Civil 3D Tip: Adding Aerial Imagery to Your Drawings
In order to add aerial imagery to your drawings, you will need to first verify that the the datum is properly set.
- In the Settings tab of the Prospector, locate the name of the drawing you are in, highlight by selecting the text and right-click. Choose Edit Drawing Settings to open the Drawing Settings dialog box.
- In the Units and Zone tab, verify that the units are set. In this example we will use Feet.
- If no datum is shown, you will need to set the Category. Usually this will be by country or state.
- Click in the drop-down menu under Available coordinate systems and select the datum you wish to project your project into. If you are unsure which datum to use or if the zone fails to project, verify with the surveyor.
- Once these are set, the remaining information should auto-populate.
- Click OK when done, and the coordinates will be set for the drawing.
Note: This is not a project-wide setting. Datum settings are drawing-specific.
The Geolocation tab should now be displayed in the ribbon at the top of your screen.
- Select the Geolocation tab.
Although the datum is set, the imagery will not be displayed by default. This is due to the considerable amount of data used by aerial imagery. To view the imagery:
- Select the icon on the ribbon that currently says Imagery Off. This will open the drop-down menu with the available imagery.
- Select the desired output. Once selected, the imagery for the entire datum will now be displayed in the model space background.
Note: Though the image is displayed, it will not plot. In order to plot with an image in the background, you will need to capture the image.
Before:
After:
To print the aerial image generated in this process as part of your drawing:
- Select the Capture Area icon on the ribbon.
- Select the area just outside of your project to minimize the amount of data that will be brought into your drawing.
To speed up your drawing, you will want to turn off the aerial imagery. This will remove all the extra data associated with the imagery outside of your immediate project area and will keep the captured area shown as a printable image.
