Placemarks (Pins)

Placemarks are saved views in Google Earth. The icon to place a Placemark looks like this:

1. Click on the Placemark button to put a Placemark down - the Placemark will drop in the center of the screen and save the view that you currently see.

2. Placemarks store information about the camera view -

- Latitude
- Longitude
- Altitude
- Heading
- Range
- Tilt
- Elevation

You can see the Placemark information in the dialogue window. The latitude/longitude on the top is the location of the Placemark icon itself. The lat, long, altitude, heading, etc. below are the information for the camera view:

3. Updating the view - you can update the saved view of a Placemark by using 'Snapshot Current View', found in one of the two places below:

4. Additional preferences - you can adjust several settings to a Placemark, including:

- Icon
- Icon and label size
- Icon and label Color
- Altitude of icon

When placing a pin, a few things are important to remember:

- If placing in an area with 3D buildings, the Placemark may be placed on the side or top of a building. You can force a pin to be on the ground by going to the 'Properties' ('Get info' on a Mac) and adjusting the Altitude tab to 'Clamped to Ground'. This won't effect the camera view, only where the Placemark is located.
- You can move the Placemark icon around by grabbing onto it when the Placemark Dialogue box is open.

Adding a custom icon

Adding a custom icon is pretty simple, follow the instructions below:

1. Create your icon - be sure it's small enough to load quickly. PNG files are the best and no larger than about 60k

2. Go to the Properties of a Placemark - right click on the Placemark and go to 'Properties' on a PC, or 'Get Info' on a MAC

MAC PC

3 Click on the button showing the icon - this takes you to the Icon dialogue box

Fig. 2

4. Choose from a list of default icons - or add an icon of your own, or select 'No Icon'

Fig. 3

5. To add a custom icon, Select 'Add Custom icon...' - Then select browse and locate the icon file on your computer.

Fig. 4

Once you choose a custom Icon from your hard drive, it will show up in the default icon list for easier finding in the future.

Notes:

When you are saving this Placemark to your hard drive, you must save it as a KMZ, not a KML, or the custom icon will be lost.
- When you add a Placemark, it will default to the last one you chose

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