New Features

robogeo.com banner

What's New

See the download page for a listing of all minor enhancements, revisions, and fixes.

RoboGEO v6.3

Export HTML

Added the ability to export HTML.

RoboGEO v6.2

Google Earth KML Polygons

Added the ability to rename files and edit IPTC data per Google Earth KML polygons.

Pre and Post Image Processing

You can now use the 3rd party tool of your choice to automatically process images both before/after stamping (StampPreprocessorApplicationPath and StampPostprocessorApplicationPath) and before/after writing to the EXIF (ExifPreprocessorApplicationPath and ExifPostprocessorApplicationPath).

RoboGEO v6.1

Civil Air Patrol CSV Support

Added the ability to import CSV files that are exported from the 'CAP Image Processor' application's 'Template Work Sheet'.

RoboGEO v6.0

RAW Formats

Additional RAW formats are now supported including those from Adobe (DNG), Nikon (NEF), Canon (CR2), Minolta (MRW), Epson (ERF), FujiFilm (RAF), Olympus (ORF), Pentax (PEF), Sony (ARW and SR2), Samsung (SRW), Panasonic (RW2 and RAW), Leica (RWL), and Mamiya (MEF).

RoboGEO v5.10

CAP Enhancements

Made numerous enhancements for the Civil Air Patrol.

Increase Canvas Size for Stamping

RoboGEO can now automatically increase the height of an image's canvas so that the location data can be stamped onto the newly exposed canvas area and not on the raster data.

Auto-size Logos

The program can now dynamically resize logos to a fixed percentage of the image height before stamping them onto images. This allows you to specify a single logo graphic and use it for any image, regardless of the image size.

New File Renaming Options

Added numerous additional time-based patterns for renaming images.

Configurable Font Sizes

You can now specify stamping font heights per a percentage of the image height when stamping headers and footers.

Multiple Camera Support

You can now use multiple cameras that may have different time settings when using the same tracklog without having to reload the tracklog when you switch cameras.

Edit Image Titles

Added an 'Edit Titles' option under the 'Edit' pull-down menu that loads the Title Maker.

RoboGEO v5.9

Customize Google Earth Tracklog Display

You can now specify custom values for the tracklog display when exporting to Google Earth.

Import KML and KMZ Files

Import KML and KMZ files as tracklogs for geocoding photos.

Import Shapefiles

Import shapefiles as tracklogs and use them to geocode photos. You can also import them as waypoints and use the attribute data to aid in manual geocoding.

Enhanced MGRS (Military Grid Reference System) Support

The program now fully supports MGRS throughout the user-interface, i.e. instead of latitude and longitude, everything is MGRS.

Sanitize Photos

This feature allows you to strip out all of the EXIF and IPTC data from images while preserving only those fields that you want to keep.

Find Similar Geocoded Photos

This allows you to identify similar geocoded images, i.e. images that are within a specific time or distance proximity to another.

Enhanced Image Direction Editing

There's an enhanced user-interface for entering image directions with additional support for the handling of relative directions.

Enhanced Image Timestamp Editing

Edit image timestamps by moving them to a different timezone and/or by applying an offset that accounts for an inaccurate camera clock.

Relocate Photos to Known Landmarks

Create landmark files from your proprietary data and then relocate photo locations to those landmarks.

Set Photo Directions To Point to Known Landmarks

Set photo directions to point to the locations of known landmarks.

Structured Image Titles

Create structured image titles when exporting to Google Earth.

Justify the Stamped Footer Text

Justify the stamped footer text and optionally include the image title in the middle.

Other Minor Features

There are several other minor enhancements including the ability to write to the EXIF when exporting to Google Earth, the ability to include additional user-specified text to the image footer stamp, and various other user-requested features that can be found in the preferences.

RoboGEO v5.8

Configuration Files

You can now save configuration files and open them either locally or from the web. They can even be passed on the robogeo.exe command line.

Maximum Trackpoints

The maximum number of trackpoints that can loaded during a single session has been increased to 1,048,576.

Stamp MGRS Coordinates onto Images

By setting the StampLatLonFormat preference setting, you can now stamp MGRS format location values onto images.

