Earth Fusion assets by the Asset Manager GUI or the command line tools. A single asset can be defined from a single source, or it can be defined from multiple sources such as multiple imagery files. Use the Asset Manager or the command line tools to build, browse, and debug assets. See “Working with Assets and Source Data” for more information.


2. Authoring a Google Earth ProjectOnce you have assets that are available in a Google Earth-usable format, you can use the Google Earth Fusion software to create a project that can be added to a Google Earth Fusion database for display across connected Google Earth clients.

a. Inspect Source DataYou can use the Google Earth Fusion workspace to preview and modify the display of an imagery, vector, and terrain source file before actually building it as an asset and adding it to a project. This provides the flexibility to view source data and its data fields to make sure it is the one you require for your project. See “Previewing Data” on page 102 of Authoring Google Earth Fusion Projects for more information.

b. Define Projects

Define projects with the Google Earth Fusion software in order to use and configure assets that you want as part of your database. Google Earth Fusion LT users can define vector-based projects. Google Earth Fusion PRO users can create vector, terrain, and imagery projects. See “Creating a New Project” on page 107 of Authoring Google Earth Fusion Projects for more information.

c. Add Assets to Projects

In the Project Manager, you add assets to your projects as individual layers. For vector data, you can order and configure layers to provide the ability for users to turn data on and off in the Google Earth client. For imagery and terrain data, you can order layers of the same resolution so that insets are correctly stacked. Otherwise, imagery and terrain layers are automatically ordered according to their resolution. See “Adding Asset Layers to Projects” on page 109 of Authoring Google Earth Fusion Projects for more information.

d. Set Vector Display Rules

Once you add vector layers to your project, you determine the presentation of the data by setting display rules for it. You can adjust the appearance of features and labels as well as apply filters for a more effective data presentation. See “Using Vector Projects” on page 111 of Authoring Google Earth Fusion Projects for more information.

e. View Results

You can use the viewing pane of the Google Earth Fusion workspace to view your work to make sure it is ready to be published to a Google Earth Server. Using the viewing pane, you can look at the visual and data properties of an asset, you can verify desired visibility settings, and you can troubleshoot your imagery maps. See

25Google Earth Fusion Fundamentals

“Viewing Data in the Viewing Pane” on page 132 of Authoring Google Earth Fusion Projects.

f. Build the Project

The Google Earth Fusion software offers the ability to build projects individually or as part of a database build, depending upon your own work requirements. For example, you might build an individual imagery project where you are replacing only the imagery component of multiple databases (each with already-built vector and terrain projects). In other situations, you might save the project to let the database and all other projects be built in one step. “Building Projects” on page 142 of Authoring Google Earth Fusion Projects.

3. Creating a Google Earth Fusion DatabaseA fully complete Google Earth Fusion database produces a servable set of GIS data ready for publishing to a Google Earth Server. Creating a database involves first defining a database itself. If you are a Google Earth Fusion LT user, you define a database by specifying a single vector project. If you are a Google Earth Fusion PRO user, you can associate up to three projects—vector, imagery, or terrain—as database components. The data in these projects is meant to function together on the Google Earth Server. See “Defining a Database” on page 148 of Creating Google Earth Fusion Databases for details.Once a database is defined, it must be built in order to be used. The database build process creates a servable set of data with a corresponding version number for that data set. The results can be published to a Google Earth Server and viewed from a Google Earth client. If any projects or assets within the database are not yet built, the build command cascades throughout the structure and builds all necessary elements. See “Building a Database” on page 149 of Creating Google Earth Fusion Databases.

4. Publishing a Google Earth DatabaseWhen you publish a Google Earth database, you select a database version to deliver to a desired server. The publishing console lists the databases by version. See “Publishing a Google Earth Database” on page 154 of Creating Google Earth Fusion Databases.

The steps listed above illustrate a simple workflow for creating your own GIS data. However, there is no strict order to these steps, and once you become familiar with the interdependency between the various tasks, you can easily take advantage of the flexibility offered by the Google Earth Fusion software.

The diagram below illustrates the flexible process of creating a GIS database with the Google Earth Fusion software—used to inspect, build, and analyze all elements of your GIS data.


Figure 2: Workflow Using Google Earth Fusion

1.5.2 Source DataThe source data that you import into the Google Earth Fusion software falls into two broad categories:

• Vector Data (line and point data)

Vector data consists of geographic features which are either geographic coordinates (points) or sequences of connected geographic coordinates (lines). Each feature typically has attribute fields, such as name, street address, or Web site URL. You can import your own vector data using the Asset Manager in order to create a vector asset usable in Google Earth Fusion.

The Google Earth Fusion software supports common vector and point data. For a listing of specific formats, see “Supported Vector Formats” on page 100 of Working with Assets and Source Data.

• Imagery and Terrain Data (raster data)

You can use the Google Earth Fusion Pro software to process your own imagery and terrain data. Using the Asset Manager in either command-line or GUI mode, you can


import imagery and terrain data in order to make it available to the Google Earth Fusion Pro software.

The Google Earth Fusion Pro software supports common imagery and terrain data formats. For a listing of specific formats, see “Supported Imagery Formats” on page 100 of Working with Assets and Source Data.

1.5.3 Google Earth Fusion DataOnce you import source data and begin working with it to create your own GIS data, it becomes part of three fundamental components of the Google Earth Fusion software:

• Assets

• Projects

• Databases

The relationship between these three components is well defined; that is, assets are used in only in projects and projects are used only in databases.

Note: A given asset can be used in more than one project, and a given project can be used by more than one database.

1.5.3.1 AssetsYou first import your source data into the Google Earth Fusion software as an asset. There is a one-to-one correspondence between the type of source file and the type of asset that is created from it:

• vector assets are created from vector data

• imagery assets are created from imagery data

• terrain assets are created from terrain data


You can create a single asset from a single source file, or you can create a single asset from many different source files. See “Creating Assets” on page 77 of Working with Assets and Source Data for more information.

When you import the asset, it is made available to you in the Asset Manager of the Google Earth Fusion GUI.

From there you can make it a part of a project.

1.5.3.2 ProjectsAs with assets, Google Earth Fusion projects are separated by type—vector, imagery, or terrain. You define a project by selecting the project type in the Google Earth Fusion GUI and importing the corresponding assets into it. The following example shows a vector project with vector assets.

Recently importedasset


For vector projects, each vector asset that you add is identified as a layer that you provide a name. You can also place related layers into a layer group, which acts like a containing folder for the related assets. The resulting published data appears as a layer or layer group in the Layer tab of the Google Earth client with the name you provided it.

The key to integrating your vector data with Google Earth Fusion consists of applying display rules to the vector project layer. A display rule determines exactly which feature of a vector asset to show, and how to show it. A configured display rule consists of a number of components, including line data, icons, and filters. For more information on display rules for vector assets, see “Configuring Data Display” on page 115 of Authoring Google Earth Fusion Projects.”

Like vector assets, imagery and terrain assets are also added to their project areas as layers. While you can also change the display order for imagery and terrain assets, this ordering is restricted by the data resolution of the assets. That is, lower-resolution assets are automatically ordered before higher-resolution assets in the project workspace. In the Google Earth Fusion application, the resolution of the imagery inset determines its optimal viewing level. Therefore, you can reposition the ordering of assets of the same resolution only.

The imagery and terrain asset order bears an inverse relationship to the resultant data as it is rendered in the Google Earth client viewer. That is, higher-resolution insets are ordered over lower resolution insets, so that viewing preference is given to the higher-quality imagery.

You can re-order imagery assets within this group, but any asset of level 14 can not be ordered below the other imagery assets.

This high-resolution inset is ordered beneath all other imagery insets.


Stacking order for same-level insets is preserved as defined in the project. The following illustrates this concept.

1.5.3.3 DatabasesA Google Earth Fusion database consists of a collection of up to three project types—vector, imagery, and terrain. Google Earth Fusion LT users can only define databases with a single vector project, while Google Earth Fusion PRO users can define a database to contain all three project types.

Because the majority of your efforts involve defining and configuring different projects for inclusion in your database, it is relatively simple to define a database once the projects have been created. Simply provide the name of the database and select the projects to be included in it. Before serving the database to a Google Earth Server , you must also build the database. This process does the work necessary to associate the projects with each other in order to make them servable. When you build a database, any unbuilt assets or projects included in the database are also built.

Google Earth Imagery Data


1.5.3.4 Data RelationshipsBecause assets and projects can be configured and built independently from each other and from a database, it is easy to use a given asset in multiple projects or to use a given project in multiple databases. The following diagram illustrates how projects can be shared by databases and how assets can be shared by projects.

Figure 3: Google Earth Server Data Relationships

1.6 Using the Google Earth Fusion WorkspaceThis section provides a general overview of the Google Earth Fusion workspace itself.

1.6.1 The Tool BarThe toolbar provides quick access to the most common Google Earth Fusion commands. The commands are described below in Figure 4.

Figure 4: Google Earth Fusion Tool Bar

Feature Display Tools—Adjust, edit and analyze asset features

Navigation Tools—Use to zoom in or out and move around the Viewing PaneSelect Mode—Use to select vector items in the Viewing Pane

Open File—Use to explore assets in the Preview Pane

Placemark List—Quick return to saved views


The Google Earth Fusion menu contains all the commands that apply to each menu item listed. Typically, you can access the same commands in pop-up menus by right-clicking on an item in the workspace.

1.6.2 The Workspace PanesThe Google Earth Fusion workspace has three primary panes, each used for a specific task.

1.6.2.1 Customized Pane LocationsAll of the panes in the workspace can be docked on any side of the main window or positioned on your monitor as separate windows. To move a pane, grab the vertical bar to the left of the pane with your mouse and drag the pane out of the main window or to another position. When you restart the Google Earth Fusion application, the workspace appears in the same configuration you last set.

Project Pane: Use the project pane to manage projects of type vector, terrain, and imagery, or to just preview assets before adding them to projects. Click on a tab of the type of project you want to edit or create. If you want to preview source data first, click on the Preview tab.

Viewing Pane: You can view the visual information associated with an asset that is not a part of your project, an asset that you have attached to a layer, and the results of ordering layers within your project.Data View Pane: When you select vector lines in the Viewing Pane, or when using the Preview Mode to look at vector assets, this window displays the field data contained in your source assets.

33Using the Google Earth Fusion Workspace

1.6.2.2 Toggle Pane Display

You can also use the View menu to turn on or off any of the workspace panes. For example, to turn off the Data View Window, select Data View from the View menu. If the Data View window is on, it will be turned off and the workspace will contain the remaining two panes. You can also use the workspace pop-up menu to turn on or off any of the items that are docked in the Google Earth Fusion main workspace window.

You can use this feature of the Google Earth Fusion workspace to customize your environment to your preferences and to make the best use of available screen space.

1.6.3 Setting Google Earth Fusion PreferencesTo set preferences for the Google Earth Fusion application, choose Preferences... from the Edit menu (Ctrl + K).

You can use the Preferences dialog to set the following preferences:

• Background imagery

Your Google Earth Fusion application is configured to refer to the LandSat Blue Marble imagery as the background imagery database of the earth. If you have a higher-resolution imagery database that you prefer to use, click on the file icon to the right of the Imagery path input and navigate to and select the desired database.


• Internationalization—Default Character Coding

If your vector data always has a character encoding of a particular type, you can set the default character encoding to ensure that characters are read correctly by the Google Earth Fusion software. For example, if the majority of your vector data fields have character encoding of type ISO8859-1, you will want to specify this setting in your preferences. The default character encoding for vector files is ASCII (plain text).

The Google Earth Fusion software version 2.3 and higher officially supports bi-directional character encoding.

Note: You can always choose character encoding in the File - Open or Vector Asset import dialogs.

• Data View

The settings in the Data View region affect the behavior of the Data View pane. See “Selecting and Viewing Vector Data Fields” on page 135 of Authoring Google Earth Fusion Projects.

• Asset Root Display

If you prefer to view the full path name of the Google Earth asset root in the asset manager, you can set this display in the Preferences... dialog box by selecting the Show full asset root path option in the Asset Manager tab.

35Using the Google Earth Fusion Workspace


2 Google Earth Fusion Tutorial

This chapter is a tutorial for creating a viewable Google Earth Fusion database from raw source material. Use the tutorial source material provided in the Google Earth Fusion Tutorial installation to follow along with each section of this tutorial. When you are finished with this chapter, you should know how to do the following:

• Preview and analyze raw source imagery, terrain, and vector files and create Google Earth Fusion assets from them

• Preview and analyze Google Earth Fusion imagery, terrain, and vector assets

• Create Google Earth Fusion imagery and terrain projects and add assets to them (Google Earth Fusion PRO users only)

• Create a Google Earth Fusion vector projects, setting display rules for road data

• Build assets, projects, and databases

• Publish the database to your local machine and view it with the Google Earth client

2.1 OverviewThis tutorial introduces you to the process of gathering source material and building a Google Earth Fusion database from it. It covers the basic elements outlined briefly in “Workflow” on page 24 of Getting Started. Specifically, the following steps are covered:

1. Set up: define source providers and create target directories for assets and projects.

2. Imagery data: create and build imagery assets and a project.

3. Base map: use a built imagery project as a base map in Google Earth Fusion.

4. Vector data: create and build vector assets and a project.

5. Terrain data: create and build terrain assets and a project.

6. Databases: define and build a database.

7. Publishing: publish and view the database with the Google Earth client.

After you are familiar with these processes, you will be ready to create your own Google Earth Fusion database. You can refer to the rest of this manual for more detailed information


concerning assets, projects, databases, and command-line usage of the Google Earth Fusion software.

Note: If you are a Google Earth Fusion LT user, you will only be building a vector layer for delivery with an included Google Earth imagery project. The Google Earth Fusion PRO - only sections are indicated below.

2.2 Tutorial Source Data InstallationThe Google Earth Fusion tutorial is available on a separate CD that you can install on your Google Earth Fusion workstation or on a network-accessible volume.

The database that you will build in this tutorial contains imagery, terrain, and road data for the San Francisco Bay area. The road data is gathered from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. In addition, 30-meter imagery for northern California is provided by LandSat imagery, 15-meter data for San Francisco by i3, and USGS 1-meter data for a small section of San Francisco. The terrain imagery is provided by USGS and is a 30-meter IMG file.

The source material on the Google Earth Fusion Tutorial CD includes:

• Imagery

Located in the FusionTutorial/Imagery directory, this data includes:

• bluemarble_4km.tif and bluemarble_4km.tif

A 4-kilometer resolution imagery for the entire earth along with a GEO file.

• usgsLanSat.tif

30-meter LandSat imagery for the San Francisco Bay area.

• i3SF15-meter.tif

15-meter imagery for the San Francisco Bay area.

• usgsSFHiRes.tif

A high-resolution inset for the northeast corner of San Francisco.

• Vector

Located in the FusionTutorial/Vector directory, this data includes California roads and highways, commuter lines, and stations—all from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. The files are listed below.

National Highway Planning Link Data:

• nhpnlin.dbf

• nhpnlin.shp

• nhpnlin.shx

38 Google Earth ServerGoogle Earth Fusion Tutorial

• Terrain

Located in the FusionTutorial/Terrain directory, this data includes terrain data for the City of San Francisco. The files are:

• SFNorth.img

• SFSouth.img

Note: This project is optimized for the City San Francisco, which means that data in the preview pane is designed for best viewing over San Francisco rather than other regions of California.

2.3 Setting Up Your Work AreaBefore actually importing assets, it helps to set up asset directories and define the source providers for the assets. Follow the instructions in this section to set up your work area first.

2.3.1 Defining Source ProvidersWhen you import an asset from source data, you can select a source provider for the asset if you have defined a source provider in the Provider Manager of the Google Earth Fusion software. The source provider information contains the name of the source provider, a unique key that you assign to the provider, and a copyright string that displays in the Google Earth client when data from that source provider appears in the viewer.

The following steps cover setting up source providers for the data used in the tutorial.

1. From the Tools menu, select Provider Manager (or type Ctrl+v) to show the Provider Manager dialog.

39Setting Up Your Work Area

2. Click on the New Provider button to display the Edit Provider dialog.

3. Enter the data for the Bureau of Transportation Statistics as follows:

a. Enter Bureau of Transportation Statistics in the Name field

b. Enter BTS in the Key field.

c. Enter Roads © 2005 BTS.

Tip: To enter the copyright symbol, copy the symbol from another application and paste it into the Copyright Text field. For example, if you are using the K interface on a Linux system, you can choose the Character Selector under the Utilities menu, click on the copyright symbol in the character map, copy it and paste it into the field. You can also copy the symbol from this documentation in its electronic form and paste it into the provider field.

4. Repeat the steps above for the source providers in the table below.

Provider Name Key Copyright String

USGS Maps USGS-M Maps © 2005 USGS

USGS Imagery USGS-I Imagery © 2005 USGS

i3 i3 Imagery © 2005 i3


2.3.2 Setting Up Asset Manager SubfoldersBecause you will be creating many different types of assets in the Asset Manager, it helps to define subfolders by asset type to make future browsing easier.

1. Select Asset Manager from the Tools menu (or type Ctrl+A).

2. Right-click on the ASSET_ROOT top-level folder and select New Subfolder... from the pop-up menu.

3. Enter the word Imagery in the dialog box and click OK.The new subfolder appears beneath the ASSET_ROOT top-level folder. You will use this folder as the location for your imagery assets.

4. Repeat Step 2 above to define the following additional subfolders:

• Terrain

• Vector

• Projects

These folders will be used as the location for terrain and vector assets and for your completed projects.

2.4 Creating Imagery AssetsBefore creating and building an imagery project, you will need to convert raw source imagery into Google Earth Fusion assets in order to include them in the project. This section covers the steps to follow in order to create and build imagery assets for your imagery project.

Note: This section is for Google Earth Fusion PRO users only. Google Earth Fusion LT users should proceed to “Creating Vector Assets” on page 49.

41Creating Imagery Assets

2.4.1 Exploring Raw Source FilesYou can use the Preview pane in the Google Earth Fusion workspace to investigate raw imagery files to be sure they cover the correct area before you convert them to imagery assets.

Note: In this procedure, actual imagery is not displayed in Fusion. Instead, a bounding box appears.

1. Open up a file browser and navigate to the FusionTutorial/Imagery directory where your source files have been installed.For example, if you installed the tutorial files in the default source directory /khvol/src, you would navigate to the /khvol/src/FusionTutorial/Imagery directory.

2. Select one of the TIF files, and drag and drop it into the Preview pane.

Tip: If the Preview pane is not the pane in the foreground, drag the selected file over the Preview tab until it pops forward. Then, drop the selected file in the panel.

3. Select the check box next to the image so that the check mark appears.You should see a square indicating the bounding box of the selected imagery file.

4. Right-click on the item in the Preview pane and select Zoom to Layer from the pop-up menu.The viewer should encompass the entire region of the selected imagery tile.

5. Choose another TIF imagery file from the FusionTutorial/Imagery and drag and drop it into the Preview pane.You can see the relationship of each tile to the other, so that you know the name of each tile with respect to its relationship in the overall imagery asset you’ll be creating.

6. When you are finished viewing the raw tiles, right click on each one in the Preview pane and select Remove Layer from the pop-up menu.


2.4.2 Importing Imagery AssetsIn this section, you will import imagery assets from the imagery data provided for this tutorial.

1. Right-click on the imagery folder in the Asset Manager window and select Import Image Asset... from the pop-up menu.

The Imagery Import dialog appears.

Note: The default directory is khvol/src

2. Enter BlueMarble4k in the New Asset Name field.It helps to provide a descriptive name for the asset that briefly identifies the geographical location of the imagery as well as its data resolution. After creating many different projects, you will have a large collection of imagery files that are more easily identified with descriptive names.

3. Enter the current date for the acquisition date.The acquisition date is entered in year-month-day format. You can click on each section of the date and enter the values, or you can use the right and left arrow keys to move from the year to the month, and vice versa.The acquisition date can be used for your own purposes to define either the date the imagery was imported as a Google Earth asset, or the date the source photo itself was taken. Regardless of which method you use, it’s best to adopt a consistent policy for all your imagery assets to avoid confusion.

4. Select USGS Imagery from the Provider list.If you have no providers in your list, complete the steps above in “Defining Source Providers” on page 39 before importing assets. The copyright string in the provider list field is displayed in the Google Earth client when imagery from the provider appears in the viewer.

5. Set the mask value to No Mask. For your base imagery (i.e., imagery that covers the entire globe), you will set the Mask Type value to No Mask because there are no boundaries to the imagery. For


more information on mask values and how to apply them, see “Setting Mask Type and Values” on page 83 of Working with Assets and Source Data.

6. Click the Add button and navigate to the FusionTutorial/Imagery directory, select bluemarble_4km.tif and click OK.

7. Click the OK button to define the asset.At this point, you have defined all the necessary parameters for creating an asset, but before you can view the imagery itself in the Preview pane, you must build the asset.

2.4.3 Building the Imagery AssetNow that you have defined the asset, you can build it in order to see it in the Preview pane.

Note: The asset you defined in the steps above should have a Current Version and Current State set to the value none. This is the default state for newly-created assets.

Follow these steps to build the imagery asset you have defined.

1. From the Asset Manager, navigate to the Imagery subfolder and right-click on BlueMarble4K in the list. The Current Version and the Current State of this asset is None, indicating that the asset has not yet been built.

2. Select Build from the pop-up menu.The Current State of the asset will change from Queued to InProgress.

3. Right-click on the building asset and select Asset Versions from the pop-up menu. The Properties dialog for the selected asset appears. Since this is the first build of the imagery asset, only one version for the asset is listed. However, with each successive build of an asset, the Properties dialog displays the versions with the date the asset was built and its state.

4. Double-click on the asset version to view the Version Properties dialog.A hierarchical tree view of the asset shows the elements that comprise the asset and the current state of each element. You can expand the elements and view the progress of the asset as it is being built.


5. Double-click on any log icon next to an asset element.This displays the log output for that particular element. As the asset is being built, you can view the log file as it is written. At the top of the log file is the command used to create the asset in that phase. The log file displays the following useful elements:

• Build host

• Start time

• Start command output

• Error messages, if any

• Elapsed time

• End time

• Final status, such as Succeeded or Failed.

When the BlueMarble4K asset has finished building, its Current State column in the Asset Manager will change from InProgress to either Succeeded or Blocked.

Note: Because imagery files are data intensive, it can take some time to build these imagery assets.

2.4.4 Viewing the Imagery AssetWhen you have finished building the imagery asset and the asset has a state of Succeeded, you can view the imagery in the Preview pane of the Google Earth Fusion workspace.

1. Click on the Preview tab of the Google Earth Fusion workspace.

2. Open up the Asset Manager, and drag the completed asset over the Preview pane area and release it.The imagery will be displayed in the viewing window and the viewing window will zoom to the outermost edges of the imagery.

3. Select the check box next to the asset to display the bounding boxes for the asset.

You can use the Preview feature of the Google Earth Fusion software to inspect complete imagery assets to determine if they are the correct ones for a project.

2.4.5 Complete the Remaining Imagery AssetsNow that you have completed the importing and building of an imagery asset, you can import and build the remaining imagery assets. When you are finished, you will have all the imagery assets necessary to complete the imagery project for this tutorial.

Follow the steps above in “Importing Imagery Assets” on page 43 to import assets for the following:


• usgsLanSat.tif

The LandSat 30-kilometer imagery of the San Francisco Bay region, located in FusionTutorial/Imagery. Name the asset SFBayAreaLandSat.

• i3SF15-meter.tif

The i3 15-meter imagery of the City of San Francisco, located in FusionTutorial/Imagery. Name the asset SF15-Meter.

• usgsHiRes.tif

The USGS high-resolution inset of a small portion of San Francisco. Name the asset SFHighResInset.

After importing both assets, right click on them and select Build from the pop-up menu to build them.

2.5 Creating the Imagery ProjectIf you have imagery data that is a part of your overall project, it makes sense to build and use the base imagery before adding vector data. You can use the built imagery project as the base image map when developing vector data in Google Earth Fusion. This makes it easier to visualize how your vector data will appear over your imagery.

Note: If you are a Google Earth Fusion LT user, proceed to “Creating Vector Assets” on page 49 to begin creating and viewing vector data. You can use the default imagery already provided by the Google Earth Fusion software as your base imagery. This will allow you to visualize street-level information, which is adequate for most vector applications.

2.5.1 Adding The Imagery Assets to the ProjectWhile the order in which you import and build imagery assets is unimportant, their ordering within the imagery project itself is significant. The Google Earth Fusion software automatically orders imagery assets in a project by its resolution. If two imagery assets have the same resolution, you can alter their order so that one appears on top of another. Follow these steps to add imagery assets to your new imagery project.

1. Open up the Asset Manager and click on the imagery folder beneath the ASSET_ROOT parent folder.


2. Drag and drop the following imagery assets over the Imagery project pane in Fusion:

• BlueMarble4K

• SFBayAreaLanSat

• SF15-Meter

• SFHighResInset

Tip: If the Imagery project tab is not the top-most tab, you can drag the imagery asset over the Imagery tab to pop it forward before dropping it into the pane.

