Is there software--or a particular technique--to turn satellite photos into something like line art?

[ScottR]

I have a sprinkler system with quite a few zones. Inevitable, heads get overgrown or otherwise lost.

A few years ago I hit upon taking Google satellite views of my property, dividing them into zoomed-in sections, and mapping exactly where the heads are, measuring them X and Y feet from easily found landmarks.

The problem with this is that it's hard to see when printed out i.e., when I'm walking around with them--the satellite pics are too complex for a b&w laser printer to show well, plus I waste a lot of toner printing unneeded greyscale.

Is there a way, other than manually tracing, to convert this to black (out)lines on a white background? Either an app that specializes in this or one where you can use its functions to get there?

I currently own: GraphicConverter, PhotoShop Elements 23, Affinity Photo & Designer.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

My suggestion is to dodge the whole "satt photo" basis and instead:

• open up a free App like Pages or similar.
• put it in Page Layout mode so you can use it more like a drawing tool than a word processor.
• give yourself a nice big page for this work- like maybe tabloid size 11 X 17.
• Use a tape measure to lay in a scale model size of your home.
• Lay in other tangible markers where they are relative to your home borders (For example, the big tree in the front yard, driveway boundaries, fence posts, etc (all basically representing markers to help locate the sprinkler heads). Again, use logic and a tape measure to get these "yard markers" in the right places relative to the home layout.
• Then mark the location of the sprinkler heads with perhaps small red circles or similar, relative to the home boundaries, yard markers, etc.

You'll end up with something that looks like a very basic home floorplan... expanded to be a lot/property plan. And this could be a simple as you seek: black & white line art if you like.

I've done this with my own home to help with things like internal furniture layouts, etc BEFORE buying furniture.

OPTION #2: can you get the original plans for your property? If so, you probably have easy access for the sprinkler system layout too. So you could either use that as is or use it to do the above by basically tracing it out with an app like Pages. An easy trick here is:

1. lay a scanned version of the property plan on a Page Layout Page,
2. crank transparency so it is barely visible,
3. LOCK that image so it won't move.
4. Use line & box tools to trace your home edges, driveway, etc on the page... and the sprinkler system if it is plotted. If the latter is not plotted (or wrong), you'll need to lay the heads in yourself, relative to the rest of the home boundaries and yard markers.
5. If that plan has key yard markers like trees, bushes, etc in the correct places, mark their locations as well. If the plan doesn't show them, add them by using some common sense and a tape measure to get their spots exactly right.
6. either crank transparency the rest of the way to make the original plan invisible... or unlock it and delete it, leaving you with only a perfectly scale "line drawing" of your property.

OPTION #3: since you've already mapped & measured the existing way, perhaps use your satt images in place of the scanned image in #1 above. By the time you get through #6, you'll be making the satt images invisible and be left with a nice, crisp line drawing of the home, key yard markers and the locations of all of those sprinkler heads. This may be the EASIEST option since you've already done the careful measuring work.

Of course, there are other apps that can help along these lines too but simple tasks like this are pretty easy to do in Pages, Page Layout for free.

 

[ScottR]

The property is about an acre, so the tape measure route would be tricky at best. On the satellite pics I was able to reference things like driveways, brick paths, steps, a deck, walls, trees and loads of other things (the satellite pic is from 2 years ago). All told, there are about 80+ or heads to plot out.

I do have the original plans for the sprinkler layout. But it's >30 years old, and both the property itself and the sprinkler layout has changed a lot since then. Worse, the sprinkler installers marked things on a 1930's-era property plan, which looks nothing at all like it does now. That's what prompted me to use the satellite view pics.

 

[ipaqrat]

I use my phone, or sometimes my ipad, running apps called Map Tools and Track Kit. These are GPS-based mapping tools, so the precision is, admittedly, no better than my device. I use it to pin property lines, walk optimum mowing paths around stumps and rocks, which I can later follow on my tractors.

Bearing in mind that my place is 21 acres, 6 cleared for horses, so a little variance is... meh... livable. Newer phones and ipads might have much better GPS, though.

If have such devices, and feel like carrying the blasted things, you could prolly do similar with plain google maps. Maybe download your area map for off-line use. And then drop pins. once you get decent log/lat coordinates, you can transcribe them to ANY map.

Also, your county might have a GIS system that you can access. This might provide updated legal platts with satellite overviews. These can be more reliable then Google or Apple consumer maps.

 

[ScottR]

Just got an answer on the Affinity forums. I loaded the picture into Photo, applied Detect Edges, then Layer>Invert. Detect Edges gave me a black image with white lines, and Invert made that a white image with black lines.

 

[mmkerc]

I kinda of hate to recommend this as I just check the current pricing and it has gone up in price, but depending on you needs it does work very well.

I had a similar issue, with my property that I bought (about 10 acres) and used Moasure to map it out and give very exact mapping, of water lines, well lines, gas, sprinklers, septic lines as well as many other features on the property. It let me overlay the measurements on my plot plan, and it does elevations as well. But like I said, its gotten more expensive.

Discover Moasure

Moasure is a revolutionary new measuring technology that measures by sensing its position and movement in three dimensions. It uses inertial motion sensors to measure distance, height, level, angle, area and volume in a single measurement, simply by moving from one point to another.

www.moasure.com

 

[ScottR]

I kinda of hate to recommend this as I just check the current pricing and it has gone up in price, but depending on you needs it does work very well.

I had a similar issue, with my property that I bought (about 10 acres) and used Moasure to map it out and give very exact mapping, of water lines, well lines, gas, sprinklers, septic lines as well as many other features on the property. It let me overlay the measurements on my plot plan, and it does elevations as well. But like I said, its gotten more expensive.

Discover Moasure

Moasure is a revolutionary new measuring technology that measures by sensing its position and movement in three dimensions. It uses inertial motion sensors to measure distance, height, level, angle, area and volume in a single measurement, simply by moving from one point to another.

www.moasure.com

Pretty cool, but a bit overkill for what I'm doing. If I ever get that property upstate I'll keep this in mind.

 

[mmkerc]

I figured it might, but I use it now every time my wife plants another tree, or buries another mason jar😜.

But seriously, using the tool to understand the rainwater flow on the property and where to built berms to route flow, or knowing the location of the underground piping, whether electrical, gas, water, or other is a game changer.

 

[Tagbert]

I have a sprinkler system with quite a few zones. Inevitable, heads get overgrown or otherwise lost.

A few years ago I hit upon taking Google satellite views of my property, dividing them into zoomed-in sections, and mapping exactly where the heads are, measuring them X and Y feet from easily found landmarks.

The problem with this is that it's hard to see when printed out i.e., when I'm walking around with them--the satellite pics are too complex for a b&w laser printer to show well, plus I waste a lot of toner printing unneeded greyscale.

Is there a way, other than manually tracing, to convert this to black (out)lines on a white background? Either an app that specializes in this or one where you can use its functions to get there?

I currently own: GraphicConverter, PhotoShop Elements 23, Affinity Photo & Designer.

If you are willing to manually draw the lines, you could drop the satellite image on a FreeForm board. Right-click it and choose "lock" so you don't select or move it by accident, and then use the drawing tools to mark whatever landmarks you need.