Enhanced DXF Export Capability

Optimized the export of DXF files which greatly increases the speed.

Google Earth Export Exhancements

Made several enhancements to the Google Earth Export capability, including adding the ability to stamp images prior to exporting and adding several new preference settings.

RoboGEO v5.7

Automatically Sync Camera Clock

Using Google Earth, the program can now automatically sync the camera clock with the GPS clock.

Google Earth Enhancements

Made numerous enhancements to the Google Earth export capability.

RoboGEO v5.6

RoboGEO on CD-ROM

Instead of downloading, you can now get the demo version of RoboGEO on CD-ROM.

Local Help

Local help is now available in both CHM and PDF formats.

Civil Air Patrol

Added custom features and instructions for the Civil Air Patrol.

IPTC Editor

An IPTC editor has been added that allows you to manually edit common IPTC fields.

Stamp IPTC information onto images

The image stamping functionality has been enhanced to allow you to stamp various IPTC fields directly onto the images.

RoboGEO v5.5

Reverse Geocode Images Using Shapefiles

You can now reverse geocode images using the polygon and attribute data found in ESRI shapefiles. This very powerful feature allows you to use your existing GIS data (instead of publically accessible databases), for the data source when reverse geocoding images.

Import Garmin TCX files

Import Garmin Training Center Database files (TCX) just as you can any other tracklog format.

Stamp Logos onto Images

You can now stamp logos onto images.

RoboGEO v5.4

Reverse Geocoding

Added the ability to reverse geocode images and to write the resulting locations back to the image's IPTC headers. This and the other new options can also be automated from the command line.

Geocode Images from IPTC Locations

If an image already contains IPTC location information (country, province/state, city, or sub-location), the program can use that to lookup the latitude and longitude values.

Import Generic CSV Files

Import virtually any format of delimited ASCII data as a GPS tracklog. You can use this if your GPS unit's software exports data in a proprietary format (like the Export Utility in Trimble's PathFinder Office does) or if you're exporting from a spreadsheet program like Microsoft Excel.

Added Various Program Options

Added several program options including the ability to globally change EXIF image titles, to control what happens when you double-click on a thumbnail, and to specify the main Google Maps output file name.

Fixed a Few Bugs

Google Maps image titles can now contain ampersands. If an image has altitude information and if you manually change only the latitude or longitude, the image's altitude value is erased. The program now remembers the last save location for project files and will default to that when saving.

RoboGEO v5.3

Upload Waypoints

Upload the geocoded photo locations as waypoints back to a Garmin GPS unit.

Magellan eXplorist Support

Import tracklog files (.LOG) from Magellan eXplorist units.

Google Maps Enhancements

By default, Google's new Terrain view button is included in the Google Maps output along with tooltips that appear when you hover the mouse over a photo's icon.

Google Earth Enhancements

You can now include timelines of your photos and/or tracklogs in the Google Earth output.

Garmin MapSource GPX Extension

Exported GPX files can now implement Garmin's GPX extension. This allows you to directly view the geocoded photos from within MapSource.

Easily Copy Grid Data to Excel

Added the ability to copy the grid data as-is by selecting the row(s) and then pressing ctrl-c. The fields are tab-delimited and will paste directly into Excel.

Image Backups

If you're editing the original images, you can now automatically back them up before processing.

World Map URL

You can now specify the URL for the Edit-->Locate-->World Map menu option.

User Interface Enhancement

The main grid is now part of a tabbed interface that allows you to view the tracklog data in addition to the image data.

RoboGEO v5.2

Enhanced Automation

Most program features can now be fully automated and controlled from the command line. There are also several new preference settings that make it easier to integrate RoboGEO with third party applications.

Enhanced Image Stamping

When stamping images, you can now specify different font properties for the headers and footers.

Lookup Altitude Values

You can look up image altitudes when all you know is the latitude and longitude. This is useful if your GPS doesn't record altitude data using a barometric altimeter.

Lookup Places

You can geocode photos from the location of known places like cities, lakes, mountains, graveyards, etc. You can even drill down in the search results and do proximity searches near other known places.

PLT Files

You can now import OziExplorer track files (.PLT extension).

Other Features

Made numerous minor enhancements, added several additional preference settings, and fixed a few bugs.