The assets will automatically be ordered by resolution, with the higher resolution imagery at the bottom of the stack (see “Projects” on page 29 of Getting Started). The imagery assets do not appear in the project, but if you want to see their bounding boxes, select the check box next to the desired item in the Imagery pane, and the viewer will display the bounding box for each asset.

3. Position the mouse pointer in the white space below the asset listing, right-click, and select Save from the pop-up menu.

4. In the Save dialog, navigate to the Projects directory and name the project SFBayArea.

2.5.2 Building the Imagery ProjectWhile assets must be built before they can be added to a project, projects can either be built separately like assets, or simply added to a database, where it’ll be built along with the database. Because we will be using the built imagery project as a base map in the Google Earth Fusion viewer, we will cover how to build our imagery project.

Note: It may take approximately 10 minutes for the project to build. Do this exercise when you can spend some time away from your computer while the build progresses.

1. Open up the Asset Manager and click on the Projects subfolder to see the newly-created project.Notice that the Current Version and Current State are both None.

2. Right-click on the project and select Build from the pop-up menu.The Current State changes to InProgress while the imagery is being built.

3. Follow the instructions described above in Step 3, “Building the Imagery Asset” on page 44 to examine the properties of the imagery project.As with building imagery assets, you can examine the properties of an imagery project to watch the build in progress. Expand the elements of the project hierarchy to note the commands used and the relationship of all the project elements to each other.

47Creating the Imagery Project

2.5.3 Adding the Imagery Project as a Base MapWhen the imagery project is finished building, you are ready to set the resultant file as your base imagery. By doing this, you will be viewing the actual imagery from your project in the Google Earth Fusion viewing pane.

1. Select Preferences from the Edit menu.The Preferences dialog appears.

2. Click on the folder icon next to the Database listing and navigate to the directory that contains your newly-built imagery project.If you named the project SFBayArea as indicated above, this location would be as follows:/khvol/assets/Projects/SFBayArea.kiproject/khdb.kia/ver001/SFBayArea-v1.khdb/Once in that directory, select the file named index as your base map.

Note: This assumes that the imagery project is located in the Projects directory as indicated above, that the built imagery project is called SFBayArea, and that only one version of the project was built. If you have given the project a different name, the directory for the project will reflect the given name. In addition, if you have built the project more than once, you might want to select the most recent version of the project—such as ver002—as the source for the base imagery.

3. Exit the Google Earth Fusion application and restart it. Your base imagery in the viewer should update to show the built imagery. You can zoom into the San Francisco Bay area region to notice the overlay of different types of


imagery, from blue marble, to LandSat, to 1-meter imagery of the City of San Francisco.

2.6 Creating Vector AssetsBefore building a vector project, you need to have usable vector assets. This section covers the steps involved in creating vector assets. For this project, you will be creating only a single asset for California road and highway data.

2.6.1 Exploring Source DataBefore converting source data to assets, you can view the source data in the Preview pane to see which data you are converting. The preview feature is a convenient way to quickly identify vector data and to apply simple display rules before developing projects.

In this section, we will briefly explore the highway vector source data before importing the vector assets.

1. Click on the File Open button or select Open from the File menu.

2. In the file explorer dialog, navigate to the FusionTutorial/Vector directory in the location you installed the tutorial files.

3. Select the nhpnlin.shp file and click on the Open button.The file name appears in the Preview pane.

49Creating Vector Assets

4. Select the check box next to the nhpnlin listing and make sure the listing is selected (it will be reverse highlighted).The highway and road lines appear.

5. Zoom into the San Francisco Bay area to view the road features for that area.

6. Change to Select Mode by clicking on the select arrow in the menu bar.

7. Drag a square selector rectangle around the City of San Francisco.

The data fields contained by the vector data appear in the table beneath the viewer.

You can scroll through this data and sort the data by columns to explore the data. We will be setting display rules based on this data when creating vector projects.


8. Double-click on the nhpnlin entry in the Preview pane to expand the default display rule.

9. Double-click the default display rule to produce the Display Rules dialog box.

10. Click on the color swatch and select a bright blue as the color, and change the scale for the line feature to 2.


When you click OK, the features in the view reflect the new display rule settings. You are now ready to import this and other source files as vector assets.

Note: You can experiment further with display rule settings in the Preview pane to get a sense of how display rules affect the appearance of vector data in the 3D viewer. Keep in mind, however, that you cannot save display rules when working in Preview mode. Therefore, once you make the basic determinations for your data in the Preview mode, you should open the data as part of a vector project where you can save your settings.

2.6.2 Importing and Building Vector AssetsThe steps below describe how to import and build a vector asset for the nhpnlin.shp file that you explored in preview mode in the section above. When you are finished importing this file, you can repeat the process for the other vector assets listed below in the FusionTutorial/Vector directory of the Google Earth Fusion tutorial installation.

1. Open the Asset Manager from the Tools menu.


2. Right-click on the Vector subfolder and select Import Vector Asset... from the pop-up menu.The Vector Import dialog appears.

3. Enter CAHighways in the New Asset Name field.

4. Enter today’s date for the Acquisition Date.The date is entered in year-month-day format.

Tip: Use the arrow keys on your keyboard to move from year, to month, to day.

5. Select Bureau of Transportation Statistics as the Provider.

6. Leave the Encoding set to <none>.

7. Click the Add button and navigate to the FusionTutorial/Vector directory and select the nhpnlin.shp file.

8. Click OK to add the vector file to the Asset Manager.The Current State for the newly-added asset is set to none, indicating that it needs to be built before you can use it in a project.


9. In the Asset Manager, right-click on the newly-added asset and select Build from the pop-up menu.The build of the asset should go relatively quickly, and the Current Status of the asset will change either to Succeeded or Blocked. You can double-click on the asset at any point after building it to view the version properties for the latest version for the asset. Following is the Version Properties dialog for the CAHighways asset.

You can use the version properties of an asset to view the relationship hierarchy of the elements that make up the asset. In addition, by clicking on the log icon next to an asset element, you can see the command used to process the asset, as well as any server output from the asset build itself.

2.7 Creating a Vector ProjectThis section covers how to create and build a vector project using the asset you created in the previous section. In the Google Earth Fusion software, the majority of your time will be spent creating vector projects. This is because vector projects typically involve setting display rules based on the internal data fields of the vector data. Using the vector data, you can filter specific parts of the vector information for a variety of display purposes. The end result is that users viewing the vector data with the Google Earth client will see labels, features lines, and icons at the viewing altitude that is most appropriate to that feature.

In this section of the tutorial, you will set a number of display rules to accomplish the following appearance for roads:

• Major highways appear as a thicker blue line at a relatively high viewing altitude and have a highway label next to them.

• Minor highways appear as a thicker yellow line and the label doesn’t appear until the viewing altitude is lower. The lines initially appear thick and then get thinner as viewing altitude decreases.

• Streets appear as a thinner red line and not until the viewing altitude is low. Only major surface streets have labels, which run parallel with the direction of the street.


2.7.1 Adding AssetsBefore setting the display rules for the vector project, we will add the asset.

1. Click on the Vector tab in the Google Earth Fusion workspace to bring it to the foreground.

2. Open up the Asset Manager and click on the vector subfolder.

3. Drag and drop the following CAHighways asset over the Vector project pane:

4. Using the Zoom tool, zoom in on the city of San Francisco.

5. From the Edit menu, select Enable All Layers.This turns on all the vector information in the viewer with the default display rule settings. Your view should look similar to the following.

You are now ready to begin creating display rules for the vector layer.

2.7.2 Configuring Highway DataThe steps in this section cover how to create and modify a number of display rules for the highway layer so that the Google Earth client viewer displays the highway information at the correct viewing levels—with labels and appropriate coloring. A key part of being able to filter vector data involves understanding the data fields of the vector data. For the CAHighways layer of your vector project, you can refer to the description for the data fields at this web site:

http://websas.bts.gov/website/ntad03/metadata/nhpnlin.htm

55Creating a Vector Project

http://websas.bts.gov/website/ntad03/metadata/nhpnlin.htm

2.7.2.1 Renaming the Vector LayerBecause the name of the road layer in the Google Earth Fusion software appears as the layer name in the Google Earth Client, we will provide an appropriate name for the layer.

1. Right-click on the vector/CAHighways layer and select Layer Properties from the pop-up menu.The Layer Properties dialog appears.

2. In the Name field, enter California Roads and Highways.

3. Click OK.

The name provided in the Name field appears under the Roads layer in the Google Earth client once the data is published to the Google Earth Server.

2.7.2.2 Default Display Rule for Surface RoadsThis section covers how to create the first display rule for your project. Currently, the only display rule listed under the California Roads and Highways layer is the default select all rule. A display rule simply applies the feature and label formatting for that rule to all the vector points or lines whose data matches its filter. Because the default rule filter has no criteria, it will match all data.

Because we want to apply a variety of settings to different types of roads, we will add more display rules to the list with appropriate filter rules. Display rules operate sequentially as listed in the Display Rules Name pane. That is, the first rule in the list attempts to match the vector data, and any data that is not matched is passed on to the next display rule in the list, and so on. (See “Using Streaming Filled Polygons” on page 127 of Authoring Google Earth Fusion Projects for details.)

Consequently, if you want all vector data in the layer to be displayed at some time or another in the Google Earth client, the bottom-most display rule should have a non-restrictive filter like the one in the default select all rule. This ensures that after all other display rules have been applied, any remaining vector data will be displayed using the formatting specified by the default rule.


In the following steps, we will modify settings in the default display rule for our road information.

1. Right-click on the California Roads and Highways and select Configure Display Rules... from the pop-up menu.The Display Rules dialog appears with the Feature tab in the foreground and the default select all rule highlighted.

2. Set the feature characteristics for the roads.Because we will add additional display rules that configure highway and freeways differently from surface streets, this rule applies only to surface streets once all the highway and freeway lines have been filtered out.

a. Beside Draw As:, choose Lines and set the Color field to a dark red.

b. Leave the Scale to 1 for the line thickness.

Because we will be drawing this feature as road data, the scale will be handled automatically by the Fusion rendering engine.

c. Set the Visibility Range to 12 on the left and leave the right set to the default value.

These settings will display the remaining road data as a red line and only once the Google Earth client 3D viewer is zoomed into a close area. The Visibility Range


setting controls the visibility of the vector data based on the viewing altitude and is used to control the amount of data in a particular view at a given altitude.

Note: The Google Earth client also provides some filtering for excess data, such as when two labels or icons overlap each other. In such cases, only one of the labels is drawn until the 3D viewer is sufficiently zoomed in.

3. Set the road characteristics for the vector data.

a. Check the Draw As Roads checkbox.

b. Click on the file browse button [...] to the right of the Text input.

c. Select LNAME from the field pull-down menu.

These settings will display the vector data as part of the Roads layer of the Google Earth client. Any road segment that has a label in the LNAME field will display that field as a name label that will appear in the client viewer.

4. Click the OK button to save the changes to the display rule.


5. Verify feature line changes.Changes made to the Feature tab of the display rules should appear immediately in the preview window once you save them. If you are zoomed out higher than level 12, the road data should disappear from the viewer. You can do one of two things to determine that the road data will display at the desired level:

• Zoom to level 12 or higher, as indicated in the View Level.

• Adjust the Display Level Offset to a number from 1 to 5 so that the feature appears at a higher elevation. For example, set the delta level to 2 and zoom to level 10. The road data should appear.

6. Verify road labels.Labels and shields set in the Draw as Roads area do not appear in the preview window, but you can still determine the behavior and appearance of road data as follows.

a. Zoom into a level such that the road data appears in the preview pane.

b. Using select mode, draw a rectangle around a number of road lines

The data for those roads appears in the data view pane.

c. Sort the data by the LNAME column by clicking on the column title.

All road segments containing data in the LNAME column are grouped together. These are the names that will appear as labels next to the roads when the Google Earth client viewer zooms to the appropriate level.

In the example shown below, a large section of road data in the northeast section of San Francisco has been selected. The data view pane shows that some segments have Army ST, 6th ST, and 3rd ST in the LNAME field.


7. Save the vector project.Every time you modify display rules and filters for your data, it’s a good idea to save the project. To save our newly created vector project:

a. Right-click on the vector panel in a white area and select Save from the pop-up menu.

b. In the Save dialog box, navigate to the Projects directory.

c. Type in the name of the project SFBayAreaTransit.

d. Clear the Replace Google Earth Layers check box.

e. Click the Save button.

Note: If you review all of the road data selected above in Step 6, you will notice that some small segments contain the label BUS SEPARATOR RAMP. The Google Earth Fusion software joins segments of similar road types together in a single line, so because these feature lines are also identified with highways, their labels will not appear in the Google Earth client at fly-time.

You’ve completed the first display rule for your road data. All subsequent filters will be based on this one.

2.7.2.3 Display Rules for Interstates and Other FreewaysThis section describes how to create all the display rules necessary to achieve the desired appearance for the different types of highways for the San Francisco Bay Area. When you are finished with this section of the tutorial, you should have a good understanding of the use of filters in managing complex data.

When setting display rules for vector data, it is critical that you are familiar with the source data you are working with and have an understanding of the fields used to classify different types of vector data. In the source data for this tutorial, the National Highway Planning Network uses the field FCLASS to sort roads and highways according to the following primary types:

• Interstate roads

• Freeways

• Arterial roads

Within those classifications, some roads are further classified as to whether they are rural or urban. We will use the FCLASS number as the primary means of distinguishing three types of roads and drawing them appropriately in the viewer.

Filter #2: Interstate Highways


This section guides you through the process of creating a display rule for interstate highways (FCLASS = 11 and FCLASS = 01).

1. Right-click on the California Roads and Highways and select Configure Display Rules... from the pop-up menu.The Display Rules dialog appears with the Feature tab in the foreground with the default select all rule highlighted.

2. Click the New Filter button to create a new filter rule and enter InterstateHighways in the New Filter dialog box.

We are going to create a filter to display Interstate highways with the correct shield.

3. Click OK.The new filter appears below the default select all rule.

4. Click on the Move Filter Up button to position the new display rule before the default select all rule. Because display rules are applied in order, this ensures that Interstate highways will be trapped by this rule and have the following display settings applied to them.

5. In the Feature tab, set the following features values:

a. Besides Draw As, choose Lines.

b. Click on the Color button and in the color picker, select a royal blue to use for all major highway display.

c. Leave the Scale value set to 1.0.

d. Set the minimum visibility range to 12 and leave the end range at 24.

6. Check Draw as Roads. Beside Road Label Type, choose Shield.


7. Under Road Sheild, click the icon button and choose the sheild1 icon from the Icons dialog box.When you are finished, the display rule for features should look similar to the following:


8. Click on the Filter tab to add a filter to trap all matching urban freeways and apply your feature settings only to them.

a. In the Filter tab, click on the More button.

b. Select Match any of the following from the top selector.

c. In the filter box, select FCLASS from the left-most selection list.

d. Select equals from the next pull-down list and enter 11 as the value in the field.

e. Click the More button again, setting the pull-down value of FCLASS equal to 01.

Your filter should look like this:

9. Click the OK button to see your changes in the viewer.One of the following will occur each time you add or change a filter in the Filter tab:

a. You will see an Applying Queries that displays the percentage of time required to run the new filters on the vector layer.

b. Existing vector data in the viewing pane will be updated or will disappear altogether, depending upon your filters and viewing level.

10. Verify your query.In the viewer, zoom to a high level until all road data disappears. Zoom to level 12. You can also use the select mode to select road data and check that only roads with an FCLASS of either 01 or 11 appear.

Filters #3 and #4: Freeways


This section guides you through the process of creating two display rules for freeways (FCLASS = 12, 06, and 07). Because the data categorized as FCLASS 12 contains both U.S. and State route freeways, we will need a second display rule to single out U.S. routes based upon the string in the SIGNT1 field.

1. Right-click on the California Roads and Highways layer and select Configure Display Rules... from the pop-up menu.The Display Rules dialog appears with the Feature tab in the foreground with the InterstateHighways rule highlighted.

2. Make sure the InterstateHighways rule is selected and click the copy rule icon to duplicate it.

3. In the Copy Filter dialog, rename the rule to MajorStateRoads and move it to the top of the list with the Move Filter button.

4. Click on the Line Color button in the Feature tab and change the color for this feature to a golden yellow.

5. Leave the left-hand visibility range number as 12.

6. Select LNAME as the value for the Text field by clicking on the select button (...).

7. Change the shield icon to the oval shield for State routes.The feature tab of the display rule should similar to the one pictured here:


8. Click on the Filter tab to adjust the filter to trap roads with an FCLASS that matches freeway data (06, 07, and 12).

a. Change the first filter to define the FCLASS field equal to 12.

b. Change the second filter to define the FCLASS field equal to 06.

c. Click the More button and add one more filter to define the FCLASS field equal to 07.

The Filter tab should look like this:

This filter will now trap all features classified as freeways and apply a state road shield to them. However, because some freeways of FCLASS 12 are U.S. roads, we’ll provide a final, more restrictive filter to catch that road feature in order to apply the U.S. shield.

9. Duplicate the MajorStateRoads rule by clicking on the copy rule button while the rule is selected and name the new rule MajorUSRoads.You are going to create another rule to apply a US route shield to the appropriate roads.


10. Move this rule to the top of the stack and make the following changes.

a. In the Feature tab, change the road shield icon to one for U.S. roads.

b. In the Feature tab, remove the road label.

c. In the Filter tab, change the match pull-down to Match All of the Following.

d. In the Filter tab, choose the SIGNT1 field and assign it to a value of U.

e. Use the Fewer button to remove all FCLASS filters except for FCLASS equal to 12.

Your display rule settings should look like this:

The MajorUSRoads display rule is at the top of the list, which means that its criteria will be applied first to the vector road data. Any features that have both an FCLASS of 12 and a SIGNNT1 value of U will have a U.S. shield applied to them. The remaining freeway features will be trapped by the MajorStateRoads display rule and formatted accordingly.

2.8 Creating Terrain AssetsBefore creating and building a terrain project, you will need to convert raw source data into Google Earth Fusion assets in order to include them in the project. This section covers the steps to follow in order to create and build terrain assets for your terrain project.

Note: This section is for Google Earth Fusion PRO users only.


2.8.1 Exploring Raw Source FilesYou can use the Preview pane in the Google Earth Fusion workspace to investigate raw terrain files to be sure they cover the correct area before you convert them to assets.

1. Open up a file browser and navigate to the FusionTutorial/Terrain directory where your source files have been installed.For example, if you installed the tutorial files in the default source directory /khvol/src, you would navigate to the /khvol/src/FusionTutorial/Terrain directory.

2. Drag both SFNorth.img and SFSouth.img into the Preview pane.

Tip: If the Preview pane is not the pane in the foreground, drag the selected file over the Preview tab until it pops forward. Then, drop the selected file in the panel. Files must be moved singly.

3. Right-click on one layer in the Preview pane and select Zoom to Layer from the pop-up menu.The viewer should encompass the entire region of the selected tile.

4. From the Edit menu, select Enable All Layers.You should see a square indicating the bounding box of one of the layers.

5. Using the Zoom tool, zoom and pan to explore the tiles.You can use the viewer to see the relationship of each tile to the other, as well as each tile’s relationship to the corresponding imagery. In the case of this tutorial, you can

67Creating Terrain Assets

see that the terrain tiles encompass most of the peninsula of San Francisco, but leave the northwest corner out.

You can zoom closer to the imagery data to see which areas of the resultant database will transition from having terrain data, to having none.

6. When you are finished viewing the raw tiles, right-click on a white area in the Preview pane and select Remove All Layers from the pop-up menu.

2.8.2 Importing Terrain AssetsBefore you can add terrain data to a project, you must first convert it to a Google Earth asset. Because the two terrain files that we have are contiguous, we will create a single asset (known as a mosaic) by including both files in our new asset.

Follow the steps below to import the terrain files into your asset manager.

1. In the Asset Manager (Ctrl+A), right-click on the Terrain folder and select Import Terrain Asset... from the pop-up menu.The Terrain Import dialog appears.

2. Name the asset SFTerrain and set the date using the year-month-date format in the Aquisition box.

3. Set USGS Imagery in the Provider pull-down.

4. Click the Add button and navigate to the FusionTutorial/Terrain directory, setting the File type pull-down to Erdas Imagine. You will see the two terrain files in the file list.

5. Add both terrain files to the Source Files(s) listing.


6. Leave all other properties set to their defaults, which should be:

• Mask Type — Auto Mask

• Feather — 100

• Tolerance — 0

• Hole Size — 0

• Tile Fill — None

• Elevation Units — Meters

7. Click the OK button.The newly defined asset appears in the Terrain folder with a Current State of None.

2.8.3 Building and Modifying the Terrain AssetBecause we want to verify that the chosen settings for our terrain assets are correct, we will build the terrain asset and inspect it in the viewer using the Preview pane.

1. Right-click on the terrain asset and select Build... from the pop-up menu.The Current State switches to InProgress and then to Succeeded.

69Creating Terrain Assets

2. Drag the SFTerrain asset into the Preview pane and select the check box next to it.The terrain appears in the preview window.

The preview shows that the default feather of 100 pixels is far too aggressive, removing much of the data around the coastline. In a real-world situation, you might import each terrain file independently and provide your own mask for the data, but for this project, we’ll simply modify the Auto Mask feather. In addition, we’ll adjust the tile fill to black.

3. Right-click on the SFTerrain asset in the Asset Manager window and select Modify from the pop-up window.

4. In the Modify Terrain Asset window, set the Feather value to 0.

5. Select Other from the Tile Fill pull-down and specify 0 as the fill value (black).

6. Click the OK button and build the asset again.

7. View the newly-built asset by dragging it over the Preview tab.It’ll appear beneath the previously built asset with a number to distinguish it from the other.


8. Turn off the first asset and select the modified one to view the new settings in the preview window. It should look similar to the following.

Because the coastline easily defines the edge of the terrain, the mask does not require any feathering to blend it into surrounding territory, since that territory is at sea level.

9. Right-click on an empty area in the Preview pane and select Remove all layers from the pop-up menu. This clears the terrain imagery from the viewer in preparation for the terrain project.

With the asset built with satisfactory settings, we can now include it in a terrain project.

2.9 Creating a Terrain ProjectThe terrain project for this tutorial is very simple, since we are including only a single asset that we have already built in the steps above.

1. Click on the Terrain tab.

2. Open the Asset Manager and drag the recently-created terrain asset into the pane.A border appears in the preview window indicating the extents of the asset.

3. Right--click in an empty area and select Save from the pop-up menu.

4. Navigate to the Projects directory and save the project as SFTerrain.

5. In the Asset Manager, look for the newly created project, which should have a Current State of None.

71Creating a Terrain Project

6. Right-click on the project and select Build from the pop-up menu.The status should update to Queued and after a short time, to Succeeded. You can double-click on the project to view the Version Properties for the asset and track the progress of the build by expanding the asset tree and viewing the log files.

With all projects created, you are now ready to define and build a database.

2.10 Creating a DatabaseThis section covers how to include your recently-built projects into a database and how to build and publish the database for viewing with the Google Earth client.

2.10.1 Defining the DatabaseThe first part of creating a database involves naming the database and selecting the project or projects that will be part of the database.

1. Select Database Manager from the Tools menu.

2. Click on the New Database button to view the Edit Database dialog.

3. Enter the name SFRoadsTransit in the Name field.

4. Click on the Browse button next to the Vector Project line.


5. Navigate to the Projects directory, select SFBayAreaTransit as the vector project for the database, and click Open.When you define imagery, vector, or terrain projects for a database, the asset dialog filter is automatically set to the type of project you are defining. In this case, since you are adding a vector project to the database, the filter is set to Vector Project and only vector projects are displayed in the view. You can navigate to other directories that contain different types of assets to see how this filter works.This sets the vector project for the database. Google Earth Fusion LT users can proceed to Step 7.

6. Using the same process, Google Earth Fusion PRO users can define the imagery and terrain projects for the database from the ones built in this tutorial.

7. Click the OK button in the Edit Database dialog.The Database Manager reflects the new database.

2.10.2 Building the DatabaseOnce you have defined the database, it is ready to be built. Just as you build assets and projects once you define them, you also must build databases in order for the database to be published and viewable from the Google Earth client.

Note: If you had created the all assets and projects for this database without building any of them along the way, the database build process would also build them in the course of building the database.

1. From the Database Manager, select the SFBaseMap database.Just as with a newly-defined asset or project, the current state of the database is None.

2. Click on the Build Database button.Because we have already built the projects and assets of this database, its current state will refresh quickly to Queued. Depending upon the size of a database and whether the projects within the database have been built or not, database building can take hours or seconds.

3. Open up the Asset Manager to explore the database build.When you first define a database, a databases folder is automatically created for you within the Asset Manager to hold all databases. The Current State column indicates if the database is in progress, and if it is, you can view the database properties from the Asset Manager by double-clicking on it, just as you would an asset or a project (see Step 3, “Building the Imagery Asset” on page 44).

73Creating a Database

2.10.3 Publishing and Viewing the DatabaseOnce a database is defined and built, you can publish the results to a configured Google Earth Server and view that database using the Google Earth client. To publish a database:

1. From the Tools menu, select Publisher (Ctrl + P).Your database appears in the Publisher window.

2. Select the database you wish to publish and click the Publish button.You will receive a status message, typically that your database has been published, along with the version that has been published.

