Google Earth KML Import Error and a Data Fix

[Paul Hutchinson]

When I import a KML file into Google Earth Pro I get the following message:

Error while parsing file ...
Unknown element <hotSpot>

Examining the KML file I found that the hotSpot element is positioned before the </Icon> tag but the Google KML reference says it should be after the </Icon> tag and before the </IconStyle> tag. So I edited the KML file and it fixed the GE import error (Notepad++ advanced search and replace automates the fix).

When viewing tracks in GE they would partially disappear after the first playback. This is caused by the very inaccurate altitude values made by the GPS hardware. To fix the issue I first copy the text from the altitude field in GE and paste it into the description so I don't loose the data, then I change the tracks altitude setting from Absolute to Clamped to ground. By doing this GE will use its own data for altitude which is vastly more accurate than my GPS data (e.g. recorded track, GPS 250' to 734', GE 584' to 639'). Doing this change makes the Elevation Profile and Play Tour features of GE more useful for recorded tracks.

[Michael Schollmeyer]

Hi Paul,

Thanks for the feedback. I'll fix the KML bug in the next release. I noticed this when playing with Google Earth before, but thought GE is just not supporting hot spots. Thanks for digging deep on this!

Do you really have to remove the altitude data? Thought just setting "clamp to ground" would make GE ignore the data and show the track properly.

Regards, Michael
mictale.com/ms
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[Paul Hutchinson]

Hello Michael ,

You're welcome and thank you for putting it on your fix list.

I'm not surprised you thought it might just be lack of GE support for the hot spot tag considering the vague error message GE spits out. I'm an embedded systems hardware & software engineer so I have a habit of digging deep when I see an error message. I couldn't see anything that looked wrong when I examined the KML file, and I love to solve a mystery so I had to check the language docs to see what was up.

You are correct that don't have to move the data, all you really need to do is change the setting. I just like to save all original data for future reference.

FYI, this was my first serious usage of GPS Essentials for tracking a hike. I had a few other unexpected results but I've diagnosed them all conclusively to have been user errors.

Thanks Again,
Paul