RoboGEO v5.1

RAW Support

You can now read and write EXIF data to various RAW formats including NEF (Nikon), CR2 (Canon), MRW (Minolta), and ERF (Epson).

RoboGEO v5.0

Google Earth Geocoder

Geocode photos using Google Earth. Simply load the photos and then press F5. You can configure various options that relate to it from the Preference's GoogleEarth/Geocoder node.

Sony GPS-CS1 Support

Import log files created by the new Sony GPS-CS1 portable GPS unit.

Import JTR files

Added the ability to import the JTR files that are created with the Jelbert GeoTagger device.

Enhanced Image Stamping

Additional options for image stamping were added. You can now stamp the elapsed time (instead of the image time), use decimal degrees instead of cardinal degrees for the image direction, and specify the degrees-minutes decimal places.

RoboGEO v4.4

Flickr Geo API Support

Flickr's new Geo API is now supported. Using it, RoboGEO automatically records each photo's location in Flickr's internal database which allows the photos to be located on Yahoo! Maps. Just click the 'Map' links on the corresponding Flickr page.

You can prevent this behavior or restrict who can view the photo locations by specifying the appropriate options.

RoboGEO v4.3

NMEA Support

A new NMEA data logger allows you to log raw NMEA 0183 sentences from any compatible RS-232 serial device. The resulting output files can then be imported into the program and used to geocode photos, convert to GPX files, etc.

Automatic Geocoding from GPX Waypoint Files

You can now automatically geocode images from GPX files that contain only waypoints.

Images are geocoded using the waypoint having a timestamp that's closest to the image's EXIF timestamp.

Include any EXIF or IPTC Field in Exported Shapefiles

In addition to the standard fields, you can now include any/all EXIF or IPTC field(s) in exported shapefiles.

Multiple Description Templates

Create and choose multiple description template files when exporting to Google Earth, Google Maps or to Flickr.

Abort Capability

When stamping images, writing data to the EXIF or downloading tracklogs, you can abort the operation by clicking the red X on the toolbar.

Incremental Upgrades

Prior to v4.3, configuration settings were lost whenever you upgraded to a newer version. For upgrades after this version, configuration settings will be preserved.

Bug Fixes

When data is merged in an image title and then exported to a Google Map that uses quicklinks, the quicklink items are now properly merged. A bug was also fixed that was causing the "picture of the GPS" method to fail if the program associated with the image type could not accept command line parameters.

Ignoring Command Line Parameters

If the 1st character of a robogeo.exe command line parameter contains an apostrophy, the command line parameter is ignored. This allows you to easily turn on/off the automatic loading of a project file when the program is started.

Image Titles in Exported GPX files

When exporting GPX files, you can use the image titles (instead of the image file names) for the waypoint names by setting GpxImageTitleAsWaypointName to True.

Several UI Enhancements

Among other things, the default Google Earth output folder defaults to what you last selected instead of Drive:\AppPath\GoogleEarth\.

RoboGEO v4.2

Associate Any Type of File with the Images

By specifying the AudioAllowUnsupportedFileTypes preference setting, you can now associate any type of file with a photo. In v4.1, you could only associate audio files.

For example, you can now associate an AutoCAD DWG file or an ESRI shapefile with each photo. You can even associate photos with photos.

Select and Process Multiple GPX Files

Select multiple GPX files when importing tracklogs. This is especially useful with some of the newer GPS units, like the Garmin GPSMAP 60CSx, that can save GPX files to a removable memory card.

Redate Images

Batch Redate images to a specific date or to a date that matches the EXIF timestamp.

Auto Rotate Images

The new RotateWhenLoaded preference setting allows you to automatically rotate images to the correct orientation upon loading.

Specify the EXIF Artist

By specifying the ExifArtistCameraOwner, ExifArtistPhotographer and ExifArtistImageCreator preference settings, you can write the EXIF Artist field whenever other data is written to the EXIF headers.

Removed G7T and CSV Tracklog Support

With RoboGEO and G7ToWin's ability to read and write GPX files, maintaining support for these formats was redundant.

RoboGEO v4.1

Digital Voice Recorder Support

Using any modern digital voice recorder, record dictation at the time a photo was taken and it will be automatically associated with the image.

