With Plex-Earth you gain access to top-notch imagery from the most high-quality up-to-date imagery providers. You can use their images to either create detailed Mosaics to see every aspect of your project area or quickly create Timelines from the providers that offer historical datasets, to see how your projects evolve through time.
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 Plex-Earth offers. Find a short description of these characteristics below:
- Coverage: Which areas or countries does a specific imagery provider cover
- Type of Imagery: This indicates the way the imagery was captured. It would be either satellite or aerial
- 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 advise 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.
- 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 or not 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.
Google Maps
Known to the most, Google Maps will help you take a quick look at your area of interest, through the Import Image feature.
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| Coverage: | Global |
| Type of Imagery: | Satellite, Aerial |
| Color Type: | Colored |
| Maximum Zoom Level: | 21 |
| Available for Mosaics: | Yes |
| Available for Timelines: | No |
| Requires Premium Mosaic Images: | No |
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 |
| Color Type: | Colored |
| Maximum Zoom Level: | 20 |
| Available for Mosaics: | Yes |
| Available for Timeline: | No |
| Requires Premium Mosaic Images: | No |
OpenStreetMaps
A worldwide coverage road map, for more plain results.
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| Coverage: | Global |
| Type of Imagery: | Road |
| Color Type: | Colored |
| Maximum Zoom Level: | 20 |
| Available for Mosaics: | Yes |
| 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 |
| 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.
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| Coverage: | Global |
| Type of Imagery: | Satellite |
| Color Type: | Colored, Grayscale |
| Maximum Zoom Level: | 19 |
| Available for Mosaics: | Yes (requires Premium Imagery Add-on) |
| Available for Timeline: | Yes (requires Timeviews Add-On) |
| Can be printed: | Yes |
Airbus
A high-quality satellite imagery supplier worldwide, that offers plenty of datasets to choose from
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| Coverage: | Global |
| Type of Imagery: | Satellite |
| Color Type: | Colored, Grayscale |
| Maximum Zoom Level: | 19 |
| Available for Mosaics: | Yes (requires Premium Imagery Add-on) |
| Available for Timeline: | Yes (requires Timeviews Add-On) |
| Can be printed: | No |
Nearmap
Nearmap is a very high-quality imagery provider, offering detailed aerial imagery mostly in urban areas.
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| 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 (requires Premium Imagery Add-on) |
| Available for Timeline: | No |
| Can be printed: | Yes |
Hexagon
Hexagon provides high-quality aerial imagery all over the US, offering more detailed captures in urban areas.
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| 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 (requires Premium Imagery Add-on) |
| Available for Timeline: | No |
| Can be printed: | 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 tutorial including information about imagery providers, 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: 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