How to display 33k placemarks with custom symbols/labels?

Question

I want to overlay address numbers on our embedded Google Map (V3 api). Even though the KML is under 2 MB, it exceeds the 1,000 feature limit; there are over 33,000 placemarks.

Fusion tables solve the size restrictions, but do not support custom symbols. Clicking on a marker to display the address number in a bubble is not acceptable. Did I miss something obvious that supports creating labels? I can see the address numbers in the Name column...

Are custom image overlays the answer? http://oregonstate.edu/campusmap/ http://www.mail-archive.com/google-maps-js-api-v3@googlegroups.com/msg09037.html

Please share tips on how to create the png image from shapefile vector points. I have access to ArcGIS 10 if that's an option.

Thanks!

Answer 1

You might want to re-think the overall approach.

Displaying that many symbols is usually not a good idea, for performance and useability reasons (the labels would either over-print each other, or be so small as to be unreadable).

Perhaps only show numbers when zoomed in to a certain scale (eg street level).

You could also implement clustering to show "hot-spots" of labels. When zooming in more closely, the actual labels would appear.

Still another option is to display heat maps from Fusion Tables when zoomed out, then show the individual points/labels when zoomed in.

Answer 2

Recent updates to Google Maps v3 allow you to change the symbol using the API (from fusion tables)

For example 'gold star'

    var goldStar = {
  path: 'M 125,5 155,90 245,90 175,145 200,230 125,180 50,230 75,145 5,90 95,90 z',
  fillColor: "yellow",
  fillOpacity: 0.8,
  scale: 1,
  strokeColor: "gold",
  strokeWeight: 14
};

var marker = new google.maps.Marker({
  position: new google.maps.LatLng(-25.363, 131.044),
  icon: goldStar,
  map: map
});

Then you can change the icon/marker for each fusion table point

https://google-developers.appspot.com/maps/documentation/javascript/examples/layer-fusiontables-simple

see the new functionality documentation here: https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/javascript/overlays#Symbols

Answer 3

you can always display data in raster format by WMS service for eg. In ArcGIS there is tool named like 'convert feature to raster' or something like that.. or just create WMS service in ArcGIS server, and then you can directly from ArcGIS desktop upload shp files to service and server will automaticly convert it to raster data format.