Testing plotKML tutorial

I thought I'd give plotKML a try, as I need to visualize some gridded data, and Google Earth, combined with some tools from R (like plotKML), offers some great options. I hope.

I first tried the tutorial found at http://plotkml.r-forge.r-project.org/tutorial.php but found a few bumps. Hopefully someone will muster enough time to see what's going on.

I have installed all suggestede tools

library(plotKML)
## plotKML version 0.3-2 (2012-12-04)
## URL: http://plotkml.r-forge.r-project.org/
paths()
## Loading required package: RSAGA
## Loading required package: gstat
## Loading required package: sp
## Loading required package: spacetime
## Loading required package: shapefiles
## Loading required package: foreign
## Attaching package: 'shapefiles'
## The following object(s) are masked from 'package:foreign':
## 
## read.dbf, write.dbf
## Loading required package: plyr
## Attaching package: 'plyr'
## The following object(s) are masked from 'package:plotKML':
## 
## count
## Warning: running command '"C:\Program Files (x86)\SAGA-GIS/saga_cmd.exe"
## --version' had status 1
## Warning: running command '"C:\Program Files (x86)\SAGA-GIS/saga_cmd.exe"
## --version' had status 1
## Warning: running command '"C:\Program Files (x86)\SAGA-GIS/saga_cmd.exe"
## --version' had status 1
## Loading required package: animation
## Version: ImageMagick 6.7.0-0 2011-05-20 Q16 http://www.imagemagick.org
## Located FWTools from the Registry Hive: "C:\PROGRA~2\FWTOOL~1.7"
## Located Python from the Registry Hive: "Q:\Python25\\"
##                                        gdalwarp
## 1 "C:\\PROGRA~2\\FWTOOL~1.7\\bin\\gdalwarp.exe"
##                                  gdal_translate
## 1 "C:\\PROGRA~2\\FWTOOL~1.7\\bin\\GDAL_T~1.EXE"
##                                                   convert
## 1 "C:\\Program Files\\ImageMagick-6.7.0-Q16\\convert.exe"
##                       python                             saga_cmd
## 1 "Q:\\Python25\\python.exe" C:\\PROGRA~2\\SAGA-GIS\\saga_cmd.exe

Plotting a bubble chart.

data(eberg)
coordinates(eberg) <- ~X + Y
proj4string(eberg) <- CRS("+init=epsg:31467")
eberg <- eberg[runif(nrow(eberg)) < 0.2, ]
bubble(eberg["CLYMHT_A"])
## Error: missing values and NaN's not allowed if 'na.rm' is FALSE

Plotting a bubble plot in Google Earth.

plotKML(eberg["CLYMHT_A"])  # OK

Plot contours

data(eberg_contours)
plotKML(eberg_contours)  # OK
plotKML(eberg_contours, colour = Z, altitude = Z)  # OK
data(eberg_zones)
plotKML(eberg_zones["ZONES"])  # OK
plotKML(eberg_zones["ZONES"], altitude = runif(length(eberg_zones)) * 
    500)  # OK

Plot gridded data. Something goes wrong. Any ideas?

data(eberg_grid)
gridded(eberg_grid) <- ~x + y
proj4string(eberg_grid) <- CRS("+init=epsg:31467")
data(SAGA_pal)
plotKML(eberg_grid["TWISRT6"], colour_scale = SAGA_pal[[1]])
## Plotting the first variable on the list
## KML file opened for writing...
## Reprojecting to +proj=longlat +datum=WGS84 ...
## rgdal: version: 0.8-5, (SVN revision 449) Geospatial Data Abstraction
## Library extensions to R successfully loaded Loaded GDAL runtime: GDAL
## 1.9.2, released 2012/10/08 Path to GDAL shared files:
## C:/Users/romunov/Documents/R/win-library/2.15/rgdal/gdal GDAL does not use
## iconv for recoding strings. Loaded PROJ.4 runtime: Rel. 4.7.1, 23
## September 2009, [PJ_VERSION: 470] Path to PROJ.4 shared files:
## C:/Users/romunov/Documents/R/win-library/2.15/rgdal/proj
## Error: 'z' must be a matrix
data(worldgrids_pal)
pal <- as.character(worldgrids_pal["corine2k"][[1]][c(1, 11, 13, 
    14, 16, 17, 18)])
plotKML(eberg_grid["LNCCOR6"], colour_scale = pal)
## Plotting the first variable on the list
## KML file opened for writing...
## Reprojecting to +proj=longlat +datum=WGS84 ...
## Error: 'z' must be a matrix

I have not included code beyond chapter Field photographs. It would seems up til here, everything works except when I try to plot on a grid (which is what I'm currently after).

My sessionInfo is

sessionInfo()
## R version 2.15.3 (2013-03-01)
## Platform: x86_64-w64-mingw32/x64 (64-bit)
## 
## locale:
## [1] LC_COLLATE=Slovenian_Slovenia.1250  LC_CTYPE=Slovenian_Slovenia.1250   
## [3] LC_MONETARY=Slovenian_Slovenia.1250 LC_NUMERIC=C                       
## [5] LC_TIME=Slovenian_Slovenia.1250    
## 
## attached base packages:
## [1] stats     graphics  grDevices utils     datasets  methods   base     
## 
## other attached packages:
##  [1] rgdal_0.8-5     animation_2.1   RSAGA_0.93-2    plyr_1.8       
##  [5] shapefiles_0.6  foreign_0.8-52  gstat_1.0-10    spacetime_1.0-4
##  [9] sp_1.0-6        plotKML_0.3-2   knitr_0.8      
## 
## loaded via a namespace (and not attached):
##  [1] aqp_1.5            cluster_1.14.3     colorRamps_2.3    
##  [4] colorspace_1.2-1   dichromat_1.2-4    digest_0.5.2      
##  [7] dismo_0.8-11       evaluate_0.4.2     formatR_0.4       
## [10] grid_2.15.3        Hmisc_3.9-3        intervals_0.14.0  
## [13] labeling_0.1       lattice_0.20-13    munsell_0.3       
## [16] parser_0.0-14      pixmap_0.4-11      plotrix_3.4-6     
## [19] raster_2.1-16      RColorBrewer_1.0-5 Rcpp_0.10.2       
## [22] reshape_0.8.4      scales_0.2.3       stringr_0.6.2     
## [25] tools_2.15.3       XML_3.95-0.2       xts_0.9-3         
## [28] zoo_1.7-9