When dictation is associated with an image, you'll see a small paperclip icon in the lower left corner of the preview window - click it to play the dictation.

You can optionally include the audio files in the photo descriptions when exporting to Google Earth or Google Maps.

Export GPX Files

Export industry standard GPX files. This allows you to create routes and/or waypoint lists from your photos. You can even include the tracklog in the exported GPX file.

The image filepath is written to the waypoint's comment field, which allows you to easily display the images in some 3rd party GPS utility programs.

Enhanced MapPoint / Streets and Trips Export

The exporting capability has been greatly enhanced. You can now include both images and/or the tracklogs in the output.

Enhanced ESRI Shapefile Export

Exported shapefiles now include the photo direction and, if they exist, the associated audio files.

Projected Photo Locations

By specifying a distance for images that have a photo direction, you can project the locations. Use this feature if it's important to know where the photo subject was located instead of the GPS receiver's location.

There are 2 ways to specify the distance. Use "ground mode" when both you and the subject are on the ground. Here you simply specify a direction (feet or meters, depending on your setup) and the existing coordinates will be projected in the direction of the photo. Use "airplane mode" when you're above the ground and the camera is pointing down to the subject. Here, you specify 2 semi-colon delimited values, i.e. your altitude (AGL) and the angle relative to horizontal (0 to 90 degrees).

Edit the EXIF Times

You can edit the EXIF times by specifying either an absolute value such as 2006:04:06 13:00:59 or a number of seconds such as @30 to add to (or subtract from) the existing time. Relative times must be preceeded with an @ symbol. You can also use this feature to assign EXIF times to images that don't currently have them.

Since time formats vary with the user's locale, you can't edit them directly in the grid - you have to first select the image(s) and then use the 'Edit Time' option from the 'Edit' pull-down menu.

Other Items

  • With the new ability to export GPX files, the support for writing RoboGEO's proprietary CSV format has been removed. You can still read them as before.

  • Load project files by dragging/dropping them onto the main grid or by passinthe g them on the robogeo.exe command line.

  • You can specify a constant Google Maps zoom level instead of letting the program determine the optimal value based on the coverage of your photos and/or tracklog.

  • When importing a GPS tracklog, you can now, optionally, skip any images that were previously geocoded.

  • Added a new Preference option (IsSpeedy) to speed up the user interface.

  • Adobe XMP metadata is preserved when EXIF or IPTC info is written to the image.

  • Added the ability to specify the EXIF photographer copyright notice and to write it when other data is written to the EXIF headers.

There are also several minor interface enhancements and a few bug fixes.

RoboGEO v4.0

Enhanced User Interface

The user interface has been greatly enhanced, allowing you to do the following:

  • Automatically preview the currently selected image.

  • Edit the latitude, longitude, altitude, direction and photo titles by simply typing into the grid.

  • Multi-select images and apply the same operation to each. For example, you can now apply the same location data to all images in one operation.

  • Sort the images by filename, EXIF time, latitude, longitude, altitude, direction or title.

  • Numerous keyboard shortcuts. Ctrl-A selects all images, Del removes the current image, Shift-Del removes all images, etc.

  • Right-click access to the 'Edit' pull down menu for processing multiple images.

  • Numerous other UI enhancements.

Photo Directions

Photos can now have directions. When they exist and when exported to either Google Earth or Google Maps, the icons show arrows that indicate the direction of the photo.

There are several ways you can assign directions to the photos:

  • If using a camera that supports it, the directions can be read direct from the EXIF headers.

  • You can manually specify the directions in absolute terms, measured clockwise in decimal degrees from true north.

  • Instead of numeric angles, you can enter N, NNE, NE, ENE, E, ESE, SE, etc.

  • Automatically determine the directions from the tracklog direction plus a constant angle. For example, if all of the pictures were taken out of the right side window of a moving car, specify an offset of 90 degrees. If taken out the left window, specify 270 degrees. Straight ahead is 0, etc.

