Ontario Atlas Map

[AgentDBCooper]

Hey guys,

I was wondering if there is a way I can export chunks of map from this resource and upload to Google Earth, or Basecamp, or a Garmin device?
h*******p://www.gisapplication.lrc.gov.on.ca/CLUPA/Index.html?site=CLUPA&viewer=CLUPA&locale=en-US

The Atlas doesn't work well on mobile device, so I'm always stuck printing out pages, which isn't ideal, when I have an awesome GPS device waiting to be used.

Any ideas? Thanks!

[jolly47roger]

If only the PDFs were GeoReferenced, then it would be easy.

The workflow would be:

1. Download a PDF
2. Identify coordinate points for georeferencing (see below)
3. Georeference the PDF by matching points to coordinates
4. Crop the collar to just leave the map detail
5. Cut the map into 1Mpixel pieces to make a KMZ for Google Earth and/or a Garmin Custom Map.

If you can match enough highway bends/junctions, lakes or other landmarks then this technique with MAPC2MAPC may work :
http://www.the-thorns.org.uk/mapping/GEcalibrate.pdf

MAPC2MAPC (with GDAL) will do the rest.

But I declare an interest as the author of MAPC2MAPC!

[AgentDBCooper]

If only the PDFs were GeoReferenced, then it would be easy.

The workflow would be:

1. Download a PDF
2. Identify coordinate points for georeferencing (see below)
3. Georeference the PDF by matching points to coordinates
4. Crop the collar to just leave the map detail
5. Cut the map into 1Mpixel pieces to make a KMZ for Google Earth and/or a Garmin Custom Map.

If you can match enough highway bends/junctions, lakes or other landmarks then this technique with MAPC2MAPC may work :


MAPC2MAPC (with GDAL) will do the rest.

But I declare an interest as the author of MAPC2MAPC!

Whao.. none of that sounded like English to me. xD xD

Yes, the PDF it exports is pretty difficult to use. I was hoping there would be a third party tool to export a certain layer I can then use as an overlay somewhere else.

Clearly a little over my head. Can you refer me to a tutorial, or something that might help me understand the words that you just said?

Thanks!

[jolly47roger]

I'm not aware of a third party tool - but I don't know everything.

pMail me and I will try to walk you through it.

But it can be done using push-pins to supply the coordinates.

Example here : www.the-thorns.org.uk/Landscape.kmz

[Pooneil]

You could handle the whole thing in the open source GIS package, QGIS.  It'll take a bit of work to learn how, but you can output nice geolocated PDF maps or geo tif files that can be converted into KMZ. 

https://www.qgis.org/

[Boyd]

Here's a simple tutorial for making "Garmin Custom Maps". Garmin devices can only use images that are a maximum of 1024x1024 pixels however, which is a big limitation. However, you can have multiple .kmz files of that size, so you can break a larger image into individual "tiles". You could use a program like Photoshop to make the tiles.

Basecamp doesn't have a limitation like this however, so if you only want to use the map on your computer the image can be as large as you want.

https://www.garmin.com/us/products/onthetrail/custommaps

[MojaveMan]

Turning PDFs to kmz for my garmin is something I do on a very regular basis.  For some reason I'm insane enough to enjoy it.
If you have a PDF that you would like in your garmin as a custom map, I would be happy to try to convert it for you, or even talk you through the process I use if you would like to learn.

Jeff

[AgentDBCooper]

Turning PDFs to kmz for my garmin is something I do on a very regular basis.  For some reason I'm insane enough to enjoy it.
If you have a PDF that you would like in your garmin as a custom map, I would be happy to try to convert it for you, or even talk you through the process I use if you would like to learn.

Jeff

Thanks Jeff! And everyone who took the time to reply.

I'm going to slowly learn the process of doing this, but I would greatly appreciate your offer to help me make a map. As of right now, there is only a relatively small piece of Crown Land that I would like mapped for my Garmin. I'll attached it right now as a PDF.

The two plots that are yellow are said Crown Land. It's important that I never cross the lines into private property. Having the Crown lines overlay Google Maps, or OSM map for Garmin, would be gold to me.

Again, thank you!

[MojaveMan]

This map looks really very small and should not be difficult to convert into a custom map.  I would like to stress that such a trivial thing as a few rectangles are probably more suited to the more "normal" way where you end up with a .img file for the garmin.
We are going to end up with a .kmz file that GoogleEarth uses, and place it in the "\Grmin\Custom Maps" directory on the unit (or on its memory card, if you have one).

So, step one is to convert it to an image.  For this I will use a free graphics manipulation tool called imagemagick.  I use this to convert and manipulate the images (for example, to convert from UTC to Lat/Lon I run it through a distortion using imagimagick).  For your .pdf, I suspect all we will need to do is convert it to a .jpg.

After playing with a few options, here is the command I used:
convert +antialias -colorspace sRGB -density 200 .\Landscape.pdf map200.jpg

I determined that the provided PDF seems to be an image that is already antialiased, so I turned off antialiasing (I know, that + makes it look like I'm trying to add it).
I played with various DPI settings and found 200 to be "adequate".  Going up to 300 didn't help any - this pdf is not a terribly high quality image.
I'm attaching the resulting file.

[MojaveMan]

So, the next step is to use GoogleEarth to georeference the file and create the .kml.
In order to do that, we need to have an idea of where on the earth this location is.  Can you give me a hint?

Ok, I found the location of interest, and did my best to georeference the file.  There does appear to be some minor differences (like the roads are not *exact*), but what I have done should place the most precision around those yellow boxes you are concerned about.

So I'm attaching the map in .kmz format.  You can look in google earth to see if this meets your standards, but DON'T put it in your garmin yet.

EDIT
I made a second attempt at georeferencing, and think this second one (map2.kmz) may be a bit better.

[MojaveMan]

Step 3 is to consider the size of the map file and tile the map.  We want to wait to do this until you are happy with the map as it is.  So, can you take a peek in Google Earth and make sure you like it?
Once you are happy, we need to cut the big map file into little tiles that the garmin can use.  I have written a script to do this, but there are many online tools that will do it too...

[AgentDBCooper]

44.97393333129668, -75.84388328135792

These are coordinates to a spot I pinned while there. Does that work?

[AgentDBCooper]

Step 3 is to consider the size of the map file and tile the map.  We want to wait to do this until you are happy with the map as it is.  So, can you take a peek in Google Earth and make sure you like it?
Once you are happy, we need to cut the big map file into little tiles that the garmin can use.  I have written a script to do this, but there are many online tools that will do it too...

Yes! Let's have a peek!

[MojaveMan]

Yes! Let's have a peek!

Do you know how to view the .kmz I provided in Google Earth?

[AgentDBCooper]

Yes! Let's have a peek!

Do you know how to view the .kmz I provided in Google Earth?

Definitely. I have the desktop version installed. I can do that much! xD