Showing only outlines of places imported from shapefile (*.shp)

Question

I am trying to view lot lines (in Google Earth). My county makes available as a shapefile (*.shp) which shows all the parcels in the county. I do File-> Import (and select the *.shp file), select 'Restrict to view" (since there are 1000s of shapes in the file), and select "No" when it asks me if I want to apply a "style template".

Then I scroll down to the bottom of the "Places" window, and see the imported places under "Temporary Places"; when I check the box, I see all the parcels, but they are shaded in random colors. I can use the "Adjust Opacity" slider to make the parcels more or less transparent, but there are no outlines shown - I would like to be able to make the shapes completely transparent and just see outlines. I also tried to define a Style Template during the import, but can't figure out what to put in it to achieve the desired result.

The weird thing is, about a year ago I did this and it worked just fine - I have permanent "places" showing just the outlines of the parcels in my sub-division. There are other files in the download (from the county), including a *.dbf file, but Google Earth will only allow the *.shp to be imported.

Answer 1

After you import, you can edit the style for all the polygons at once pretty easily.

• Find your imported data in your My Places list.
• Select the folder that contains all the shapes.
• Right-click the folder and choose "Properties" (on Windows) or "Get Info" (on Mac).
• Go to the Style tab. It should have an option to combine the styles for everything in the folder... click it. Now, you can adjust the style, and it should apply to all your polygons.
• Choose your outline color and width.
• Set the Area to "Outlined" only (and/or set the Area/fill color to fully transparent).
• And make sure to UN-Check the "Random" box in the bottom right, to turn off the color randomization.
• Now click OK, and you should have similarly outlined polygons.