Importing and Exporting

Using Plex.Earth 3 you can import any KLM file directly into your AutoCAD drawing, or export your whole project (or any part of it) to Google Earth, as either a KML, or in the highly compressed KMZ format.

Import KML 

The procedure to fetch KML files into your drawing is simple:

Step 1: Select the "Import KML" command and choose the desired file 

Step 2: The information contained in the KML file is brought into your AutoCAD drawing 

Publish to Google Earth (KML or KMZ)  

Use this function to publish your AutoCAD project into Google Earth for presentation purposes, or to share with partners and clients.

Step 1: Select the "Publish to Google Earth" command.  

Note: If you have already selected the objects you wish to export before you use this command, you will be taken to step 4. This serves to speed-up the process after you have become familiar with the varous options. You can always access the previous steps by clicking on "Back".

Step 2: Choose the appropriate coordinate trasformation method

Here, you have two options:

(1) If you have already specified the coordinate system used in your project, it will appear here, and you can change it if  you want.

(2) If your project is not based on a specific systems you can choose to apply a User-defined transformation. You can then select a location in your drawing, and its orientation if needed (by pressing on the "+" buttons), and associate with with any position in Google Earth (when you press on "Pick from Google Earth"  a crosshair will appear in the Google Earth window, which you will use to define the exact location.

Step 3: Select the objects you want to export

You can either use all the elements in your drawing, or make a custom selection, by clicking on "+" button. The options to publish Text and Points (both will be converted to placemarks) and the precision of Circle and Splines approximations can also be defined here.

Note: Be careful when selecting the "Retain line thickness option", as this can result in progressively blurred representations of your project, as the eye altitude of Google Earth increases.

Step 4: Choose File name, Elevation mode and Placemark style

When defining the name of the exported file, you can determine whether you want to create a simple KML, or the highly compressed KMZ format. In this last step you can also choose a style for the placemarks that will be created.

The most important option, however, is Elavation mode. This determined how the exported objects will appear in Google Earth. Select:

1. Elevation relative to sea level  if you want your project to be transfered into Google Earth in absolute coordinates. Note however that if for whatever reasons there is a discrepancy between your drawing's Z values and those of Google Earth at the specific area your project might appear either elevated or immersed into the ground.
2. Elevation relative to ground  in order to avoid the 3D represantations problems explained above. When you use this option every Z value of your project will be applied as an offset of the ground level in Google Earth, ensuring flawless display. However you must convert your drawing's Z coordinates to relative ones (based on 0 height) before using this option.
3. Drape entities on ground  if you would like your project to be clamped to ground level in the Google Earth window. This is the safest option if you are not interested in a 3D representation of your project.

Step 5: Your project is published into Google Earth

  Note that Plex.Earth has created a structured model or your project inside Google Earth's Temporary Places with each folder representing a layer of your original drawing.