Note: If you select the name of the database, Google Earth Fusion automatically publishes the most recent version of the database. If you want to publish earlier versions of the database, you need to expand the database version tree and select the version you want published.

3. Using the Google Earth client, login to the database that you just published.When you publish a database using the Google Earth Fusion software, the database is published on the same machine that is running Google Earth Fusion. So, for example, if the machine is mylinuxmachine.mycompany.com, you would login to that server at the Google Earth client login screen.


3 Working with Assets and Source Data

This chapter covers the details of importing source data in order to create Google Earth usable assets, and how to manage and use assets in the Google Earth Fusion software. The following topics are covered:

• Managing Data Providers

• Creating Assets

• Viewing and Browsing Assets

• Organizing Assets

• Modifying Assets

• Building Assets

• Debugging Asset Builds

• Creating Your Own Point Data

• Supported Data Formats

3.1 Managing Data ProvidersEach asset that you create from source data can be supplied with a provider key as part of the meta-data generated for Google Earth Fusion assets. This key is used to look up the provider name and copyright information for display in the Google Earth client.

Before you can assign a provider key, you must create providers using the Google Earth Fusion provider manager. The following steps discuss this process.

1. Select Provider Manager... from the Tools... menu (Ctrl+V).The Provider Manager dialog appears.


2. Click on the New Provider button, enter the relevant information in the fields in the Edit Provider dialog, and click the OK button.

The new provider appears in the Provider Manager dialog. You can delete or edit a provider by selecting a provider and clicking on the Modify Provider or Delete Provider button.

Keep in mind the following points about provider information:

• You can enter any free-form text string in the Copyright Text field. White spaces are allowed. This string appears at the bottom of the viewer in the Google Earth client when the corresponding imagery, map, road, or terrain data appears in the viewer.

• To enter the copyright symbol (©), simply copy the symbol from a character map utility or from the web page form of this documentation and paste it into the Copyright Text field

• The Key field must be unique among all the providers in your list.

• If you delete a provider or change its key, then all assets previously imported with that provider key will be unable to provide the appropriate copyright information to the Google Earth client.

76 Google Earth ServerWorking with Assets and Source Data

3.2 Creating AssetsThe first part of preparing your GIS data for use in Google Earth Fusion involves importing it into the Asset Manager. When you process raw source data via the Asset Manager, the Google Earth Fusion software performs the necessary processing on it in order to create an asset that you can add into your projects. The Asset Manager is available in both command-line mode and as part the Google Earth Fusion workspace, where it functions also as a file browser. For information on importing large batches of source data, see “Google Earth Fusion System Reference.”

As you import more data into the Asset Manager, you create a collection of assets that can be used in different projects. When you create assets for use in Google Earth Fusion projects, keep in mind the following:

• Configuration settings differ depending on the type of source data

In general, when you create an asset from vector data, you are setting meta-data for that asset, such as the source date, provider, and character encoding. On the other hand, when you create an asset from imagery and terrain data, your settings also affect the display of the data itself, such as mask, fill values, and mosaic options.

Note: Settings that affect the display of vector data are defined in the project that contains the vector asset.

• You create a single asset at a time, whether you use a single source, or multiple sources

Each New asset creation command creates a single asset. If you select multiple source data files, you are creating a single asset that is a composite of multiple sources. This is typically done with source imagery having contiguous edges and identical resolution. For instance, when the source data of a defined region is supplied in multiple files due to file limitations, the various images can be imported as a single asset and special processing instructions defined to properly blend the boundaries.

On the other hand, if you want to import a number of source files where each one is created as a single asset, you must issue a separate New command for each source file you want to import. See “Google Earth Fusion System Reference” for information on how to use batch commands for adding source data.

• Composite assets require similar source data

Typically, assets are created from multiple sources when you have contiguous data of the same type. For example, you can create a single asset that displays a single district boundary by importing a number of vector files each representing a portion of that

77Creating Assets

boundary. Or, you can select multiple imagery insets that you want to import as a single mosaic asset.

In these situations, the source data that you import can be of a different file type, but the data itself must have the same projection, and the attribute headers must match in structure in order for the import to be successful.

• New assets must have unique names, but source files can be used repeatedly

You can create a new asset only if an asset of that name/type does not already exist in the target directory. However, because imagery, terrain, and vector assets have different file extensions, you can use the same file name once for each type of asset.

Note: Because assets can be flagged as hidden so that they don’t appear in the Asset Manager, be aware that a name for an asset you create might be used by a hidden asset. Select the Show hidden assets check box before creating new assets if you have many hidden assets in your tree.

On the other hand, you can create multiple new assets using the same source file repeatedly. Each asset is a separate entity from the source file or files. If you want to specify a different (or updated) source file for an existing asset, you use a different command. See “Modifying Assets” on page 88 for more information.

The following diagram illustrates the concepts described above.

Figure 1: Creating Assets


3.2.1 General Asset Creation StepsThe following asset creations steps are common to all asset types. For details on creating vector, imagery, or terrain assets, see the sections that follow.

1. Select Asset Manager from the Tools menu or type Ctrl+A. The Asset Manager window appears.

2. Choose a destination folder, or create a new subfolder to contain the new asset by right-clicking on the top-level directory and selecting New Subfolder from the pop-up menu.

Tip: Consider using subfolder names that correspond to the type of asset that you are creating. For instance, you might first create a subfolder named vector to indicate the type of source data. Beneath the vector folder, you could create additional subfolders to further distinguish the source by provider.

3. Click on the subfolder where you want to add the new asset, and select the command to create the type of asset you want from the pop-up menu.

4. An asset dialog box appears.If you have selected a vector asset, specify the appropriate values as shown below in Figure 2. If you have selected an imagery or terrain asset, fill in the appropriate values for those assets as shown below in Figure 3 and Figure 4.

5. Navigate to the directory that contains the source data for your asset and select the correct file or files.

Note: You can select one or more files to create a single asset, such as with an imagery mosaic or a vector composite. In this case, the source data must have the same projection and the same attribute fields in order for the import to work.

6. Click OK.You are ready to use the asset in a project. If you have provided a specific name for the new asset, that name appears in the asset listing of the destination directory. However, if you do not specify a name for the asset, the Google Earth Fusion software

79Creating Assets

automatically derives a name for the asset based on the name of the first source file selected for the asset.

See “Using Vector Projects” on page 111 of Authoring Google Earth Fusion Projects for more information on configuring the display of vector data in your project. See “Using Imagery or Terrain Projects” on page 131 of Authoring Google Earth Fusion Projects for more information on using that data in your project.

3.2.2 Creating Vector AssetsAdding a vector asset involves importing the data along with a minimal set of optional information about the data itself. When you create a new vector asset, you can define the following properties along with the asset name:

• Acquisition DateThe acquisition date is entered in year-month-day format. You can click on each section of the date and enter the values, or you can use the right and left arrow keys to move from the year to the month, and vice versa.The acquisition date can be used for own purposes to define either the date the imagery was imported as a Google Earth asset, or the date the source photo itself was taken. Regardless of which method you use, it’s best to adopt a consistent policy for all your assets to avoid confusion.

• Provider

Select the source provider from the drop-down menu in the Vector Import dialog box. The provider identifies the provider of the source you are importing and is taken from the list of providers that you have defined in the Provider Manager (see “Managing Data Providers” on page 75). Based on this, the copyright field is used to display the copyright information for the source in the Google Earth client when that source data appears in the viewer.

Note: If you are importing a number of source files to create a single asset, it is assumed that they will have a common provider. If they do not have a common provider, you can create a provider entry that supplies credit to all sources for that asset.

• Encoding

If the field data in your vector asset has a particular encoding for characters, such as ISO8859-1, you would select this option here so that your data is displayed correctly in the viewer. If you select no encoding option, the character encoding defaults to ASCII (plain text).


• Layer

Use this option if your source data contains multiple layers and you want to extract a specific layer from the data for your asset. If you leave this option at 0, the first layer of the source file is used to create the asset.

In most circumstances, source vector data has only one layer; however, Tiger and GDT vector data can contain multiple layers. Because there is a one-to-one correspondence between a vector asset and a single vector layer, asset creation from multi-layer data must specify a layer.

Tip: If you are unsure which layer to indicate in creating an asset from multi-layer source data, you can open the vector source file in the preview mode. This displays all the layers in the source data, and you can examine each in order to select the appropriate one to import.

The following figures show the asset creation dialog for vector data with the fields filled in. In this example, layer 2 is specified as the level to use from the source files.

Figure 2: Creating a Vector Asset

Much of the display configuration for vectors assets is done within the project itself, where you can set the color of vector lines or add icons to point data, and set filters to further adjust the data display. See “Using Vector Projects” on page 111 of Authoring Google Earth Fusion Projects for more information on how you can configure vector assets within your project.

3.2.3 Creating Imagery or Terrain AssetsWhen you import imagery and terrain data into the Asset Manager, the majority of the display settings are configured during the import process. This section covers the settings you can control for new imagery or terrain assets.

The following figures show the asset creation dialogs for both imagery and terrain data with the fields filled in.

81Creating Assets

Figure 3: Creating an Imagery Asset with Multiple Source Files

Figure 4: Creating Terrain Asset with Multiple Source Files

3.2.3.1 Entering the Acquisition DateThe acquisition date is entered in year-month-day format. You can click on each section of the date and enter the values, or you can use the right and left arrow keys to move from the year to the month, and vice versa.

The acquisition date can be used for your own purposes to define either the date the imagery was imported as a Google Earth asset, or the date the source photo itself was taken. Regardless of which method you use, it’s best to adopt a consistent policy for all your imagery assets to avoid confusion.


3.2.3.2 Selecting the ProviderSelect the imagery or terrain provider from the drop-down menu in the new asset dialog box. The provider identifies the provider of the source you are importing and is taken from the list of providers that you have defined in the Provider Manager. Based on this select, the provider name and copyright fields are used to display the copyright information for the source in the Google Earth client.

Note: If you are importing a number of source files to create a single asset, it is assumed that they will have a common provider. If they do not have a common provider, you can create a provider entry that supplies credit to all sources for that asset.

3.2.3.3 Setting Mask Type and ValuesChoose the mask type from the Mask Type drop-down menu. You can specify three mask options:

• Have Mask

Select the Have Mask option if you have a corresponding alpha mask or file for your source. The Google Earth Fusion software automatically applies the mask file by reference to the source file. The mask for your input must be located in the same directory as the source file and the name must match that of the source file with -mask appended to the name. For example, if your source file is called NewYork.tif, its mask file must be named NewYork-mask.tif.

You might use the Have Mask option in a situation where your source file imagery is bounded by water, and a significant portion of the image is water. In that case, you would likely create a mask by hand in order to avoid processing the water imagery.

• No Mask

Use this option only for base map imagery that extends to the entire database, such as the Blue Marble imagery.

• Auto Mask

In most situations—and where you are creating a mosaic from contiguous source imagery—using the Auto Mask setting is the best choice. For example, if you have four square contiguous pieces of imagery that are bounded by land on all sides, you would likely choose Auto Mask. The auto mask function automatically picks fill value based

83Creating Assets

on the color found in the four corners of the source imagery and uses that to create the mask.

Note: If you are specifying more than one imagery source file for an asset, you cannot set Have Mask for the mask setting values.

If you select Auto Mask, you can change the following options:

• Feather

Feathering blends the edges of your imagery tile into adjacent areas for a smoother-looking transition. The default feather value for Auto Mask is 100 pixels, but you can adjust this to select a wider margin if desired.

• Tolerance

Tolerance specifies the color range for mask selection. The default tolerance is zero, which is adequate for many fill colors that are typically pure black or pure white. However, because imagery compression and decompression can affect fill values by 1 or 2 color values, you can adjust the tolerance to compensate for any loss in color precision. Typically, a setting of 1 or 2 is adequate in those situations.

• Hole size

Use this option if you have masked regions inside the boundaries of your imagery data. The default setting for hole size is zero, which is off.

The hole size indicates the number of contiguous pixels the Google Earth Fusion software uses when matching any color region inside your imagery with the same value specified as your fill. For example, if you set the value to 100 and the imagery has 100+ contiguous pixels with the same color as one of the corners (fill value), it'll treat that area as a "hole" in the data and apply the mask to it. The end result is that whatever data is beneath with show through.

• Fill White (imagery assets only)

Choose this option if imagery holes in your source data are filled with white. In some cases, source providers fill missing data inside the imagery with white and use a different color for the boundary mask.

• Band (imagery assets only)

Use this option to indicate the red, green, or blue channel to use when generating the mask. Typically, green provides the best contrast between earth data and no data and is consequently the default. However, some data works best when the blue channel is used for mask selection.

3.2.3.4 Setting Options for Mosaic ImportUse the Mosaic Options area for setting fill values and tolerance for blank areas of overlapping imagery tiles. You can set these options only when you are importing a number of imagery


files. Typically, this is done on adjacent imagery whose borders overlap in the resultant mosaic.

The fill value you select depends upon your source file and should match its fill color. You must set an explicit value for the fill color for the mosaic, which is processed on the imagery before the overall mask. Choose None, Black, White, or Other from the select menu. When you choose Other, a color picker dialog appears where you can set the correct value. Here, the fill applies to those portions of the tile where you want any underlying imagery to show through. When you choose None, no masking on adjacent imagery tiles is created (although the overall mask for the resultant mosaic is).

For mosaic creation, the Tolerance setting functions just as it does for fill values on the auto mask. The default tolerance is zero, which is adequate for many fill colors that are typically pure black or pure white. However, because imagery compression and decompression can affect fill values by 1 or 2 color values, you can adjust the tolerance to compensate for any loss in precision. Typically, a setting of 1 or 2 is adequate in those situations

3.2.3.5 Choosing Elevation Units (Terrain Assets Only)When you create a terrain asset, you can choose Feet, Meters, or your own conversion units for the elevation units for your source data. See “Imagery and Terrain Assets” on page 170 of Google Earth Fusion System Reference for more information on using your own conversion units for elevation.

The Google Earth Fusion software interprets height map values as meters. If instead the elevation unit for your source data is in feet, you can select Feet as the unit, and the Google Earth Fusion software will convert feet to its metric equivalent.

3.3 Viewing and Browsing AssetsTo view the assets available to you for your project, select Tools—Asset Manager from the Google Earth Fusion menu or type Ctrl + A.

The Asset Manager window appears. It displays the asset root at the top of the directory and in the Location window as either the variable ASSET_ROOT, or as the directory where the asset root is located, depending upon how you set that display in the preferences.

85Viewing and Browsing Assets

Figure 5: Asset Manager

By default, both assets and projects of all types—and databases—are displayed in the Asset Manager. However, if you want to display assets or projects of a specific type, you can select Imagery, Vector, or Terrain from the Type pull-down menu. You can also refine the display to show only assets or only projects by selecting the desired element from the Category pull-down. The file list updates to reflect your choice.

If you prefer, you can use the preview tab to browse assets by thumbnail imagery. This can be useful when you have a number of assets of similar name and distinguishing them visually would be more helpful.

You can scale the size of the thumbnail imagery using the slider bar in the preview mode. This lets you adjust the size of the imagery until it is appropriately viewable.


Figure 6: Preview Mode in Asset Manager

Figure 7: ASSETMANAGERPREVIEW

You can further control asset display by marking an asset as Hidden. Do this by modifying the asset (see “Modifying Assets” on page 88) and selecting the Hidden check box in the lower right corner of the dialog. After an asset is set to Hidden, it will no longer display in the Asset Manager unless the Show hidden assets check box is selected in the Asset Manager window.

3.4 Organizing AssetsYou can use the Asset Manager to create folders to organize different collections of data according to type.

1. Open the Asset Manager window and right-click on the top-most folder that you want to contain the subfolder.

2. From the pop-up menu, choose New Subfolder.

87Organizing Assets

3. Enter the name of your new subfolder in the dialog and click OK.The folder you created appears beneath the folder you first selected to contain it. For example, if you right-click on the ASSET_ROOT folder, the new folder appears beneath the ASSET_ROOT folder.

3.5 Modifying AssetsOnce you have created an asset, you can use the Asset Manager to modify the asset. You can either re-apply the same source data—in the situation where the source data has changed—or you can apply a different source file altogether for an existing asset. You can also modify an asset’s properties, such as its fill value or mask settings.

Finally, you can also set the display properties of an asset to Hidden by selecting the Hidden check box in the asset dialog. When this is selected, the asset does not appear in the Asset Manager listing unless the Show hidden assets check box is selected. With this feature, you can “turn off” assets you don’t need to display regularly, such as ones that are incorrectly named, or ones whose versions are marked as Bad.

Be aware that you modify an asset from modified source imagery, the Google Earth Fusion software does not replace the old asset, but creates a newer version of the same asset. Your changes are configured from the source data into the resultant asset, so any updates to the asset must involve the original source file or files. As you increment each modification to an asset, the Google Earth Fusion software maintains the prior asset versions so that earlier work can be easily retrieved. For example, if you update an asset and later determine a problem with it, you can easily revert back to the older version.

To redefine an existing asset, follow the steps below

1. Right-click on the asset you want to redefine in the Asset Manager and select Modify from the pop-up window.The import dialog for that asset type appears, with the name defined.

2. Modify the properties and the source files for that asset as determined by the asset type.See the figures above in “Creating Vector Assets” on page 80 and “Creating Imagery or Terrain Assets” on page 81 for the values for each asset type.


3. When you have redefined the properties for the asset, click the OK button.

4. Right-click on the redefined asset in the Asset Manager and select Build from the pop-up menu.The asset is redefined with the new source files or properties definitions. If the build happens very quickly, you can verify that the modifications have been made by right-clicking on the asset and selecting Asset Versions from the pop-up menu. The new version appears in the listing.

3.6 Building AssetsThe Google Earth Fusion software provides the ability to build all components of a database as a single process or individually. In this way, you can optimize the work you do by building some parts of the database as time permits. For example, because some imagery assets take a while to process, it often makes sense to build those assets as soon as possible rather than waiting until the entire project or database is assembled. In this way, subsequent use of those assets for additional projects will not have to involve building the asset again. You can use the Google Earth Fusion GUI to build an asset, or use the command line functionality (see “Building Assets” on page 174 of Google Earth Fusion System Reference).

To build an asset using the Google Earth Fusion GUI, follow these steps.

1. Find the asset that you want to build in the Asset Manager window (Tools - Asset Manager).

2. Right-click on the asset and select Build from the pop-up menu.The status of the asset should immediately be set to Queued, which you can see reflected in the Current State column of the Asset Manager dialog. If no other jobs are waiting, the status will quickly change to Waiting.

Note: If you are building a modified asset and the modification

You can view the process of the asset build by double-clicking the asset to view the Version Properties dialog of the most recent asset version. Within that dialog, you can expand the dependency tree to view the asset building in real time.

3.7 Debugging Asset BuildsWhen you create or modify an asset, the Google Earth Fusion software assigns a version number to the asset. You can determine the status of each built asset version via the Asset Manager in the Google Earth Fusion workspace. You can also use the Google Earth Fusion command line functionality to check asset status (see “Google Earth Fusion System Reference”). This feature lets you check the completion status of assets you have recently created or modified, and it lets you determine the availability of older versions of assets. Table 1 below lists the possible status reports for each asset.

89Building Assets

Table 1: Asset Status Reports

In addition to viewing asset status, you can also debug the dependency chain for a particular asset that has failed to build. For the command line version of how to do this, see “Querying Asset Properties” on page 176 of Google Earth Fusion System Reference. Follow these steps to view an asset’s properties using the Google Earth Fusion GUI.

1. Open the Asset Manager window and navigate to the desired asset.

2. Right-click on the entry and select Asset Versions from the pop-up menu to display the Properties dialog for the asset. If you have performed a number of builds for the asset, you should see a listing showing all the build versions for that asset as well as the status; otherwise, only the most recently built version of the asset is displayed.

Waiting The asset is waiting for its input data to finish.

Blocked The asset version cannot proceed. One or more of its input data or sub-components has failed, is marked bad, or is otherwise unavailable.The responsible component is listed.

Queued The asset version (or its sub-components) is queued and waiting to be built.

In Progress The asset version (or sub-components) are actively being built.

Failed The asset version failed.

Succeeded The asset version (and sub-components) succeeded.

Canceled The asset version was canceled.

Cleaned The version of this asset is unavailable because it has been cleaned up.

Bad The version of this asset has been marked bad.


3. Select the asset version you want to investigate and double-click on it.The Version Properties dialog appears, showing the hierarchical relationship of the asset and its elements.

Note: You can go directly to the Version Properties dialog for the latest asset version simply by double-clicking on it in the Asset Manager.

You can expand the tree view until you display the element that caused the build failure.

4. Click on the log file icon next to the failed item to view the details about that failed process.

3.7.1 Resuming Failed Asset BuildsThe Google Earth Fusion software provides a way to resume a failed asset build from the point at which failure occurred rather than having to repeat the entire build process from the beginning. This most commonly occurs for external reasons, such as disk space overrun or

91Debugging Asset Builds

incorrect file permission settings (the failure error illustrated above). When you resume a failed build, the same version of an asset is maintained without incrementing.

Important: The Resume command is only available on asset components with a status of Failed or Canceled. In addition, its purpose is to continue a build on a version where there has been no change to the data itself, or to the configuration of the asset. Thus, the command should be used only when the failure is due to an external event, such as disk space limitation. For details on resuming asset builds, see “Handling Asset Build Failures” on page 175 of Google Earth Fusion System Reference.

After an asset build fails, you can use the Version Properties window to determine the location at which the build fails (see “Debugging Asset Builds” above). For example, the figure below shows the version properties for a blocked terrain asset build, with a failure status for one of the child processes.

You can determine the exact reason for failure by clicking on the log file icon and reading the error report. After addressing the reason for failure, you can continue the build for that asset by right-clicking on the failed child process and selecting Restart from the pop-up menu. The asset build will continue from that point forward.

Important: The Restart command is only available on asset components with a status of Failed or Canceled. In addition, its purpose is to continue a build on a version where there has been no change to the data itself, or the configuration of the build. Thus, the command should be used only when the failure is due to an external event, such as disk space limitation. For details on restarting asset builds, see “Handling Asset Build Failures” on page 175 of Google Earth Fusion System Reference.

3.7.2 Cleaning AssetsEach asset created by the Google Earth Fusion software is provided a version number so that you can easily track successive updates to an asset. Consequently, multiple updates to an asset produce many versions of an asset. Because of this, some assets can take up a significant


amount of disk space. To address this, you can use the Asset Manager to clean up unused asset versions. This process changes the state of an asset version to cleaned (see Table 1).

You can use the clean asset functionality of the Google Earth Fusion software either with the GUI or with the command line. See “Cleaning Assets” on page 179 of Google Earth Fusion System Reference for the command line usage of this function.

3.7.2.1 Rules for Asset Version CleaningWhen using the clean asset functionality, be aware of the following:

• When you clean an asset, you are actually cleaning a selected asset version, not all instances of a given asset.

• The asset cleaning functionality removes all unreferenced items owned by the asset version.

• An asset version cannot be cleaned if it is being referenced by a project or by a database.

If you attempt to clean an asset version that is referenced elsewhere, the operation will fail and a list of related projects and databases is displayed.

• If you try to clean an asset version with an active status (such as in progress or queued), you will be prompted to cancel the asset before cleaning it.

• Cleaning an asset version changes the status of that asset version to cleaned, making it unavailable for further use in a Fusion project (See Table 1, “Asset Status Reports,” on page 90).

• Cleaning an asset version does not remove the source data for the asset.

3.7.2.2 Cleaning an Asset VersionThe following steps cover the basic process for cleaning an asset using the Google Earth Fusion interface.

1. In the Asset Manager, right-click on the asset you want to clean and select Asset Versions in the pop-up menu to bring up the Properties window for the asset.

93Debugging Asset Builds

2. Right-click on the version that you want to clean and select Clean... from the pop-up menu.

Important: The clean functionality of the Google Earth Fusion software respects the relationships of Google Earth Fusion data. Because assets can be used in more than a single project, any assets used in projects other than the one you clean are left untouched. See Table 3, “Google Earth Server Data Relationships,” on page 32 for a diagram illustrating such dependencies.

Tip: When you are cleaning, it is recommended you start by cleaning databases, starting with the oldest and moving to newest. In most cases, this will clean all old versions of projects and assets related to that database.

3.7.3 Marking Asset Versions as “Bad”You can change the Succeeded status of an asset to Bad so that it cannot be used by any project. For example, you might successfully build an asset and later decide that you do not want its data available for any project.

To do this, right-click on the desired asset and select Asset Versions in the pop-up menu to view its Properties dialog. Right-click the version you want to mark as bad, and select Mark as bad from the pop-up window.

3.8 Creating Your Own Point DataIn addition to using vector assets in .shp, .eta, and other formats, you can define your own point data and import it as an asset into the Google Earth Fusion software. To do this, you create delimited text files, such as tab-delimited .txt files and comma-separated .csv files.

The text file must be paired with a configuration file in order for the Google Earth Fusion software to parse the source data. The configuration file defines the source file structure, indicating field/value pairs and the type of delimiter used.


