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Site & climate · Site GIS

Export and print

Take a site out as aerial images, CAD and GIS drawings, spot elevations, a printed site sheet, or figures saved to the project.

Everything here is under Export ▾ in the toolbar, except figures, which are in the panel. Who can download what is the same in every tool; see Exports.

Choose what exports show #

At the top of Export ▾, open Layers in exports. By default it's Same as the map: exports draw the layers the map shows.

Untick Same as the map to choose separately:

  • Aerial under the layers (or USGS topo under the layers on the topo basemap). Off gives linework on white.
  • Each layer, ticked or not. Parcels never exports; it's on screen only.

Your choice is saved with the site and applies to the images, the site sheet, saved figures and the drawings.

Export settings #

In the panel, Export settings has two settings:

  • CAD coordinates: Local origin (feet) puts 0,0 at the export's south-west corner with grid north up; the DXF records the real-world origin. UTM (feet) and UTM (meters) use real-world easting and northing, which are large numbers that CAD may need moved near the origin.
  • Aerial resolution: the ground size of one pixel in the aerial images. The finest setting is only available where the aerial imagery has it.

Export items #

  • Aerial image (PNG) and Aerial image (JPEG): the site at the chosen resolution with the export's layers, a scale bar, a grid-north arrow and the source credits drawn in.
  • Georeferenced aerial (.zip): the JPEG with a world file (and a projection file in UTM meters), so it drops into CAD or GIS in place.
  • Site drawing (DXF, for CAD): each layer on its own US National CAD Standard layer, such as C-PROP-LINE for the boundary and C-TOPO-MAJR / C-TOPO-MINR for contours, with contours at their elevations.
  • Site drawing (SVG): vector linework, one group per layer, with labels, a scale bar and a north arrow.
  • Site layers (GeoJSON): the layers in longitude and latitude, for QGIS, ArcGIS or geojson.io.
  • Spot elevations (CSV): a grid of points inside the boundary plus each corner, in the chosen coordinates.
  • Site sheet — Print / Save as PDF: see below.
  • Site file (.json): the site, boundary, layers and notes. Open it again with Import in the toolbar.

An item that can't run yet says why: Search a place or draw a boundary first, Generate contours first (Terrain panel) for contours and spot elevations, or Nothing to draw when no layer with linework is on.

Contours go into drawings only after you generate them. See Contours.

The site sheet #

The site sheet is a printable site-analysis sheet laid out like a drawing sheet, with a title block down the right edge.

  1. Click Sheet in the toolbar to preview it.
  2. Pick the Paper: Letter landscape or 11×17 landscape.
  3. Open Export ▾ and click Site sheet — Print / Save as PDF. In the print window, pick a printer or save as PDF.

The first sheet has the aerial with the export's layers, the legend, the site facts, and the title block. When the site has soils, seismic, slope or historic results, a second sheet holds those tables, your notes and the sources. Long lists and notes are cut short to fit the paper, with a line saying what was left off.

If a map service doesn't answer while the figure is drawn, the sheet says what's missing. Click Map, then Sheet again to retry.

Run Look up site facts first so the sheet has facts to show. See Site facts.

Figures for the project #

A figure is the aerial, with your export layers, saved as an image into the project's files (or your own files, when the site isn't in a project). Proposal and Pinup can place it.

  1. Under Figures for the project, click Save figure to project files.
  2. The figure is listed below the button with its size and date. Click its name to open it.

The trash button forgets a figure in this list; the file stays in your library. You need to be signed in, with a place or boundary set, to save a figure.