Import Excel File Into a GM Topo Map
acgardiner
Global Mapper UserTrusted User
I guess I am still a novice here but am challenged by the following. I do polar plots of antenna radiation patterns of field strength, every 10 degrees from 0 to 360 and for various field strengths. I am wondering how to import these from an Excel or Kaleidagraph file into GM so that a) the the transmitter of the contours is centred on a specific latitude and longitude, and b) the contours extend the distances in kilometres that are in the Excel file. Naturally I would be overlaying these contours onto a topographical map of a specified scale.
Comments
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I'm not too familiar with antenna radiation patterns and exactly what your Excel spreadsheets look like, but I wonder if perhaps you could use the range ring functionality in the Digitizer Tool if you have concentric rings around a location at a certain radius. You can select the Digitizer Tool, then right click and select the option to create range rings, then specify the location and the radius that you need.
Let me know if I can be of further assistance.
Thanks,
Mike
Global Mapper Support
support@globalmapper.com -
Mike,
The contours are irregularly shaped, i.e. they can be cardioids, elliptical, compound curves, etc. since they are determined by the terrain elevation along different azimuths as well as the directional characteristics of the antenna......global_mapper wrote: »I'm not too familiar with antenna radiation patterns and exactly what your Excel spreadsheets look like, but I wonder if perhaps you could use the range ring functionality in the Digitizer Tool if you have concentric rings around a location at a certain radius. You can select the Digitizer Tool, then right click and select the option to create range rings, then specify the location and the radius that you need.
Let me know if I can be of further assistance.
Thanks,
Mike
Global Mapper Support
support@globalmapper.com -
In this case you would basically need to generate a text file (like a CSV) from your Excel spreadsheet that lists a series of lat/lon locations for each contour (separate each one with a blank line). You could then load that into Global Mapper using the File->Open Generic ASCII Data File menu command.
Let me know if I can be of further assistance.
Thanks,
Mike
Global Mapper Support
support@globalmapper.com -
Mike,
You've lost me here - maybe I can better explain showing you what a typical Excel file for one of my applications looks like. It has only two columns, and it can be saved as a .TXT or .DAT file rather than Excel, as follows:
Azimuth Distance
(deg) (km)
000 20
045 30
090 50
135 60
180 52
225 45
270 35
315 27
The transmitter site is at 49° 23' 22" N Lat, 123° 14' 55" W Long
Tony -
Tony,
Assuming that each Excel file represents a single frequency, I would think that you could easily set up formulas to create two new columns that are an X and Y coordinate at each location based on multiplying the distance by the sin and cosine of the angle (you will first likely need to convert your angles to Cartesian angles [i.e. 0 is right, 90 is up, etc.]).
Your formulas for calculating the X and Y values should add the X and Y distance components to your center coordinates as well to locate them correctly. It is a bit difficult to add a linear distance to a location in degrees, so I would suggest doing your math in a projected system like UTM. In UTM Zone 10/Metes, your specified location has a X value of 481958.159 and a Y value of 5470779.655. So you could use as the X/Y base values to add to the computed X and Y components for each entry.
Once you have your X and Y columns, just save those out to a CSV file and load that into Global Mapper (make sure to specify UTM/zone 10 to get the coordinates at the correct location).
Let me know if I can be of further assistance.
Thanks,
Mike
Global Mapper Support
support@globalmapper.com -
Mike,
Geez - am I stupid or what? If I create the following text file in Notepad:
49.5614,122.2128
49.3439,121.7822
49.0614,121.4306
48.8475,121.8842
48.8869,122.2128
48.8967,122.4672
49.0628,122.7508
49.3614,122.6708
........in other words just a bunch of lats and longs, and then import them into GM using the Generic ASCII Data file, they do not even appear, whether I label them as towers, waypoints or whatever. Where am I going wrong??????? -
acgardiner,
I'm going to put together a tutorial tonight on importing ASCII data file. PM me some sample data and I'll put a video tutorial together. It'll be up tonight (late...after the kids are in bed)
Paul. -
If you have your data as lat, then lon, make sure to select the coordinate order option to have the Y coordinate prior to the X. You should then be able to load your data as 'Point Only' data and have it show up if you want each as a separate point, otherwise the 'Point, Line, and Area' option will generate line features for consecutive coordinate records like that. Also check the Vector Display tab of the Configuration dialog and make sure that you have not disabled display of any types.
Let me know if I can be of further assistance.
Thanks,
Mike
Global Mapper Support
support@globalmapper.com -
A new tutorial has been added to the tutorials list:
Tutorial 10 - Importing ASCII files into Global Mapper
Hopefully this helps. -
FYI, the tutorial movie seems to stop about 2:45 into it for me. Is it getting stuck for anyone else?
Thanks,
Mike
Global Mapper Support
support@globalmapper.com -
I think you caught me as I was "re-uploading" the FLV file...try again!
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I must have. It is working fine now. I've linked this into the Video Tutorials section in the User's Manual at GLOBAL MAPPER.
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