Google Earth Offline for Mac?

[svtrio]

Based on Factors advice ...

I just downloaded Google Earth (free). Took a couple of minutes to review the three guidance tools. Noted that image resolution was limited to viewing screen resolution (a pay version offered higher resolution).

Navigated to Hope Town, Bahamas, and used Google Earth's command to save a JPEG image to the desktop … but I could have saved it directly to a folder, etc.

A line at the bottom of the saved image includes the capture date of the Google image, lat/long, elevation, and "eye altitude," which appears to be the altitude at which my image was saved by me. Really neat.

That said, a close-up image is "fuzzed", but a size I'd like for an overview of an anchorage/approach appears very sharp.

Lately, I've been lurking for the most part, but this topic stirred me to try Google Earth with my Mac. Now I have something else for the Nav Toolbox. Thanks for the topic guys!

Roger

[mrybas]

Originally Posted by Factor

What about just screen shotting, i.e. find each anchorage and do a screen shot (Command/Shift/4) and then just save the files by name or maybe by Lat/Long. You can annotate them in preview and even have a a few different views? Not elegant but it works, and you can even get Lat Long out of the VCF file if you drop a pin and email it to yourself. then add the lat/long to the file info in comments and then its searchable in spotlight? As I said not elegant, but not hard and free.

For example the Manly file, has been annotated to show the names of marinas etc and the file info includes lat/long

And if you screen shot from Google earth, the lat long is in the shot

This certainly works for getting an idea of the 'lay of the land' before sailing to a new anchorage. However, if you use the method that DavefromNZ describes, you can connect your mac to an external GPS and load all of the different sat images that you have saved back into Google earth and the GPS will position you on the image. I wouldn't rely on this for navigation purposes, but it is useful for areas in the Tuamotus where there are tons of coral heads and the sat imagery along with gps position can help you drop the anchor in that one little patch of sand.

[mrybas]

Originally Posted by DavefromNZ

You can find and store the Google Earth map files in either Mac or Windows. In both cases you will need to unhide the hidden files. This is approximately where you can find the file directories or search for "unified_cache_leveldb_leveldb2"

In Mac go to User\Library\Caches\Google\Google Earth\unified_cache_leveldb_leveldb2

Cut and Paste all content from this directory and store contents for offline regions.

In Window similar directory somewhere in

C:\Users\[yourname]\AppData\LocalLow\Google\GoogleEarth\ unified_cache_leveldb_leveldb2

Windows is naturally easier to unhide, in Mac:

Step 1: u need to open the Terminal and type the commands:
1 defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool true
That sets the flag to make the hidden files viewable.

Step 2: u need to restart the finder application by ‘killing’ the application:
1 Killall Finder

U should be able to view the hidden files. To revert back to hidding the files again, just follow the steps again but change the word true to false in Step 1.

Hey DavefromNZ,
I just went through the process of saving the cache, deleting GE cache, going offline, hooking up my gps, and reloading the saved cache......and it worked like a charm! Unhiding files in OSX Mavericks is even easier than your directions above (google 'unhide library mavericks' and there is a helpful macworld article). Thanks for your help... I owe you a Moneiths when I make it to NZ next year!

[mrybas]

This is a screen shot with the GPS hooked up while the computer was offline. I had previously saved the GE cache to the desktop, then cleared the GE memory and disk cache. You just have to open back up the 'unified_cache_leveldb_leveldb2 folder" (see DavefromNZ's instructions) and paste your saved data.
This isn't that helpful of a feature if you have internet on a regular basis, but I'm about to sail from the Tuamotus to NZ where internet access is not readily available and expensive. While I have good access to the internet I can save GE images all the way across the Pacific!

[SunDevil]

I don't understand why Google hasn't sold a 3TB or 4TB USB hard drive with worldwide sat images for off-line use (and to save their servers and speed up the process). They could sell it for $500+, and it would sell.

[DavefromNZ]

hi mrybas,

Glad it worked OK. I will be using it in the South of NZ around Stewart Island and Fiordland in Feb. Probably with the GPS to check for rocks, etc when entering bays and also to see what is inland worth tramping to. A friend said it was good in Fiji waters to help avoid the coral heads.

One other hint I have; I found that when I was using GE and the GPS for real time location that it would keep settling at about 2000ft and I wanted maybe 1000ft altitude. The only thing I could find to override that was a Windows program called Earth Bridge. I bit fiddly but I got there in the end.

I will look forward to the Monteith's :-) safe travels, dave