Figure 8: Using a Text File with Google Earth Fusion

Your installation of the Google Earth Fusion software includes a sample tab-delimited text file with a corresponding configuration file that you can examine. Both files are located in the directory

/usr/share/keyhole/datasets/sample_vector/sources

of your Google Earth Fusion installation. They are called web_cam.txt and web_cam.kdx, respectively. The configuration file has the following requirements:

• The name must be the same as the source file

• The suffix must be .kdx

• The configuration file must be located in the same directory as the source file

The sections that follow describe how to create the text and configuration file with the Google Earth Fusion software.

3.8.1 Defining a Configuration FileThe key part of being able to use your own delimited data with the Google Earth Fusion software is the configuration file. It defines the structure of the data, the data fields, and the type of data contained by the fields. Following is a sample configuration file.

95Creating Your Own Point Data

Figure 9: Sample Configuration File

Layout { FileType : "delimited" Delimiter : "," Latitude : "2" Longitude : "1" FieldDefinitions { 0 { Name : "Name" Type : "string" } 1 { Name : "Longitude" Type : "double" } 2 { Name : "Latitude" Type : "double" } 3 { Name : "Comments" Type : "string" } 4 { Name : "URL" Type : "string" } }}

3.8.1.1 File StructureNotice that the first line of the file begins with the word Layout and is followed by a curly bracket that has its closing bracket in the last line of the file. This layout block is the basic structure in the configuration file. Each configuration file must start with a layout block. All settings within the layout block have to be written inside of its curly brackets {}.

3.8.1.2 File TypeThe FileType keyword defines the text file type. You can set the values as either delimited or fixedwidth, which means that instead of using a delimiter to separate columns, each data field has a fixed width. No other file types are accepted.

If the file type is delimited, you will need to indicate the delimiter value in the next line. It can be a "," for csv files, or an actual tab for a tab-delimited text file.


3.8.1.3 Data LocationThe data location for the configuration files includes the latitude and longitude keywords.

The Latitude keyword defines which column contains latitude information. The column count starts with 0. In the example above, the latitude column count is 2, or the third column in the file. The required format for the latitude value is degrees. If your data uses degrees-minutes-seconds format, you will need to convert it to degrees format by using the following formula:

#degrees + #minutes/60 + #seconds/3600.

Record as many numbers after the decimal points as your can to ensure the accuracy of the latitude value.

The Longitude keyword defines which column contains longitude information. As with latitude, the column count starts with 0, and the format of the value is in degrees.

3.8.1.4 Indicating Header RowsWhen you want to include a header row in the file for ease of reading, you can use the SkipRows keyword to indicate how many rows should be skipped. For example, the line

SkipRows : "1"

indicates that the top row in the source file should be skipped. If the source file contains more than one header row, indicate the number of rows within the double quote.

3.8.1.5 Field DefinitionsThe Field Definitions block defines the column structure of the source file. The values for each column are defined in a separate block (indicated by curly braces), and the position of each column is indicated by its index number, starting with 0 for the first column and incrementing for each subsequent column.

The actual field definitions have the following values:

• Name—the name of the column.

• Type—the column data type, which can be integer, double, or string.

• Length—if the file type is fixedwidth, you will need to define each column's width here with following syntax

Length: "50"

Note: Content in the configuration file is case sensitive. Also significant is the white space between each line header and the subsequent colon (:). Make sure that your configuration file has exactly the same syntax as the sample configuration file. For your convenience, instead of creating a configuration file from scratch, you can copy the sample file to the directory where your source data is located, rename it, and then modify the content.

97Creating Your Own Point Data

3.8.2 Creating a Point Data Source FileOnce you have a configuration file for your source data, you can use a text editor to create a matching source data file in the format indicated by your configuration file. For example, the first line of a text file for the sample configuration file above might look like (wrapped here only for display, but correctly entered as a single line in the source file):

Highway 59 Web Cam,-159.46667051,21.8742929,View latest traffic report,http://www.metrotraffic.com

Each source file that you create must have a corresponding configuration file in order for the Google Earth Fusion software to parse it. If you have additional source files that you want to use, you must create a corresponding configuration file for each one. This is often simply a matter of copying existing configuration files, renaming them to match the different source files, and changing the configuration values accordingly.

3.8.3 Importing Your Own Point Data as an AssetYou can import your own point data source files as a Google Earth Fusion asset in the same manner you would import any other source asset. See “Creating Assets” on page 77.

Note: If the configuration file for your source data is not set up correctly, or if the structure of your source file doesn’t match that of your configuration file, you will receive an error message when trying to import your own source data as a Google Earth Fusion asset.

3.9 Supported Data FormatsThis section list the formats supported by the Google Earth Fusion software for vector and imagery file formats, as well as supported projections.

Typically, your imagery data contains both projection and geo-transform information. However, you might have imagery data that uses a projection format not listed in Table 2 above, or your imagery data might be missing both projection and geo-transform information. In this case, you can provide either or both projection and geo-transform information in the form of auxiliary files in order to enable the Google Earth Fusion software to properly convert your data. To be properly recognized by the Google Earth Fusion software, the files should have the same prefix (name) as the source file and should use the appropiate extension.

• PRJ

You can use a PRJ file to provide the projection information for a terrain or imagery source file that you want to convert to a Google Earth asset.

• TFW

For geo-transform information, use a TFW file along with the imagery source file to provide geo-transform information if your source file does not have it.


If you are familiar with the structure and syntax of PRJ and TFW files, you can create the file in a text editor; otherwise, use your existing geo-spatial tools to export these files for your imagery data.

Table 2: Supported Projection Formats

Albers Equal-Area Conic Miller Cylindrical

Azimuthal Equidistant Mollweide

Cassini-Soldner New Zealand Map Grid

Cylindrical Equal Area Oblique Mercator

Eckert IV Oblique Stereographic

Eckert VI Orthographic

Equidistant Conic Polar Stereographic

Equi-rectangular Poly-conic

Gauss-Kruger Robinson

Gall Stereographic Rosenmund Oblique Mercator

Gnomonic Sinusoidal

Hotine Oblique Mercator Swiss Oblique Cylindrical

Laborde Oblique Mercator Swiss Oblique Mercator

Lambert Azimuthal Equal Area Stereographic

Lambert Conic Conformal (1SP) Transverse Mercator

Lambert Conic Conformal (2SP) Transverse Mercator (Modified Alaska)

Lambert Conic Conformal (2SP Belgium) Transverse Mercator (South Oriented)

Lambert Cylindrical Equal Area Tunisia Mining Grid

Mercator (1SP) VanDerGrin

Mercator (2SP)

99Supported Data Formats

Table 3: Supported Imagery Formats

Table 4: Supported Vector Formats

TIFF/GeoTIFF DTED

JPEG GIF

JPEG2000 Erdas Imagine(HFA)

AAIGrid PNG

AIG (limited) USGS SDTS DEM

USGS DOQ USGS ASCII DEM

NITF CADRG

ESRI Shape File (.shp) Generic ASCII (point data only)

MapInfo File (.map) US Census Tiger Line Files

GDT


4 Authoring Google Earth Fusion Projects

This chapter covers the fundamental tasks necessary to author projects using the Google Earth Fusion software. It covers tasks and features relevant to projects of all types—vector, terrain, and imagery. When you author a Google Earth project, you follow these basic steps:

1. Preview raw source data and/or assets.

2. Define the project.

3. Add the desired assets to the project.

4. Configure the display of that data (only for vector projects).

5. Build the project.

You can use the 3D viewing pane as you do this to verify the changes that you make to the display of data, and you can preview certain source files and assets before adding them to your project. This section covers the follow topics involved in authoring projects.

• Previewing Data

• Authoring Projects

• Using Vector Projects

• Using Imagery or Terrain Projects

• Viewing Data in the Viewing Pane

• Building ProjectsOnce you have built projects, you can also do the following:

• Debugging Project Builds

• Cleaning Projects

• Marking Projects as “Bad”


4.1 Previewing DataYou can use the preview mode to open and inspect imagery, vector, or terrain data—in either source data or asset form. You can also open different types of data files at the same time using the preview mode. For example, you might preview an imagery asset along with raw vector data to see if the vector data aligns properly with an imagery inset.

Following are some applications for the preview mode:

• Open and preview vector source data to determine the correct encoding to use before converting the source to an asset

• Open multi-layer vector source files to determine which layers to convert to assets

• Test simple display rule settings before using a vector asset in a project

• View the mask properties for an imagery asset to check if the Google Earth Fusion automask has set them appropriately

• View adjacent source imagery files to ensure correct layout

• Preview terrain assets to determine if you’ve selected the correct file for a project

Certain limitations apply to viewing raw source data files in the preview mode, but preview of assets provides full access to all of the functions available for the asset type. The preview pane is meant to function as a sort of “scratch pad” where you can verify the usefulness of a source file and check basic display settings before using it in a project or converting it to an asset.

4.1.1 Opening a File for PreviewFollow these steps below to open and preview a source file.

1. Make sure the Preview tab is the active tab, and click on the Open icon.The file dialog appears.

102 Google Earth ServerAuthoring Google Earth Fusion Projects

2. Navigate to the location that contains the desired file.You can set the File type menu to display only a file of a particular format, such as an ESRI Shape file, or you can display all available files as you browse.

3. Select the file you want to preview and choose the appropriate encoding type for the data you want to preview (Optional).Encoding applies only to vector data. For example, the world cities data set that comes with your Google Earth Fusion installation uses ISO8859-1 character encoding. To see the data from specially-encoded files such as this, specify the correct encoding.

Note: If you do not specify the correct encoding type for such files, special characters won’t be correctly displayed. For example, with default character coding specified, é appears as .

4. Click Open to view the data.The file is displayed as a layer in the Preview pane with the viewing check box cleared by default. Depending upon the type of item in the Preview pane, the data may or may not appear in the 2D viewing pane.

5. Select the check box next to the layer to display the data in the Preview pane if it is not already displayed.

6. Right-click on the layer and select Zoom to Layer from the pop-up menu to reset the view to encompass the entire area of the data layer.

4.1.2 Dragging and Dropping a File for PreviewYou can drag and drop both raw source files and assets into the preview pane.

• Raw source files

Using a file browser GUI, navigate to the location that contains your raw source file. The source file can be located on your local machine or any directory on the network. Select the file and drag and drop it over the preview pane. The file appears in the preview pane as a layer. Select the check box to view the data. Right-click on the layer and select Zoom to Layer from the pop-up menu to reset the view to contain the extent of the data layer.

• Assets

Open the Asset Manager and navigate to the directory that contains the asset that you want to preview. Drag and drop it onto the preview pane. The file appears in the preview pane as a layer. Select the check box to view the data. Right-click on the layer and select Zoom to Layer from the pop-up menu to reset the 3D viewer to contain the extent of the data layer.

103Previewing Data

4.1.3 Preview FeaturesOnce you open an asset in preview mode, it becomes a layer. The following features are available for layers in the Preview pane:

• Zoom to Layer

This function sets the viewing pane to contain the outermost extent of the data represented by the selected layer. To do this, right-click on the layer and select Zoom to Layer from the pop-up menu. The viewer resets accordingly; for example, if the viewer is set to a region inside the full extent of the layer, the viewer will zoom out to encompass the entire region, and vice versa.

• Re-order layers

You can use the layer order feature in the preview mode within the limitations of the type of data being previewed. Right-click on the layer and select the desired move option from the pop-up menu. See “Ordering Asset Layers” on page 111 for details.

• Set layer display rules and properties

This feature is meaningful only for vector assets or source data, since the display data for imagery or terrain data is set when you first import the source data as an asset. While the ability to set display rules is enabled for imagery or terrain source data, this is only because the preview of that data appears as an outline. Any display rule configurations applied to imagery or terrain data in the preview pane would affect only the outline of the image. See “Previewing Vector Data” on page 106.

• Remove layers from the preview

Removing layers from the preview does not delete the source asset.

• View and Set Layer Properties

This feature, while available in preview mode, is meant for vector projects in which setting an icon and default visibility state for a vector layer is required. See “Naming and Displaying Vector Layers” on page 111.

To do any of these operations, right-click on the layer name in the preview pane and select the appropriate menu item.

4.1.4 Previewing Raw Imagery or Terrain DataYou can preview raw terrain or imagery files or data converted to asset form. When you preview raw files, you view only the boundaries of the data, not the imagery itself, in the viewing pane. In order to see the imagery or terrain data in the preview pane, you must first convert the raw file to an asset.

When you open imagery or terrain files or assets in the preview mode, the bounding box for the imagery is always drawn. The bounding box is the outermost region encompassed by the image file and defines both the image itself and the border around the region (background data). When you preview assets, the imagery is also displayed within the bounding box


regions. When you preview raw imagery or terrain files, an additional box representing the edges of the image appears within the bounding box, as shown below.

Typically, bounding boxes are perfectly square, while the region within the bounding box is less so.

Note: In the figure below, the imagery that you see is the base imagery in the Google Earth Fusion viewing pane, which shows through the boundaries of the data. It is not the imagery from the asset.

Figure 1: Raw Imagery Asset Preview

You can use this information in the preview mode to see alignment and overlap between two contiguous raw source files. This helps you to determine if your source files have the necessary overlap before you actually do the processing required to create a mosaic.

The illustration below shows a preview of the raw San Francisco terrain data used in the tutorial. The lines show the overlap between the north and south terrain files, with the inner region of the north terrain extending over the south terrain. Notice also that even though the bounding boxes of the two areas match up, the western terrain edge of the southern region does not extend as far as the western terrain edge of the northern region. As a result, there will be a slight indent at that point in the final terrain asset.

Note: In the figure below, the imagery that you see is the base map, which shows through the boundaries indicating the terrain data tile. In order to see the actual terrain data in the viewer, you must build the terrain asset.

BoundingBox

VisibleRegion

105Previewing Data

Figure 2: Raw Terrain Assets in Preview Mode

4.1.5 Previewing Vector DataYou can preview both raw vector data and vector assets and use all of the available features as you would in a project. In this way, you can explore preliminary display settings, properties, and groupings for assets you are considering for a project.

Keep in mind that the display settings you create in preview mode cannot be saved, so it is recommended you set only the most basic display rules in preview mode.

Tip: If you create display rules for vector data in preview mode, you can use the Export Display Rules as Template... option from the pop-up menu as a means to re-use settings developed in preview mode. See “Exporting Display Rules” on page 117.

4.2 Authoring ProjectsThe first element in authoring your Google Earth project involves defining the project itself. When you create a project in Google Earth Fusion, you define a collection of assets that will be used in a database that you can deploy on a Google Earth Server.

Google Earth Fusion supports three types of projects:

• Vector Projects

• Imagery Projects

• Terrain Projects

Northern bounding box.

Extent of northern terrain.

Extent of southern terrain.

Southern bounding box.


Both Google Earth Fusion LT and Google Earth Fusion PRO users can author vector-based projects. Google Earth Fusion PRO users can also create imagery and terrain projects.

4.2.1 Project Types While you can use the Preview panel to inspect and modify all types of assets, assets pulled into a project panel must consist of a single type. The Google Earth Fusion workspace provides a tabbed pane where you can select Preview mode or one of three project types: Vector, Terrain, or Imagery.

4.2.2 Creating a New ProjectThe Google Earth Fusion workspace provides a number of ways to create a new project.

4.2.2.1 Using the Menu To create a new project with the Project menu, select Project [Project Type] — New from the menu, where [Project Type] indicates the type of project you want to create. The illustration below shows a vector project as the selected type.

The menu options are the same for all project types.

4.2.2.2 Using the Pop-Up MenuYou can use the tabs in the project manager pane to first indicate the type of project you want to create. Then, right-click in the project manager pane and select New from the pop-up menu, which provides the same menu options as the one shown above.

4.2.2.3 Starting with an Untitled ProjectYou can also select the tab of the type of project you want to create, and begin adding layers to an untitled project. Later, you can choose the Save option from the Project menu or from the pop-up menu, and name your project at that point.

Note: If you have a modified project already opened, a dialog box prompts you to save the project before replacing it with the newly created one.

4.2.3 Naming and Saving a Project Once you add assets to a new project, you can save and name it. Projects are automatically saved in the Google Earth asset directory, but you can also set up sub-directories to further organize the location of a project.

107Authoring Projects

Follow the steps below to save your project.

1. Click on the Save menu item for your project.Do this either by selecting Projects—[Project Type]—Save from the Google Earth Fusion toolbar, or by right-clicking on the project pane itself and clicking on the save option. A Save dialog box appears.

a. If you are saving a vector project, you must choose the type of server publication your project is intended for— one that replaces Google Earth layers, or one that adds to the existing Google Earth data layers. Clear the Replace Keyhole layers check box if you want your vector data to be added to existing vector, terrain, and imagery from a local database or from the Google Earth Server ASP.

Check the Replace Keyhole layers check box to replace all Google Earth vector data, either as part of a total system, where you author all three project types, or as vector data served over existing terrain and imagery data. This is a default configuration for vector projects.

2. Type in the name of your project. You can navigate to an existing sub-directory to contain your project. If you want to create a new subdirectory for the project, first close the Save dialog, open the Asset Manager, create the directory, and return to the Save dialog (see “Organizing Assets” on page 87 of Working with Assets and Source Data).

Choose the typeof vector configurationwhen saving a vectorproject.


3. Click the OK button to create the new project.The information is updated in the project pane and your new project name appears as the top item in the project manager pane.

Note: For vector projects, the name you provide the layer appears in the Layer tab of the Google Earth client as a data layer that the user can view. Be sure to choose a name that functions as an appropriate label in the Google Earth client.

As you add layers and data to your project and further configure data settings in your project, you can periodically save the information by clicking on the Save icon in the pop-up menu.

4.2.4 Opening ProjectsYou can open and view an existing project in any of the following ways:

• Select Project—Open from the menu

• Select a tab from the project pane, right-click in it, and select Open from the pop-up menu.

• Select Asset Manager from the Tools menu and choose the project from within the Asset Manager window. Drag it over to the appropriate project pane to open it.

As you create different projects of different types, you can use the project manager to switch between them, or you can use preview mode to preview assets that you might want to add to a project.

Note: If you have a modified project already opened, a dialog box prompts you to save that project before replacing it with the newly opened one.

4.2.5 Closing ProjectsTo close a project, select Project—[Project Type]—Close from the menu, or right-click on the project pane and select Close from the pop-up menu. If you have modified information in the project, a dialog prompts you to save the project.

4.2.6 Adding Asset Layers to ProjectsOnce you have defined a project or opened an existing project, you can add assets to it. When you add an asset to a project, it becomes a layer for that project. Because there is a one-to-one

109Authoring Projects

correspondence between an asset and a layer in a project, adding a new layer to a project implies adding a single asset to the project.

For more information on how to manage layers in projects, see “Using Vector Projects” on page 111 and “Using Imagery or Terrain Projects” on page 131.

The steps below describe how to add an asset to a project.

1. Select the type of project you want to work with.Click on one of the three project tabs. If a project of that type is already open, you will be adding the layer to the existing project unless you close the project first.

2. Click on the New Layer icon to the right of the project name. The asset dialog appears with the filter selection set to the type of asset required for the particular project.

You can change the filter to display all assets in the displayed location, regardless of type. In this way, you can view terrain or vector assets when adding imagery assets to a project.

Note: You can also open the Asset Manager window from the Tools menu and drag and drop vector assets directly onto the project pane, where they will appear as layers.

3. Select the asset you want to add to your project, and click the OK button.The name of the asset appears in the project pane.

Note: You can only select an asset whose type matches the type of project you are creating. That is, if you are creating an imagery project, you can only add imagery assets. If you attempt to add the wrong asset type to your project, a warning dialog will inform you that you cannot add that type of asset to the project.


You can further inspect and modify the properties of assets once they have been added to your project. This process varies depending upon the type of asset and is described in “Working with Assets and Source Data.”

4.2.7 Ordering Asset LayersWhen you have added more than one layer to your project, you can change the ordering of layers using either the layer controls or the layer properties pop-up menu.

To change the order of layers in the project manager, click on a layer in the list. Using either the up or down arrow, move the selected layer up or down until it appears where you want it. You can also right-click on the layer and select Move Layer Up or Move Layer Down from the pop-up menu.

Note: Certain constraints apply to the order of layers in imagery and terrain projects. You can adjust the order for such layers only within the resolution level for that asset. That is, high-resolution data can not be ordered before low-resolution data. See “Using Imagery or Terrain Projects” on page 131 for more information.

4.2.8 Removing Asset LayersYou can use the layer controls in the project pane to remove a layer. Highlight the layer you want to remove and click on the Remove Layer button. Or, you can right-click on a layer in the project pane and select Remove Layer from the pop-up menu.

4.3 Using Vector ProjectsOnce you add vector-based assets as layers to your Google Earth Fusion project, you can customize the layers to determine how the data appears in the Google Earth client. For example, you might apply multiple display filters to a single asset if you want to have distinct portions of the data presented in different ways.

To specify how you would like to visualize vector data and which portions of the data need to be shown, you must configure display rules for each layer. For example, you might add a vector asset that shows the boundaries of lakes, but the line color doesn’t suit your preferences and the boundaries of the lakes are not visible in the viewer at a higher altitude. Using display rules, you can change the color of the border and set the viewing level of the asset to a lower number.

This section discusses how to configure display rules and set layer properties for vector assets in your project. If you are unfamiliar with adding assets to projects, see “Adding Asset Layers to Projects” on page 109.

4.3.1 Naming and Displaying Vector LayersThe first time you add a vector asset to a project, the Google Earth Fusion software automatically assigns a name to the layer based on the location of the added asset. For example, if you add an asset called TransitStations to a vector project, the name of that layer

111Using Vector Projects

will be vector/TransitStations if the asset is located in the vector subdirectory of the ASSET_ROOT. Because the name of the layer as displayed in the Google Earth Fusion project provides the label for the layer in the Google Earth client, you can rename the layer for a more appropriate label.

Change the name and other layer properties by right-clicking on the layer name and selecting Layer Properties from the menu. This brings up the Layer Properties dialog box.

All fields in this window can be changed. Following is a discussion of the values for each property.

• Name and Icon

Both of these settings are displayed by the Google Earth client. You can choose a different icon for the layer by selecting it from the Icon drop-down list. After you publish your data, this icon appears in the Layers pane of the Google Earth client next to the vector layer associated with it.

• Default State

This property determines whether the layer will be on or off by default in the Google Earth client. The default setting for this property is On, which is convenient when you are working on a data layer.

4.3.2 Exporting Vector ProjectsYou can save vector projects as separate files. To do this, while your vector project is open, under the File menu, click Save As. Note that you must rebuild the new project that results from this procedure.

4.3.3 Ordering Vector LayersThe order the vector layers appear in the vector project lists determines the order the data appears in the Google Earth client when the vector database is published. For example, if your project contains a layer called Restaurants followed by another layer called Public Transit, the transit layer will appear after the restaurants layer in the Layers pane of the Google Earth client.


To change the ordering of layers in a project, select a layer and click the desired arrow to move the layer up or down, or right-click on a layer and select the desired option from the pop-up menu.

Note: If a layer is a part of a group that is classified as either Roads or Borders, it will appear within the Road or Borders folder in the Layers pane of the Google Earth client rather than a separate listing. See “Grouping Layers” below for details.

4.3.4 Grouping LayersWhen creating vector projects, you can group layers together in order to have them appear as a single viewable layer in the Google Earth client. For example, you might have one vector layer that contains all the commuter rail lines for a given area, and another vector layer that contains all the commuter rail station points for that line. You can place both layers in a group named Transit -- Rail Lines. When the database is published and viewed from the Google Earth client, a layer named Transit -- Rail Lines will be available for display. When the Google Earth client user turns that layer on, both the commuter rail lines and the commuter rail stations will appear together. In the Google Earth client software version 2.0 and higher, the user can also expand the group to view its individual layers and turn them on or off, as desired.

Figure 3: Transit Lines Grouped Layers


4.3.4.1 Creating Layer GroupsFollow the steps below to create layer groups.

1. In the Vector project tab, click on the folder icon.A New Layer Group dialog appears.

2. Select the Group Type for the layer.

• Standard layer groups appear as a separate folder in the Layers pane of the Google Earth client (version 2.0 and higher).

• Roads or Borders layer groups appear as an additional item under the Roads or Borders folder. These folders are the first two folders displayed in the Layers item in the Layers pane of the Google Earth client (version 2.0 and higher).

3. Name the layer group.This is only possible if you have chosen Standard as the group type. The name you enter here appears as the folder name when displayed in the Google Earth client.

Note: If you have chosen either Roads or Borders as the group type, you must use the default, lowercase name given to the folder. If you later rename that folder to a different name, the road or border data will not be displayed in the Google Earth client viewer.

4. Set the default display state for the group layer.If you leave the default state to Off, the layer group will not be displayed in the Google Earth client until the user explicitly turns it on. If you select On as the default state, the layer will be displayed when the user first starts the Google Earth client. Before choosing the default state for the layer, be aware of the performance impact on the Google Earth client if your layer group contains a great deal of information, since this information is downloaded from the Google Earth Server either when the layer is turned on, or when the Google Earth client starts if the default layer state is set to On. In most situations, the default state of Off is the best choice.


