How to set up a 5 Mile Radius (5MR) project?

I would like to know how to set up a 5MR project for my property. Particularly, how to set the location from my property with a 5mile radius circle. I have been to the mapdevelopers site and created a map there but I do not know how to upload it to my project. When I search other people’s 5MR projects they all have a 5MR map in the header. When I try to enter my address in the location I am only able to select my county. cayy any one take me through a step by step procedure?

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Before you create your project, you need to create a Place to link it to. The basic process for creating a place is outlined here: https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/getting+started#create_place . To do this, you will need a KML file of your 5-mile radius circle. I’m not familiar with Mapdevelopers, but it should be a relatively straightforward export option if you already have a map. Once you have the place created, you just use that place name when you create the project.
Hope this helps.

I’m curious what features a project brings that the Explore tab doesn’t. You can zoom in to your approximate 5 mile radius area in the Explore map, which filters observations out of view. One of the first things I did when I joined was set an alert for my county, which I see in my daily digest email and keeps me notified when there is activity. I suppose that by setting up a ‘place’ you can see the data in the specific area you want, get alerts, see leaderboards, etc.

I set up several places that ware X mile radius circles moving out from near where I live. I’ve not set up projects for them, but as @taitsougstad was talking about, have looked at them using the observation explorer.

To generate the circles I used one of the online KML circle generators (might have been this one: http://kml4earth.appspot.com/circlegen.html but I’m not sure). Then I imported it into iNaturalist in the place creator referenced by @twainwright

Projects is just an easier access to the explore page, that can show all statistics on one page without changing tabs, plus you can create journal posts, etc.

Thank you. I have created the KLM file. I have saved this location on Google maps in My Places. I have created a pinned location for this area on iNat. I have copied that name and pasted it into the Places box on my project page but it is NOT recognised. I do not see where to enter this KLM file to iNat. What exactly is this “place name” that I am supposed to use? What am I not getting?

Under the map, on the right, did you upload the KML file on the Add a New Place page?

https://www.inaturalist.org/places

You said that you saved the location on Google maps in my places.
Does that mean that you “created a new place” on iNat using the kml file? It does not sound like the same thing to me, based on the words you used. Your Google maps “my places” is not the same as creating a “place” in iNat.

To create a place in iNat:
Click on “More” on the top banner and then “Places.” From there, click “Add a new place.” Give your place a name, and there is a “choose file” button below that. Click the choose file button and select the KML file of the circle you generated (which is probably in your computer downloads folder). Then, once you have created your place, that will be the place name you use.

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Supplemental to this topic, I set up a 5MR project but most of my observations do not show on it. I think this is because I choose to obscure my coordinates. I do this because the vast majority of my observations are made in my own yard, with about 75% of them being moths attracted to my moth lights. I don’t really want to make my home location known. Does this mean that there is no way for me to have a 5MR project that includes all my observations?

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You could make big enough circles that would still cover the actual location, but not in an obvious way, and still be in a project boundaries. Or you could make project place bigger.

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It definitely sounds like the place was made in Google, which doesn’t affect iNat places, @bouteloua linked the page where you create places, it’s found under “More” tab on the main page.

There’s no way to do with a collection project, but you can create a traditional project and manually add observations to it, if most are going to be from your yard.

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Thank you. This is the step that was alluding me. Unfortunately there is something wrong with the KLM file and iNat won’t accept it. I got this message:
“There were problems importing that place: Latitude can’t be blank, Longitude can’t be blank, Name cannot start with a number, File was invalid or did not contain any polygons, Place geometry can’t be blank”
The KML file I used was created on a site called Mapdevelopers. It worked on Google maps. I am really out of my depth. Could you possibly give me a different link for creating a KML file?

How exactly have you created that file, do you have a file of another type or you draw it?

@susanblayney The site I used to make my map is here: https://www.freemaptools.com/radius-around-point.htm

Before you go there, you need the latitude and longitude coordinates of the point from which you are making the radius, i.e. your home. You can get the latitude and longitude coordinates from Google maps. If you do not know how to do that, let me know and I can explain it step by step.

At the site I linked above, first click on the words “Click here to load the map.” You will see an error message about not loading Google maps correctly. Ignore that. Just click OK. Underneath the map is a section with the subtitle “Options.” The first line allows you to enter your radius in either miles or km.
Enter 5 in the miles box. Then, within the “Options” section, to go 3) Input Coordinates. There, input the coordinates that you got from the Google Maps location of your home.

Now, scroll down to the “Output” section and click the button that says “Generate KML.” The map downloads into your download file. Then you need to go through the steps that were previously described using iNat to create a place. Don’t start your place name with a number. Use Five, not 5.

Hope that helps!

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Your instructions are very clear. I followed them exactly but when I clicked on Generate KLM nothing happened. There is a warning- “[12th July 2018] Unfortunately, due to a large price increase in back-end services, we can no longer offer some features on this page or have had to use alternative providers.” I guess it no longer works.
Do you have any other suggestions?

That warning is there all the time. It’s the reason the google maps error comes up. But it doesn’t stop the kml file generator from working. I just tested it and it worked fine. When you click the “generate KML” button, nothing “happens” onscreen (depending on your browser). What it does is generate a file in your “downloads” file on your computer called “download-radius-around-point.kml” I am using Chrome and it does generate that file and show it at the bottom of my screen, but not everyone has the same settings.

Can you go look in your downloads folder and see if a file with that download radius name is there?

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@fffffffff: I used this site suggested by @gwark orininally. The site suggested by @scotiaspinner did not work for me. I will continue to try to get a viable KLM file by trial and error. Once I have that I now understand how to make a new place on iNat.

Thank you for sticking with me on this. I am using Chrome too. I did not get a download notification. The file isn’t in my downloads. I will try again.

I think, maybe, you have to click the “draw radius” button after entering the coordinates. It’s over to the right hand side after you enter the coordinates.

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