Introduction
Engineers need to work as efficiently as possible to complete a project on time and avoid wasting precious efforts and resources. This can be further accomplished if the designer has visuals of the site itself. Having imagery of the site will help engineers establish planning and design, and provides data that can be used to determine the best course of action. Plex-Earth offers a feature for engineers to view their site in the quickest way possible, by simply copying the geolocation details of an area in Google Earth and displaying the image through the use of our newest feature, Google Maps View. This method also eliminates the need to georeference a drawing manually, as Plex-Earth will automatically do it for you.
Take a sneak peek of your area in Google Earth using Plex-Earth in AutoCAD or BricsCAD with a simple click of a button
How can this be done?
First, locate your project on Google Earth. Create a placemark by clicking on the Add Placemark button from the toolbar.
| NOTE: This also applies to other Google Earth elements, such as polygon and path. |
Position your placemark on a specific point on your project, label it on the pop-up window and click on OK.
Right-click on the placemark and choose Copy to copy its geographic location details.
Open a drawing in AutoCAD or BricsCAD, and start Plex-Earth by accessing the Plex-Earth Lite ribbon >> click on Start Plex-Earth.
On the Imagery panel, click on Google Maps View.
A small box will pop up, which notifies you that a Google Earth element is copied and asks whether you'd like to import imagery for that area. Click on YES, USE THAT AREA! and wait for the imagery to be displayed.
This is what it would look like when done.
Plex-Earth will automatically calculate the zoom level required for the displayed image of your defined area to occupy the extents of the current viewport of the CAD workspace.
In case you would like to alter the current viewport, zoom in or out in your drawing and hit the Update viewport icon found on the Google Maps palette. The palette will also show the quality of the imagery produced (zoom level and cm/pixel), and you will also have the option to specify a certain area in your drawing that you'd want an image of.
The drawing is also automatically georeferenced by Plex-Earth from the data copied from Google Earth, so there is no need to do this manually via CAD or Plex-Earth. This can be validated by checking the georeference settings of the drawing. To do so, click on Set Georeference on the Project panel of the Plex-Earth Lite ribbon.
The longitude and latitude data came from the geographic location details copied from the placemark created on Google Earth, and the corresponding point on the CAD workspace will be automatically placed on the origin (0,0) of the coordinate plane. If you examine the imagery from Google Maps in CAD closely, the origin is situated exactly on where the placemark was placed in Google Earth.
| NOTE: If the Google Earth element copied is either a polygon or a path instead, the origin will be situated directly where the first point was defined when the polygon/path was created in Google Earth correspondingly. |
There you have it!
Wasn't that quick and easy? You now have a clear view of your project site and the sweetest thing is that it comes free of charge! This is especially helpful in pre-construction, projects in remote areas, site progression, and many more. Plex-Earth Lite is an extraordinary tool to utilize for engineers to boost their designs and productivity.
We hope that you have found this tutorial about creating views in CAD for your area in Google Earth of Plex-Earth Lite, helpful. Feel free to contact us at support@plexscape.com for any questions you may still have.
Don't have Plex-Earth Lite yet? Explore all the features and potential benefits of this software; install a free license of Plex-Earth Lite now!
Compatibility includes:
AutoCAD Version: 2023 , 2022 , 2021 , 2020 , 2019 , 2018 , 2017 , 2016
Civil 3D® Version: 2023 , 2022 , 2021 , 2020 , 2019 , 2018 , 2017 , 2016
AutoCAD Architecture Version: 2023 , 2022 , 2021 , 2020 , 2019 , 2018 , 2017 , 2016
BricsCAD Pro: V22 , V21