Files with the KMZ extension are used by the popular program - Google Earth, and they contain map locations, used in this software.
KMZ files are archives consisting of basic (usually doc.kml) and potentially additional files, such as: custom skins, images, icons or 3D models. All this content is packaged using the ZIP method, which uses a simple compression algorithm - DEFLATE - which ensures higher compatibility with a wide range of applications. According to the agreement, files doc.kml are located in the main folder, and additional files are in subfolders.
KMZ files may contain data such as:
- markers for places with atypical names,
- geographical coordinates - longitude and parallel,
- 3D model data, with some limitations.
Thanks to KMZ files, Google Earth provides a bird's-eye view of many locations. The data contained in KMZ files can be displayed in any geospatial software that supports KML encoding.
hint
KMZ files are also supported Google Maps Online. You need to upload the KMZ file to an FTP server and paste the link into the window Google search Maps. Alternatively, the user can do this manually by placing a link directly to the following address:
Programs that support the KMZ file
Converting a KMZ file
After installing one of the applications from the list of programs you found here, you should not have any problems opening or editing a file with a KMZ extension. If you still have a problem with this, you can convert KMZ files to another format.
Converting a file with the KMZ extension to another format
Converting files of another format to a KMZ file
We hope that we helped you solve the problem with the KMZ file. If you don't know where you can download an application from our list, click on the link (this is the name of the program) - you will find more detailed information regarding the place from where to download the safe installation version required application.
What else could cause problems?
There may be more reasons why you cannot open the KMZ file (not just the lack of an appropriate application).
Firstly- the KMZ file may not be linked correctly (incompatible) with installed application for its maintenance. In this case, you need to change this connection yourself. To do this, right-click on the KMZ file that you want to edit, click the option "To open with" and then select the program you installed from the list. After this action, problems with opening the KMZ file should completely disappear.
Secondly- the file you want to open may simply be damaged. In this case, it would be best to find a new version of it, or download it again from the same source (perhaps for some reason in the previous session the download of the KMZ file did not finish and it cannot be opened correctly).
Do you want to help?
If you have Additional Information about the KMZ file extension, we will be grateful if you share it with users of our site. Use the form below and send us your information about the KMZ file.
After describing the Garmin instructions for creating raster maps Many questions arise, namely:-How to download satellite maps so that they do not contain service symbols and drawings of “Planet Earth”
-How to split maps into fragments of maximum size 1024*1024 each, and also control the maximum number of these files
-How to automate the process of creating fragments and linking them in the Planet Earth program
Naturally, these questions appeared in attempts to answer people's questions; another such work made me think and try to write a short instruction based on fresh traces of memories....
Why didn’t you write right away? Yes, everything is simple, the programs that I used before change, new opportunities appear here and there, in general at this stage This is what my process looks like.
1. Uploading images and creating a kmz file
There is such a completely free program called SASPlanet. It is located here http://sasgis.org/download/ and you can download it there.
The beauty of this program is that it allows you to download images not only from Google maps, but also from a bunch of other sources. Moreover, it downloads them with the ability to set how many fragments to divide into, and whether to create additional binding files!!! These pictures are completely devoid of unnecessary information; they are uploaded in a package, i.e. You can immediately download decent volumes, you can set the level of detail, basic binding files will be generated that we can use, and most importantly, you can immediately create a kmz file for the navigator!!!
Therefore, download the program, or rather the archive, and unpack it on your computer. Let's launch SASPlanet and the first thing you need to do is set the parameter in the "Source\Internet and cache" menu, i.e. so that maps are taken both from the Internet, if they are missing, and from the cache, if they have already been downloaded to the computer.
Next you should play with the program, i.e. look at the maps, what they are from one source or another (by changing the “Maps” menu) in order to decide what suits you best. In many ways, working with the program is similar to Planet Earth.
Now, if you have decided which map is more interesting to you and which particular area you need in your navigator, then:
Enlarge the map to understand what level of detail you need, the level of detail is displayed in the lower right corner of the program, in this picture, as you can see, it is 5x, remember this number.
We mark the selected area, to do this we select the menu for selecting a rectangular area, the map can be enlarged or reduced, the main thing is that it is convenient to mark. 
Select the area we need on the map 
A menu like this will appear 
We set the card type to the type you like.
We set the scale to the number that we remember as the level of detail.
Check that the "Try to load missing tiles" option is checked.
Now we need to think a little. We see that below under the card type, the program gave us the resolution of the image, in in this example it is 14336x12800 pixels. We have the following restrictions in the navigator: the file size can be no more than 1024x1024 (of course, smaller is possible, for example 900x200), the total number of such files can be no more than 100.
Those. in this particular case, we in no way interfere with the current restrictions. There are two options: either mark a smaller territory, or choose a larger one. weak level detailing. If I now set the detail to one level less, i.e. 13, then I will get a picture resolution equal to 7168x6400.
7168x6400 is quite suitable, because if we divide the picture, for example, horizontally into 8 parts, and vertically into 7, we get 896x915, which fits within the file size limit, and the number of files turns out to be 7*8=56, which satisfies the condition, when the number of files should be no more than 100.
So we have decided on the sizes, scales and are ready to give the command to download all the necessary images from the Internet! Click the "Start" button
Required certain time, sometimes quite a lot, until the program downloads all the data from the map service to the local disk.
