Draw A Circle On Android MapView

Question

Got it fixed here is my solution:

Edit: updated to reflect robguinness answer.

import com.google.android.maps.GeoPoint;
import com.google.android.maps.MapView;
import com.google.android.maps.Overlay;
import com.google.android.maps.Projection;

import android.content.Context;
import android.graphics.Canvas;
import android.graphics.Color;
import android.graphics.Paint;
import android.graphics.Point;

public class CircleOverlay extends Overlay {

Context context;
double mLat;
double mLon;
float mRadius;

public CircleOverlay(Context _context, double _lat, double _lon, float radius ) {
    context = _context;
    mLat = _lat;
    mLon = _lon;
    mRadius = radius;
}

public CircleOverlay(Context _context, double _lat, double _lon, float radius ) {
    context = _context;
    mLat = _lat;
    mLon = _lon;
    mRadius = radius;
}

public void draw(Canvas canvas, MapView mapView, boolean shadow) {
    super.draw(canvas, mapView, shadow); 

    if(shadow) return; // Ignore the shadow layer

    Projection projection = mapView.getProjection();

    Point pt = new Point();

    GeoPoint geo = new GeoPoint((int) (mLat *1e6), (int)(mLon * 1e6));

    projection.toPixels(geo ,pt);
    float circleRadius = projection.metersToEquatorPixels(mRadius) * (1/ FloatMath.cos((float) Math.toRadians(mLat)));

    Paint innerCirclePaint;

    innerCirclePaint = new Paint();
    innerCirclePaint.setColor(Color.BLUE);
    innerCirclePaint.setAlpha(25);
    innerCirclePaint.setAntiAlias(true);

    innerCirclePaint.setStyle(Paint.Style.FILL);

    canvas.drawCircle((float)pt.x, (float)pt.y, circleRadius, innerCirclePaint);
}

}

To "Draw" it needs to be added to the maps overlays

mMapView.getOverlays().add(new CircleOverlay(context, loc.getLatitude(),loc.getLongitude()));

Hope this helps.

Answer 1

The accepted answer has an error. I attempted to correct it, but my edit was rejected for some strange reason. In any case, here is a corrected answer:

import com.google.android.maps.GeoPoint;
import com.google.android.maps.MapView;
import com.google.android.maps.Overlay;
import com.google.android.maps.Projection;

import android.content.Context;
import android.graphics.Canvas;
import android.graphics.Color;
import android.graphics.Paint;
import android.graphics.Point;

public class CircleOverlay extends Overlay {

    Context context;
    double mLat;
    double mLon;
    float mRadius;

    public CircleOverlay(Context _context, double _lat, double _lon, float radius ) {
        context = _context;
        mLat = _lat;
        mLon = _lon;
        mRadius = radius;
    }

    public CircleOverlay(Context _context, double _lat, double _lon, float radius ) {
        context = _context;
        mLat = _lat;
        mLon = _lon;
        mRadius = radius;
    }

    public void draw(Canvas canvas, MapView mapView, boolean shadow) {
        super.draw(canvas, mapView, shadow); 

        if(shadow) return; // Ignore the shadow layer

        Projection projection = mapView.getProjection();

        Point pt = new Point();

        GeoPoint geo = new GeoPoint((int) (mLat *1e6), (int)(mLon * 1e6));

        projection.toPixels(geo ,pt);
        float circleRadius = projection.metersToEquatorPixels(mRadius) * (1/ FloatMath.cos((float) Math.toRadians(mLat)));

        Paint innerCirclePaint;

        innerCirclePaint = new Paint();
        innerCirclePaint.setColor(Color.BLUE);
        innerCirclePaint.setAlpha(25);
        innerCirclePaint.setAntiAlias(true);

        innerCirclePaint.setStyle(Paint.Style.FILL);

        canvas.drawCircle((float)pt.x, (float)pt.y, circleRadius, innerCirclePaint);
    }
}

The problem in Scott's answer is that the circleRadius was calculated using a method that converts from meters to pixels for points at the equator. If, however, your desired point is not on the equator, the radius will be too small because the conversion does not account for the fact that meridians come together at the poles. This can be corrected, however, by multiplying by (1/ FloatMath.cos((float) Math.toRadians(mLat))), which is the only change that I made to Scott's original answer.

I hope this helps someone because I discovered the problem the hard way. I live in Finland, where using the original method, the circles were drawn ~2 times smaller than they should have been!

Answer 2

I've taken the above sample and expanded it to take into account circles which need to be scaled with the map zoom level (ie: circles relative to ground distance).

Some people might find it useful.

import com.google.android.maps.GeoPoint;
import com.google.android.maps.MapView;
import com.google.android.maps.Overlay;
import com.google.android.maps.Projection;

import android.content.Context;
import android.graphics.Canvas;
import android.graphics.Color;
import android.graphics.Paint;
import android.graphics.Point;

public class CircleOverlay extends Overlay {

    Context context;
    double mLat;
    double mLon;
    float mRadius;

     public CircleOverlay(Context _context, double _lat, double _lon, float radius ) {
            context = _context;
            mLat = _lat;
            mLon = _lon;
            mRadius = radius;
     }

     public void draw(Canvas canvas, MapView mapView, boolean shadow) {
         super.draw(canvas, mapView, shadow); 

         if(shadow) return; // Ignore the shadow layer

         Projection projection = mapView.getProjection();

         Point pt = new Point();

         GeoPoint geo = new GeoPoint((int) (mLat *1e6), (int)(mLon * 1e6));

         projection.toPixels(geo ,pt);
         float circleRadius = projection.metersToEquatorPixels(mRadius) * (1/ FloatMath.cos((float) Math.toRadians(mLat)));

         Paint innerCirclePaint;

         innerCirclePaint = new Paint();
         innerCirclePaint.setColor(Color.BLUE);
         innerCirclePaint.setAlpha(25);
         innerCirclePaint.setAntiAlias(true);

         innerCirclePaint.setStyle(Paint.Style.FILL);

         canvas.drawCircle((float)pt.x, (float)pt.y, circleRadius, innerCirclePaint);
    }
}