Google Earth Guide
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Google Earth utilizes a layer technology and the great thing about it is that you can for example overlay any historical map you find using the overlay feature which is a very cool trick. The full list of layers is available in the Layers panel. The layers can be used to display and saves interesting locations, show map features like borders, roads, and terrain or to display 3-D buildings.
For example, if you find online a historical image of a given city, you can save it on your computer and then place it as an overlay in Google Earth. You can also contact the local historical society and see if they have any maps you could scan or obtain electronically. Of course, this makes a great school project for teachers and students.
To enable the Rumsey maps in Google Earth, in the Layers panel, open the Featured Content folder then the Rumsey Historical Maps folder. Choose the map you want to view or choose Map Finder to display icons for available maps around the world.
You can view buildings for dozens of cities by enabling the 3D Buildings layer. You zoom in to street level and distinguish people and cars. In addition, the urban areas of 38 major U.S. cities feature 3D buildings.
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Google Earth is also integrated with the Google Local search feature that lets you find hotels, restaurants, schools, parks, and other locations. The software also lets you label and add your own location-marking pushpins.
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If your mouse has a scroll wheel, you can use it to rapidly zoom in and out of the image in the center of your viewing pane. Double-clicking any region zooms-in by roughly a factor of four. But you can move around just by using your keyboard too. Use the arrow keys to scroll, or to pan even faster, use the HOME, END, PAGE UP, and PAGE DOWN keys. Quite useful are the plus key (+) and the minus key (-) that let you zoom in and out respectively.
If you want to make the most out of this product, then you must familiarize yourself with the available menus. The Tools menu contains a list of helpful items you can quickly add to Google Earth’s default layout, such as a Web browsing pane and the Measure utility. The GPS Device tool is unavailable in the free version of Google Earth, but Google Earth Plus and Pro subscribers can use it to import geographic information from certain GPS devices. |
A very useful tool is the Measure tool that lets you measure the distance between two points, or along a path that you can draw directly onto the image. A drop-down menu lets you choose units, such as Miles, Kilometers, Inches, Feet, Nautical Miles, and even Smoots.
A very interesting trick related to Google Earth is the so called SketchUp. The free version of Google SketchUp provides you with tools that you can use to create 3D models of houses, sheds, decks, home additions, woodworking projects - even space ships. And once you've built your models, you can place them in Google Earth and see how it will actually look in the real world so that you can find its perfect positioning. Isn't that Amazing! You can donwload it at http://sketchup.google.com/download.html.
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Earth Guide Continued
