I am familiar with using the Avenza PDF smart phone app to view my position on geo-referenced PDF's.
Is anybody familiar with an inexpensive solution to seeing your position on top of your pdf when using a laptop with GPS?
Could you import the pdf into google earth as an overlay?
Of course you GPS antenna would need to be configured to work with GE. Just a thought, never tried it myself.
> Could you import the pdf into google earth as an overlay?
>
> Of course you GPS antenna would need to be configured to work with GE. Just a thought, never tried it myself.
For that to work, the laptop would also need a network connection...either wifi or tethered via the phone. When he says "seeing your position" I'm assuming he's in the field.
> > Could you import the pdf into google earth as an overlay?
> >
> > Of course you GPS antenna would need to be configured to work with GE. Just a thought, never tried it myself.
>
> For that to work, the laptop would also need a network connection...either wifi or tethered via the phone. When he says "seeing your position" I'm assuming he's in the field.
I have not found where you can import a geo-PDF into GE without doing some programming.
You can configure GE to show your position via. a GPS unit.
Lets just say I want to go to USGS and download one of their quad maps as a geo-referenced PDF and want to use it in the field on a GPS enabled laptop or tablet without having to do format conversions.
In addition I want to be able to go to the USFS website and download their transportation mapping (also provided as a geo-PDF) and use it in the field.
These tasks are easily achieved with smart phones with $5 apps. I am not getting anywhere when you try it on a laptop.
[REDACTED] has the ability to use an external gps antenna and show your position without needing a wifi connection the file (pdf, image, etc is stored on your computer). I've played around with it using an aerial image and walking around the back yard with my garmin handheld hooked up to a laptop.
Go to Terragotech dot com and look for the free TerraGO Tool Bar for Adobe Reader. It allows input from external GPS to computer and will track on screen. In Adobe Reader you need to configure the GPS com port, go to Edit/Preferences/TerraGO/GPS Options to configure the input port.
Hope this works for you, I have not tried this but I knew it was there.
Ken
Thanks, I seem to remember something about this tool from a couple years back.