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Permalink Reply by North LA on February 9, 2009 at 15:33

Google earth is amazing. Some other neat map sites include microsoft maps and zmaps. Microsoft maps has a birdseye view that really gives a great view of a piece of property. I used it a lot when I was looking for some timberland to buy. Zmaps has a lot of tools to go along with google maps such as a tool to measure acres, distance, and elevation.

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Permalink Reply by Big Daddy, bcnr on February 9, 2009 at 15:41

Google Earth is cool. It would be much better if they could update the images more often. Some of the images from my property are all of 3 years old.

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Permalink Reply by Checkmateking on February 9, 2009 at 15:51

The image where I live is over 6 years old, I wish they would hurry up and get on the ball. I wish it had an elevation feature. I was looking at some killer estates on Grand Bahama Island, we can always dream right?

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Permalink Reply by Big Daddy, bcnr on February 9, 2009 at 16:19

Checkmate, with some killer wells, perhaps we can at least spend our winter's down there. I've always waned to be a snowbird.

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Permalink Reply by Checkmateking on February 9, 2009 at 16:55

I am right there with you Cannie!

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Permalink Reply by Wolverine on February 10, 2009 at 2:08

Nice and sweet!!! But the images on my property, my trailer is not even there!!! Update would be nice!!! Again, it's nice!!!

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Permalink Reply by Randy on February 9, 2009 at 16:27

I'd like to also point out that you can get the addon for it called EarthPoint (google it) and it will show Section-Township-Range.

Randy the Lurker

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Permalink Reply by Raybies on February 10, 2009 at 0:58

The company I work for actually uses Google Earth as a simplistic GIS. It loads quick and almost any client is able to accept our data to view. This is just a quick screen shot of a recently constructed pipeline. This isn't the final build but one of the proposed areas along the way. What you are looking at here is the assessor's data, proposed easements, and proposed pipeline.

The downsides; it isn't very managable for large projects, it takes a "maintanence" to keep it updated (it doesn't update automatically), it isn't easy to query anything unless you build it into it, etc etc. We really use this to supplement our actual GIS database.

Also, in the professional version you are able to load updated aerial photography (provided you have it already), including elevations (they call it terrain). It may be something to look into if you are able to use it in your line of work. I deleted some data that may be personal even though it is public domain.

I was truly amazed when I saw the capabilities of Google Earth.

Hope this helps you guys out.

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Permalink Reply by LP on February 10, 2009 at 4:12

Another thing you can do. Need to know the measurements of your property? Click on the ruler. Then set the scale to feet. Click on a beginning spot on your property and then drag to a stop point. You'll see the exact distance.

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Permalink Reply by The_Baron on February 10, 2009 at 5:04

Check out this link, you can download Section-Township-Range data.

http://www.earthpoint.us/townships.aspx

They now have LA in the system, although some parts of the state still have incomplete data.

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