4.3.4.2 Adding Layers to a GroupAfter you create a layer group, simply place the layers that you want to be in the group by selecting a layer, dragging it over the folder, and dropping it. The folder expands to show the items contained in it.

4.3.4.3 Removing Layers from a GroupTo remove a layer from a group, select the asset and drag it to a place outside the parent folder of the asset. Typically, this is below the folder in any white region of the project tab itself. The cursor pointer will change to have a dotted box at its base to indicate that the asset can be placed in the new location.

You can also remove a layer from a group by right-clicking on the layer and selecting Take Layer out of Group from the pop-up menu.

4.3.5 Configuring Data DisplayWhen you add an asset to a project, you typically configure the display rules for that asset to specify how the asset and its associated data appears in the viewer. Until you do so, the data appears in the Viewing pane with a default filter applied.

Using display rules, you can change feature and label settings for vector assets, apply filters to extract specific parts of the data, or set custom or standard icons and associated text. Display rules can also be saved as templates that you can use to import vector data on the command line. This section covers the following:

• Exporting Display Rules

• Importing Display Rules

• Setting Line Features

• Setting Line Color

• Setting Line Scale

• Setting Feature Visibility Range

• Setting Normal/Highlight Styles for Point Features

• Setting Decimation of Point Features

• Using Custom Road Shields

• Setting Up Road Text Labels

• Setting Up Feature Text Labels

• Text Layer Visibility

• Using Icon Labels

• Adding Pop‐up Text


• Creating Custom Icons

• Using Custom Layer Panel Icons

4.3.5.1 Overview To define a display rule, right-click on an asset layer in the project manager pane and select Configure Display Rules... from the pop-up menu.

The default view of the Display Rules dialog box appears, with an untitled initial rule in the Name list. The figure below illustrates the Display Rules dialog box with its rules listed.

Once you define a rule, you determine its effect on the source data by changing the settings in the Label, Feature, or Filter tabs. Each rule you add to this list applies the combination of the choices that you make in the three tabbed panes to the source data that it applies to. When multiple rules exist, they are applied in the order that they appear in the Name list. You can take advantage of this order to extract and display different types of data from your source asset.

Using the Display Rules dialog box, you can:

• Rename a rule in the list by double-clicking on it and changing the name in the prompt.

order it appears

Each of the items defined in the tabbed sectionsapply in combination to a given rule.

Each rule is applied in the

in the list.

You can changethe order of rules

Create, delete,or copy rules


• Add a new rule to the list by clicking on the new rule icon. You can apply more than one rule to the same source data. Each rule that you add applies to items in the Feature, Label, and Filter tabs, so you can have different line colors and label settings for each rule, for instance.

• Copy an existing rule in the list by clicking on the copy rule icon. This copies all of the choices made in the three tabbed panes and puts the string (copy) after the name of the duplicated rule. You can use this feature when you want to use the properties from an existing rule to build a new one. (See “Using Streaming Filled Polygons” on page 127.)

• Reorder a rule in the list. The ordering of a rule affects how the data in the viewer is displayed. The rules are executed in sequence, so it is typical to list the most exclusive rules before the least exclusive.

• Allow multiple filters to share a copy of the source feature. You can do this without any one filter monopolizing the source data. To do this, right click the appropriate asset in your project and choose Configure Display Rules. Click the Filter tab. Check Allow Feature Duplication. Click OK.

Many of the more simple changes to your display rules—such as feature or label preferences—appear immediately in the preview pane after you dismiss the Display Rules dialog. However, changes to filter rules involve querying data associated with the source file, so you will see a progress meter when you apply a new filter. When the filter is finished, the results are refreshed in the preview pane.

4.3.5.2 Exporting Display RulesWhen you have configured the filters and display rules on a vector layer, you can export the settings as a template file for later use on other vector assets. You can also use the template at the command line when adding to a vector project in batch mode.

The process of saving a display template is simple: right-click on a vector layer whose display settings you want to save and select Export Display Rules as Template... from the pop-up menu. A file dialog box appears, and you can locate the file in any directory of your choice.

For information on using templates on the command line, see “Project Commands” on page 181 of Google Earth Fusion System Reference.


4.3.5.3 Importing Display RulesWhen you have exported display rules as a template file, you can use the template to apply the same settings and filters to other vector layers either with the Google Earth Fusion GUI or via the command line.

The process of importing a display template is simple: right-click on a vector layer whose display settings you want to modify and select Import Display Rules from Template... from the pop-up menu. A file dialog box appears, and you can locate the template file in the appropriate directory.

For information on using templates on the command line, see “Project Commands” on page 181 of Google Earth Fusion System Reference.

4.3.5.4 Setting Line FeaturesTo specify how and if line data is drawn, you can set preferences for it in the Feature tab of the Display Rules dialog box.

In most cases with line vector data, line features are desired. However, if you have lake boundary data, you might want to draw only the label in the center of the water body without actually drawing the lake boundary.

Note: Point data is skipped when generating line features. While the preview window shows the single points, they are dropped when the data is generated. No matter how colorful a point might be, it is too difficult to see against the backdrop of an aerial photo. Point data is best represented with an icon, which is discussed in “Using Icon Labels” on page 123.


4.3.5.5 Setting Line ColorUse the color setting in the Feature tab to configure the color used to represent the line data. You can also change the transparency of the line to prevent features beneath the line from being obscured.

To set feature color, click on the button to the right of the Color in the Features tab. A Select Color dialog appears.

You can choose a line color from the grid of available colors on the left, or specify a custom color to use.

To change the transparency, indicate the desired Alpha channel setting for the feature (see the figure above). The alpha value can range from 0 to 255, where 0 is transparent, and 255 is solid. By specifying a slight transparency to the feature, underlying geographic imagery is not obscured by the feature when viewed in the Google Earth client. To determine the correct transparency setting, first select a mid-range number, such as 127, and view the results in the Google Earth client. Adjust from there as needed.

Note: Transparency cannot be viewed in the Google Earth Fusion preview pane, but only from the Google Earth client.

4.3.5.6 Setting Line ScaleThe scale setting in the Feature tab determines the thickness of the line. The larger the number, the thicker the line is. For example, if you would like to overlay a subway map, you might want to set the scale to 4 or 5 so that the drawing resembles a real-world subway map.

Note: Setting a scale smaller than 1.0 could potentially yield un-viewable text labels depending on the label size preference set in the Google Earth client.

4.3.5.7 Setting Feature Visibility RangeThis setting determines the beginning and ending viewing altitude for the feature when visualized in the Google Earth client. The default range values are 8 and 24. For geographically dense data, the data should only be visualized when the user has sufficiently zoomed in to the

Alpha channel value


area. Otherwise, the data clutters the view of the earth from a high perspective. In addition, drawing dense vector data at a high level consumes a lot of machine resource, unnecessarily increasing data processing time.

If you want the particular feature to be visible at a certain altitude and to remain visible from that point forward, leave the default end range value as it is set. However, you can also modify the end range value to hide the feature once the user has zoomed in to a more detailed level.

4.3.5.8 Setting Normal/Highlight Styles for Point FeaturesYou can specify different color, scale and icons for normal and highlight rendering styles. To do this:

1. Right click the appropriate asset in your project and choose Configure Display Rules.

2. Check Draw Label and/or Draw Icon and enter your preferred settings.

3. Click OK.

You can also randomize the color by clicking R beside the color selection. This applies random color to points. The random colors used by Fusion are variations (shades) of the color you specified.

4.3.5.9 Setting Decimation of Point FeaturesYou can control the decimation of point features by specifying decimation ratio. This means that you can specify percentage of points appearing at a certain levels that appropriately represent the whole set of available points. Note that the default is the Maximum Fit per Quad.

To set decimation of point features:


2. Besides Draw features as, choose Points.

3. Under Simplification Method, check Representative Subset per Quad.

4. Enter the appropriate percentage, minimum, and maximum of points.

4.3.5.10Setting Up Road Text LabelsIf your vector data is road information, you can select the Draw as Roads check box to enable the labeling, icon display, and formatting rules for road vector data. Typically, road vector data contains fields intended for feature labeling, such as the highway numbers, the street suffix, or the direction of the road. For highway label information, you can set the following features:


• Label

Click on the label insertion button (...) located to the right of the empty Label field.

This produces a Label Format dialog box.

Click on Insert Field pull-down menu and select the field you want as the label from the list and click OK. The Label field updates to reflect your choice.

• Apply standard formatting

If selected, the Google Earth Fusion software applies its standard text formatting to road data labels. For example, street or road names that are stored in the table in all upper case letters are displayed with initial upper case letters, directional modifiers such as N, E, S, W are left in upper case, and extra white space between the fields is removed. If you select the Apply standard formatting check box, the data in the vector fields is reformatted with these rules. If you do not want any special formatting to be applied to the data, leave the check box cleared.

• Shield Type

You can select select any icon to be displayed as a road shield shields for highway or road data that requires a shield. Click on the icon itself to toggle through the choices until you display the desired shields for your road data. This shield is used in conjunction with the Hwy Number field.

• Highway Number

To add a highway number to the selected shield, click on the insert field button (...) to the right of the Hwy Number field. A Label Format dialog box appears. Select a numbered field from the list for the highway number, or manually enter the highway number if desired.

Note: You must select a field that is a number and that contains no letters. Any alphabetical string in the field is displayed as 0 in the road label if it is found.

4.3.5.11Using Custom Road ShieldsYou can specify any regular icon as road shields. To specify these icons:

1. Under the Tools menu, click Icon Manager.

2. Click Add and add your icon.

3. Right click the appropriate asset in your project and choose Layer Properties.

4. Click the icon button.


5. Click the Standard or Custom tab and choose the icon.

6. Click OK.

4.3.5.12Setting Up Feature Text LabelsVector data typically contains text information intended as a label for the feature. For example, the U.S. Borders sample vector data contains the full name and two-letter abbreviation of each state as part of its field data. You could select the two-letter abbreviation field to display as the label for the U.S. Border vector data.

To add a label to a vector asset, check Label in the Display Rules dialog box. For text label information, you can set the following features:

• Label

Click on the label insertion button (...) located to the right of the empty Label field.

This produces a Label Format dialog box.

Click on Insert Field pull-down menu and select the field you want as the label from the list and click OK. The Label field updates to reflect your choice.

• Color

Click on the color box to bring up the color picker to set the color for the label text. See the description for “Setting Line Color” on page 119.

• Scale

Determines the thickness of the text label. See “Setting Line Scale” on page 119.

• Level

This setting determines at what viewing altitude the label is visualized in the Google Earth client. The default level is 4. See “Setting Feature Visibility Range” on page 119.

• Center Label

The default position of a text label is off to the right side of the vector feature. You can position the label in the center of the feature if you are using only a text label with no icon for your vector information. If you select icon labels for the vector feature, this check box is disabled, since the text label will always appear to the right of the icon, which is centered in the feature.


4.3.5.13 Text Layer Visibility You can set text labels to remain visible for certain layers after the geometry fades out. This is useful for roads. To set this:

1. Open the Layer Properties dialog box.

2. Select the level for this particular channel for which you would like to preserve the text labels.

4.3.5.14Using Icon LabelsWhen you want to use an icon for a label, check Draw Icon in the Display Rules dialog box (be sure the Draw Lable box is checked first). This option causes an icon to be drawn in the center of a line vector feature, or at the exact location of a point for point data.

Click on the icon button itself. The Icons dialog window appears.

You can choose from the standard icons that come with the Google Earth Fusion software, or select the Custom tab and choose any of the custom icons that you have previously created (see “Creating Custom Icons” below).

4.3.5.15Adding Pop-up TextOnce you have checked the Draw Label and Draw Icon box, you can provide text that appears in a pop-up window with the Google Earth client user right-clicks on the icon label for the feature. You can insert either free-form text data into the Pop Up Text field, or you can click on the insert label button and choose a data field from the vector source. The Text field can


contain up to 1024 characters, and the URL field is used as the Web site that corresponds to the vector entry.

The URL field is displayed in the Google Earth client as the web site address for that feature. For example, if you are entering point data for a department store, you might specify the URL for that store in this field. You could enter this information by hand, or retrieve it by selecting from a data field in the vector source.

4.3.5.16Creating Custom IconsIn addition to the standard icons that are supplied with your installation of the Google Earth Fusion software, you can also import and manage your own collection of icons that you can apply to vector data.

The following restrictions apply to images that you use as custom icons:

• The image format must be PNG.

• Each image file must contain two versions of the icon (one for normal display and one for when it is selected). The figure to the right shows an example of an image file you might create for an icon.

• Normal icons can be any size

• Normal icons that are highlighted must be 32*64 pixels

• Normal icons that are highlighted and a layer must be 32*96 (the layer icon will be 16*16)


Follow the steps below to create a custom icon.

1. Select Icon Manager from the Tools menu (Ctrl + I).The Manage Icon Collection dialog appears.

2. Click on the Add button.

3. Browse to the location in the file system that contains the image file you want to use and select it. It appears in the Manage Icon Collection dialog box.

Once you have added an icon to your collection, you can apply the icon as a label to the vector data as described below. You can delete icons from your collection by selecting them in the icon manager and clicking on the Delete button.

4.3.5.17Using Custom Layer Panel IconsGoogle Earth Fusion automatically creates a 16x16 pixel version of the regular icon for displaying in the layer panel. You can also create your own versions of the layer panel icons and import these as custom icons. To do this:

1. Under the Tools menu, click Icon Manager.

2. Click Add and add your icon.

3. Right click the appropriate asset in your project and choose Layer Properties.

4. Click the icon button.


5. Click the Custom tab and choose the icon.

6. Click OK.

4.3.6 Automatically Suppressing Redundant Point FeaturesPoint primitives can have exact same coordinates and the exact same label attributes qualify as duplicates. To automatically surpress redundant point features:


2. Beside Draw Features As, choose Points. Check Suppress Duplicate Points. Click OK.

4.3.7 Specifying the Maximum Pixel Error Tip: This functionality is intended for expert users only.

The application’s simplification algorithm is based on screen-space pixel error. You can specify the maximum pixel error tolerated.

To do this:

1. Right click the appropriate vector asset in your project and choose Configure Display Rules.

2. Choose Feature type as Lines or Polygons and set the maximum pixel error.

4.3.8 Defining HeightYou can specify custom height values for 2D/3D geometry of any feature that uses points, lines and polygons. The height value can either be a constant offset or derived from source attribute data. You can use this feature tocreating powerful theme maps such as county boundaries appropriately raised in height based on medium incomes.

To do this:


2. Under Elevation/Height, beside Mode, choose an appropriate type of height (relative or absolute).

3. To specify the height used, check User-Defined Height and enter the appropriate parameters.

4. To enable drawing of side walls for 3D points/line/polygons, check Extrude. Click OK.


4.3.9 Using Streaming Filled PolygonsYou can use the application to stream filled 2D, 2.5D (extruded polygons) and 3D polygon primitives. These shapes include 3D buildings as seen in the Google Earth primary database. Filled polygons can be rendered in filled, outlined or both modes. Polyline datasets can also be streamed as filled polygons. To do this:

1. Place an asset in a project.

2. Right click the asset and choose Configure Display Rules.

3. Check Draw Features As Polygons and click OK.

4.3.10 Filtering Vector Data You can use filters in the Display Rules dialog to select specific elements of the vector data to apply the display rule to. A filter is a patterned expression that is applied to the data fields of the vector asset. When the pattern matches one or more data fields in the vector asset, that element is selected, and the label and feature settings for the rule are applied to the selected element.

For example, you can use a filter to change the boundary and label color of selected U.S. states. The following example shows two display rules defined, one with a filter that matches U.S. names beginning with the letter “C,” and another that matches state names beginning with the letter “M.”

Figure 4: Filter Example

In the above example, each rule in the list has a different filter, with different settings for feature and label display. There is no final rule in the list to display any element that is not


retrieved by the first two rules, so only the elements retrieved by the rules are displayed in the viewing pane, as shown below. The number of matches is indicated in parentheses next to the rule in the list.

Figure 5: Filter Results

Had the requirement been to display all states, a third display rule could be defined with no filter defined, which defaults to a “select all” criteria that automatically displays any remaining elements not previously filtered.

4.3.10.1Filter ConventionsKeep in mind the following when using multiple rules and filters for your vector data.

• Rules and filters are meant to operate together.

A rule is the collection of the settings in the Feature, Label, and Filter tab, but you must provide a distinct filter for each rule in the list in order to have distinct features or labels for different data.

• Provide a non-restrictive filter for the last rule if you want to display all data.

When an element does not match a filter, it is made available for the filter in the next display rule, if there is any. If an element does not match any of the filters defined the rules list, its data is not displayed in the viewing pane. If you want to display this data, add a final rule with no filter defined, which defaults to “select all” and automatically displays any remaining elements not filtered by prior rules.

• The order of your rules determines which filter is applied to the data.

If you have a filter-rule combination designed to show blue boundaries for all parcels with an ID between 30 and 40, but it is preceded by a rule showing red boundaries for parcels with an ID greater than 30, the first rule matches that element and the parcel boundaries will be red. If you reverse the order of these rules, then the parcel IDs between 30 and 40 are “trapped” by the filter and those boundaries will be blue. This is illustrated in the figure below.


Figure 6: Filter Order

• For adjoining boundary data, most recent matches overlay prior matches.

When matching line data that is adjoining, such as boundary data, the last items matched are displayed on top. Consequently, if two parcels share a boundary and the last display rule sets boundary color to red, the boundary between the two parcels will be red.

Using the second example above, if parcel #40 is surrounded by parcels with IDs greater than 40, then the boundaries around parcel #40 will be red in color, not blue, even though the filter accurately applied blue boundaries to parcel #40. This is because all the parcels surrounding #40 are configured with the last filter, which turns their boundaries red. However, you can determine the number of correct matches for each rule by the number displayed next to that rule in the project pane.

• Character matches are case sensitive

You can use the square brackets to provide both upper and lower case characters to allow for case-insensitive matching.

4.3.10.2Filter ActionsFollowing are the various mechanisms and options that you can use to create filters.

• Add expressions

To add an expression to the filter, click on the More button. Each time you click this button, a line is displayed in the dialog box. You can select from any available fields in your data with the pull-down menu, select from a number of matching options, and define the expression in the text field.

• Remove expressions

To remove a given expression, click the Fewer button. This removes the expressions from the bottom of the list until none are displayed.

Parcel IDsfrom 1-100

Red boundariesfor parcel ID >= 30

Parcel IDs30-100red boundaries

Blue boundariesfor parcel ID >= 30and <=40 No matches

found

Parcel IDsfrom 1-100

Red boundariesfor parcel ID >= 30

Parcel IDs30 to 40 blueboundaries

Blue boundariesfor parcel ID >= 30and <=40

Parcel IDs41-100 redboundaries


• Match all or any

When you define expressions for your filter, you can specify whether these expressions should match all of the following expressions, or any of the following expressions. This lets you define how restrictive you want the collection of expressions to be.

• Choose type of match (operator)

You can choose from a number of standard expression operators to refine the expression.

• Select all—Define no specific filter

If you have only a single rule defined for your vector data and you want to display all of the data available, simply leave the filter rule area undefined, and all available data is displayed. If you have more than one rule defined, along with filters, but you want to also display the elements not matched by earlier rules, you can add a final rule with no filter definition, and this will by default match all remaining element and display them in the viewer with the definitions set in the rule.

4.3.10.3Filter Wildcard MatchingWhen using wildcard character matching in filters, you can use shell globbing when matching against a string in the vector data. The supported conventions are:

• * — matches zero or more characters

Example: Show all states than end in the letter “a”

*a

• ? — matches exactly one character (any character)

Example: Show all states whose second letter is “o”

?o*

• [ ] — bracketing can be used for single character listing or range of characters

Example: Show all states whose second letter is either “a,” “o,” or “n.”

?[aon]*

Example: Show all states that begin with letters “A” through “M.”

[A-M]*

Note: None of the wildcarding flags are currently set in the system, so forward and back slashes are not treated specially, nor is the . character. For character negation, use the is not equal to expression operator in the pull-down menu.


4.4 Using Imagery or Terrain ProjectsWhen you add imagery or terrain assets to their respective projects, the majority of the display settings have already been configured for the asset itself—mask settings, provider data, fill settings, or elevation units.

This section discusses the simple process of managing assets in your imagery or terrain projects. If you are unfamiliar with adding assets to projects, see “Adding Asset Layers to Projects” on page 109.

Note: Only Google Earth Fusion Pro users have access to this part of Google Earth Fusion.

4.4.1 Project Size LimitationsThe number of imagery assets that you can include within a single project has significantly increased in Google Earth Fusion version 2.4 to 3000+ insets. Beyond that number, performance on project builds degrades.

4.4.2 Asset Order Within ProjectsBoth imagery and terrain assets are automatically ordered by their resolution levels when added to a project. Figure 7 shows a project with a number of layers grouped by resolution. The lower resolution imagery is ordered before the higher resolution imagery, and the number to the right of the layer corresponds to the appropriate viewing level for that imagery in the view level meter.

Figure 7: Imagery Project with Multiple Layers

You can reorder the layers in the project only within their resolution groupings. To reorder the layer, select the layer and click on the up or down arrow. If a layer you select cannot be moved up or down, the arrow for that direction will be disabled. For example, in Figure 7 above, you

131Using Imagery or Terrain Projects

could move the layer Imagery/usa-ca.s up or down, but you could only move the layer Imagery/usa-mi up, since it cannot be positioned beneath a layer with higher data resolution.

4.4.3 Resolution Differences in the 2D Viewing PaneWhen you view imagery and terrain insets in the viewing pane, their bounding boxes are colored according to the resolution of the data. A series of colors are applied to imagery with different resolution, and this color also corresponds to the color you see when you turn on the Inset Grid for the viewer (see “Viewing Imagery Insets” on page 139). Thus, you can see insets in your project at a glance, and you can also easily see images with differing resolution.

4.5 Viewing Data in the Viewing PaneOnce you have added assets and set the display rules and filters for them, you can see the results of your work in the viewing pane. The Google Earth Fusion workspace offers a number of features to help you move through and analyze your data. This section covers the following:

• Navigating

• Managing Placemarks

• Resetting the View

• Selecting and Viewing Vector Data Fields

• Adjusting Vector Data Display Levels

• Viewing Imagery Insets


4.5.1 NavigatingThe Google Earth Fusion workspace provides three ways to navigate through the viewing pane—Zoom Box Mode, Zoom Drag Mode, and Pan.

Figure 8: Google Earth Fusion Navigation Controls

4.5.1.1 Zoom Box ModeIn Zoom Box mode, you select precisely the region you want to view. To do this, first select the Zoom Box icon and then left-click in the viewing pane and drag a rectangle around the region you want to view. This causes the previous view to be replaced by the contents of the selected region. If you make a mistake, you can type Ctrl+r to reset the view, and try again.

Figure 9: Zoom Box Creation in the Viewing Pane

4.5.1.2 Zoom Drag ModeIn Zoom Drag mode, you can zoom both in and out of the current view. If you have a three-button mouse, you can use the middle button to pan through the view.

To navigate in this mode, first select the Zoom Drag icon.

• To Zoom Out—Left-click and push the mouse forward (away from you).

• To Zoom In—Left-click in the view and pull the mouse toward you.

• To Pan—Click with the middle button (or wheel button) and drag the view in the direction you want to pan.

4.5.1.3 Pan ModeYou can select the pan icon and drag in the direction you want to move to. If you have a 2-button mouse, use this button to move to the left or the right of the view.

Zoom Box Zoom Drag

Pan

133Viewing Data in the Viewing Pane

4.5.2 Managing PlacemarksIt can be difficult to find the exact location of data on earth especially when the data covers a small area. Once you find it, you can put a placemark in the Google Earth Fusion application to let you quickly find the location again. After you browse to the desired location, select Navigation—Add Placemarks from the menu, or use the keyboard equivalent Ctrl+B. You will be prompted to enter a placemark name, which is then added to the Placemarks drop down list.

Note: The placemark setting in the Google Earth Fusion software application is unrelated to placemarks in the Google Earth client.

After you have added a number of placemarks, you can use the placemark manager to rename, remove, or reorder a large list of placemarks. To do this, select Placemark Manager from the Tools menu (Ctrl + L).

The placemark manager displays all of your placemarks in the order they have been added. You can use the placemark manager to do the following:

• Change placemark order

Select a placemark and click on the up or down arrow to move the placemark.

• Delete a placemark

Select a placemark and click on the Delete button.


• Change the name or position of an existing placemark

Select a placemark and click on the Modify button. The Edit Placemark dialog appears, and in there you can change the name or the latitude, longitude, or viewing level of the placemark.

• Create a new placemark

Click on the New button, and the Edit Placemark dialog appears with no data in the fields. You can manually enter the data for a placemark and click on the OK button to save the changes.

4.5.3 Resetting the ViewYou can reset the view in the viewing pane by selecting Reset View from the Navigation menu, or by typing Ctrl+R.

4.5.4 Working with Vector Data FieldsAn important feature of the Viewing Pane is that you can also view the internal data fields of vector assets that you can see in the view. Once you select vector fields for view, you can manipulate the display of that view and even see more detailed information about specific entries.

