how to use ge graph - wordpress.com · 2017-07-07 · ge graph stands for ‘google earth graph’...

How to use GE Graph Naturalinfo.co.uk

Copyright ©2012 Naturalinfo.co.uk Author: Liam Ring

GE Graph

GE graph stands for ‘Google Earth Graph’ and is a free programme which you can download from a number of different

websites. As the name suggests, the programme is used in conjunction with Google Earth to allow you to produce a

number of different geo-located and impressive looking graphs. The only way you can use GE Graph effectively is to make

polygons in Google Earth first. Making polygon’s is covered in the ‘How to use Google Earth guide’ however saving them

and organising them is not so I will start with how to do that.

1) Make a new folder in the ‘my places’ sidebar. Right click ‘my places’, click on ‘add’, and then ‘new

folder’



2) Give the folder a name before clicking ‘OK’ as you are going to save it on your computer later on.

Naming it now with make it easier to find when it comes to opening it up in GE Graph. For the

purpose of this tutorial I have named mine ‘GE graphy Tutorial’



3) Make some polygons (click on the button) once you make one polygon make sure you name it

before moving onto the next.

4) Once you have made your polygon’s make sure they are all in the same folder. To put them into the

folder drag and drop them. It should look something like the image below.



5) You now need to save the folder. To do this right click on the folder with the polygons in it and click

‘save place as…’ make sure you save it as a KML file.



6) Open up GE Graph, select ‘file’ and then ‘open file’.



7) Find the KML you have just saved and click ‘open’



8) The name of the polygons should now be displayed in the right hand column of the GE Graph

programme. With the value of zero next to them.



9) Under ‘graph type’ the ‘3D’ option will automatically be selected when you open the programme

and therefore I will start with 3D graphs first.

3D Graphs

Enter values under the ‘value’ column. For the purpose of this tutorial I am going to use the populations of each of the settlements. I have highlighted all the important parts. For a simple 3D graph make sure you keep the height ‘according to value’ and keep the colour ‘constant’. Choose an ‘Automatic Scale’ and fill in the graph with a colour of your choice. Give the graph a title (and/or subtitle), make sure you click ‘show title in GE’ . You can change the font, colour, and background colour of the title also. Once you have done all this click the ‘Run’ tab.



Once you have clicked on the ‘run’ tab a box will come up asking you to save the file. It should have the same name as the KMZ file but with –graph written at the end. You can change the name or leave it as it is. Save the file and click ‘OK’ and the file will open in Google Earth.



Chloropleth maps To make a chloropleth map you need to be just as organised with your polygons. If you want to show a change over a certain area is may be worth making polygons right next to each other in order to show a more gradual change. I have done this in the example below. The image below shows you what the polygons looked like before they were ‘GE Graphed’.



Each polygon has been given a number with ‘1’ being where succession is starting, and the ‘10’ representing the climax community (end point). In reality 10 pH readings have been taken along a transect and I now want to use GE Graph to show how the readings change. Succession is happening from right to left and therefore the polygons have been organised accordingly. The opacity of the polygons has been changed using the side bar on the left, the sliding scale has been highlighted.

1) Save the polygons in a folder. Right click on the ‘folder’ and select ‘Save place as..’



2) Make sure you save the folder as a KML file.



3) Open up the KML file in GE Graph.

a. Open GE Graph click ‘file’ then ‘open file’ once open it should look something like the box

below.

b. Give the graph a title and make sure ‘flat’ is selected.



4) Enter your values. In this example the values are pH readings which were taken at the 10 sites.

5) Make sure all the highlighted options are ‘checked’ change the colour scale using the ‘custom colour scale’ option.

Choose a light and dark colour and click OK (if you don’t click ‘ok’ it won’t set it). I have chosen a min and max value of

1 and 14 to represent the pH scale. However you could chose ‘automatic scale’ depending on what you are doing.



6) Click ‘Run’ and it will ask you to save the file. It should have the same name of the polygon folder but with the word

‘graph’ on the end. Make sure you are saving it as a ‘KML’ file and click ‘Save’. This will then open the file in Google

Earth.



It should look something like the image below.



Below are some other examples of chloropleth maps. Why not make them 3D aswell?

how to use ge graph - wordpress.com · 2017-07-07 · ge graph stands for ‘google earth graph’...

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