Moving around the map

To measure something you first have to find it. This article covers moving the map, searching, the different kinds of map and imagery, the 3D view, and how coordinates are written.

Move, zoom and rotate#

• Move: drag the map.
• Zoom: turn the mouse wheel, double-click the map, or press add and remove at the bottom left. On a touch screen, pinch.
• Keyboard: click the map once, then use the arrow keys to move it and + and − to zoom.
• Rotate: hold Shift and drag the map with the left mouse button.

When the map is rotated, a compass appears on the right. Press it to Face north: the map turns back with north at the top.

Search for a place#

1. Press the search search button in the top toolbar. A search box takes the place of the toolbar's buttons.
2. Type an address, a street, a town or the name of a place. After a moment, up to five matches appear, nearest to what you are looking at first.
3. Press a match, or press Enter to go to the first one.

The map moves to the place and marks it with a red pin. Click the pin to remove it.

With the box empty, the list shows your Recent searches; press one to go back there. Press close to clear the box, and again to close it.

Go to coordinates#

Type a latitude and a longitude in decimal degrees, separated by a comma or a space, for example 51.5007, -0.1246. The map goes straight to that point.

The search box only reads decimal degrees. For coordinates in degrees and minutes or in UTM, see coordinate systems.

Go to your location#

Press my_location Go to my location in the top toolbar. The first time, your browser asks whether the site may use your location: allow it. The map zooms in on where you are and marks it with a blue dot.

How exact that is depends on your device. A phone with GPS is usually accurate to a few metres; a computer often only knows the town. If nothing happens, your browser is not sharing your location: allow it for the site in the browser's settings.

Map types#

The map can show:

• Map: a street map.
• Satellite: aerial or satellite imagery.
• Hybrid: imagery with roads and place names on top.
• Terrain: a map with the shape of the land.

To switch between Satellite and Map, press the square button at the top right of the map. It shows a preview of the other view of the same place. For Hybrid or Terrain, and on a phone, where the square button is not shown, open settings Settings and choose under Map type.

Not every map source offers every type. The map type is saved to your account, so every project opens with it.

Map sources#

The imagery on the map comes from a map provider. Google Maps is used unless you choose another. Other sources can have newer or sharper photos of some places, or a map that suits the job better.

1. Press map Map provider in the bottom toolbar. Its label is the source in use.
2. Choose a source. Type in Search providers to find one by name or country.

The list starts with the Global sources: Google Maps, Bing Maps, Mapbox, TomTom, HERE, Open Street Map, Open Cycle Map, ArcGIS and World Street Map. Below them are national mapping services, grouped by country, which only cover their own country: for example USGS in the United States, IGN in Spain and France, swisstopo in Switzerland, PDOK in the Netherlands, basemap.at in Austria, Kartverket in Norway and Geoportal in Poland. Each row says what the source is: Aerial imagery, Street map or Topographic.

The same choice is under Map source in settings Settings. It is saved to your account. In 3D the map is always Google's photorealistic 3D, so both are off there; switch to 2D to change the source.

When a source must be credited, its name is shown at the bottom of the map.

The 3D view#

Press the 3D button on the right of the map to see the place as a photorealistic 3D model, with buildings and terrain. Press 2D to go back to the flat map. The view stays on the same place and at the same scale when you switch, and your shapes come with you.

In 3D, extra buttons appear on the right:

• keyboard_arrow_up Tilt up and keyboard_arrow_down Tilt down tilt the view 10° at a time. The number between them is the current tilt.
• The compass: its needle turns with the view, the red end pointing north. Press it to Face north.
• rotate_right Orbit around this point circles slowly around the middle of the view. Press stop_circle Stop orbiting to stop.

The 3D map follows your map type: Map shows it in the street map's style, Hybrid adds roads and names to the photos, and Satellite and Terrain show the photos alone.

The app remembers which view you used last and opens projects in it.

Measure in 3D#

You can draw in 3D as on the flat map: hold Shift and click. Each point keeps the height of what you clicked, such as a roof, and the measurements box shows it after h:. Points placed on the flat map take the height of the ground.

With those heights, a shape on a slope is measured along the surface: the measurements box adds its area and perimeter along the slope and how steep it is, and in the 3D view each side's label gives its length along the slope and its angle, for example 12.4 m · 18.4° (with the roof pitch, such as 6/12, where feet are in use). Trace a roof one plane at a time: an outline around a whole pitched roof sits level at the eaves and measures its footprint.

Click a side's length in 3D to type a new one, as on the flat map: see type an exact length. Press close or Esc to close the box without changing it.

Shapes, their pins and their labels are drawn just above the surface. Whether shapes lie on the buildings or on the ground, and whether they are raised into solids, is set under 3D view in settings. To move one shape up or down, for example when it floats above a roof, use Raise or lower (m) in its panel: see the polygon's panel.

Coordinate systems#

Coordinates appear in the measurements box, when Show crosshair coordinates is on, and in the panels of points and spots. Choose how they are written in settings Settings, under Coordinate system:

• Decimal: latitude and longitude in decimal degrees.
• DMS: degrees, minutes and seconds.
• DM: degrees and decimal minutes.
• UTM: easting and northing in metres, with the UTM zone. In the measurements box the easting is on the first line and the northing and zone on the second.

For UTM, also choose the UTM datum, the model of the Earth the coordinates refer to. WGS 84, the one GPS uses, is the default; the list also has ETRS89, ED50, GRS 1980, Clarke 1866 and others.

In a point's or a spot's panel you can also type coordinates in the system you chose, to move the point exactly there. See points and spots.

The coordinate system is saved to your account. See settings.

Other map layers#

The layers Layers button on the right adds information on top of the map: cadastral parcels, building outlines, and layers of your own such as images and MBTiles maps. See the layers panel and cadastral parcels.