Extract Topographic Points from Google Earth using TCX Converter

This tutorial is for those who want to know a way of extracting topographic points from google earth.

Step 1: Download and install TCX Converter   

 

Step 2: Open Google earth application and navigate to the area of interest (the area that you want the contour points).

 

Step 3: Create a path to cover the area mentioned above. More points means more accuracy. (Note: Google earth points will only give us approximate values and not the exact one as we can see on the field during actual survey)

 

Step 4: After creating the path, right-click the path name then click "Save Place As" and save in in kml format (e.g. Path1.kml)

 

 

Step 5: After the above step, you can now close google earth. Open The TCX Converter you downloaded then click "OPEN FILE" and select the kml file you saved from google earth. If the software is in another language, select "English" from the left topmost dropdown menu. 

 

 

Step 6: This will now load the available points generated from the kml file. You will notice that the ALT (altitude) column lists zero (0) values. You have to update this and you need an internet connection.

 

Step 7: Click on the Track/Modify tab then click "Update Altitude". This should update the altitudes from the reading on google earth based on Longitude/Latitude combination. If the values on the ALT column remains zeros or error, just click on Update Altitude again. It will work. Be patient :-)

 

 

Step 8: After generating the altitudes, click on the File Export tab and click Save csv File. Click No on the dialog box that will appear to make a comma (,) delimited values. This means that the columns will be separated by commas when you view it in a text editor. 

After generating this point datas, you can now use it in either GridView of Autocad Civil 3d to generate your Topographic Map. 

Hope this could help...