RockWorks | Utilities | EarthApps | Flyover | Simple: Golf Ball Flight Simulation
This program:
- Reads a listing of data from the Datasheet Editor: Starting XY locations and elevations ("tees") and ending XY locations and elevations ("pins").
- Creates a KML output file containing a series of parabolic flights along the listed route of point pairs.
- Creates a KMZ (zip) output file, containing the KML file with the tour.
- Loads the KMZ file in Google Earth.
This differs from the simple forward-facing flyover by listing beginning and ending XYZ coordinates for each segment, and by following parabolic flights - like a golf ball's trajectory - rather than straight, point-to-point flights. Obviously, this works great to show off golf couses, but can also be used to move between any locations along an arced, rather than straight, path - airports, job sites, etc.
See also: Simple Flyovers - Forward Facing; Simple Flyovers - Virtual Tours
Menu Options
Step-by-Step Summary
Menu Options
- Input Columns: The prompts along the left side of the window let RockWorks know which columns in the input datasheet contain what data. Click on an existing column name to select a different name from the drop-down list. See a sample data layout below.
- Hole ID: Column that contains the name for each flight segment. This could be a golf course hole number (as in this example) or other identifier ("DEN - SFO").
- Tee-X (Easting): Column that contains the X coordinates for the start of each flight segment (e.g. the golf tees).
These can be Eastings in meters or feet, decimal longitudes, etc. See Defining your Datasheet Coordinates for more information.
- Tee-Y (Northing): Column that contains the Y coordinate for the start of each flight segment.
- Tee-Z (Elevation): Column that contains the elevation for the start of each segment.
Be sure you've specified your elevation units.
- Pin-X (Easting): Column that contains the X coordinate for the end of each flight segment (e.g. the golf pin).
- Pin-Y (Northing): Column that contains the Y coordinates for the segment end.
- Pin-Z (Elevation): Column containing the elevations for the segment end.
- Tour Title: Defines the flyover name.
Step-by-Step Summary
- Access the Utilities program tab.
- Create a new datasheet and enter or import your image names and locations into the datasheet.
Or, open one of the sample files and replace that data with your own. (In this example, the sample file = "RockWorks17 Data\EarthApps Samples\Flyover_Golfball_Simulation_01.rwDat")
Longitude and latitude coordinates must be in decimal format. If you're using another coordinate system, be sure you've specified the Units and the Projection Settings as appropriate.
- Select the RockWorks | Utilities | EarthApps | Flyover | Simple: Golf Ball Flight Simulation menu option.
- Enter the menu options as described above.
! Tip: If you're working with one of the sample .rwDat files, you can load its specific menu settings by (1) clicking on the Menu button at the top of the window, (2) clicking Load from RCL, and (3) browsing for the .rcl file with the same name as the .rwDat file you're working with.
- Click the Process button to continue.
The program will create a KML file listing the flyover path along the designated segments. It will create a KMZ (zip) file containing the KML file. The Google Earth KML and KMZ file names will be assigned automatically.
- If RockWorks displays the KMZ name in a popup window for your reference, you can confirm:
- Automatically load file into Google Earth: Be sure this is checked if you want to display the output at this time.
- Show this message every time a KMZ File is Created: If checked, this window will be displayed each time a Google Earth output is created. Uncheck this if you prefer not to see this window in the future.
(Both of these settings are also available via the Preferences menu.)
- Click OK to continue or Cancel to cancel the operation.
The resulting flyover will be displayed in Google Earth, if requested.
Back to Flyover Summary
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