Sometimes, even if we georeference our drawing correctly, rotation discrepancies can still occur due to how the drawing was originally created or how the coordinate system handles orientation.
In Plex-Earth 2026, we made it possible to align Plex-Earth satellite imagery with your georeferenced drawings without even having to convert it to raster. Thanks to our seamless integration with AutoCAD or BricsCAD's ALIGN command, you can quickly fix your imagery placement with just a few clicks. This guide will walk you through this process.
Tutorial Guide:
Step 1: Georeference Your Drawing
Step 3: Use CAD's “Align” Command
Step 1: Georeference Your Drawing
Firstly, we need to make sure our drawing is correctly georeferenced so we can then place our image in the correct position. You can see how to achieve this here.
Step 2: Define Your Site Area
Once your drawing is georeferenced, the next step is to define a Site Area. The Site Area is the region from which Plex-Earth will retrieve dynamic imagery and terrain data. To find out more about this tool, click here.
Step 3: Use CAD's “Align” Command
After your Site Area has been created and imagery has been imported, you can follow the next steps to align your imagery with the drawing.
Click the ALIGN command from the Transform tools of the Site Editor.
Or type ALIGN in the command line and press Enter.
Select the Plex-Earth dynamic imagery that you want to align.
Specify source and destination points (minimum two pairs).
When prompted, choose whether to scale the objects based on the alignment points.
The imagery will automatically adjust to align with your georeferenced drawing.
Feel free to also check our tutorial on how to Apply Transformations to Assigned Coordinate System or Other Applied Georeference if you want to achieve other kinds of transformations in your drawing.
FAQs
What is the difference between this and "Apply Transformations to Assigned Coordinate System"?
This article is specifically for fixing rotation or position discrepancies between your Plex-Earth imagery and your existing drawing objects — for example when correctly georeferenced imagery still appears rotated or offset relative to your design. It uses CAD's ALIGN command directly on the dynamic imagery without modifying the coordinate system itself. The Apply Transformations article is for when you need to correct or adjust the georeference or coordinate system at the drawing level, affecting all future Plex-Earth imports. See Apply Transformations to Assigned Coordinate System or Other Applied Georeference for that workflow.
Do I need to convert my imagery to a raster file before I can align it?
No. This is the key advantage of this workflow — you can align the dynamic Plex-Earth imagery directly without converting it to a raster image first. The ALIGN command works on the live mosaic in your drawing, so you keep all the benefits of dynamic imagery while correcting the placement.
If I align the imagery now, will future imports also be placed at the corrected position?
Not automatically. The ALIGN command corrects the current imagery placement but does not update the underlying georeference. If you want all future imagery and terrain imports to follow the corrected position, use the Apply to Drawing command in the Site Area Editor after aligning. This commits the transformation to the coordinate system so new imports use the updated positioning.
Related Questions
This article explains how to align Plex-Earth satellite imagery with your existing drawing objects in AutoCAD, Civil 3D, or BricsCAD using the ALIGN command. You may have searched for:
- How to fix imagery that is rotated or misaligned with my drawing in AutoCAD
- How to align satellite imagery to my design objects in Civil 3D
- How to correct a rotation discrepancy between imagery and drawing in Plex-Earth
- How to use the ALIGN command on Plex-Earth imagery
- How to fix offset imagery in a georeferenced AutoCAD drawing