Using Google Maps with ArcMap 10

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09-30-2011 01:37 PM
DanielLunsford1
New Contributor II
I am a college student using the evaluation version of ArcMap 10 for a project.

I would like to pull in Google Maps imagery into my ArcMap 10 maps. I understand that this can be done, but my question is: how? I'm a beginning ArcMap user and a lot of the Help items I've read through seem to be dead end: that is, I follow the directions on how to add tools, but the tool I am told to add isn't where the Help article says it should be... is it because I have an evaluation copy?

Can anyone direct me to a newbie-friendly, step-by-step instructions on how to do this? Or, can anyone point me toward a free source of detailed aerial maps that ArcMap can work with directly? I've found some USGS maps but they are all far too large scale to do me any good- I need to see individual buildings in some detail, well enough to get a decent measure of their footprint in square feet.
Tags (2)
54 Replies
BrianFlood
Occasional Contributor

hi jeremy

agreed, there are plenty of places where the free ESRI imagery is adequate for the job. However, almost all of our clients end up buying subscriptions to Arc2Earth when they've determined that the ESRI or BING data is not as up to date or as high resolution as the Google data. YMMV.

cheers

brian

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YohakimSamponu
New Contributor

because it's not updated, low resolution, and always block by the cloud for area that are outside of USA

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by Anonymous User
Not applicable

" just use Bing " does not work for some people's requirements. Google and Bing leapfrog each other temporally and sometimes (most of the time) Google is more up to date. Time often matters more than resolution, with regards to imagery.

Now that Google Earth Pro has been made free.... I am wondering, any updates to this, ESRI? I imagine until now the licensing was part or most of the issue. Thanks all!

MargaretGooding
New Contributor III

I agree, Bing is simply not good enough for a lot of uses. Google Earth is usually much more recent and has better resolution when zoomed in. We often use 1:2400 for our maps. We need more recent aerials than Bing provides.

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JeremyTisdale
New Contributor II

If you are set on using google maps, just create the polygon shapes you need to in Google Earth, then export them as a KMZ.  Once in this format, you can use a quick tool in ArcMap called KML to layer.  This will convert the polygons to a usable form in ArcMap and you can manipulate it from there.  Anyway, I hope this helps.  On the opposite side of that, if you wanted to do the work in ArcMap, and then export to KMZ to check the accuracy in Google Earth.

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MaureenOMara
New Contributor II

Would you be willing to share how you create the polygon in Google Earth (Pro)? I have selected a bunch of research areas identified in Google Earth onto which I drew lines for transects for the purpose of making hard copies for field use, but if there's a way I could get these images into ArcMap I could transfer them to my gps unit.  Thanks for any advice, suggestions, help...

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JeremyTisdale
New Contributor II

I just have a basic google earth licence installed on my computer.  I am able to create a polygon using the button on the top next to the pin.  It is a create Polygon Tool.  When the window pops up, click and hold your mouse button as you trace around the polygon(free style like).  When done, click ok on the pop up window and it will save the polygon to "My Places" in the table of contents.  Right click on the "My Places" layer, and "Save Place As...", and save the file to KMZ/KML.  I hope this helps.  I was trying to do some screen shots, but of course my computer is acting up.

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MaureenOMara
New Contributor II

Thank you for the instruction but all I end up with is a blank polygon in both ArcMap and Google Earth... I think maybe I'm not understanding what the original poster was asking.  I'm trying to use the digital image and all the lines and placemarkers I'm drawing in Google earth  in ArcMap.  It takes way tooooo long to quickly move thru the basemaps from Esri for what I am doing.

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JeremyTisdale
New Contributor II

Yes, you are correct.  The original discussion was regarding using the google imagery in ArcMap.  I believe that there is a way, but I have not tried it yet.  Here is a link that I found when I did a quick google.  I hope it works.  I might try it out if I get a second at work.

How To: Add a Google Earth Satellite Image Into ...

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MaureenOMara
New Contributor II

Eeek!  This is a link to instruction from a graduate level class and I'm just a "freshman!"  :-).  I appreciate the help and will give it a go.

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