4.5.4.1 Selecting and Viewing Vector Data FieldsThe steps to selecting vector data in the 2D viewing pane follow.

1. Make sure you are in Select mode in the Google Earth Fusion workspace and that the layer whose data you want to view is selected.


2. Drag a region box around some of the data features you want to view.

You will then see the internal data for each selected element as a row in the Data View pane at the bottom of the screen. You can also click on individual points or lines in order to see the data pertinent to a single object.

4.5.4.2 Controlling Automatic Display of the Data View PaneWhen working with the 2D pane, it is common to close the Data View pane to allow more real estate to the imagery display. However, when working with vector data, you can set a preference to automatically display the Data View pane when vector features are selected.

To do this, select Auto raise in the Data View section of the Preferences dialog. You can open the Preferences from the Edit menu or by typing Ctrl+K on your keyboard.

4.5.4.3 Manipulating Data in the Data View PaneOnce you have displayed vector data in the Data View pane, you can sort and work with that data using a number of features. To do this, select a given feature cell in the Data View window and right-click to show the pop-up menu, which displays options specific to your selection.


In the following illustration, the Feature # cell was chosen, and on right-click the pop-up menu shows options for it.

Note: The Feature # is an internal, unique ID applied to all vector data converted to Google Earth asset form. This ID is applied sequentially in the order the feature is imported to asset form. If you select Show Feature ID in the Preferences dialog, the Feature # for selected data is displayed in the first column of the Data View table; otherwise, it is not visible.

The following options are available for a selected feature cell:

• Sort ascending or descending

This resorts all the data in the Data View pane in ascending or descending order for that cell. For example, selecting an ascending sort on a numeric feature cell would sort the columns from smallest to largest number.

• Export all columns of the selected cell

You can export the values of the entire column to a comma-separated values (CSV) text file using this option.

• Export all columns

You can export all data in the Data View pane to a CSV file.

• Feature Details

Use this option to bring up detailed information about the selected feature. The Feature Detail window displays all the row attributes of the selected column as well as


showing the number of vertices making up the vector feature and the latitude and longitude of each vertex or part.

• Zoom to Feature

When this option is selected, the 2D viewer zooms to that specific feature.

• Copy cell contents

This option copies the contents of the cell into the clipboard memory.

4.5.5 Adjusting Vector Data Display LevelsWhile using the interactive zoom features, you might have noticed that vector features appear and disappear depending upon your viewing elevation. When this happens, you can note the number that appears in the Google Earth Fusion toolbar, which increases as the view gets closer to the earth. This is known as the View Level meter, and it corresponds to your elevation level in the viewing pane. Additionally, data that you import into projects can be configured to appear at a specific level—a number that you provide in the display rules for vector data.

You can use the View Level meter as an analysis tool to determine the appropriate viewing levels for assets. By setting the correct viewing level for vector data, you can prevent informational clutter in the Google Earth client.

To the right of the View Level meter is the Delta Level meter. You can adjust this selection to whole number values between -5 and +5. The value in this window is added to or subtracted from the level set in the data. Thus, you can use this feature to immediately adjust the level at which vector features are displayed in the viewer without having to reset the value in the

View Level Delta Leve


display rule. When you find the optimal view level, you can then reset the value in the project’s display rule.

For example, if you define a feature to be drawn at level 10, you will not see it when the viewer is at level 9.2. However, if you set the Delta Level to 1, you will see the feature at that level. This is because the Google Earth Fusion software adds 9.2 and 1 to produce the viewing elevation, 10.2. Figure 10 below shows two examples of how viewing elevation can be adjusted to display the data at a higher or lower elevation perspective.

Figure 10: Viewing Elevation with Delta Level

Delta Level works for assets viewed in both Project and Preview mode. The values in the Delta Level box can range from -5 to 5.

4.5.6 Viewing Imagery InsetsYou can use the Inset Grid button on the Google Earth Fusion toolbar for help in examining the tiling of imagery data, as well as the resolution levels and geospatial boundaries of imagery insets.

While it is easy to visually determine at which level a vector asset appears or changes, it is not always apparent with imagery insets. When you click the Inset Grid button, a colored grid overlays the current view. As you zoom in or out of this view and move through various levels, the grid updates size and changes color to provide you information about your imagery.

The following can be determined by using the inset grid:

• How many imagery tiles are present at a particular viewing level?

As you change your viewing elevation, you will notice that the grid squares become larger (and fewer) as you zoom out, and smaller and more numerous as you zoom in, until you zoom into a level where the size of the squares remains constant. This gives you an idea of the basic structure of the imagery data and how it is constructed at varying elevations. Figure 11 below shows a grid slightly smaller than 5x5, where all of

Data Level = 10{Delta = +1

Viewing Elevation = 9Data Level = 9

{Delta = -1

Viewing Elevation = 10

Vector DataVector Data


the grid lines are of uniform color. This indicates that the imagery in each of the grids is of a consistent resolution at this level, and it shows the number of separate tiles at this level.

Figure 11: Tiling Grid in Google Earth Fusion

• Does a particular tile or group of tiles change resolution at specific levels?

As you change viewing elevation, you will also notice that—in addition to a varying number of grids—different viewing levels change the color of the grid, or sections of the grid. This color change indicates that the new level has a different imagery resolution for the grid or grids in question. Since not all areas of the map will have the same resolution, you might see some sections of the grid in different colors than others.

This is particularly evident as you zoom into an area from a higher elevation. For example, in Figure 12 below, you will see that the grid contains two sections of different colors. The section on the left is clearer, while that on the right is more blurry. This indicates that base resolution for imagery on the right has been reached, which you can further confirm by zooming in. However, resolution for imagery on the left is still high and will most likely support closer views.


Figure 12: Varying Resolution

• Where is the tile boundary for a particular inset?

As you zoom in close to inspect high-resolution insets, you can turn on the tile grid and use that to find the boundary for these insets.

4.5.7 Showing and Hiding ImageryYou can use the Toggle features in the View menu to control the display of imagery and terrain data when you want to debug data in the viewing pane. Using these features, you can:

• Turn off textures

Select Toggle Textures to turn off all textures in the viewing pane. Use this feature when you have a vector layer that you want to examine without underlying imagery. This can be helpful when the color for the data is not distinct enough from the underlying texture and you want to more clearly see the lines.

• Turn off the base texture

Select Toggle Base Texture to turn off only the base texture in the viewing pane. Use this feature when you have an imagery inset positioned over a base texture, and you want to see the inset apart from the base texture.


• Cycle through alpha mask displays

Select Toggle Alpha to cycle through the various mask channels for an imagery inset. You can see the borders of the mask applied to the imagery inset as well as the actual borders of the image itself as it would extend with no mask applied.

4.6 Building ProjectsThe Google Earth Fusion software provides the ability to build all components of a database as a single process or individually. In this way, you can optimize the work you do by building some parts of the database as time permits. You can use the Google Earth Fusion GUI to build a project or the command line functionality (see “Building Projects” on page 185 of Google Earth Fusion System Reference).

To build a project using the Google Earth Fusion GUI, follow these steps.

1. Find the project that you want to build in the Asset Manager window (Tools - Asset Manager).

2. Right-click on the project and select Build from the pop-up menu.The status of the project should immediately be set to Queued, which you can see reflected in the Current State column of the Asset Manager dialog. If no other jobs are waiting, the status will quickly change to Waiting or In Progress.

You can view the process of the project build by double-clicking the project to view the Version Properties dialog. Within that dialog, you can expand the dependency tree to view the project building in real time.

4.7 Debugging Project BuildsWhen you create or modify a project, the Google Earth Fusion software assigns a version number to it. You can troubleshoot or even watch project builds using the Asset Manager dialog in the Google Earth Fusion workspace. You can also use the Google Earth Fusion command line functionality to check project status (see “Project Commands” on page 181 of Google Earth Fusion System Reference). Use the properties features to check the completion status of projects you have recently created or modified, or to determine the availability of older versions of projects.

To check the status of Google Earth Fusion projects, select Asset Manager from the Tools menu. Listed in the viewing pane are all types of assets—including projects—available to the Google Earth Fusion software. When you begin building a project, the current status of the build process is displayed in the Current State column in the Asset Manager window. See Table 1, “Asset Status Reports,” on page 90 for the possible status reports for each asset.

1. Open the Asset Manager window and navigate to the desired project.


2. Right-click on the entry and select Asset Versions from the pop-up menu to display the properties dialog for the project. If you have performed a number of builds for the project, you should see a listing showing all the build versions for that project as well as the status; otherwise, only the most recently built version of the project is displayed.

3. Select the project version you want to investigate and double click on it.The Version Properties dialog appears, showing the hierarchical relationship of the project and its elements. You can expand the tree view until you display the element that caused the build failure.

143Debugging Project Builds


4.8 Resuming Failed Project BuildsThe Google Earth Fusion software provides a way to resume a project build from the point at which failure occurred, such as a sub-component of a project. This most commonly occurs for external reasons, such as disk space overrun or incorrect file permission settings. When you resume a failed build, the same version of a project is maintained without incrementing.

Important: The Resume command is only available on project components with a status of Failed or Canceled. In addition, its purpose is to continue a build on a version where there has been no change to the data itself, or to the configuration of the project. Thus, the command should be used only when the failure is due to an external event, such as disk space limitation. For details on resuming asset builds, see “Handling Asset Build Failures” on page 175 of Google Earth Fusion System Reference.

After performing a project build that fails, you can use the Version Properties window to determine the location at which the build fails (see “Debugging Project Builds” above). For


example, the figure below shows the version properties for a blocked project build, with a failure status for one of the child processes.

You can determine the exact reason for failure by clicking on the log file icon and reading the error report. After addressing the reason for failure, you can continue the build for that project by right-clicking on the failed child process and selecting Resume from the pop-up menu. The asset build will continue from that point forward.

4.9 Cleaning ProjectsEach time you update a project, the Google Earth Fusion software provides a version number so that you can easily track successive updates to a given project. Because multiple project builds can use disk space, you can use the Asset Manager to clean up project versions that you no longer need. This process changes the state of a project version to cleaned (see Table 1, “Asset Status Reports,” on page 90). In addition, any components of the project that are not being used by other projects are also cleaned up. This includes any intermediary files that are created as part of the project build. If the clean process encounters assets being used in other projects, they are left alone.

Certain rules apply to cleaning Google Earth Fusion data, whether that data is a database, a project, or an asset. See “Rules for Asset Version Cleaning” on page 93 of Working with Assets and Source Data for more details.

You can use the clean functionality of the Google Earth Fusion software either with the GUI or with the command line. See “Cleaning Assets” on page 179 of Google Earth Fusion System Reference for the command line usage of this function.

The steps to cleaning a project are simple.

1. In the Asset Manager, right-click on the project you want to clean and select Asset Versions from the pop-up menu to view the Properties window for the project.

145Cleaning Projects


Important: The clean functionality of the Google Earth Fusion software respects the relationships of Google Earth Fusion data. Because assets can be used in more than a single project, any assets used in projects other than the one you clean are left untouched. See Table 3, “Google Earth Server Data Relationships,” on page 32 for a diagram illustrating such dependencies.

4.10 Marking Projects as “Bad”You can change the Succeeded status of a project to Bad so that it cannot be used by any database. For example, you might successfully build a project and later decide that you do not want its data available for any database.

To do this, right-click on the project you want to clean and select Asset Versions from the pop-up menu to view the Properties window. In that window, right-click the version you want to mark as bad, and select Mark as bad from the pop-up window.


5 Creating Google Earth Fusion Databases

This chapter covers the fundamental tasks necessary to build and publish databases using the Google Earth Fusion software. This chapter covers the following:

• Building a Google Earth Database

• Troubleshooting Database Builds

• Resuming Failed Database Builds

• Cleaning Databases

• Marking a Database as “Bad”

• Publishing a Google Earth Database

5.1 Building a Google Earth DatabaseWhen you have finished authoring your Google Earth Fusion project(s) and are ready to see the data on a Google Earth Server, you must define and build a database.

When you define a database, you specify one or more Google Earth Fusion projects whose data will function together on the Google Earth Server. If you are a Google Earth Fusion LT user, your database will consist of a single vector project. If you are a Google Earth Fusion PRO user, you can choose up to three projects for a database—one of each type.

When you build a database, you can track its progress using the system manager, which is a GUI-based display of the various processes in operation on the Google Earth Fusion system. When the database build is complete, the database manager will display each build by version number and the status of the build (succeeded or failed).

Additionally, you can use the command line tools to set up automatic, successive builds for the same database (collection of project files) to make sure you have the most up-to-date work for that data set.


5.1.1 Defining a DatabaseFollow these steps to define a database using the Google Earth Fusion workspace.

1. Select Database Manager from the Tools menu.

The Database Manager dialog box appears. Any databases that are already defined appear in the main window.

2. Click on the New Database button to bring up the Edit Database dialog.

3. Fill in the name field.

4. For each desired project type you want to add, click on the corresponding Browse button to define the appropriate project(s) for your database. When you click on the Browse button, the Asset Chooser dialog appears, displaying only assets that correspond to the project type you select.

148 Google Earth ServerCreating Google Earth Fusion Databases

5. Double-click the project you want to add to the database, or select the project and click the OK button in the Asset Chooser dialog. The project appears in the Edit Database dialog.

6. When you have defined all of the projects for your database, click the OK button. The new database appears in the database manager list.

Note: Each database that you define is automatically saved in the databases directory within the asset root.

5.1.2 Building a DatabaseThe steps for building a database are simple.

1. Select the database that you want to build in the Database Manager dialog.

2. Click the Build Database button.The database will begin building, and the Current State column updates to show the state database (and all databases) in the list.

149Building a Google Earth Database

5.1.2.1 Using the Feature EditorThis feature allows you to modify source geometry and attributes and save these changes in an internal Fusion format. This is helpful as it permits you to complete these modifications instead of using third party tools.

To use the Feature Editor:

1. Under the Tools menu, click Feature Editor.

2. In the Feature Editor dialog box, click File > Open.

3. Open the appropriate sources file or assets and click open.

4. Each feature in the selected files appear in the dialog box. Check each feature you want to save the internal Keyhole format (*.kvgeom).

5. Click File > Save and name the new file with the *.kvgeom suffix.

5.1.2.2 Viewing Data DetailsTo view details about data of an asset, select an asset. In the View menu, click Data View.

5.1.2.3 Importing KML/KMZ FilesYou can import KML/KMZ files created in Google Earth. There are a few limitations on the type of KMLs that Fusion can stream. You can only import geometry into Fusion; style information cannot be imported (this includes custom icons). Moreover, the point and line geometry import feature set is limited to 2D. Note that polygons can be 2D/3D. Additionally, you cannot import networked KML and image overlays.

To import KML/KMZ files, import the new vector asset and select Keyhole Markup Language (KML/KMZ).

5.1.3 Troubleshooting Database BuildsWhen you create or modify a database, the Google Earth Fusion software assigns a version number to the database. You can troubleshoot or even watch database builds using the Asset Manager dialog in the Google Earth Fusion workspace. You can also use the Google Earth Fusion command line functionality to check database status (see “Database Commands” on page 185 of Google Earth Fusion System Reference). This feature lets you check the completion status of databases you have recently created or modified, and it lets you determine the availability of older versions of databases.

To check the status of Google Earth Fusion databases, select Asset Manager from the Tools menu. Listed in the viewing pane are all types of assets—including databases—available to the Google Earth Fusion software. When you begin building a database, the current status of the build process is displayed in the Current State column in the Database Manager dialog. The


Asset Manager window also displays the current status of all databases. For a listing of the possible status reports of databases, see Table 1, “Asset Status Reports,” on page 90.

1. Open the Asset Manager window and navigate to the desired database.

2. Right-click on the entry and select Asset Versions from the pop-up menu to view the Properties window for the database. If you have performed a number of builds for the database, you should see a listing showing all the build versions for that database as well as their status.


3. Select the database version you want to investigate and double click on it.The Version Properties dialog appears, showing the hierarchical relationship of the database and its elements. You can expand the tree view until you display the element that caused the build failure.


5.1.4 Resuming Failed Database BuildsThe Google Earth Fusion software provides a way to resume a failed database build from the point at which failure occurred, such as a sub-component of a database. This most commonly occurs for external reasons, such as disk space overrun or incorrect file permission settings.


When you resume a failed build, the same version of a build is maintained without incrementing.

Important: The Resume command is only available on database components with a status of Failed or Canceled. In addition, its purpose is to continue a build on a version where there has been no change to the data itself, or to the configuration of the database. Thus, the command should be used only when the failure is due to an external event, such as disk space limitation. For details on resuming asset builds, see “Handling Asset Build Failures” on page 175 of Google Earth Fusion System Reference.

After performing a database build that fails, you can use the Version Properties window to determine the location at which the build fails (see “Troubleshooting Database Builds” above). For example, the figure below shows the version properties for a blocked database build, with a failure status for one of the child processes.

You can determine the exact reason for failure by clicking on the log file icon and reading the error report. After addressing the reason for failure, you can continue the build for that database by right-clicking on the failed child process and selecting Resume from the pop-up menu. The asset build will continue from that point forward.

5.1.5 Cleaning DatabasesEach time you update a database, the Google Earth Fusion software provides a version number so that you can easily track successive updates to a given database. Consequently, multiple database builds can take up a significant amount of disk space. To address this, you can use the Asset Manager to clean up database versions that you no longer need. This process changes the state of a database version to cleaned (see Table 1, “Asset Status Reports,” on page 90). In addition, any components of the database that are not being used by other databases are also cleaned up. This includes any intermediary files that are created as part of


the database build. If the clean process encounters assets or projects being used in other database, they are left alone.

Certain rules apply to cleaning Google Earth Fusion data, whether that data is a database, a project, or an asset. See “Rules for Asset Version Cleaning” on page 93 of Working with Assets and Source Data for more details.

You can use the clean functionality of the Google Earth Fusion software either with the GUI or with the command line. See “Cleaning Assets” on page 179 of Google Earth Fusion System Reference for the command line usage of this function.

The steps to cleaning a database are simple.

1. Right-click on the database you want to clean and select Asset Versions from the pop-up menu to view the Properties window for the database.


Important: The clean functionality of the Google Earth Fusion software respects the relationships of Google Earth Fusion data. Because assets and projects can be used in more than a single database, any assets or projects used in databases other than the one you clean are left untouched. See “Google Earth Server Data Relationships” on page 32 for a diagram illustrating such dependencies.

5.1.6 Marking a Database as “Bad”You can change the Succeeded status of the database to Bad so that it cannot be published or used by anyone else on the system. For example, you might successfully build a database and later decide that you do not want to publish the database or to have it used on any Google Earth Server.

To do this, right-click on the desired database select Asset Versions from the pop-up menu to view the Properties dialog. Right-click the version you want to mark as bad, and select Mark as bad from the pop-up window.

5.2 Publishing a Google Earth DatabaseWhen you have a Google Earth database ready for delivery to a Google Earth Server, you can use the publishing console in the Google Earth Fusion workspace to select a database version to publish to a Google Earth Server. The publishing console lists the available databases and their versions.

A typical process involves publishing a database of a specific version to a testing server in order to verify its results. After testing is complete and results are satisfactory, the same database can then be delivered to a different server, such as a live server that is available for viewing in a production environment. If the initial test reveals errors or indicates that more work needs to


be done, the additional work can be republished in the next version of the same database, and the testing process can be repeated until successful results are ready for production.

The steps to publish a database are simple.

1. Select Tools—Database Manager from the menu.The Database Manager dialog appears with a list of built databases that you can publish.

2. Select the database you want to publish and click on the Publish button.

When the publish operation completes, you will receive a dialog indicating the status of the publish, such as Succeeded or Failed.

Note: If the database that you want to publish contains multiple version, the version marked default will be published unless you specifically select a different version to publish.

Note: You can only publish succeeded versions of a database.

The database is published on the default system host, which is the server running your installation of the Google Earth Fusion software. When the status of the database you have published is Succeeded, you can fly that database using the Google Earth client.

If you want to publish a database to a server other than the default server, you can use the command line tools. See “Publishing a Database” on page 187 of Google Earth Fusion System Reference.

155Publishing a Google Earth Database


6 Google Earth Fusion System Reference

This chapter covers the available shell commands for the Google Earth Fusion software as well as the system commands and recommended system configurations for modifying your Google Earth Fusion processing environment. You can use the shell commands to set up an automated environment to build and deliver GIS databases from frequently updated or new source data. You can use the system commands to make additional devices available for storage and processing, as well as for configuring Google Earth data processing for a network environment.

A feature of an automated system is the ability to optimize your work at all phases of data collection—asset creation, project definition, and database creation. You can build a database to process all the asset and project data that comprises the database, you can build a project to process all the asset data that makes up a project, or you can build an individual asset as its source data is made available. See Figure 1.

Figure 1: Google Earth Fusion Build Phases


You can use the Google Earth Fusion command line mode to access each phase and all components of building a servable set of GIS data. This document describes each command, grouped by the component it applies to—asset, project, or database. In addition to the documentation in this chapter, each command has usage that can be invoked with the - -help option. The following table shows the formatting legend for the command reference.

Table 1: Formatting Legend

6.1 Setting Up Devices for Google Earth Fusion This section covers how to configure single and multiple machine environments for the Google Earth Fusion software. While the Google Earth Fusion installation automatically defines the recommended settings for processing Google Earth data, understanding (and following) the recommended practice for device setup provides an easy migration path from a single-machine environment to a multi-device and/or a multiple-machine environment.

6.1.1 The khvol Naming ConventionGoogle Earth data (assets, projects, and databases) require a defined name and network path to resolve the location of both source files and related Google Earth data. For that reason, the network naming convention you adopt for volumes cannot change from the initial definition without invalidating data converted to Google Earth format. On a single machine setup (non-network based), the network path and local path for Google Earth data are identical. However, because migration to a network-based setup is inevitable, network names must be defined for any new volume hosting Google Earth data or source data, whether or not it is part of a network.

Format Meaning

Italic Information that the user must supply

Bold Elements that the user must type exactly as shown

Ellipsis (...) Parameter that can be repeated several times in a command line

Between brackets ( [ ] ) Optional items

Between braces ( { } ); choices separated by pipe ( | ). Example: {even | odd}

Set of choices from which the user must choose only one

Between parentheses ( ). Grouped items that function together.

Courier font Code or program output

158 Google Earth ServerGoogle Earth Fusion System Reference

Because Linux systems frequently use either /vol(*) or /data(*) as the convention for local volume definitions on a new system, using this path convention for initial Google Earth data location can cause name conflicts if you switch from a single machine to a network-based environment. For example, if you initially define /vol1/assets as the network location for a Google Earth asset root, and you later add an additional machine that has a local volume called /vol1, that machine cannot reference /vol1/assets through the network because of a name conflict with its local volume definition.

Figure 2: Typical Name Conflicts with Conventional Volume Definitions

You could work around this problem by adopting a unique naming convention for all volumes in your network (i.e., vol1...voln). However, the khconfigure tool provides khvol as an alternative volume naming convention unlikely to conflict with typical linux volume definitions. Figure 3 illustrates. Typically, this allows for easier source migration to larger drives.

Note: On a single machine setup that does not mount khvol on a network, khvol is also required as a local volume definition.

net path: /vol2/srclocal path: /vol2/src

local path: /vol1/assetsnet path: /vol1/assets

net path: /vol1/assets local path: /vol1/local path: /vol1/assets

net path: /vol2/srclocal path: /vol2/src

local path: /vol2/

Single environment, non-networked devices

Networked environment,device name conflict

159Setting Up Devices for Google Earth Fusion

Figure 3: Recommended Volume Definition (khvol) for Migration Path

Tip: Because single machines with multiple drives frequently mount slash (/) for the system drive, you can avoid having khvol and its subdirectories mounted on the smaller system drive by following the suggestions described in “Mount Point Name Recommendations” on page 161.

6.1.2 Single Machine SetupThe difference between a single machine setup and a master machine setup for distributed processing has to do with the mount point definitions for src and asset volumes. By establishing a convention for network volume definitions on a single machine, the khconfigure tool provides a migration path for moving those same volumes to a network while avoiding name conflicts.

When you are defining network path definitions on a single, non-networked machine, the “network path” is the same as the local path. In fact, a network path on such a machine cannot be created if that path doesn’t exist locally.

6.1.2.1 Using khconfigure for Single Machine SetupThe Google Earth configuration tool is used to configure the location of assets for your Google Earth Fusion installation. Typically, this runs as part of the installation procedure for the Google Earth Fusion software (see “Configuring Google Earth Data Location” on page 20 of Getting Started).

net path: /khvol/srclocal path: /khvol/src

local path: /khvol/assetsnet path: /khvol/assets

net path: /khvol/assets net path: /khvol/srcalocal path: /vol1/assets

net path: /khvol/srclocal path: /vol2/src local path: /vol2/srcb

Single environment, non-networked devices

Migration to networkenvironment, Machine 1

local path: /vol1/srca

net path: /khvol/srcb

master with Machine 2slave


You can use the Google Earth configuration tool to configure or reconfigure your system. In this way, you can add more volumes for asset sources after initially configuring your system. To use this command, you must be logged in as root. At the prompt, type

khconfigure

and follow the prompts to set up your machine for initial use. For further information on options for khconfigure, see “Google Earth Fusion System Commands” on page 163.

