Can gINT export boring log location & information to BING maps as it does in Google Earth?
The short answer is "yes…sort of". The long answer is provided below.
gINT displays borings in Google earth by creating a KML file and then calling Google earth with that KML file to display the borings. The same KML file can be imported in Bing Maps but the import changes some functionality. I have not played with this a lot so if you experiment and find solutions to some of the limitations listed in the step by step below, please post back those experiences and solutions.
1. Create KML file from gINT. When you select View Borings in Google Earth from the Input, Additional modules, Google Earth menu (or use [F9]) it will ask you for a file name to use for the kml file. Note the file name and location you pick. I am told that in order for this to work in gINT you have to have Google earth installed but I have never not had Google earth installed so I cannot confirm this. If you do not have Google earth installed and gINT prevents you from creating the KML file, there are other ways to quickly create the KML file using your gINT location data (post back and I can expand on this).
2. Start Bing Maps (www.bing.com\maps). The ability to import points in Bing seems to be highly dependent on your browser. My experience is that Chrome will not even display the import option, Internet Explorer 8 displays the option and dialog but the import seems to lock up and fail, Firefox worked for me (but slowly). I would hope later versions of IE would work but I have not had an opportunity to test them. Thus the following instructions use Firefox on Windows XP.
3. Select the My places icon in the upper left portion of the Bing Maps screen. The My places dialog should appear on the right hand side of the screen (see picture below).
4. You will need to have a windows live account for My places to work. You can sign in to your windows account from the My places dialog. The account is free and provides a place to store your My places on the web allowing you to access it from any computer.
5. The import button will display in the My places dialog when you do not have any of the My places lists selected (selecting a list replaces the import button with an actions button). Clicking the Import button will bring up the Import dialog. Here you can browse to the KML file created in step 1 (calling up the file dialog was very slow on my computer using firefox but it eventually came up…did not investigate why). Also select if you want to create a new list in My places or if you want to add the imported points to an existing list.
6. Click Import and your points will be imported.
7. The imported points have the following characteristics that I have not looked into:
7.1 Once imported, all three browsers mentioned above can display the points and access associated information. See the picture below for how the imported points appear in Internet Explorer 8.
7.2 Boring location icons that may have been assigned in gINT are ignored and replaced with circled numbers that correlate to the list in the My places dialog. The actual boring numbers are not displayed on the map but the boring numbers do display in the My places list and in the Bing pop up balloon when you click on the numbered circles. See the picture below.
7.3 If you have assigned a hyperlink to a pdf of the boring log in the KML description field as described in the following 2 posts in this forum:
Google Earth and gINT....what can I actually do?
Creating Links to PDF's of boring logs in Google Earth
I have found that the hyperlink does not display properly in Bing’s pop up balloons. The hyperlink does display properly in the associated My places dialog entry.
7.4 If the hyperlinks are to a local location on your PC, Bing could not find them. This is discussed in detail in the posts listed above. I did not spend any time trying to trouble shoot this so if you come up with a solution please post back. Probably has something to do with the path or security settings.
7.5 A hyperlink referencing a public location (or in my case a private location on a share point server with a unique URL) did actually work when clicked on in the Bing My places dialog. I probably should add to the posts above with directions on how to create hyperlinks to PDF files of boring logs stored on a sharepoint server (not sure anyone would be interested though).
Hope this helps and good luck.