moreofless
Tourist
Reged: 02/26/06
Posts: 9
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I am trying to plot clients for a non-profit by zip code. I can turn on the zip code layer but the boundary lines disappear when I zoom back so my screen covers a meaningful area.
I was thinking of presenting this information in one of two ways.
1) Printing out a map with the zip code boundaries and coloring in each zip code based on the concentration of clients
2) Plotting one data point in each zip code that would be labeled with the number of clients. I have an Excel file that has each zip code and the number of clients. If I could pull that in and turn off everything except the zip code and county boundaries, that would work too.
Any advise or suggestions?
Thanks!
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Forkboy2
Cartographer
Reged: 07/16/05
Posts: 438
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One way or another you're going to need to get Zip code polygons or Zip Cod Centroids somewhere. Then you can present your data with any one of several tools, such as GE-Graph.
http://www.sgrillo.net/googleearth/gegraph.htm
You can get Zip code SHP files here. But will be difficult to do the entire US since files are too large for Google Earth to handle.
http://www.census.gov/geo/www/cob/z52000.html
Zip Code Centroids, you can get here.
http://www.census.gov/geo/www/tiger/zip1999.zip
Just assign lat/lon to each zip code in your spreadsheet, and I think GE-Graph can do the rest.
Matt
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Matt
Google Earth Library
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moreofless
Tourist
Reged: 02/26/06
Posts: 9
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Thanks, I'll look at these.
I am only trying to do a few counties in one state. I could buy a zip code map but as a non-profit we try to reduce costs every way we can. The idea is to reduce our transportation costs.
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moreofless
Tourist
Reged: 02/26/06
Posts: 9
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Quote:
One way or another you're going to need to get Zip code polygons or Zip Cod Centroids somewhere. Then you can present your data with any one of several tools, such as GE-Graph.
http://www.sgrillo.net/googleearth/gegraph.htm
You can get Zip code SHP files here. But will be difficult to do the entire US since files are too large for Google Earth to handle.
http://www.census.gov/geo/www/cob/z52000.html
Zip Code Centroids, you can get here.
http://www.census.gov/geo/www/tiger/zip1999.zip
Just assign lat/lon to each zip code in your spreadsheet, and I think GE-Graph can do the rest.
Matt
I was able to get the Centroids file to work...thank you!
We can use that but me ideal objective is to create a map like in examples "C" and "D" in this link:
http://www.sgrillo.net/googleearth/gegraph.htm
I only want to do the zip codes for one state not the whole country. I am not sure what to do with the SHP files. From what I can see, I need to pull them into Google Earth not GE-Graph but they are not in the correct format to do that. Any suggestions?
Thanks!
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Forkboy2
Cartographer
Reged: 07/16/05
Posts: 438
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Quote:
I was able to get the Centroids file to work...thank you!
We can use that but me ideal objective is to create a map like in examples "C" and "D" in this link:
http://www.sgrillo.net/googleearth/gegraph.htm
I only want to do the zip codes for one state not the whole country. I am not sure what to do with the SHP files. From what I can see, I need to pull them into Google Earth not GE-Graph but they are not in the correct format to do that. Any suggestions?
Thanks!
I could probably do this for you fairly quickly. What kind of data are you trying to show for each zip code? Is it simple like total number of clients for each zip code? Or more complicated, like all the different client names, etc.
Matt
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Matt
Google Earth Library
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moreofless
Tourist
Reged: 02/26/06
Posts: 9
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Mike,
What I am trying to do is map the number of clients or number of sessions by zip code. Right now (see attached) I have a map with circles centered on each zip code with a number in the circle. That would work but I would really like to get a map like "C" or "D" in the link I posted previously. I am only trying to work with zip codes from part of the state of Pennsylvania. Once I get it to work, I would probably use the same methodology with different data at times in the future.
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Forkboy2
Cartographer
Reged: 07/16/05
Posts: 438
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Tell you what.
Download this excel spreadsheet
PA ZIPS
Fill in the number you want to be shown for each zip code in column J. If there are multiple rows with the same zip code enter the same number for each row.
DO NOT delete or add any rows or re-sort.
Email the Excel file to me (topomatt at fox-fam.com)
If all goes well, I will email you back a KML file that has zip codes color coded by the number you put in Column J. The higher the number, the darker the color.
The program I use doesn't do the 3d effect.
Matt
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Matt
Google Earth Library
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moreofless
Tourist
Reged: 02/26/06
Posts: 9
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I / we appreciate anything you are willing to do for us. I will be sending you the file this afternoon.
I would still like to come up with a way I could generalize this so I could do the same thing for a variety of different sets of data. For example, should I use the current year data or several years? Should I use clients or sessions with clients?
I also think that other directors might want to use this for other programs. We have about 30 distinct programs. Could I somehow load the PA zip codes into Google Earth the use GE-Graph to produce the type of map I described earlier? I can do little circles (or other shapes) but I would like to "fill in" the zip codes with different colors on the map according to the number of clients or sessions. Given the zip code data I downloaded from your first message and the zip code data that is in your last message, can I use this with Google Earth / GE-Graph to just add different data to GE-Graph to generate maps for several of our programs?
Thanks for your help!!!
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Forkboy2
Cartographer
Reged: 07/16/05
Posts: 438
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Quote:
I / we appreciate anything you are willing to do for us. I will be sending you the file this afternoon.
I would still like to come up with a way I could generalize this so I could do the same thing for a variety of different sets of data. For example, should I use the current year data or several years? Should I use clients or sessions with clients?
Thanks for your help!!!
You would probably need to invest in some software to do this easily on your own. Here is quick and dirty of what I will do
1) Open the zip code data from US Census with GlobalMapper ($300 program and worth every penny) and export as SHP file.
2) Convert the DBF that contains data for SHP file to Excel Spreadsheet (which I sent to you)
3) Convert the Excel file back to DBF
4) Open the SHP/DBF file with MapWindow (Free) using Shape2Earth Plugin ($30 program)
5) Export to KML
If you can find a free way to convert from e00 (format from Census) to SHP, then you can skip step 1.
Matt
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Matt
Google Earth Library
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