A menu like this will appear, after the download is complete, just click “Exit” 
We have downloaded all the maps we need, now we continue, to do this we need to return to the marked area again, to do this, simply select the “Previous selection” menu 
and thus we are back to the familiar dialog menu
In this dialog, select the “Glue” tab 
Select the resulting format as shown, i.e. creation of "Kmz for Garmin".
Specify the save path and file name.
Set the correct scale.
Go! Click "Start" and the program will create a kmz file, which will contain map images, broken into parts!!!
All!!! We got what we needed from the SASPlanet program; all that remains is to copy the map file to the navigator (directory /Garmin/CustomMaps/).
The only thing I’ll note is that you shouldn’t give the kmz file a name in Russian letters, the navigator simply won’t see such a file.
2. Editing the map
There are situations when it is necessary to correct the pictures of cards. For example, I ended up with a map that looked fine at home, but in reality on a body of water its readability left much to be desired, and the next time I simply outlined the land in brown and the water in blue, thereby increasing the contrast between objects and increasing readability. There can be many similar reasons. Therefore, I will provide a guide on how to edit the finished kmz file.
The Kmz file is a regular Zip archive. You need to configure the Windows shell so that it allows you to see and change file extensions. We change the extension of our file to zip, and then the file can be opened as an archive and all the contents can be extracted from it.
Let's unzip our file into an empty directory. We will get in it:
doc.kml - text XML file linking images to coordinates.
files - the directory that contains all the pictures in jpg format
Now we take and edit any pictures in the files directory. The main thing is not to change the file names or change the size of the pictures.
To check how it will look, you can open the doc.kml file with the Planet Earth program, and it will load the pictures. Once we are sure that all the necessary changes have been made, it is enough to pack it in zip archive the doc.kml file and the files directory with the contents, then change the archive extension from zip to kmz.
What is a KMZ file?
A KMZ file includes the main KML file and, as a rule, associated resources, compressed using an archiver into a single archive. The KMZ archive can be stored on disk or sent by mail as a single file. Using the network link, the KMZ file can be obtained from the web server. Before compressing the main KML-the document and associated resources represent separate files with their own names and extensions, organized by directories. The KMZ format serves not only for archiving, but also for compression, so only one large KML file can be included in the archive. The file size can usually be reduced by a factor of ten (depending on the content). Thus, a 10 KB KML file can be turned into a 1 KB KMZ file.
Google Earth and Google Maps recognize KML and KMZ formats, and also support saving KMZ files. By default, the main KML file is named doc.kml.
Note. For clarity, we will also call the main KML file in the KMZ archive doc.kml. In reality, it can be called anything, the main thing is that it must have an extension KML and be united KML-file in the archive.
If the file size doc.kml exceeds 10 KB or if it contains links to other resources (pictures, sound fragments, models or textures), you must create a KMZ archive.
This section contains some tips for creating KML and KMZ files. The example we're using comes from Jimmy Buffett's site, where the KML format is used to display tour itineraries and related information on Google Earth.
Download a KMZ file with information about this tour(used with permission of the owner).
Note. To ensure that relative links to KMZ files are processed correctly by Google Earth 6.0, you must follow all of the instructions below (pay particular attention to step 4). In earlier versions of the geobrowser, the rules for handling relative links were less strict, so some links that worked in Google Earth up to and including version 5.2 may not work in version 6.0 and later.
To create a KMZ file, follow these steps:
The example below shows the folder structure of the KMZ archive of Jimmy Buffett's tour.
Since there are only five additional files, they are all combined into a subfolder files. If you upload a file to Google Earth and then copy and paste its contents into text editor, it will be seen that in all elements
Links to external files
In file doc.kml usually contains links to other files: pictures, icons, models, textures and sound fragments. They are included in the href attribute (or in the element
- in the element (or
in element
); - (child of , or );
- and in the element.
Links to external files can be absolute or relative– the next section is devoted to this. They can point to files within the same KMZ archive, within other KMZ archives, or on external web servers. Relative links are always determined based on the file location doc.kml, as described in the section. The only exception is
Absolute and relative links
An absolute link contains the entire URL of the file. Such links are unambiguous and, as a rule, point to files that are stored on external servers. An absolute link to a locally stored file will no longer work after it is moved to another system. To avoid this, it is recommended to use relative links.
Handling relative links
Relative links are processed based on the file location doc.kml, i.e. any relative path starts in the root folder of the KMZ archive. In the example above, the main URL looks like this (it may differ depending on where you downloaded the KMZ archive from):
Buffetthawaiitour.kmz
To link to a file located in another KMZ archive (for example, images/jimmyphoto.jpg V margaritavillealbum.kmz) the notation ".." is used, corresponding to moving one level up (exiting the current KMZ archive ( buffetthawaiitour.kmz).
Note. The rules for processing relative links in the KMZ archive are based on the requirements of the RFC 3986 standard (Section 5). The main URL is determined by the file location doc.kml, and all relative URLs are processed based on it.
Exception: inside element
Element
Creating a KMZ archive
To create a ZIP archive, use Windows Explorer or Mac Finder. Select the contents of the folder where the file is located doc.kml and related resources, and click WinZip > Add to ZIP File. The Java JAR library also contains a ZIP library for creating and extracting ZIP archives, and Linux provides corresponding command line instructions.
Note. When creating a ZIP archive, you must select content file folders doc.kml, not the folder itself.
Change the extension of the created archive from ZIP on KMZ. If you need to extract the files, just change the extension again on ZIP, after which you can use a standard program for unpacking ZIP archives.