How can I correctly place my project in a blank drawing when I know the coordinate system I want to work on and the location of my area of interest in Google Earth?
There are many cases where an engineer is browsing his area of interest in Google Earth and would like to transfer that inside AutoCAD, correctly georeferenced.
But when starting with a blank drawing, even if we set a coordinate system to it, we still won't know where to place our image inside AutoCAD.
Plex-Earth 5 offers an innovative solution to this problem, as part of its "copy-paste" functionality of Google Earth objects.
There are two very quick and easy ways to locate your project area inside AutoCAD based on our current Google Earth view and the coordinate system you choose to work on.
Method 1 (placemark copy-paste)
- First, use Plex-Earth's "Set Georeference" command and select the system you would like to base your drawing on, from over 3,000+ supported systems.
- Then, locate your project area in Google Earth.
- Finally, create a placemark (or polygon, or path), copy it, and simply paste it (Ctrl+V) in AutoCAD.
Plex-Earth will automatically do the rest and AutoCAD will zoom to the correct coordinates (based on the selected coordinate system) in the drawing.
And of course, now you know which area to define for your subsequent imagery import.
The following video describes this process.
Method 2 (direct image importing)
- Again, use Plex-Earth "Set Georeference" command and select the system you would like to base your drawing on.
- Locate your project area in Google Earth, create a placemark (or other objects), copy it, and return to AutoCAD (do not paste your element in this case).
- Click the "Import Imagery" button in Plex Earth 5's ribbon and select to import a "Simple Image" or a "Mosaic".
- On the next screen, choose your imagery provider (we have a large selection for you to choose from!).
Again, Plex Earth will do the rest and import the respective imagery for your current Google Earth view, for the provider you have chosen.
This way, we do not only zoom to our geographic location or import useful objects from Google Earth, but we also simultaneously import our imagery.
The following video describes this process.
Conclusion
Plex-Earth gives the ability to get satellite and aerial images, georeferenced, very quickly, from anywhere in the world, into AutoCAD. Moreover, it bridges Google Earth views with AutoCAD and can easily import the respective imagery for a project's area.
Actually, there are many more features waiting to be explored. Just try the fully-functional trial of Plex-Earth 5 and get to know its amazing capabilities.
Feel free to contact us at support@plexscape.com for any questions you may have and don’t forget to start your free trial today.