Quick Views vs. Imagery Mosaics

This article will show the differences in what a user can achieve with Plex-Earth Lite, compared to Plex-Earth 2023, in terms of imagery.

Introduction

Resolution

Editing Imagery

Locally Saving the Imagery

Table Summary (Quick Views vs. Mosaics)

Introduction

Plex-Earth Lite offers the ability to add Quick Views from Google Maps to your drawings in a few easy steps, providing the privilege of having a clear view of your project site within seconds. Find out how to do this here.

In Plex-Earth, a Quick View image is a one-tile dynamic image whose resolution is automatically calculated by the software to instantly cover the whole extent of a specified area with a single tile. Depending on the size of the specified area and location, the imagery imported can have very good resolution and clarity. You can see more information about Quick Views here.

With the full version of our software, Plex-Earth 2023, you will be able to import not just Quick Views but also high-resolution Imagery Mosaics. Moreover, you can choose among several imagery providers for both Quick Views and mosaics. Find out more about our imagery providers here.

An imagery mosaic, or simply a mosaic, is a grid of high-resolution images or alternatively, a high-quality image consisting of many tiles. It is an assembly of aerial photographs each one of which has been individually georeferenced to produce a larger-scale map of the highest possible accuracy. You can see how easy it is to import high-resolution mosaics with Plex-Earth 2023 in this tutorial.

Resolution

Here is an example with an area size of around 14 million square feet (~1.33 sq. km):

Zooming in on a specific section (in red), here's a side-by-side comparison of what the imagery looks like:

Quick View (left) vs. Mosaic (right)

By specifying the same area size, the software automatically imported a one-tile Quick View with zoom level 17 (roughly 3.9 ft/pixel) but by importing a mosaic and custom choosing the highest resolution, the software imported a 256-tiled, zoom level 21 (roughly 3 in/pixel) image.

Below is another example with a smaller area specified (around 8.6 hectares):

When zoomed in on the red section:

Quick View (left) vs. Mosaic (right)

The Quick View image has a zoom level of 19 (30 cm/pixel) and the mosaic has a zoom level of 21 (7 cm/pixel).

Editing Imagery

With Plex-Earth 2023, you can also edit your imagery mosaics via Plex-Earth's editing tools, unlike images from Quick Views, which cannot be edited.

Browse this tutorial for the image editing tools that Plex-Earth offers.

Locally Saving the Imagery

Another difference between Quick Views and Mosaics is the ability to convert Plex-Earth mosaics to raster images and locally save them.

You can see the whole procedure on how to do this in this tutorial.

Though locally saving the imagery applies to all basic providers and some premium providers, please note that saving the imagery locally depends on the Terms of Use of the imagery provider.

Table Summary (Quick Views vs. Mosaics)

Here is a comparison table of what you can achieve with Plex-Earth Lite and Plex-Earth 2023 with regards to Quick Views and Imagery Mosaics.

Table 1. Quick Views vs. Mosaics in Plex-Earth Lite and Plex-Earth 2023.

*Depends on the imagery provider. More information can be found here.

With Plex-Earth 2023, you can have access to high-resolution imagery mosaics and also to many more features that we offer. See what you can do with Plex-Earth 2023 here.

Ready to try our full version, Plex-Earth 2023? Install a fully functional 7-day free trial of Plex-Earth now!

Compatibility includes:

AutoCAD Version: 2024 , 2023 , 2022 , 2021 , 2020 , 2019 , 2018 , 2017 , 2016

Civil 3D® Version: 2024 , 2023 , 2022 , 2021 , 2020 , 2019 , 2018 , 2017 , 2016

AutoCAD Architecture Version: 2024 , 2023 , 2022 , 2021 , 2020 , 2019 , 2018 , 2017 , 2016

BricsCAD Pro: V23 , V22 , V21