Import a geo-referenced maps overlay, assign a meaningful coordinate system to it, and optionally model the project terrain.
Click the Map tool on the Toolbar:
The Map view will appear.
If you have already imported LiDAR data with a spatial reference, your project will already have Design Coordinates set (as shown in this image), and you can skip this step:
However, if you are starting with a blank project it will not yet have Design Coordinates. In the search box, type and select an address, and then click on a point in the map to import that area. This information will be used in the next step to derive the Design Coordinates.
Set the project Map Overlay
For projects without imported coordinate data
If you start a new project without coordinate data (such as from imported survey, DXF, or LiDAR files) - which is the case in this example - under the Design Center panel to the right of the map click the For Map Overlay / Edit button to show the Map Project Settings dialog:
On the pop-up, confirm or type in the EPSG code for your design area:
Important
If your project already has correct Design Coordinates, choose Derive Lat/Lng from Design Coord Center in the drop-down.
If your project does not already have Design Coordinates, or they need to be updated based on the spatial reference, choose Derive Design Coord Centre from Lat/Lng in the drop-down:
Click the blue Apply, and option to the left of the drop-down. Click Update Overlay.
Switch back to the Perspective view and you'll see the map overlay in place:
When you anchor your design to a particular location and move your mouse over the different views, the Latitude and Longitude of the cursor location will be displayed in the bottom right corner:
If you start a project with imported coordinates
If you are working in a project that has importing coordinate data from e.g. survey, DXF, LiDAR, or KML files, to set a map overlay:
Import your data (survey, DXF, LiDAR, KML) using Project menu
Select the Survey tool on the toolbar, and scroll down to the Spatial section on the Properties tab:
Click Change and type in an EPSG code
You can then choose between the different map overlay options to either view the map only, CAD import only (if it exists) or both
Importing additional DXF data
When importing additional DXF files, if the data being imported is "far away" from the original data's coordinates, you might see this warning:
This is due to a big offset distance between the centre of the import file and the centre of the current work space. By default, the centre of a blank work space will be X:0 Y:0.
The centre of a imported file is typically in a global coordinate system of some kind. These two centres can be many kilometers/miles away. If unadjusted, the work space will appear blank after an import as there is no data at X:0 Y:0 of the import file.
To update the work space centre either:
Enter in the easting and northing coordinate of your choice in the Local Coord Offset field; or
Click the link in the warning message to update the easting/northing from the file data location. This will be a centre automatically calculated from the import file. Note that you may still encounter a blank work space. This is because the centre of the import file is blank. In that case, manually enter in the easting and northing to an area that has data.
When importing multiple files, ensure the Local Coord Offset is the same for all imports so that the imports will line up.
Updating an existing georeferenced design
To re-centre the map overlay coordinates, simply click on the map tool and click on a new location in the map.
Then follow the steps on how to set up a map overlay outlined above.
Automatically update the coordinate system
This can be found in the spatial section of the properties panel for the survey tool
If enabled, the model spatial reference (and internal origin) will automatically update based on where the user's view is located.
The spatial reference ID is chosen from loaded Point Clouds in the area, and if the choice is ambiguous maximum compatibility is maintained.
When sufficiently zoomed out, the spatial reference may automatically change to 3857 (web mercator) at which point calculation results should be ignored.
This attempts to automatically avoid graphical and precision issues that can occur when traversing very large distances or crossing coordinate system boundaries in the one project.
Modelling terrain
You can import and/or manually setup the terrain in your project.