Circular Place for Bioblitz

I was wondering what the best solution for this problem was. I wanted a iNat project for a Bioblitz with a certain area radius around a center point, but I cannot make a place. The uploader returns an error for the file. What do people do when they want a Bioblitz or survey circle of X miles and they want to include all observations within that circle? Can I make such a place and if not, what are the alternatives?

Thanks!

make a polygon that approximates a circle.

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If I remember well, I had a similar problem. I was creating a polygon with Google Earth pro, but iNat rejected the [.kmz] polygon, but then I spotted that the error message was asking for an [.kml] polygon, which worked fine.

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You may be interested in these threads:
https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/possible-to-use-a-circle-kml-to-create-a-location/10271
https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/how-to-set-up-a-5-mile-radius-5mr-project/11818

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I will check it out. Yes, I was getting an error message but it wasn’t specific. It was saying “file starts with a number, file too large, not a polygon,…” but I assume not having a polygon was the issue since it was a circle.

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Alright it still won’t work…

I went to a link used by one of the previous posters:

https://www.freemaptools.com/radius-around-point.htm

I used these coordinates for the centroid:
41.353, -72.08

The radius is 5.5 miles

I generated the KML which downloaded.

I then went to the placed and got the following:

“There were problems importing that place: Place geometry can’t be blank”

I have no clue what that even means given the KML was made for a circle of known area.

contents of KML

Free Map Tools Radius Free Map Tools Radius gx:balloonVisibility1</gx:balloonVisibility> normal polystyle0 highlight polystyle0 ffFFFFFF 7f00FF00 undefined polystyle0 1 -72.08000,41.43251,0 -72.07261,41.43232,0 -72.06526,41.43174,0 -72.05798,41.43078,0 -72.05080,41.42943,0 -72.04377,41.42772,0 -72.03692,41.42564,0 -72.03027,41.42321,0 -72.02387,41.42043,0 -72.01774,41.41733,0 -72.01191,41.41391,0 -72.00642,41.41020,0 -72.00128,41.40621,0 -71.99653,41.40195,0 -71.99218,41.39746,0 -71.98827,41.39276,0 -71.98479,41.38786,0 -71.98179,41.38279,0 -71.97926,41.37757,0 -71.97722,41.37224,0 -71.97568,41.36681,0 -71.97465,41.36131,0 -71.97414,41.35577,0 -71.97414,41.35023,0 -71.97465,41.34469,0 -71.97568,41.33919,0 -71.97722,41.33376,0 -71.97926,41.32843,0 -71.98179,41.32321,0 -71.98479,41.31814,0 -71.98827,41.31324,0 -71.99218,41.30854,0 -71.99653,41.30405,0 -72.00128,41.29979,0 -72.00642,41.29580,0 -72.01191,41.29209,0 -72.01774,41.28867,0 -72.02387,41.28557,0 -72.03027,41.28279,0 -72.03692,41.28036,0 -72.04377,41.27828,0 -72.05080,41.27657,0 -72.05798,41.27522,0 -72.06526,41.27426,0 -72.07261,41.27368,0 -72.08000,41.27349,0 -72.08739,41.27368,0 -72.09474,41.27426,0 -72.10202,41.27522,0 -72.10920,41.27657,0 -72.11623,41.27828,0 -72.12308,41.28036,0 -72.12973,41.28279,0 -72.13613,41.28557,0 -72.14226,41.28867,0 -72.14809,41.29209,0 -72.15358,41.29580,0 -72.15872,41.29979,0 -72.16347,41.30405,0 -72.16782,41.30854,0 -72.17173,41.31324,0 -72.17521,41.31814,0 -72.17821,41.32321,0 -72.18074,41.32843,0 -72.18278,41.33376,0 -72.18432,41.33919,0 -72.18535,41.34469,0 -72.18586,41.35023,0 -72.18586,41.35577,0 -72.18535,41.36131,0 -72.18432,41.36681,0 -72.18278,41.37224,0 -72.18074,41.37757,0 -72.17821,41.38279,0 -72.17521,41.38786,0 -72.17173,41.39276,0 -72.16782,41.39746,0 -72.16347,41.40195,0 -72.15872,41.40621,0 -72.15358,41.41020,0 -72.14809,41.41391,0 -72.14226,41.41733,0 -72.13613,41.42043,0 -72.12973,41.42321,0 -72.12308,41.42564,0 -72.11623,41.42772,0 -72.10920,41.42943,0 -72.10202,41.43078,0 -72.09474,41.43174,0 -72.08739,41.43232,0 -72.08000,41.43251,0

OK, disregard…

I found a sample kml script and simply cut-pasted my coordinates into that template and saved the KML file. Then it worked!

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Is it possible to share that script? Or is that the previous post?

pisum’s post has a quoted chunk of text that is the script I used. One of the lines toward the bottom (almost cut off to the right) is the word coordinates, and you insert the coordinates from your KML file into that script and save it. I opened my generated KML in Notepad and copy-pasted the block of coordinates and pasted it into the script.

https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/possible-to-use-a-circle-kml-to-create-a-location/10271/4

I was actually shocked that it worked given how inept I am with coding

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