Convert Plex-Earth Imagery to a raster image file, save it locally on your computer, and take advantage of our up-to-date, high-quality available datasets for imports into other software.
Introduction
When imagery is imported into AutoCAD with Plex-Earth, these images are stored in our servers and automatically re-fetched and displayed by the software each time the drawing is opened. This is very convenient as it basically means that AutoCAD users do not have to worry about external references or large files. Adding to that, the completely free Plex-Earth Lite version makes Plex-Earth imagery available to people who do not own a Plex-Earth subscription, making imagery sharing easier than ever.
However, there are cases where creating a local copy of the imagery is required. For example, the user might want to work offline or import the drawing file into other software, like InfraWorks, SketchUp, 3ds Max, etc.
As such, this tutorial constitutes a breakdown of all the necessary steps for converting mosaics imported with Plex-Earth to raster images and saving them locally to a hard drive.
Click here to see a full list of the Basemap and Premium providers that offer this feature.
For those providers that do not allow by their Terms of Use to legally download their content, a Plex-Earth subscription (paid version or Lite) is still necessary for users who want to re-load Plex-Earth imagery when a drawing file is shared with them.
Here's how you can do it:
Step 2: Convert Plex-Earth Imagery to Raster Image
Step 1: Create Imagery Mosaic
Before importing imagery, the drawing must be georeferenced.
Then, imagery mosaic can be created, as described in this tutorial.
Step 2: Convert Plex-Earth Imagery to Raster Image
1) Click Insert on the Collection Manager, and then select As Raster Image(s).
2) Then, choose the format of the image for the specific file type you would like the raster image to be saved as.
The raster image can be saved in PNG, JPG, or TIF format.
PNG files support transparency, but JPG files do not. This may affect the newly created raster file, especially when working with images with applied clipping borders or cutouts, which affect image shape. However, the PNG format will result in a larger file size for your raster image compared to the JPEG option.
3) For choosing the mosaic area, you have 2 options:
- Entire Area: To create a raster image for the entire mosaic.
- Specific Area: To create a raster image for a specific area of the mosaic.
Plex-Earth will then save the newly created raster file in the folder containing your drawing file along with an accompanying World File and import it into your drawing. In case there's no drawing folder, Plex-Earth will create a new folder titled ''Plex-Earth'' on your desktop and use it to store the newly created raster file.
In any case, you will receive a notification regarding the destination folder that was used by the software.
Conclusion
Having the imported imagery stored locally on your hard drive is very convenient, especially when an AutoCAD drawing must be used in other software. Plex-Earth offers a great variety of tools, providing users with the ability to handle imagery in any way they want.
We hope that you have found this tutorial about Converting Plex-Earth Mosaic to Raster Image (and Save them Locally to your Hard Drive), helpful. Feel free to contact us at support@plexscape.com for any questions you may still have.
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Compatibility includes:
AutoCAD Version: 2025, 2024 , 2023 , 2022 , 2021 , 2020
Civil 3D® Version: 2025, 2024 , 2023 , 2022 , 2021 , 2020
AutoCAD Architecture Version: 2025, 2024 , 2023 , 2022 , 2021 , 2020
BricsCAD Pro: V25, V24 , V23 , V22 , V21