Trimble Business Center

Hej!

When I export a .kml-file for use in our drone to plan a flight, the line ends up with a huge number of segments. In TBC I only draw a square with 4 segments but when I export it, it's divided in to so many segments that the software in the drone cant handle it. Are there some kind of settings that I can change because I cant find any?

Thanks in advance. 

Magnus

So I just created a Project, I drew a Polyline using a start point in lower left of a project, and then entered coordinates for the four corners as @2000,@0  @0,@2000   @0,@-2000  and then joined back to the first point.  I selected the Autoclose property. I then used the Google Earth exporter to export just the polyline to KML. It opens in Google Earth and looks right. I then found the KML file in the Projects folder and opened it with Notepad. There are only 5 coordinate values in the file for the 5 points of the line (to create the closed figure). For the export to Google Earth I selected the Clamp to Ground Option. My line was also 2D not 3D.

At least with this method it is not creating hundreds of small segments at least not from TBC - so if the Drone Software has hundreds of nodes they must be getting created in that software not by TBC. I do't have the time today to test every type of line (Linestring, Rectangle, Boundary, Polygon) and both 2D and 3D versions of them, but this appears to be working on our side. I enclose the KML file if you want to test it in your software - the rectangle is around our Trimble Facility in Colorado.

If the line does have a lot of nodes in it in the KMLFile - you can always edit that line of coords in Notepad and reduce it down to just the 5 points or whatever you need - it is likely quicker to create the 5 points and replace the long list rather than trying to find the 4 corners in the long list of coords. However the above approach works for me but I am not using your Drone Software ....

Alan

Thank's for the answer!

I draw a polyline with 4 corners and exported a kml. I then imported it in the drone and it now have a segment every 9 meters. It is the same thing when i import it in a new TBC-project. Now that it wasn't such a big area I managed to edit it in the drone software. It's the same thing if I use the Google Earth command and then import it to a new TBC-project , a line drawed with only 4 segments is divided into 9m segments.

Then it is being added by the drone software during import and is not being generated by us

If you can send me a KML from another source that doesn't do this I can see what that does differently that is being interpreted differently by your drone software - but you can open the KML in notepad and see that there are only 4 points in the file

Alan

Sent from my iPhone

It's not the drone-software that's making the segments. I created a polyline in TBC with 4 segments and tried both the Google Earth command to get the kml-file and exported it as a kml. Then I imported it in a new TBC-project to see how it looked, without importing it to the drone at all and it was still divided into several segments. Here is the project: Dropbox - test kml - Simplify your life 

I will tak another look - it may be a Google Earth Library that we use that causes that on Import - but the file I created and opened in notepad only has 4 points - maybe because it is a geographic file we have to break it into segments for some reason - I will have to check

Alan

Sent from my iPhone

Hi Alan

Has there been a resolution to this?  I'm seeing the same thing exporting .kml files with TBC v5.32, and seeing the polylines  exported as segmented lines, with a huge number of nodes.  I'm looking at the .kml files in Notepad, immediately after export, before they go to the drone software.  I've tried both Altitude modes (Absolute or clamp to ground), and with auto-close yes and no.

I've found something curious.  When I export a .kml from an old TBC project, that has a lot of data, it exports the .kml as short segments.  If I export the closed polyline as a .vcl from the old TBC project, and import it into a new TBC project (with same coordinate system), the new TBC project will export the polyline into a .kml with the correct number of nodes (non-segmented).

I'll investigate further, as its really important for drone boundaries.  I'm not sure what elements of the large TBC project are causing the segmented .kml export.

Jeff