Finding things in the imagery

auto_awesome Find in imagery looks at the map imagery you have on screen and finds the things you ask for: roofs, lawns, driveways, solar panels, trees, cars, or anything you type. Each thing found is outlined on the map, with its area. Click the ones you want and they become shapes in your project, ready to measure, price and share.

Start a search#

1. Open a project and move the map to the place you want to read, in Satellite or Hybrid. Zoom in so that the area fills the screen: the closer you are, the sharper the imagery the detector reads.
2. Press the auto_awesome Find in imagery button on the right side of the map. The panel opens on the right. From the 3D view, the map switches to the flat map first.
3. Under What are you looking for?, either:
   • type what you are looking for and press Enter or search, or
   • open a group and press one of its suggestions. The search starts straight away.

While it searches, a line sweeps across the map and the panel says Scanning the imagery. The first search after a quiet spell can take up to a minute while the detector starts up; the panel says so when that happens.

The button is there only when you can edit the project and are signed in to your own account.

What it can find#

You can type anything that can be seen from above, in a word or two: "tennis court", "boat", "gravel path". The suggestions cover the requests people make most often:

The colour of a suggestion's dot says what it is for: cyan for surfaces you measure, violet for things you count (bays, panels, cars), amber for things that get in the way (trees, chimneys, fences).

Read the results#

When the search finishes, the panel shows Found and how many, and each result appears on the map. The groups of suggestions fold away to make room; open one again to run another search.

• Total: the area of everything found added up, in your project's units. It is not shown for things you count.
• One row per result, largest first, with its area and how sure the detector is, as a percentage. Point at a row to light up its outline on the map; press my_location to move the map to it, or close to discard that result.
• Show as dots: results are shown as one dot each, so the imagery stays visible. Point at a dot to see its outline. Turn the switch off to see all the outlines filled in instead.

If nothing turns up, the panel says Nothing was found. Try a different wording, or move closer.

Add results to your project#

1. Under Clicking a result makes, choose what each result becomes:

   • pentagonPolygon: a closed shape with its area and perimeter.
   • timelinePolyline: the outline as a line, measured by its length.
   • placeSpot: a spot in the middle of what was found, for counting things.

   A search for something you count starts on placeSpot; any other search starts on pentagonPolygon.

2. Click a result on the map, or press its row in the panel. It becomes a shape in the project and leaves the list. While you hold Shift or are adding comments, a click on the map does its usual job instead.

3. To take every result at once, press Add all.

The new polygons are locked and named after what you searched for, with the project's usual colours; spots carry the search in their description. Things that get in the way (amber) never take the project's default product, and when you add one as a polygon inside an area already in the project, it is cut out of that area as a hole: a chimney comes off the roof. Edit them like any shape you drew: see editing shapes. Each one added is its own step in the history, so undo Undo takes them back one at a time.

Results you do not add are not saved. delete_sweepDiscard results, on the line above the search box, clears them from the map, and so does Discard all beside the count; a new search replaces them. Closing the panel leaves them on the map until you discard them.

Limits#

• Zoom in first. The detector reads the imagery at close zoom, and the area on screen has to be small enough for that, roughly a couple of kilometres across at most. If it is larger, the panel says Zoom in first — that area is too large to read at useful detail.
• It reads aerial photos. The map has to show Satellite or Hybrid imagery; with Hybrid, the photo is read without its road names. Over a street or terrain map, the panel says Detection reads aerial photos. Set the map type to Satellite and try again. A map source with no aerial photos cannot be read: switch to one that has them, such as Google Maps. Your own shapes and labels are never part of what it reads.
• Outlines are simplified. Each outline is traced with a limited number of corners, has no holes, and very small finds are left out: under 4 m² for most searches, less for small things such as solar panels and chimneys.
• Overlapping finds. Where two results overlap a lot, only the larger is kept, so a small object inside a larger one may be missed.
• It needs a connection. The search runs on Measure Map's servers, not in your browser: the app sends the map tiles on screen to the detector and gets the outlines back. If it cannot run, the panel says The detector could not run just now.
• 60 searches a day. Past them, the panel says You've reached today's detection limit. It resets at midnight (UTC).

How accurate it is#

The detector can only see what the imagery shows. Shadows, trees over a roof, and blurred or out-of-date imagery all show in the outlines it draws, and things that look alike from above can be confused. The percentage on each row is how sure it is that the result is what you asked for, not how exact the outline is.