Note: Once you configure the Google Earth Fusion software and begin converting data, you cannot change the network path of the volumes without invalidating data that has already been converted into Google Earth format. It is recommended you read and understand this entire section before deviating from the default volume definitions set by the khconfigure tool.

6.1.2.2 Mount Point Name RecommendationsWhen starting with a new Linux system, it is strongly recommended you use the following mount point name recommendations for single drive, two-drive, and three-drive systems. This convention will make it easier for you to follow the recommended naming scheme while still allocating disk space appropriately.

• Single drive setup

Mount the single drive to slash (/). All data (/khvol/assets, /khvol/src) resides on that drive with the local path defined using the khvol naming convention.

• Two-drive, with a small system drive and a larger data drive

Mount the small system drive to slash (/). Mount the larger data drive to /khvol/. Source and asset data volumes can then be defined as /khvol/assets and /khvol/src.

• Three-drive, with a small system drive and two larger data drives

Mount the small system drive to slash (/). Mount the first large data drive to /khvol/assets. Mount the second large data drive to /khvol/src.

By following these recommendations for your system, migration to networked processing is simply a matter of renaming the local parent directory (see “Editing Volume Definitions” on page 165) and setting up an automount map for /khvol.

6.1.3 Default System ValuesThe following table describes the system values set by default in a standard Google Earth Fusion installation.

161Setting Up Devices for Google Earth Fusion

Table 2: Google Earth Fusion Default System Values

The default imagery, terrain, and vector data is included with your installation of the Google Earth Fusion software.

If you want to specify your own default imagery, terrain, or vector data, you must first create and build the appropriate project and then use the khquery command to find the index, copyright, or postamble file to insert in place of the ones defined in the systemrc file. Alternatively, you can use the khdefinedefaultsfromdatabase command to define which indexes to use for the default (see “Modifying systemrc Settings” on page 167).

Setting Default Value Description

Google Earth Asset Root

/khvol/assets This variable specifies the root of the asset tree where all Google Earth Fusion assets, projects, and databases are stored.

Max Jobs The number of CPUs in the machine

The maximum number of system jobs to run simultaneously. The khconfigure script automatically sets this value to equal the same number of CPUs that your machine has.

Default Imagery Index /usr/share/keyhole/datasets/default_imagery.khdb

Location of imagery index file to be published with a database if no other imagery project is specified for the database.

Default Imagery Copyright

[empty] Only default imagery data is included with your installation of the Google Earth Fusion software.

Default Terrain Index [empty] Only default imagery data is included with your installation of the Google Earth Fusion software.

Default Vector Index [empty] Only default imagery data is included with your installation of the Google Earth Fusion software.

Default Vector Postamble

[empty] Only default imagery data is included with your installation of the Google Earth Fusion software.


See “Querying Asset Properties” on page 176 for information about this command and how to retrieve dependency files for an asset.

6.2 Google Earth Fusion System CommandsThis section covers how to use the system commands to control the system manager, monitor jobs and processes, and to apply consistent settings across all database builds.

6.2.1 Using the khconfigure ToolThis section covers the available options for the khconfigure tool. You can use khconfigure to:

• Add volume definitions

• Edit existing volumes

khconfigure [options] [--assetroot assetroot ] [--srcvol srcvol]

Parameters:

• --srcvol

This parameter is only necessary when using the --makenewassetroot option, when it indicates the location of the source directory for the new asset root.

• --assetroot

If this option is not supplied, the system uses the default /khvol/assets except when the --editvolumes option is also supplied. In that case, the khconfigure tool attempts to use the asset root supplied in the systemrc file, if it exists. If it finds no asset root there, it uses /khvol/assets.

If neither --assetroot nor any other options are supplied, the khconfigure tool prompts for an asset root, supplying the default /khvol/assets for the user to confirm. If the asset root does not exist, it is created and the machine configured as a master for that asset root, depending upon whether the volume for the asset root is local or remote.

Options:

• --help

Displays the usage message for khconfigure.

• --v, --verbose

Display informational messages when executing the commands.

• --check

You can use this option alone with khconfigure to verify whether the machine has been configured previously.

163Google Earth Fusion System Commands

• --showmaster

Use this option to display the hostname of the master machine.

• --makenewassetroot

Use in conjunction with --srcvol to create a new asset root at the location supplied by --srcvol.

• --makemaster

Use in conjunction with --assetroot to configure the machine as a master of the assetroot supplied in --assetroot.

• --makeslave

Use in conjunction with --assetroot to configure the machine as a slave of the assetroot supplied in --assetroot.

• --editvolumes

Use this option to edit the local path definition for existing volumes.

6.2.1.1 Adding Volume DefinitionsOnce you have defined the asset root and source volumes for your machine, you can use the khconfigure tool to add volume definitions. Use khconfigure on the local machine to add a volume.

To do this, follow these steps:

1. Type khconfigure at a shell prompt with no parameters or options.The khconfigure tool will supply the network path for the current asset root and ask if that location is correct.

2. Type y for yes.

3. You will be asked if you want to modify your volume definitions. Type y for yes.Your current volume definitions are listed.

4. At the next prompt, type A for Add Volume.

5. Supply the name and path definitions for the new volume:

• name

The name for a volume is the reference used by the master machine for processing Google Earth data. This is because often the network path for a volume can be quite lengthy. However, the name is also used by default as part of the network path.

• network path

By default, /khvol is appended to the front of the name provided. So, for example, if you entered NasaSrc as the name of the new volume, the suggested network path


is /khvol/NasaSrc. You can simply press the Enter key to accept the default, or enter a different network path if needed.

Remember, once you define a name and network path for a volume, it cannot be changed.

• local path

If you are defining a new volume on a single-machine setup, the local path will be the same as the network path (i.e., /khvol/NasaSrc). For a multiple machine environment, the local path will likely be the device location on the destination machine. For example, if the new volume is local, you might supply a local path such as:

/data1/NasaSrc

If the new volume is on the network and set up with the automap, you would add the name of the machine as part of the local path:

machinename: /data1/NasaSrc

Note: Both the local path and the network path of the new volume must exist first before you can define them. Once you define the network path, you cannot change it.

6. Type f for Finished Editing when you are through.

6.2.1.2 Editing Volume DefinitionsFor existing volumes, you can use the khconfigure tool to edit the local path definition only. Because the name and the network path definition is used by the Google Earth Fusion software for assets, projects, and database definitions, any change to the name would invalidate data processed on that volume.

Consequently, you would typically edit volume definitions either when migrating from a single to a multi-machine setup, or when modifying the local path of network-mounted source volumes (such as adding a larger drive for source data). In these situations, the name and network path of the volume can remain unchanged. To edit a volume:

1. Enter khconfigure at the shell and proceed through the prompts until you are asked to modify volume definitions.

2. Type y for Yes to modify the volumes.The list of current volumes is supplied, preceded by a number.

3. Type M for Modify Volumes and enter the volume number to modify.

4. Define the new local path for the volume at the prompt.

5. Type F for Finished Editing.


6.2.2 Starting or Stopping the System Manager To start and stop the Google Earth Fusion system manager, use the following command. The system manager must be running in order for any of the other commands to function, and you must run this command as root.

/etc/init.d/khsystem {start | stop | restart}

Debugging information is output to two log files, /usr/keyhole/log/khsystemmanager.log and /usr/keyhole/log/khresourceprovider.log.

The restart option is similar to executing khsystem stop followed by khsystem start, with the exception that any tasks currently running survive the restart and are allowed to continue running.

You can verify that the system manager has properly started by checking the shell output for the following two processes:

• system manager

• resource provider

These processes are required for the Google Earth Fusion software to function correctly. You can also use the khtop command to view and monitor these and all system tasks. See “Monitoring System Processes” below.

If the system manager fails, see “Troubleshooting a Failed System Manager” on page 23 of Getting Started for more information.

6.2.3 Monitoring System ProcessesYou can watch all active Google Earth Fusion system tasks and processes using the khtop command. This command functions in a manner similar to the Unix command top, but is specific to Google Earth Fusion processing. It is the command line equivalent to the system manager in the Google Earth Fusion workspace.

To execute the command, simply enter the command in a shell window on the system running the Google Earth Fusion system.

khtop

You will receive output in the shell window similar to the following.


Figure 4: khtop Output

The khtop command outputs the following data to the console:

• Google Earth asset root

• Maximum jobs allowed

• The currently active process, including the location of the asset or project related to that process

• The list of processes waiting to run on that specific machine, including the location of the asset or project

• The process ID, running time, and command of all processes being run by khsystem on that specific machine

6.2.4 Modifying systemrc SettingsOnce you have built a database that has the default index, dbroot and copyright settings you desire for all database builds, you can use the khdefinedefaultsfromdatabase command to modify these settings in the systemrc file based on the settings for that database. This eliminates the error prone process of modifying the systemrc file by hand to change the default files used for publishing databases.

khdefinedefaultsfromdatabase databasename [version]


6.3 Asset CommandsThis section covers all the commands you can use with terrain, imagery, and vector assets. These commands can be used for bulk processing when you have large quantities of data that you want to process.

6.3.1 Creating and Modifying AssetsThe following points are relevant to creating or modifying assets:

• You create a single asset at a time, either supplying a single source, or multiple sources.

• When you supply multiple source files for an asset, the source data must have the same projection, and the header attributes must have the same structure. The source files themselves can be in a different format, such as .tiff or .img.

• When you create an asset, you create the asset record, but the asset components exist only after the asset is built.

• You can use the same source file to create different assets.

• If you use the modify command and specify an asset that does not exist, a new one is created for it.

• You must use the modify command to change properties for an existing asset. If you use the new command and an asset of that name and type already exists, the command will fail.

See “Creating Assets” on page 77 of Working with Assets and Source Data for more information on creating assets.

6.3.1.1 Vector AssetsThe options for creating and modifying a vector asset are identical.

khnewvectorasset khmodifyvectorasset [--layer num] [--encoding type ] [--meta name=value]

[--provider key] [--sourcedate string] -o [path] assetname sourcefile ...

Example:

khnewvectorasset --layer 2 --encoding ISO8859-1 --sourcedate 2003-05-15 -o vector/MyVectorProvider/VectorAssetA/vol/machine2/source/vector/VectorSourceA.shp

Parameters:


• --layer num

Optional. Use this option if your source data contains multiple layers and you want to extract a specific one from the data for your asset. The first layer of your data is zero. For example:

khnewvectorasset --layer 3 -o vector/MyVectorProvider/VectorAssetA/vol/machine2/source/vector/VectorSourceA.tx1

If you don’t specify this option, the first layer of the source file is used to create the asset. In most circumstances, source vector data has only one layer; however, Tiger and GDT vector data can contain multiple layers. Because there is a one-to-one correspondence between a vector asset and a single vector layer, asset creation from multi-layer data must specify a layer. If you are unsure which layer to indicate in creating an asset from multi-layer source data, you can open the vector source file in the preview mode. This displays all the layers in the source data, and you can examine each in order to select the appropriate one to import.

• --encoding type

Optional. If the field data in your vector asset has a particular encoding for characters, such as ISO8859-1, set this parameter to correctly display your data in the Google Earth client software. If you specify no encoding option, the character encoding defaults to ASCII (plain text). The available formats are listed in Table 3 below.

Note: Encoding strings that contain white space must be specified within quotation marks.

Table 3: Encoding Formats

Apple Roman CP 1258 ISO 8859-15 ISO-10646-UCS-2

Big5 CP 874 ISO 8859-2 JIS7

CP 1250 GB18030 ISO 8859-3 KOI8-R

CP 1251 GBK ISO 8859-4 KOI8-U

CP 1252 IBM 850 ISO 8859-5 SJIS

CP 1253 ISO 8859-1 ISO 8859-6 TSCII

CP 1254 ISO 8859-10 ISO 8859-7 UTF-8

CP 1255 ISO 8859-11 ISO 8859-8 eucJP

CP 1256 ISO 8859-13 ISO 8859-8-I eucKR

CP 1257 ISO 8859-14 ISO 8859-9 eucKR

169Asset Commands

• --meta name=value

Optional. The meta option supports any number of optional name/value pairs that you want to supply about the source data. For example, you might want to provide additional information about the data provider. If the name or value string has white space, it should be enclosed in quotation marks.

• --provider key

Optional. This value for this option is a string that identifies the provider of the source you are importing. The provider key you supply in this field should match the provider key in your database that corresponds to the source data. Based on this key, the provider name and copyright fields are used to display the copyright information for the source in the Google Earth client. If the key that you provide does not match any keys in the database, then asset creation will fail.

Note: If you are importing a number of source files to create a single asset, it is assumed that they will have a common provider.

• --sourcedate string

Optional. The value for this option is a string used to represent the date of acquisition for your source file. It must in the ISO 8601 format (yyyy-mm-dd).

• -o assetname

Required. This parameter specifies the location and the name of the asset being created. The name is specified relative to the asset root. For example, vector/ProviderA/VectorAssetA creates the asset VectorAssetA in the directory vector/ProviderA in your Google Earth asset root. If you indicate a subdirectory that doesn’t yet exist, it is created for you.

• sourcefile

Required. Specifies the source file for the asset. You can reference any network-available file as this value.

6.3.1.2 Imagery and Terrain AssetsWhen you create an imagery or terrain asset, the source file must also have geo-reference information along with it in order for the operation to succeed. Typically the coordinate and projection information will be part of the imagery file itself (as with a GeoTIFF file, for example). However, if your imagery source does not contain geo-coordinate information, you must provide it. The Google Earth Fusion software supports a very simple format that accepts simple cylindrical projection (Lat/Lon WGS84). You can put this information in a file with a .geo extension and place the file in the same physical location as the imagery file. The Google Earth Fusion software will look for this at the time it parses the source imagery.

The commands to create or modify a terrain or imagery asset are unique to that operation; however, most of the parameters are common to both imagery and terrain asset creation and modification, with the following exception:


• --scale or --feet is an option for terrain assets only

khnewimageryassetkhmodifyimageryassetkhnewterrainassetkhmodifyterrainasset [--havemask] [--nomask] [--mosaicfill nn,nn,nn]

[--mosaictolerance n][--feather radius] [--masktolerance n][--band n] [--holesize n][--whitefill][--meta name=value][--feet | --scale num] (terrain only) [--provider key ] [--sourcedate string]-o [path] assetname {sourcefile ... | --filelist <file>}

Example Command:

The following example creates a single mosaic imagery asset from three source files, specifying white as the fill value and setting the feather to 80 pixels for automask generation.

khnewimageryasset --feather 80 --fill 255,255,255 --provider SourceInc --sourcedate 2003-05-10 -o imagery/MississippiDeltaRegion /vol/machine2/SourceInc/msRiver1.tif /vol/machine2/SourceInc/msRiver2.tif /vol/machine2/SourceInc/msRiver3.tif

Parameters:

• [--scale num | --feet ]

Optional. This option sets the elevation scale for your height map imagery. The Google Earth Fusion software interprets height map values as meters. If the elevation unit for your data is not meters, you must use this option to provide the correct conversion number from your data’s unit to meters. For example, if your source height map file has decimeters for its height unit, you would specify .1 for the scale value in order to have the elevation represented in meters.

Alternatively, you can use the --feet parameter as a shorthand mechanism for --scale .3048, which represents feet units in their metric equivalent.

Note: Meters is the default scale elevation. If you do not specify this option when creating terrain assets, the elevation units are treated as meters.

• --meta name=value

Optional. The meta option supports any number of optional name/value pairs that you want to supply about the source data. For example, you might want to provide additional information about the data provider, such as the specific airplane that took the photo. If the name or value string has white space, it should be enclosed in quotation marks.

• --provider key

Optional. This is a string that identifies the provider of the source you are importing. The provider key you supply in this field should match the provider key in your database that corresponds to the source data. Based on this key, the provider name and copyright fields are used to display the copyright information for the source in the

171Asset Commands

Google Earth client. If the key that you provide does not match any keys in the database, then the asset creation will fail. If the key contains whitespace, the string must be quoted.

Note: If you are importing a number of source files to create a single asset, it is assumed that they will have a common provider.

• --sourcedate string

Optional. The value for this option is a string used to represent the date of acquisition for your source file. It must in the ISO 8601 format (yyyy-mm-dd).

• --havemask

Optional. Use this option if you have a corresponding alpha mask or file for your source. The mask for your input must be located in the same directory as the source file and the name must match that of the source file with -mask appended to the name. For example, if your source file is called NewYork.tif, its mask file must be named NewYork-mask.tif.

Note: You can only use the --havemask option when you have a single source file.

• --nomask

Optional. Use this option if you do not want any alpha mask generated for the asset.

• --mosaicfill nn,nn,nn

Optional. Typically, you will specify fill value if you are importing a number of imagery files whose borders will overlap in the resultant mosaic. The fill value is specified in decimal format and depends upon your source file. Height map imagery needs a signed 16-bit value (a numeric range between -32,767 and 32,767), whereas color map imagery needs a 24-bit value or a 3x8 bit color. In general, the fill color depth should match that of your source data.

• --mosaictolerance n

Optional. Tolerance specifies the color range for mask selection. The default tolerance is zero, which is adequate for many fill colors that are typically pure black or pure white. However, because imagery compression and decompression can affect fill values by 1 or 2 color values, you can adjust the tolerance to compensate for any loss in precision. Typically, a setting of 1 or 2 is adequate in those situations.

If neither --nomask nor --havemask is specified, a mask is automatically generated. In that case, the following options are also available:

• --feather radius

Optional. Use this option when you want to have the Google Earth Fusion software auto-generate an alpha mask for the asset. The feather value is in pixels. If this option is not specified, and no other mask option is provided, the default value is 100 pixels.


• --masktolerance n

Optional. Tolerance used when comparing pixels against mask fill value. Tolerance specifies the color range for mask selection. The default tolerance is zero, which is adequate for many fill colors that are typically pure black or pure white. However, because imagery compression and decompression can affect fill values by 1 or 2 color values, you can adjust the tolerance to compensate for any loss in precision. Typically, a setting of 1 or 2 is adequate in those situations.

• --band n

Optional. Choose the band to use when generating the auto mask. If this is unspecified, the green channel is used. The legitimate values for this option are 0, 1, 2, corresponding to red, green, and blue respectively.

• --holesize n

Optional. Use this option if you have masked regions inside the boundaries of your imagery data. The default setting for hole size is zero, which is off.

The hole size indicates the number of contiguous pixels the Google Earth Fusion software uses when matching any color region inside your imagery with the same value specified as your fill. For example, if you set the value to 100 and the imagery has 100+ contiguous pixels with the same color as one of the corners (fill value), it'll treat that area as a "hole" in the data and apply the mask to it. The end result is that whatever data is beneath with show through.

• --whitefill

Choose this option if imagery holes in your source data are filled with white. In some cases, source providers fill missing data inside the imagery with white and use a different color for the boundary mask.

• -o assetname

Required. This parameter specifies the location and the name of the asset being created. The name is specified relative to the asset root. For example, imagery/ProviderA/ImageryAssetA creates the asset ImageryAssetA in the directory imagery/ProviderA in your Google Earth asset root.

• sourcefile

Specifies the source file for the asset. You can reference any network-available source file as this value.

• --filelist file

In addition to specifying discrete source files on the command line, you can use this option to specify a file that contains a list of the source files. You can use either the --filelist option, or list files singly, or use a combination of the two.

173Asset Commands

6.3.2 Building AssetsThe Google Earth Fusion software provides the flexibility of building the entire database and its components, or building components of the database piecemeal. This is particularly useful when source data updates become available at varying times, and you want to build some components before other components are updated.

When you create or modify an asset, you are defining the source file and configuration settings for the asset. When you build the asset, you are using those settings to actually produce the asset itself, which is a group of related files that are the result of this processing. Assets typically get built as part of the database build process, but you can also individually build any part of the database (asset, project or database itself) using the following command.

khbuild assetname

Example:

khbuild imagery/SourceInc/MississippiDeltaRegion

Parameters:

• assetname

Required. Supply the location and the name of the asset by path reference. For example, vector/ProviderB/vectorAssetA references the asset vectorAssetA in the directory vector/ProviderB in the Google Earth asset root. For assetname, you can supply an asset, a project, or a database.

You can use the khcancel command to cancel a build that is in progress. If, for example, you realize that you’ve specified an incorrect value for the configuration of an asset that is already building, you can use this command to stop the build.

khcancel assetname [version]

Example:

khcancel projects/TransitData/BostonTransitLines


Parameters:

• assetname

Required. Supply the location and the name of the asset by path reference. For example, vector/ProviderB/vectorAssetA references the asset vectorAssetA in the directory vector/ProviderB in the Google Earth asset root. For assetname, you can supply an asset, a project, or a database.

• version

Optional. Supply the version number for the specified asset. Typically you will only cancel current versions, which is the default if no version is specified.

6.3.3 Handling Asset Build FailuresIf for external reasons (such as disk space or file permissions) the build of an asset fails, you can use the khresume command to build the asset from the point at which the build for that asset version failed. The purpose of the khresume command is to continue a build on a version where there has been no change to the data itself, or the configuration of the build.

For example, if your build fails because of lack of disk space, and you resolve the issue and attempt to use khbuild on the failed asset, the system will report that there is nothing to be done because it detects no change to the inputs or the configuration. On the other hand, if the build failed because of a configuration or inherent data problem, and you change the configuration of the project/asset (such as removing an asset from a project or changing the visibility range for a display rule), you must use khbuild to rebuild the asset, since in this situation you have created a new asset version.

Unlike the khbuild command, khresume will not create a new version of the asset; it will only rebuild a previously failed or canceled version.

As with the khbuild command, the khresume command applies to assets, projects, and databases. In addition, the khresume command can apply to any of the intermediate components of an asset, project, or database. The following example illustrates the use of

175Asset Commands

khresume on a failed asset. First, the user has applied the khquery command to determine the first failed element in the dependency list.

% khquery --dep imagery/TestProject?version=1imagery/TestProject.kiproject?version=1: Blocked < imagery/bluemarble_4km.kiasset?version=2: Succeeded < imagery/bluemarble_4km.kiasset/source.kisource?version=1: Succeeded + imagery/bluemarble_4km.kiasset/product.kia?version=2: SucceededR < imagery/bluemarble_4km.kiasset/source.kisource?version=1: Succeeded < imagery/TestImage.kiasset?version=1: Blocked < imagery/TestImage.kiasset/source.kisource?version=1: Succeeded + imagery/TestImage.kiasset/product.kia?version=1: Blocked < imagery/TestImage.kiasset/reproject.kia?version=1: Blocked < imagery/TestImage.kiasset/mosaic.kia?version=1: FailedR < imagery/TestImage.kiasset/source.kisource?version=1: Succeeded + imagery/TestImage.kiasset/maskproduct.kia?version=1: BlockedR < imagery/TestImage.kiasset/product.kia?version=1: Blocked < imagery/TestImage.kiasset/maskgen.kia?version=1: BlockedR < imagery/TestImage.kiasset/product.kia?version=1: Blocked

The listing above shows that the build failed on the mosaic component of the TestImage asset. In this situation, if the failure is due to a lack of disk space, the user can then apply the khresume command as follows on that component:

khresume imagery/TestImage.kiasset/mosaic.kia?version=1

khresume assetname [version]

Example:

khresume imagery/SourceInc/MississippiRiverDelta

Parameters:

• assetname

Required. Supply the location and the name of the asset by path reference. For example vector/ProviderC/TransitStations.

• version

Optional. Supply the version number for the specified asset. The current version of the asset is used if this is not specified.

6.3.4 Querying Asset PropertiesYou can use the query command to debug the process of building an asset when a particular asset fails to build, or to find the version of a specific asset. Typically, you will first use the --status parameter to determine the initial status of a particular asset.


If for some reason the asset build fails, you can use the other available querying parameters to further expose the details of the build for that asset in order to identify the particular point at which the build failed. A typical debug process involves the following steps:

1. Find the dependency list for an asset.khquery --dependencies imagery/Mississippi/RiverDelta

2. Determine the first failed element in the dependency list.View the dependency list and note the dependency with a failed status.

3. Use the query asset command on the failed element to view its log file.khquery --showlog imagery/Mississippi/RiverDelta/RiverDelta?version=3

Note: The query asset command can be applied to a Google Earth asset and to its elements.

4. View the log file to check for relevant error messages.

The following diagram illustrates the physical and logical elements involved in generating an imagery asset. In this particular example, the imagery asset is generated from multiple source files. The dependency chain would be slightly different for an imagery asset generated from a single source file, and it would look different for terrain and vector assets as well. Here, each logical element of the dependency chain shows the actual output file (by extension) that is generated at that point.

Figure 5: Dependency Chain in Example Imagery Asset

In the example above, a query on the imagery asset for its dependencies would reveal a list of other elements—such as maskgen and mosaic—as well as their status. You can also use the query asset command on one of those elements to find out information about the element, such as its input file.

khquery [--dependencies] [--geocode] [--infiles] [--logfile] [--outfiles][--showlog] [--status] [--versions] assetname [version]

For the query command, supply either imagery, terrain, vector, or project as the type of asset.

