With Plex-Earth 5D 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 5D offers is the following: Google Maps, Bing Maps, OpenStreetMaps, and any other Custom Maps you may have access to via a WMS, WMTS, or Tile Server, using our Map Explorer feature. We also offer the following premium content providers, Airbus, Maxar, Nearmap, and Hexagon.
You can see below a list of the most important features of each provider Plex-Earth 5D offers. Find a short description of these characteristics below:
- Coverage: Which areas or countries a specific imagery provider covers
- 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 indicates 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. More info about Mosaics can be found here.
- 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. You can see more about the Timelines here.
- Requires Premium Mosaic Images: Some of the imagery providers require the purchase of extra Premium Mosaic Image Packs, to be accessed for Mosaic creation. More information about this can be found here (pricing or FAQ page).
- Offers Downloadable Imagery: Regarding their terms of use, each provider allows you or not to locally store the Mosaic image you have created with Plex-Earth 5D. More information about imagery download can be found here (download image tutorial).
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.
| Logo: |  |
| 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 |
| Offers downloadable imagery: | No |
Bing Maps
One of the most noted web mapping services, Bing gives high-quality aerial, street, and other imagery.
| Logo: |  |
| 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 |
| Offers downloadable imagery: | Yes |
OpenStreetMaps
A worldwide coverage road map, for more plain results.
| Logo: |  |
| Coverage: | Global |
| Type of Imagery: | Aerial, Aerial with Labels, Road |
| Color Type: | Colored, Grayscale |
| Maximum Zoom Level: | 19 |
| Available for Mosaics: | Yes |
| Available for Timeline: | No |
| Requires Premium Mosaic Images: | No |
| Offers downloadable imagery: | Yes |
Custom Maps
You can use Plex Earth 5D's Map Explorer, to add any WMS, WMTS, or Tile Server, to access its imagery datasets and easily download them georeferenced into your CAD drawing. You can see how to do this, here (link).
| 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 |
| Offers downloadable imagery: | Yes (with respect to the Terms of Use of each provider you may use) |
Maxar
One of the most recognizable satellite imagery providers, Maxar offers plenty of datasets on various dates to monitor your project.
| Logo: |  |
| Coverage: | Global |
| Type of Imagery: | Satellite |
| Color Type: | Colored, Grayscale |
| Maximum Zoom Level: | 19 |
| Available for Mosaics: | Yes |
| Available for Timeline: | Yes |
| Requires Premium Mosaic Images: | Yes |
| Offers downloadable imagery: | No |
Airbus
A high-quality satellite imagery supplier worldwide, that offers plenty of datasets to choose from
| Logo: |  |
| Coverage: | Global |
| Type of Imagery: | Satellite |
| Color Type: | Colored, Grayscale |
| Maximum Zoom Level: | 19 |
| Available for Mosaics: | Yes |
| Available for Timeline: | Yes |
| Requires Premium Mosaic Images: | Yes |
| Offers downloadable imagery: | No |
Nearmap
Nearmap is a very high-quality imagery provider, offering detailed aerial imagery mostly in urban areas.
| Logo: |  |
| Coverage: | Urban areas of 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 |
| Available for Timeline: | No |
| Requires Premium Mosaic Images: | Yes |
| Offers downloadable imagery: | Yes |
Hexagon
Hexagon provides high-quality aerial imagery all over the US, offering more detailed captures in urban areas.
| Logo: |  |
| Coverage: | Country-wide US coverage (to see the exact coverage click here) |
| 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 |
| Available for Timeline: | No |
| Requires Premium Mosaic Images: | Yes |
| Offers downloadable imagery: | No |
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.
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.
The best way to explore what every imagery provider offers is to try it out for yourself. Go on and install a fully functional 7 day free trial of Plex-Earth 5D!
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.