  • For specific images, you can specify an offset relative to the tracklog direction. For example, if the tracklog indicates you were traveling east when a photo was taken and if you enter @45 for the direction (note the @ symbol), the direction will be calculated as 90 + 45 = 135 = Southeast

TIF Files

Uncompressed TIF files are now supported. You can read/write the EXIF and IPTC data (lossless) directly. When exported to Google Earth, Google Maps or Flickr, you can automatically convert them to JPGs.

Enhanced Image Stamping

You can specify numerous options when stamping images or, as before, you can let the program automatically determine the optimal values. These new options include:

Project Files

Open and save project files. This allows you work on a set of files in multiple sessions. These have a .RGW file extension and are opened automatically when passed on the RoboGEO.exe command line. The setup program automatically creates a file type for these during installation.

Image Renaming

Rename images based on any combination of the EXIF timestamp, latitude, longitude, altitude, direction, title, sequence or any other text you desire.

Photo Thumbnails in Google Earth

Instead of the canned Google Earth icons, you can now use small thumbnails at each photo location.

Google Maps API v2 Support

The program supports the new Google Maps v2 API and with that the ability to include or exclude a map overview window, the type of zoom/pan control, whether to include the map type buttons, or scale control. You can also override the use of the custom arrow icons when photos have directional information associated with them.

Import Waypoints From GPX Files

In addition to downloading them direct from a Garmin GPS, you can now import waypoints from a GPX file when geocoding photos.

Manually Specify the UTC Bias

When equating the UTC times in a GPS tracklog to the local times in the photos, the program determines the time bias by looking at your computer's time zone information. Now, optionally, you can specify the time bias and bypass this whole process.

Numerous Configuration Options

There are numerous other configuration options, but, more importantly, new ones can be quickly added. This will allow "on-demand" implementation of customer-specific requests.

Multi-Select File Open Dialogs

In addition to selecting specific images or all of the images in a folder, you can now select/deselect multiple images.

Use Disk Dates

For webcams that don't support EXIF, the program can optionally use the file's disk date as the timestamp.

Geocode From Closest Trackpoint

For photos that fall outside or between tracklog segments, the program can now, optionally, use the closest trackpoint as the geocoded location.

A Few Bug Fixes

The program now properly encodes multi-byte characters when exporting to Google Earth. You can also include ampersands and less-than characters in the photo titles.

RoboGEO v3.4

Export AutoCAD DXF Files

Create DXF files for AutoCAD or any vector drawing program that supports the AutoCAD 2000 DXF format.

The DXF files contain clickable entities at each photo location that, when ctrl-clicked, display the associated photo. Each entity can be automatically labeled with single line text that's obtained from the image's EXIF title or IPTC headline fields. You can even include the GPS tracklog as a lightweight polyline on the drawing.

RoboGEO v3.3

Export ESRI Shapefiles

Added the ability to export ESRI point and line shapefiles. The point shapefiles reference the geocoded photos and the line shapefiles represent the GPS tracklog.

Since there's no requirement to first load and geocode images, you can use this feature to quickly convert GPS tracklogs to shapefiles - just download (or import) the tracklog and then export it.

RoboGEO v3.2

Adobe DNG Image Format

Added support for Adobe's DNG (Digital NeGative) image format. You can write (lossless) location data direct to the EXIF headers while preserving the original DNG format.

MN DNR Garmin Tracklog Files

You can now import MN DNR Garmin tracklog files. MN DNR Garmin, provided by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, is a free GPS extension for ArcView.

RoboGEO v3.1

Flickr Support

RoboGEO now integrates with Flickr and automates the process of geotagging and uploading photos. You can also make use of the new Flickr2Map service and include "Map It" links like are used in this sample.

RoboGEO v3.0

Lossless EXIF

All writing to the EXIF headers is now lossless. Image data is no longer recompressed when EXIF data is written, meaning there's no loss whatsoever in the image quality.

Support for EXIF Version 0221

The latest EXIF specification is now supported and all fields are preserved during read/write operations.

IPTC Support

You can now read and write IPTC data. It's also lossless. Export to Google Earth or Google Maps and automatically use the IPTC data (or the EXIF data) for the image titles and descriptions.

Redesigned User Interface

The user interface has been totally redesigned. RoboGEO's appearance is now on par with its functionality.

