Importing files

You can bring shapes into a project from other tools: a site boundary from Google Earth, a GIS export, a GPS track, or another Measure Map project. Areas, lines and points arrive as shapes you can measure and edit, with their names, descriptions and colours.

Importing needs permission to edit the project.

Import a file#

1. Open the project you want to add the shapes to.
2. Press folder_open Import in the top toolbar.
3. Choose one or more files.

Other ways to import:

• Drag and drop: drag the files from your computer onto the map. The map says Drop files here while you drag.
• On a phone, where the toolbar button is hidden, open menu Menu and press folder_openImport file.

Files are uploaded and then read by Measure Map's servers, so importing needs an internet connection. Meanwhile, a small indicator under the project name shows how the import is going: see Following an import. When it is done, the map zooms to show all the shapes, and a message says how many items were imported, with undo Undo to take them back out.

Keep or clear what is on the map#

If the map already has shapes or layers, the app asks: Clear the map before importing? A restore point is saved first, and Undo puts the map back.

• Keep and add: the file's shapes are added to what is there.
• Clear: the files are imported, then everything that was on the map except the comments is removed. The map is only cleared if something came in. A restore point is saved when the import starts, so you can also get the old map back from the project history. Measure Map's servers take care of both, so they happen even if you reload or close the page in the meantime. If the old map cannot be removed after the import, the message says so, and what was there before stays on the map with the new shapes.
• Cancel: nothing is imported.

The question is asked once, however many files you import together. It is only asked of people who manage the project: someone drawing through a shared link always adds to the map.

Following an import#

Once a file has finished uploading, Measure Map's servers import it on their own: reloading or closing the page does not stop the import. A file that is still uploading when the page is closed stops there. The list shows it as Stopped before it finished, and it has to be imported again. So while files are still uploading, your browser asks before you close or reload the page.

While an import runs, a small indicator under the project name says what is going on:

• Importing 2 of 3 while your files come in, or Importing site.kml for a single file.
• Alex is importing when someone else on the project imports files.
• Finishing the import once every file has been read or stopped, while Measure Map's servers complete the import.
• Removing the old map during the last step of an import that clears the map.
• Import finished at the end, or Import finished with problems if a file could not be imported or the old map could not be removed.

Click the indicator to open the list of files. Each file shows how far it has got: Uploading 40%, Waiting, Reading, Saving 80%, how many items it brought in, such as 12 items, or why it could not be imported, such as Too large. Dismiss hides a finished import from the list. If you started an import and some of its files are still waiting or uploading, Stop importing stops those files: they are not imported, but the files already with the servers still are.

Everyone on the project sees the imports that are running. When an import finishes, the person who started it gets a notification in the bell, even if they have left the project in the meantime.

Supported files#

Shapefiles, DXF, CSV and PDF files cannot be imported. The app says the file type is not supported. Convert them to KML or GeoJSON first; most GIS and CAD programs can do this.

What comes in#

• Areas become polygons, with their area and perimeter. Holes in an area become holes in the polygon.
• Lines become polylines. A line that ends where it starts becomes an area without fill, so it keeps the look of a line but its area is measured.
• Points become spots.
• A feature made of several parts becomes one shape per part, numbered after the feature's name.
• Names and descriptions come with each shape. Any other data stored with a feature is added to its description, one "name: value" line each.
• Line colours, widths and fill colours come with the shapes; anything without a style gets the project's usual colours.
• Folders in a KML or KMZ file become groups, named after the folder.
• Imported shapes arrive locked, so a stray click does not move them. See lock and unlock.

Imported shapes and spots get the same labels as the ones you draw. For files with thousands of shapes, the app hides the labels on the map to keep it readable. Turn them on for a shape in its panel.

A .mmp file brings a Measure Map project as it was saved, groups, pictures and layers included: the pictures and layer files are copied into your project. If the project you import into has no client name, tax rate or default product yet, it takes the file's; the default product only if it is one of your products.

What is left out#

When part of a file could not be brought in, the message after the import says what, and how many, after "Not imported":

• Online links: KML network links that point to the internet, or to files that are not inside the KMZ.
• Images stored outside the file: image overlays in a plain KML file, whose picture is somewhere else. Use a KMZ that contains the picture, or add it as an image overlay.
• Images too large to open: the pictures of one KMZ may unpack to 300 MB all together; pictures beyond that are left out.
• Layers stored outside the file: MBTiles maps and reference layers in a .mmp file whose files can no longer be fetched.
• Screen overlays and photo overlays from Google Earth.
• Image overlays without a position.
• Items without a valid location: features with no readable coordinates, or with too few points to draw.
• Items too large to save: a shape or spot can be saved with about 1 MB of data at most; a larger one, for example with an enormous description, is left out. The rest of the file still comes in.

Reference layers#

A very large file would bury the map in thousands of editable shapes. So the app keeps some of it as a reference layer instead: drawn on the map and clickable, but not editable until you ask.

• A feature made of more than 20 parts (a CAD block of hundreds of panels, for example) goes to a reference layer.
• A line or outline of more than 2,000 corners, such as a long GPS track, goes to a reference layer.
• A folder, or a whole GeoJSON or GPX file, with more than 500 shapes goes to a reference layer.
• If the file would still bring in more than 2,000 shapes, its biggest folders go to reference layers until it does not.

Reference layers are listed in the Layers panel as Reference layer, with how many features they hold. Everyone who opens the project sees them.

Click a feature of a reference layer on the map to see its name (click the name to copy it), the layer it belongs to, its length or area and perimeter, and its description. This works inside your shapes too: a click on a feature smaller than the shape it sits in opens the feature. To measure or change it, press Make editable: the feature is copied into the project as an ordinary shape, with its colours and description, and the reference layer keeps its own copy.

Undo an import#

The whole import is one step in the history, including clearing the map before it. Press undo Undo on the message after the import, or undo Undo in the bottom toolbar, to take everything that came in back out, and bring back what was cleared.

When a file will not import#

• The file type is not supported: the file is not one of the formats above. Check its extension.
• The file is not valid: the file could not be read as the format its extension says, for example a damaged or incomplete download, or a KMZ with no KML inside.
• Nothing in this file can be shown on the map: the file was read but held nothing with a usable location.
• The file is too large: it holds more map data than can be imported at once. KML, GPX and .mmp files may hold up to 100 MB of map data; in a KMZ, the KML inside counts unpacked, and the KMZ file itself may weigh up to 500 MB, as its pictures are not map data. GeoJSON and TopoJSON files may hold up to 200 MB. Split the file into smaller ones and import them one at a time.
• Importing needs an internet connection: the device is offline, or the upload did not get through. Check your connection and import the file again.

When several files are imported together, they are read at the same time. The message names any file that could not be imported; the others still come in.