How to overlay just border info on satelitte imagery

[mazzgolf]

Folks: hopefully, someone can help a poor newbie here. Upfront, let me give you my question short and sweet:

In short, for my eTrex20, I want to see satelite imagery with simple WMA border lines drawn to show me where the WMAs are.

Ok, now the gory details:

First, some background. I just bought a Garmin eTrex20. Through tips I found on the 'net (including these forums) I was able to install some nice CustomMaps using Google Earth and some other things. I also am looking at BirdsEye, but not sure yet if I want to get this service

Here's what I want. I am a hunter and I want to make sure when I'm in the woods, I stay within the boundaries of the public hunting WMAs here in NJ. So I want, minimally, an overlay of the WMA boundary lines on my maps. It would be nice to have this together with satelite imagery.

I have maps that NJ DFW provide with the outlines/borders of the WMAs. I used image editing software to create a PNG with only the boundary lines - everything else is transparent background. I then overlaid that on top of Google Earth imagery - awesome! A KMZ with satelite imagery overlaid with outlines of the WMAs! Alas, Garmin's eTrex20 custom map feature doesn't allow for PNG - only JPEG. But JPEG doesn't support transparent backgrounds! So I was forced to do the normal CustomMap thing to get an image of the entire area map with the boundary lines shown. But it got the job done.

But now I'm looking at how nice BirdsEye is. So, my question is - is there anyway to overlay a PNG on top of BirdsEye satelite imagery to get what I want? I want the satelite data, but I want these border lines to show up so I know what is inside the WMA and what is not. Again, if it can help, I have a PNG file with just the black border lines, with everything else as a transparent background (so the PNG overlaid on top of another image should show through that underlying image, no matter what my Draw Order is - or so I think it should work - this is what I did with Google Earth and it was great. The problem is eTrex20 custom map feature cannot render PNG images, only JPG).

Does any of this make sense?

 

[Boyd]

Yeah, makes perfect sense. But a "custom map" is not what you want. It's a form of raster imagery - a picture. You want a vector based map - one that consists of geometric objects - lines, polygons and points. Have you looked at my map yet? http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/maps/view/294/

It includes NJ openspace boundaries - state forests, WMA's, county parks, etc. If you enable it at the same time as Birdseye, it will overlay it and you can get what you want. But it will be a little cluttered because you will also have contour lines, roads, streams, etc. But give it a try and see what you think.

I have an upcoming project that will include boundaries all of NJ openspace on a topo map, but without the forest cover of my NJ2012 map. No promise as to when it will be available though - this stuff takes awhile.

 

[mazzgolf]

Oooo, I have not seen that one, Boyd. Thanks, I'll give it a try. I am interested in State Forest boundaries too (Wharton to be specific) - hopefully, this is just what I need. Thanks! I'll post back to give my results when I get a chance to do this.

 

[Boyd]

I just tried and although the lines are overlaid on Birdseye, they don't show up very well. They will show better if you just use my map by itself. You could setup two profiles on your eTrex - one with Birdseye and the other with my map. That would let you switch between them quickly.

But I'm not so happy with the way the boundaries show in the 2012 map, they are kind of lost in the clutter. I wanted to show forest cover, and that would make it too confusing to also have shaded openspace. So this is why I'm going to make a new map with an openspace theme.

Here's an example from the 2012 map in Basecamp FWIW

 

[mazzgolf]

OK, yeah, I see. I just tried it, I agree you do "lose" the boundary lines in the clutter. I'm more interested in the boundaries than I am with the elevation markings and things like that. I wish the NJ DFW would release something like that. They could have simple GPS maps with just the WMAs - they could even have ones with the deer zones, turkey zones. Nothing fancy - don't even need all the TOPO markings, just the boundaries. You wouldn't happen to know if those guys in div. fish/wildlife have anything like that do you? I didn't see anything on their website.

Anyway, I await with bated breath with any new maps you want to publish in the future

 

[Teegate]

Oooo, I have not seen that one, Boyd. Thanks, I'll give it a try. I am interested in State Forest boundaries too (Wharton to be specific) - hopefully, this is just what I need. Thanks! I'll post back to give my results when I get a chance to do this.

As someone who has spent years collecting state forest survey maps I can tell you without a doubt you will have a hard time coming up will all of Wharton. It really is a huge place with hundred's of parcels. If you have any small particular place in mind I may be able to help you with the boundaries. I have many of them, especially the older acquisitions.

Guy

 

[manumuskin]

I can't put the openspace map directly on my gps but I have put it into Globalmapper and picked points looking for stones and monuments and can say that sometimes it's spot on but it is not uncommon for it to be off by 200 ft or more.Of course if your not a stone hunter this small inaccuracy will mean nothing to you,unless of course your busted tresspassing 200 ft over someones property line

 

[Boyd]

I can't put the openspace map directly on my gps but I have put it into Globalmapper

Is this the map, or are you using something else? I had forgotten about this, but it might be helpful for Mazzgolf. http://forums.njpinebarrens.com/threads/nj-wma-maps.6937/

 

[manumuskin]

I have a SHP file of the NJ open space map.It is too big to post here but if you don't have it I could send it to your email.It opens as the boundaries to all the openspace in NJ on Globalmapper and then I can download topo or aerials underneath of it.I then pick corners and write down the coords which i make a gpx file out of and feed into my gps and then look for stones on the corners.I could do all this right through Globalmapper if I had the paid version it should interface with my GPS but being a Magellan who knows.Hardly anything works with it like it does with Garmin.I also have an MDB file that not only gives you the shape of the properties but Block and Lot numbers as well.I know from experience that these boundaries are not exact and may be several hundred feet off though occasionally they are spot on.

 

[manumuskin]

BY the way that MDB file includes all properties at the date the file was made.It is basically tax maps for all of south Jersey.You can get it on the NJGIN site.As a matter of fact that is what I am using for the openspace.I forgot to mention that it is not just an openspace shapefile but I use it in conjunction with the openspace map to determine property boundaries so I know where I can look for stones without tresspassing and remain on public property.

 

[Boyd]

There are two files available for NJ Openspace that I have used, and I believe they're both rolled into the .kmz file in my link above. One file has County owned properties and the other is State owned: http://www.state.nj.us/dep/gis/stateshp.html#COOPEN

Unfortunately these files are from 2007 and 2008 and I don't know if newer data is available. And there is also some federally owned openspace (Forysthe, etc) plus properties from NJCF and other organizations. Some of the NJ counties have their own GIS download sites with additional data too.

I have tried to aggregate all of these, but need to do some more homework to find the most current data before I offer a new map. You can download tax parcel shapefiles for the whole state at NJGIN, but unfortunately these files don't contain ownership data, just lot and block numbers and an ID that links them to the NJ MOD4 database containing ownership data.

Is there somewhere that MOD4 data can be bulk downloaded? I have not found any. You can make individual queries through this portal. I guess I should play around with this because it seems to be capable of returning up to 1000 results in Excel format: http://oprs.co.monmouth.nj.us/oprs/External.aspx?iId=12