Automatically Merge EXIF and IPTC Field Values

Just like you can mail merge custom data into a word processor file, you can now merge any EXIF or IPTC field into the image titles and descriptions. There are 179 fields to choose from.

For example, an image description of "My camera is a [Model] and this photo was taken with a shutter speed of [ShutterSpeed]th of a second" would output as "My camera is a Canon PowerShot A75 and this photo was taken with a shutter speed of 1/250th of a second".

Create Google Maps From Only a Tracklog

Like the Google Earth support, you can now create Google Map web pages using only a tracklog, i.e. there's no requirement to also have geocoded images, though you can as before.

Choose the Default Google Map View

You can now choose the default view (street, satellite, or street/satellite hybrid) for Google Map web pages.

On-The-Fly Image Resizing for Google Earth

The "KMZ w/Images" output type now allows you to automatically resize all of the images before storing them in the compressed KMZ file. The original images are not touched.

Choose the Default Google Earth Altitude Mode

You can now choose the default altitude mode (absolute, relative, or clamped to the ground) for the exported KML/KMZ files.

Added an EXIF/IPTC Viewer

The program now includes a fully capable EXIF/IPTC viewer that conforms to the latest specifications.

Added a Georeferencing Troubleshooter

Added a troubleshooter that helps diagnose why some images were not georeferenced from a downloaded or imported tracklog.

Drag and Drop

You can now select images and tracklogs by dragging and dropping them onto the file grid. If your selection contains both images and a tracklog, they'll be automatically georeferenced.

Numerous Minor Features and Interface Enhancements

There are numerous additional features and minor user interface enhancements.

RoboGEO v2.1

Export to Google Earth

Export KML, KMZ, KMZ with embedded images, or KMZ with embedded thumbnails that link to full size images on the web. The latter results is very small KMZ file sizes that are perfectly suited for distribution by e-mail. Here's a sample.

Load and Geocode any type of JPG, BMP, or PNG file

Instead of just EXIF format JPGs containing valid timestamps, you can now load any type of JPG, PNG or BMP file.

Numerous Minor Features and Interface Enhancements

There are numerous additional features and user interface enhancements.

RoboGEO v2.0

Create Webpages using Google Maps

Create Google Map webpages that show the location of your photos. You can even include the GPS tracklog on the maps. Here's a typical example and one that shows the GPS tracklog.

Georeference Photos from GPS Waypoints

You can now geocode images using the waypoints from your GPS. In the field simply create a waypoint each time you take a picture and then let RoboGEO equate the two.

Garmin USB Support

The program now supports Garmin's USB interface. Whenever the program needs to communicate with a GPS, it first looks for a USB device and uses it if found. If one isn't found, it'll scan all of the computer's COM ports and look for an older Garmin model.

Import GPX Files

In addition to importing RoboGEO and G7ToWin tracklog files, you can now import GPX files.

Enhanced Ability to Manually Georeference Images

It's now much easier to manually georeference images. Simply find a photo's location using the LatLonFinder, copy the displayed coordinates to the Windows clipboard, then paste them into RoboGEO's prompt.

Internationally Aware

The program now respects and works with any system, regardless of the Windows Regional Settings.

Read and Process Previously Georeferenced Images

If your images already have valid location data in the EXIF fields, the program will read those and use them when processing.

Export to Microsoft MapPoint or Streets and Trips

Export the georeferenced photos to Microsoft's MapPoint or Street and Trips. In MapPoint you can click on the resulting icons and view the photos.

Specify a Time Offset when Georeferencing Images

If it's not possible for you to exactly sync your camera and GPS time, you can now specify an offset.

Auto Select Font Size when Stamping Images

When stamping images, the font size is automatically selected so that it's in proportion to the image size.

Optionally Stamp UTM Coordinates on Images

Instead of latitude and longitude values, you can now optionally stamp UTM coordinates onto the images.

Select from Over 100 Datums

There are over 100 predefined datums for you to choose from.

Export Georeferencing Information

You can now export the georeferencing information to a plain text file for whatever use you require.

Numerous Minor Features and Interface Enhancements

There are numerous additional features and user interface enhancements.

RoboGEO v1.0

Initial Release





© 2003-2024 Pretek, Inc.