With Plex-Earth, you gain access to top-notch imagery and terrain from several providers. You can use their images to either create detailed Mosaics to see every aspect of your project area, quickly create Timelines from the providers that offer historical datasets to see how your projects evolve through time, and import elevation data to see the morphology of your project site.
The current list of the providers Plex-Earth offers is the following:
Base map providers:
Premium Providers
Explanation of the Zoom Levels
Terms of Use of Imagery Providers
You can see below a list of the most important features of each provider that Plex-Earth offers. Find a short description of these characteristics below:
- Coverage: Which areas or countries does a specific provider cover
- Type of Imagery: This indicates the way the imagery was captured and the datasets offered.
- Color Type: Available colors of the imagery provided. It can be colorful, grayscale, or both
- Maximum Zoom Level: Each Zoom Level corresponds to specific inches or centimeters per pixel that indicate the resolution of an image. The Maximum Zoom Level is the maximum resolution a provider can offer. Keep in mind that the availability of the Maximum Zoom Level depends on the area of your project. You can see a detailed table at the end of this article explaining the resolution of each Zoom Level as well as the approximate area covered by each tile of a specific Zoom Level.
- Vertical Datum Surface: Serves as reference points from which elevation (positive altitudes and negative depressions) can be determined. Some providers use geoid or ellipsoidal models as vertical datum surfaces.
- Available for Mosaics: Explains if you can create Mosaics with this provider. Click here to find more information on how to import mosaics.
- Available for Timelines: Explains if you can create Timelines with this provider, so practically the information if the provider offers datasets of a known date. Click here to find more information on how to create timelines.
- Requires Credits: Mosaics created from premium providers require extra credit purchases. The cost per tile and provider varies. More information about this feature can be found on our pricing page.
- Can be converted to raster: Regarding their terms of use, each provider allows you to convert the Mosaic image you have created with Plex-Earth to raster and save it locally to your hard drive. Click here for information on how to create your imagery into a raster image.
Imagery
Known to most, Google Maps will help you take a quick look at your area of interest through the Import Image feature.
| Coverage: | Global |
| Type of Imagery: | Satellite/Aerial, Roads, Hybrid Satellite, Terrain |
| Color Type: | Colored |
| Maximum Zoom Level: | 21 |
| Available for Mosaics: | Yes (requires Pro & Premium) |
| Available for Timelines: | No (manually from Google Earth here) |
Terrain
Google Elevations is one of the world's most well-known and most comprehensive 3D maps over the internet to represent the Earth as a three-dimensional globe.
| Coverage: | Global |
| Vertical Datum Surface: | Geoid (EGM) |
| Terrain Resolution: |
Varies between 1 m (3 ft) and 30 m (100 ft) More information can be found here. Custom resolution available in Pro/Premium |
Azure Maps (Bing)
One of the most noted web mapping services, Bing, gives high-quality aerial, street, and other imagery.
| Coverage: | Global |
| Type of Imagery: | Aerial, Satellite |
| Color Type: | Colored |
| Maximum Zoom Level: | 20 |
| Available for Mosaics: | Yes (requires Pro/Premium) |
| Available for Timeline: | No |
| Requires Premium Mosaic Images: | No |
OpenStreetMaps
A worldwide coverage road map for more plain results.
| Coverage: | Global |
| Type of Imagery: | Road |
| Color Type: | Colored |
| Maximum Zoom Level: | 20 |
| Available for Mosaics: | Yes (requires Pro/Premium) |
| Available for Timeline: | No |
| Requires Premium Mosaic Images: | No |
Custom Maps
You can use Plex Earth's Map Explorer to add any WMS, WMTS, or Tile Server to access its imagery datasets and easily download them georeferenced into your AutoCAD drawing. Click here for more information on how to create your own custom maps.
| Logo: | Varies |
| Coverage: | Varies |
| Type of Imagery: | Varies |
| Color Type: | Varies |
| Maximum Zoom Level: | Varies |
| Available for Mosaics: | Yes (requires Pro/Premium) |
| Available for Timeline: | No |
| Requires Premium Mosaic Images: | No |
Maxar
One of the most recognizable satellite imagery providers, Maxar, offers plenty of datasets on various dates to monitor your project.
| Coverage: | Global |
| Type of Imagery: | Satellite |
| Color Type: | Colored, Grayscale |
| Maximum Zoom Level: | 20 |
| Available for Mosaics: | Yes (for Pro*/Premium, requires credits) |
| Available for Timeline: | Yes (requires Pro*/Premium) |
| Can be printed: | Yes (requires mosaic) |
| Can be converted to raster: | No |
Airbus
A high-quality satellite imagery supplier worldwide that offers plenty of datasets to choose from
| Coverage: | Global |
| Type of Imagery: | Satellite |
| Color Type: | Colored, Grayscale |
| Maximum Zoom Level: | 20 |
| Available for Mosaics: | Yes (for Pro*/Premium, requires credits) |
| Available for Timeline: | Yes (for Pro*/Premium) |
| Can be printed: | No |
| Can be converted to raster: | No |
Nearmap
Nearmap is a very high-quality imagery provider, offering up to sub-3'' ultra-high resolution imagery, mostly in urban areas.
| Coverage: | Urban areas of the US, Canada, Australia & New Zealand (exact coverage for the US and Canada is shown here and for Australia and New Zealand is shown here). |
| Type of Imagery: | Aerial |
| Color Type: | Colored |
| Maximum Zoom Level: | 21 |
| Available for Mosaics: | Yes (for Pro/Premium, requires credits) |
| Available for Timeline: | No |
| Can be printed: | Yes |
| Can be converted to raster: | Yes |
Hexagon
Hexagon provides high-quality aerial imagery all over the US, offering more detailed captures in urban areas.
| Coverage: | Country-wide US coverage and Europe (to see the exact coverage, click here. UK and Switzerland are excluded) |
| Type of Imagery: | Aerial |
| Color Type: | Colored |
| Maximum Zoom Level: | 20 for urban centers in the US, 19 for all other areas in the US |
| Available for Mosaics: | Yes (for Pro/Premium, requires credits) |
| Available for Timeline: | No |
| Can be printed: | Yes |
| Can be converted to raster: | Yes |
Explanation of the Zoom Levels
The table below gives a rough outline of what each Zoom Level corresponds to in terms of image quality:
| Zoom Level | Approximate Resolution per pixel | Approximate Area Covered by an Image in Meters | Approximate Area Covered by an Image in Feet |
| 21 | 7,5 cm/pixel or 3 in/pixel | 95 m x 95 m | 312 ft x 312 ft |
| 20 | 15 cm/pixel or 6 in/pixel | 190 m x 190 m | 625 ft x 625 ft |
| 19 | 30cm/pixel or 1 ft/pixel | 375 m x 375 m | 1,250 ft x 1,250 ft |
| 18 | 60 cm/pixel or 2 ft/pixel | 750 m x 750 m | 2,500 ft x 2,500 ft |
| 17 | 120 cm/pixel or 4 ft/pixel | 1,500 m x 1,500 m | 5,000 ft x 5,000 ft |
For lower Zoom Levels, the respective values are calculated proportionally.
Learn more about zoom levels in this article.
Terms of Use of Imagery Providers
We are not able to distribute the content of some of the Imagery Providers in specific countries or locations with respect to their Terms of Use. For more information about that, you can contact us at support@plexscape.com.
We hope that you have found this article about our data providers, helpful.
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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: V24 , V23 , V22 , V21