Munzee Virtual Grid Generator     

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This application quickly creates a spread sheet of gps co-ordinates for a virtual Munzee garden. It takes a polygon set of co-ordinates to set the bounds of the grid, and calculates all the positions within the polygon. It also excepts an exclusion list for existing munzees in the area, and it will calculate if each new grid point is far enough away from the existing munzee, before adding it to the results. The output is a CSV file, comma separated text file, which can be read by most spread sheets. Additional features include creating the Google spread sheet directly from the application and generation of a Google earth kml file, and launching of Google earth showing the pins. New version has Trails, which will place pins along the path you have specified.

Download version 3.2 of the application from here (86Mb zip file).     download

3.2 - 18/03/2017

3.1 - 15/09/2016

3.0 - 21/08/2016

Download the old version 2.2 of the application from here,

2.2 - 28/07/2014: Fixed bug with multiple running application with sub areas, created all the same pin type. Added up and down buttons to sub areas. Defaulted the output directory to c:\temp, to fix the permission issue with creating files under the application folder. Fixed the output dialog from a open file dialog to a save file dialog. Fixed typo in the pin type default name.

2.1 - 27/07/2014: Added ability to see pins in Google Earth, it will actually use custom pins of the actual munzee type; Added better error handling.

2.0 - 09/06/2014: Added ability to use sub areas, and direct creation of Google earth spread sheet. Able to select pin type

 Older Versions: Download version 2.1 of the application from here, Download version 2.0 of the application from here, Download version 1.0 of the application from here

Installation should be pretty straight forward. Extract all the files from the Zip File. Run the 'SetupMunzeeVitualGridGenerator.exe'. Then  next, next, next.....finish.

Please note that on some machines the application needs to be run as Administrator, and was designed using Australian Regional settings,.

Generator Application

Application Inputs:

The first input is the Polygon boundaries of the location you wish to generate the grid. There are two file types that the application will accept (kml file from Google earth, or a plain text file)

Polygon Boundary

KML File:

Google Earth makes creating the polygon or path very easy, this is the recommended way. The generator can take a saved kml version of the path or polygon as an input. Google earth will also allow you to overlay images, set the transparency, and then allow you to trace a path around them.

Setting an overlay Image:

If you want to trace an object (image) outline, than use the overlay image option in Google earth, else jump to the next step

Right mouse click on 'My Places' select 'Add' Image overlay. Then simply select you image. you can size, rotate and position the image where you want. Also set the transparency to the desired level.

If you don't have the properties dialog open for the image you cannot get access to the green handles to resize and move the image. To reopen the image properties dialog, select the image under My Places, and right click and select properties from the menu. Now you should have the handles to move, resize and rotate the image.

Image Overlay

Now right mouse click on 'My Places' select 'Add' and then 'Path'. Click around your image creating a path of all the coordinates.

Create Path

Once you have got the path back to the starting place, you need to save the path

Right mouse click on your path item under 'My Places' and select 'Save Place as...' in the dialog make sure you pick the 'save as type' to be KML file type

Warning: You must have your PATH item selected and not the Image, else the application will not work. See image below has an icon of a path and NOT the image overlay icon. Allot of users are making this mistake!

Save as

You should now have your kml input file for the generator

Text file:

Don't need this if you created a kml file with Google earth

You can supply a txt file with one co-ordinate per line, comma separated instead of the Google earth kml file

e.g.

144.9701927038132,-37.80087255135991
144.9741874725007,-37.80127859673078
144.9734687246482,-37.80543310115204
144.9693830667234,-37.80500599124166
144.9701927038132,-37.80087255135991

Exclusion List:

This is a text file, that contains existing Munzee co-ordinates. One coordinate per line, separated by a comma Latitude, Longitude in decimal.

New GPX file import, use the munzee map, to select the surrounding area of your garden. Then on the map select 'Sandbox' and select 'Save GPX'. Then use the last button on the exclusion list filename box to import the GPX file.
You can still manually add via the Munzee map and select each existing Munzee in the target area, and simply copy the decimal coordinates from the Munzee details page, past them into the exclusion file, and then add a comma between the latitude and longitude

e.g.

-35.16671, 147.38713
-35.16649, 147.38869
-35.168, 147.38605
-35.16813, 147.38727
-35.16809, 147.38791
-35.16826, 147.38803
-35.16904, 147.38828

Munzee Title:

This is the title added to the top of the output as a title.

Meters Separation:

This is the distance apart each Munzee is from the next one. Recommend not making it less than 20, as the distance calculation uses this value -1 meter

Screen Scale:

If your output does not fit on the screen, you can reduce this value to scale the output image generated.

Munzee Name Prefix:

This is the text put in front of the number of each pin generated.

Once you have it setup how you want simply press generate to get the output file.

Generator Output

Once you have the file I open in a spread sheet, and copy the contents into a Google Drive Spread sheet, and then share the document with anyone that has the link, making sure you allow others to edit.

Sub Areas:

Sub areas allow you to add additional areas (Google paths kml files), and select the type of pin to be used within this area. Select the tab to add and order your sub areas. The order of these is very important if they overlap, basically the application will use the pin type as the first sub area that it is inside of. So build the sub areas in order from the top of the image down to the background. You can use the up and down buttons to get the correct order. HINT: When saving your sub areas, in Google earth, name them with order numbers first then the colour, then the description of the area. This makes it easier to setup in the application later. The order of the sub areas, is very important, usually best to have the inner most sub area first and the outer subarea last.

Google Spread Sheet:

For how to do the Google Drive Click here.

The latest version now has a button which will allow you to add your Google credentials and automatically create your spread sheet for you. For how to set permissions see the Google drive section. Click here.

View Pins on Google Earth:

The latest version has a button which will launch Google earth and show you the output munzee pins in Google earth. See the below Australian Flag showing image and pins in Google Earth:

Some Existing Gardens created with the Application. See the list here

Boxing Kangaroo.
Wagga Wagga Mystery Virtual Garden at Bolton Park.
Place of Many Crows at Rawlings park.
Australian Flag

Hope you it works for you, and Happy Munzeeing!

Donate If you like the program please consider donating!

Darren Hinkley (Hinklenator)

 Hinklenator Hinklenator

 

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