177Asset Commands

Parameters:

• --dependencies

Optional. Lists the dependencies for the indicated asset and their status, such as Succeeded, Blocked, or Failed. See “Dependency Chain in Example Imagery Asset” on page 177 for an example of dependencies in an imagery asset. The purpose of being able to view the dependencies of an asset is to allow easier troubleshooting of failed asset builds. It is expected that once you view the dependency list for an asset, you will use further commands on a failed dependent element in order to find out why it failed. For example, you might want to see the log file for a failed asset.

• --geocode

Optional. Use this option only with vector projects. Lists the layer names and geocode files for the project.

• --infiles

Optional. Provides the file and location of the input file for the named target. You will typically use this command on a dependency for an asset file that is listed as failed. For example, if you learn that a reproject phase fails, you could use the --infile parameter to see that the input file for that phase is a specific image source file.

• --logfile

Provides the path to log file for the specified asset.

Note: Not all assets have log files.

• --outfiles

Lists the files output by the specified dependency. This feature lets you trace forward in the dependency chain to see the next step in the process.

• --showlog

Displays the contents of the log file for the specified version.

Note: Not all asset versions have log files.

• --taillog

Displays the contents of the log file for the specified version, but in a manner similar to the Unix command tail -f.

Note: Not all asset versions have log files.

• --status

Optional. This feature lets you check the completion and availability status of assets by their version. If no version is specified, it reports the status of the current version. Table 4 below lists the possible status values for each asset.


Table 4: Asset Status Reports

• --versions

Optional. When you build an asset, the Google Earth Fusion software assigns a version number to the asset. Use this parameter to determine the version numbers for the indicated asset.

• version

Optional. Supply the version number for the specified asset. If no version is specified, the current version for the named asset is used. Versions are specific numbers, which you can define if known, or you can use the following keywords:

• current

• lastgood

You can find versions for a particular asset by querying the asset itself. See the --versions option above.

6.3.5 Cleaning AssetsEach time you modify or update an asset, the Google Earth Fusion software creates a new version for that asset. As a consequence, many updates to an asset can take up significant disk space. For this reason, you can use the khclean command to clean assets whose prior versions are no longer needed and are not being referenced by other projects or databases.

Waiting The asset is waiting for its input data to finish.

Blocked The asset version cannot proceed. One or more of its input data or sub-components has failed, is marked bad, or is otherwise unavailable.The responsible component is listed.

Queued The asset version (or its sub-components) is queued and waiting to be built.

In Progress The asset version (or sub-components) are actively being built.

Failed The asset version failed.

Succeeded The asset version (and sub-components) succeeded.

Canceled The asset version was canceled.

Offline The version of this asset is unavailable because it has been cleaned up.

Bad The version of this asset has been marked bad.

179Asset Commands

For details on cleaning assets and the requirements for this process, see “Rules for Asset Version Cleaning” on page 93 of Working with Assets and Source Data. The rest of this section specifies the usage of khclean.

khclean [--help] assetname [version]

Example:

khclean imagery/SourceInc/MississippiDeltaRegion

Parameters:

• assetname

Required. Supply the location and the name of the asset by path reference. For example, vector/ProviderB/vectorAssetA references the asset vectorAssetA in the directory vector/ProviderB in the Google Earth asset root.

• version

Optional. Supply the version number for the specified asset you want to remove. You must supply the version number explicitly if you want to clean the most recent, successful asset version. If no version is specified, the current version for the named asset is used. Versions are specific numbers, which you can define if known, or you can use the following keywords:

• current

• lastgood

You can find versions for a particular asset by querying the asset itself. See “Querying Asset Properties” on page 176.

6.3.6 Marking an Asset as “Bad”Using the khsetbad command, you can change the status of an asset, project, or database to “Bad” after it has been successfully built. This command is useful if, for example, you incorrectly configure an asset but don't realize it until after the build has completed. In this way you can prevent other parts of the system from building on top of the asset.

For example, if you specify a feather thickness of 500 (instead of 50) for an imagery import, but don't notice the problem until the asset build has completed, you can use the khsetbad command to prevent the asset from being used to build projects and databases with the bad data.

To revert the “Bad” status to the prior status, use the --off parameter.

khsetbad [--off] assetname [version]

Example:

khsetbad projects/TransitLines/BostonTransitLines 2


Parameters:

• assetname

Required. Supply the location and the name of the asset by path reference. For example, vector/ProviderB/vectorAssetA references the asset vectorAssetA in the directory vector/ProviderB in the Google Earth asset root.

• version

Optional. Supply the version number for the specified asset you want to clean. If no explicit version is supplied the current asset version is cleaned.

6.4 Project CommandsAfter creating assets, the next phase in producing a Google Earth database involves creating projects and adding assets to them. For your database, you can create up to three different projects—vector, imagery, and/or terrain.

This section covers all the commands you can use when you are working with projects on the command line. As with asset command, you can use these command for bulk processing.

6.4.1 Creating and Modifying Imagery and Terrain ProjectsThe project modification commands are used when you want to redefine an existing project with a known set of inset assets. You can use the modify command as a single command to achieve this operation rather than having to use the Add To or Drop From commands to achieve the desired insets in an existing project. That is, when you use the project modification command, all the assets you indicate will comprise the entire set of assets for that project. The following example illustrates:

khnewterrainproject -o terrain/RiverDelta terrain/delta1 terrain/delta2 terrain/delta3 terrain/delta4

Suppose that later you want to restrict the assets for the project to three specific ones instead four:

khmodifyterrainproject -o terrain/RiverDelta terrain/delta1 terrain/delta2 terrain/delta3

When you add terrain and imagery assets to a project, the Google Earth Fusion software automatically orders them according to their resolution. That is, a 1-meter imagery asset is stacked on top of a 3-meter imagery asset. Beyond that, the imagery assets are ordered according to the order they are placed in the project.

The options for both imagery and terrain project creation and modification are the same.

khnewterrainproject khmodifyterrainproject

181Project Commands

khnewimageryprojectkhmodifyimageryproject -o projectname insetasset ...

Example:

khnewimageryproject -o projects/imagery/ImageryProjectA imagery/MississippiDeltaRegion

Parameters:

• -o projectname

Required. Specify the name of the project relative to the Google Earth asset root. For example, projects/imagery/ProjectA.

• insetasset

Optional. You can an asset to use when creating an imagery or terrain project.

6.4.2 Creating and Modifying Vector ProjectsThe project modification command is used when you want to redefine an existing project with a known set of inset assets. You can use the modify command as a single command to achieve this operation rather than having to use the Add To or Drop From commands to achieve the desired insets in an existing project. That is, when you use the project modification command, all the assets you indicate will comprise the entire set of assets for that project.

The options for vector project creation and modification are the same.

khnewvectorprojectkhmodifyvectorproject [--mode {replacelayers | addtolayers}]

-o projectname ([--template filename] [vectorasset...])...

Example:

The following example updates the PhoenixRoads project with three assets and applies an existing template to the data.

khnewvectorproject --mode replacelayers projects/vector/PhoenixRoads --template templates/cityRoadData assets/vector/RoadData/PhoenixRoad1 assets/vector/RoadData/PhoenixRoad2 assets/vector/RoadData/PhoenixRoad3

Parameters:

• -o projectname

Required. Specify the name of the project relative to the Google Earth asset root. For example, projects/vector/VectorProjectA.

• --mode { replacelayers | addtolayers }

Optional. If not specified, the project mode defaults to replaceLayers. Define the mode as addtolayers when you want to define your vector project data as


overlaying existing Google Earth vector data. Define this mode as replacelayers when you want your vector data to entirely replace the Google Earth data.

• --template filename

Required. This parameter specifies a template file that is used to apply the display rules to the subsequent assets listed for the project. You can apply different templates to different assets as follows:

khmodifyvectorproject -o projects/vector/PhoenixRoads --templatetemplates/cityRoadData assets/vector/RoadData/PhoenixRoad1 assets/vector/RoadData/PhoenixRoad2 --template templates/countyRoadData assets/vector/RoadData/PhoenixRoad3

To create a display template for your vector data, you must first import a vector asset using the Google Earth Fusion workspace, apply the display rules, and export the rules as a template. See “Configuring Data Display” on page 115 of Authoring Google Earth Fusion Projects for more information.

• vectorasset

Required. You must specify one or more vector assets to add to the project. For each indicated asset, the specified template will be applied to the data.

6.4.3 Adding Assets to Terrain and Imagery ProjectsWhen you add terrain and imagery assets to a project, the Google Earth Fusion software automatically orders them according to their resolution. That is, a 1-meter imagery asset is placed beneath a 3-meter imagery asset. Beyond that, the imagery assets are ordered according to the order they are placed in the project.

You can use the Add To command to add assets to an existing project. If you want to add assets to a project that has not yet been defined, use the New Project command and specify the asset at creation time. While the commands for adding assets are unique to the type of project, the parameters are the same for both commands.

khaddtoterrainprojectkhaddtoimageryproject --o projectname assetname...

Example:

The following example adds two assets to the project nySectorB.

khaddtoimageryproject --o projects/imagery/ImageryProjectA imagery/nySector2 imagery/nySector3

183Project Commands

Parameters:

• --o projectname

Required. Specify the name of the project relative to the Google Earth asset root.

• assetname

Required. You must specify at least one asset to add to the project.

6.4.4 Adding Assets to Vector ProjectsYou can use the khaddtovectorproject command to add assets to an existing vector project. If you want to add assets to a project that has not yet been defined, use the khnewvectorproject command and specify the asset at creation time.

khaddtovectorproject --o projectname ([--template filename] [vectorasset...])

Example:

The following example adds one asset to vector project vectorTemplateB.

khaddtovectorproject --o vector/VectorProjectA --template templates/vectorTemplateB NewYorkCityStreets

Parameters:

• --o projectname

Required. Specify the name of the project relative to the Google Earth asset root. For example, vector/VectorProjectA.

• --template filename

Required. This parameter specifies a template file that is used to apply the display rules to your vector layer. To create a display template for your vector data, you must first import a vector asset using the Google Earth Fusion workspace, apply the display rules, and export the rules as a template. See “Configuring Data Display” on page 115 of Authoring Google Earth Fusion Projects for more information.

• vectorasset

Required. You must specify one or more vector assets to add to the project. For each indicated asset, the specified template is applied to the data.

6.4.5 Removing Assets from ProjectsThe asset removal mechanism has the same parameters for all three commands.

khdropfromimageryprojectkhdropfromterrainprojectkhdropfromvectorproject --o projectname assetname...


Example:

khdropfromimageryproject --o projects/imagery/ImageryProjectA imagery/nySector2 imagery/nySector3

Parameters:

• --o projectname

Required. Specify the name of the project relative to the Google Earth asset root. For example, projects/vector/VectorProjectA.

• assetname

Required. You must specify at least one asset to drop from the project.

6.4.6 Building ProjectsAs with assets, you can build projects individually when you want to expedite the work to be done for a complete database build. Additionally, you can cancel a build that is in progress and you can restart a canceled or failed build. See “Building Assets” on page 174 for the details of the khbuild and khcancel commands. See “Handling Asset Build Failures” on page 175 for details of the khresume command.

6.5 Database CommandsThis section covers the commands you can use when you are working with databases on the command line. As with asset and project commands, you can use these commands for bulk processing.

6.5.1 Defining a DatabaseBefore publishing your project and asset data to a Google Earth Server, you must define a database. A database typically contains at least a single project—imagery, terrain, or vector. It can contain one project of each type for a total of three projects. If you are a Google Earth Fusion LT user, you will use a single vector project. If you are a Google Earth Fusion PRO user, you can define a database using any combination of imagery, terrain, or vector projects.

When a database is defined without one of the three project types, that project type is supplied by the default project data specified in your Google Earth Fusion system configuration. For example, if you define a database using your own imagery and terrain projects, but you supply no vector project, the default vector project is used. See “Setting Up Devices for Google Earth Fusion” on page 158 for a description of the default project settings.

185Database Commands

The parameters for creating and modifying a database are the same.

Tip: The khmodifydatabase command exists as a convenience when you must redefine the projects for a given database. However, it is not recommended that you use this command to repeatedly redefine the projects for a single database. For example, if you want to view different vector data projects in relationship to the same imagery and terrain projects, you should define two separate databases with different vector projects rather than repeatedly redefining the same database in order to switch vector data.

khmodifydatabasekhnewdatabase -o databases/dbname [--imagery imgproject]

[--terrain terrainproject] [--vector vectorproject]

Parameters:

• -o databases/dbname

Required. The database itself must be defined in the databases directory, which is relative to the Google Earth asset root. For example:

khnewdatabase -o databases/msDelta --imagery imagery/MississippiDelta

Note: A database cannot be created in a sub-directory beneath the databases directory, but must reside within the top-level databases directory.

• --imagery imgproject

Optional. A database can have an imagery project. If you are a Google Earth Fusion LT user, your database will use the standard Google Earth imagery project that shipped with your Google Earth Fusion installation.

Specify the imagery project relative to the Google Earth asset root. For example:

khnewdatabase -o databases/msDelta --imagery imagery/MississippiDelta

• --terrain terrainproject

Optional. A database can have a terrain project. If you are a Google Earth Fusion LT user, your database will use the standard Google Earth terrain project that shipped with your Google Earth Fusion installation. Specify the terrain project relative to the Google Earth asset root. For example:

khnewdatabse -o databases/msDelta --imagery imagery/MississippiDelta--terrain terrain/msDeltaTerrain

• --vector vectorproject

Optional. Specify the vector project relative to the Google Earth asset root. For example:

khnewdatabse -o databases/msDelta --imagery imagery/MississippiDelta--terrain terrain/msDeltaTerrain --vector vector/msDeltaCities


6.5.2 Building a DatabaseOnce you have defined a database with its project components, you must build it before publishing it to the server. If you have already built some components of your database, then the work done to build the database will not be duplicated for those built components. However, even if all of your database components have been built prior to being added to the database, you must still build the database before publishing it, since other work is only done at this stage.

If you are a Google Earth Fusion LT user, or if you have defined your database to contain fewer than three projects, the database will be built using the default projects in place of projects not defined for the database.

In addition to building a database, you can also cancel an in-progress build for a database, and you can restart a canceled or failed build. See “Building Assets” on page 174 for details on using the khbuild and khcancel commands.See “Handling Asset Build Failures” on page 175 for details of the khresume command.

6.5.3 Publishing a DatabaseOnce you have successfully built a database, you can publish it to a Google Earth Server in order to view the data with a Google Earth client. If you try to publish a database version that has not been successfully built, the publish command will fail. Documented here are both the khpublishdatabase and khpublish commands.

6.5.3.1 The khpublishdatabase Commandkhpublishdatabase [--server servername] [--help] databases/dbname [version]

Parameters:

• databases/dbname

Required. Specify the database name in the databases directory, which is relative to the Google Earth asset root. For example:

khpublishdatabase databases/msDelta

• version

Optional. Specify the version number of the database you want to publish. For example:

khpublishdatabase databases/msDelta 3

If you leave the version unspecified, the current database is published. Versions are specific numbers, which you can specify if known, or you can use the following keywords:

• current

• lastgood

187Database Commands

You can find versions for a particular asset (including databases) by querying the asset itself. See “Querying Asset Properties” on page 176.

• --server servername

Optional. The host name of the virtual server that you want to publish to. For example:

khpublishdatabse databases/msDelta 3 --server mydomain.mycompany.com

If no host name is given, the host name is assumed to be the Google Earth Server itself.

6.5.4 Publishing Multiple Databases to a ServerIf you want to use a single server to host multiple Google Earth databases, you must first set up your server as a virtual host for the different DNS settings on your database (where each DNS points to the same IP address).

Once that is defined, simply use the khpublishdatabase commands described above to publish each database to the same server, but different domain. For example:

khpublishdatabse databases/msDelta 3 --OurServer mydomain1.mycompany.comkhpublishdatabse databases/msDelta 3 --OurServer mydomain2.mycompany.com

6.5.5 Using Separate Authentication, YP, or Geocoder ServersYou can use the khpublish command to set up separate servers to host authentication, yp, or geocoder data that will be used by the main Google Earth data server(s). To do this, first use the khpublish command to set the appropriate variables listed in “Variable Definitions” on page 37 of the Google Earth Server manual. For example, you might define a yp server as follows:

khpublish ypserver.host ypserver.mycompany.comkhpublish ypserver.port 88

Once that is set, you can republish your main database, which will then use that server for YP data. Follow the same process to define separate servers for authentication or geocoding.


Index

Aadd to Keyhole layers 108, 182alpha mask

cycling display 142asset manager

configuring asset root display 35organizing 87projects in 109subfolders 41using 85

asset rootconfiguring display in asset manager 35

assetsdefined 28adding to projects 25applying new source data for 88browsing 85building 89, 174cannot open 91categories of 85cleaning 92, 179conventions for 77creating 77, 79, 168

imagery 81terrain 81vector 80

creating point data 98debugging failures for 22, 176dependency list 176hiding 78, 87, 88importing 77marking as bad 180mask values for 83modifying 88multiple sources for 77organizing 87overview 24, 77providers for 75, 80, 83, 170, 171

querying properties for 176removing from projects 184resuming build 91sharing 32source file permissions 91status 89, 178terminal commands 168thumbnails of 86updating 168versions 88, 89, 179viewing types of 85

Bbackground imagery

settting 34base map

using imagery for 48building databases 157builds

restarting 175

Ccharacter encoding 103

in vector assets 80, 169setting default 35

cleaning assetscommand line usage 179GUI usage 92requirements for 92

cleaning projects 145color

for line data 119for text labels 122

command line modebuilds 174using 157

189

commandskhaddtoimageryproject 183khaddtoterrainproject 183khaddtovectorproject 184khbuild 174khbuilddatabase 187khcancel 174khclean 179khconfigure 163khdropfromimageryproject 184khdropfromterrainproject 184khdropfromvectorproject 184khmodifydatabase 185khmodifyimageryasset 170khmodifyimageryproject 181khmodifyterrainasset 170khmodifyterrainproject 181khmodifyvectorasset 168khmodifyvectorproject 182khnewdatabase 185khnewimageryasset 170khnewimageryproject 181khnewterrainasset 170khnewterrainproject 181khnewvectorasset 168khnewvectorproject 182khpublishdatabase 187khquery 176khrestart 175khsetbad 180khsystem 166khtop 166

configuration file, for custom point data 95copyright text 76custom icons 124

Ddata clutter, adjusting 138data formats, supported 98data view pane

auto display of 136preferences 35sorting display 136using 135

database manager, using 148databases

defined 31adding projects to 148, 185

building 26, 147, 149, 157, 174, 187cleaning 153creating 26, 72, 147defining 148, 185marking as bad 154, 180publishing 26, 74, 154restarting failed builds 152terminal commands 185troubleshooting builds 22, 150using default projects for 186, 187

delta level meter 138display rule

default filter 56display rules

color for line data 119copying 117defined 25exporting as templates 117filter order 128filters 127, 128for vector data 115icons

standard 123importing as templates 118line features 118line thickness 119ordering 117overview 116pop-up menus 123renaming 116road layers 55setting for imagery 104text labels 122transparency for line data 119

Eelevation units

converting 171for terrain data 85

Ffile permissions

failed asset builds 91files

previewing 102, 103fill values 84, 172filters

adding or removing expressions 129

Index190

conventions for use 128expression operators 129for vector data 127matching selections 130order of 128selecting all data 130wildcard matching 130

folders, creating 87

Ggraphics card

requirements 18GUI

customizing pane positions 33hiding windows 34overview 32

Hheight map units 85, 171hiding assets 87, 88hostname

settings 18, 23

Iicons

creating custom 124for vector data 112, 123

imagery dataalpha mask settings 172analyzing insets 139assets

building 44composite 84creating 41, 81importing 43in projects 183location for 173previewing 45

commandline creation 170default settings for 161fill values 84, 172layer order in projects 131mosaic creation 84mosaic tolerance values 172new project 181overview 27previewing 104

provider key 83, 171resolution, examining 139showing and hiding 141source date 82, 172source file constraints 170using in projects 131viewing resolution differences 132viewing tiles 139

imagery formats, supported 100inset grid

using 139installation 19

KKeyhole 2 Fusion

building databases 157command line mode 157creating new projects 107data relationships 32data, overview 28databases

building 147creating 147

distributed processing with 158fundamental concepts 24GUI overview 17installation 19materials list 18overview 15panes

showing and hiding 33, 34preferences 34, 35preview mode 102projects, authoring 101publishing databases 154setup

single machine 160source providers, managing 75starting 24supported data formats 98system manager start or stop command 166system requirements 18system settings 161tool bar and menu 32troubleshooting connection 21tutorial 37upgrading 20vector project settings 108

191Index

viewing project data in 132workflow 24, 26workspace overview 32workspace panes 33, 132

Keyhole Asset Root 161Keyhole configuration script 20khconfigure

using 20khsystem

starting 21khsystemmanager process 21khtop 22khvol naming 158

Llayer groups

defined 113adding to 115creating 114removing from 115

layersadding to projects 109default state 112defined 109deleting 111multiple source layers 169naming 112ordering 111, 112, 131properties for 111selecting icon for 112viewing for projects 178

Mmask values, for imagery or terrain assets 83max jobs

default value 161menu

pop-up 107project 107

meta dataadding to vector assets 170

mosaicfill settings for 172specifying fill values for 84tolerance settings for 172

mount point name recommendations 161multiple machines

configuring 158

Nnavigating

Keyhole 2 Fusion controls 132resetting view 135zooming in 133

network settings 18NVIDIA graphics card 18

Pplacemarks

adding 134managing 134

point dataconfiguration files for 95creating source files for 98defining custom 94importing custom 98

pop-up menusenabling 123Keyhole 2 Fusion GUI 107

pop-up textadding 123

preferencesKeyhole 2 Fusion 35

preview modeadjusting layers 104dragging and dropping files 103for imagery 42, 45for vector data 106imagery or terrain data 104opening files 102source data 25, 49, 102using 102

PRJ files, providing 98process monitoring 166project menu 107projection formats

providing 98supported 99

projectsdefined 29adding assets to 46, 183adding to databases 148

Index192

authoring 25, 101, 106building 26, 142, 174, 185canceling build for 185cleaning 145closing 109commandline mode for 181creating new 107debugging builds 142defining 25directory of 108failed builds, restarting 144imagery

as base map 48building 47creating 181tutorial 46using 131

layerscontrols 109naming 109order for terrain or imagery 131ordering 111properties for vector data 111

marking as bad 146, 180naming 107opening existing 109removing assets 184saving 107, 108sharing 32size limitations 131templates for vector projects 117, 118, 183,

184terrain

using 131terrain, creating 181types 107vector 111

“add to” or “replace” 108configuration 108creating 54, 182grouping layers 113naming 109ordering layers 112

viewing geocode files for 178viewing layer names 178

provider managerusing 75

Rreplace Keyhole layers 108, 182resolution

viewing differences 132road data

configuring 55names 56

road labelsformatting for 121highway number 121setting 120shields for 121

Sserver tasks

monitoring 166source data

applying to assets for update 88configuring location of 20previewing 49, 102re-using 78

source providersdefining 39managing 75

system default settings 161system manager

log file for 23starting 21starting or stopping 166troubleshooting 23verifying 22

system requirements 18systemrc settings, modifying 167

Tterrain data

alpha mask settings 172assets

adding to projects 183building 69creating 68, 81location for 173

commandline creation 170default settings for 161elevation units 85, 171fill settings 172in projects 131

193Index

layer order in projects 131overview 27previewing 67, 104projects 71provider key 83, 171showing and hiding 141source date 82, 172source file constraints 170viewing resolution differences 132

text filesimporting into Keyhole 2 Fusion 94

text labelscolor 122for vector data 122position 122thickness of 122viewing level 122

texture datatoggling base texture 141

TFW files, providing 98tolerance values 172transparency

for line data 119troubleshooting asset build failure 176tutorial 37

adding base map for 48asset manager folders 41building terrain assets 69building vector assets 52database creation 72database publishing 74imagery assets

building 44creating 41importing 43previewing 45

imagery preview 42imagery project 46installing 21, 38overview 37road data for 55source providers for 39terrain assets 66terrain project 71vector assets 49vector project 54

Uupgrading Keyhole Fusion data 20

Vvector data

add to Keyhole layers 182assets

adding meta data for 170adding to projects 184building 52creating 80location for 170

changing viewing level 138character encoding 80, 169creating your own point data 94default settings for 161display rules

See also, display rulessetting 25, 30, 115

feature details 137field labels 122filtering field information 127icons

standard 123line features 118line thickness 119multiple layers 81, 169new project 182overview 27pop-up menus 123previewing 106provider 80provider key 170replace Keyhole layers 182road display 55setting layer properties 111source date 80, 170templates for projects 117, 118, 183, 184terminal commands 168text labels 122tutorial 49using in projects 27, 111viewing data fields 135visibility range, setting 119

vector featurezooming to 138

Index194

vector formats, supported 100viewing level

meter display 138viewing pane

navigating 132resetting view 135selecting vector data in 135using 25

visibility rangefor line data 119

volumesadding to grid 164editing definitions for 165name conflicts with 158

Wwildcard matching, for vector data 130workflow

diagram 26overview 24

Zzoom

box mode 133drag mode 133to a selected feature 138

195Index

Documents

Google Earth Fusion Help