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Choose an area

Find a place, then move, resize, turn, and shape the box that becomes the model.

Find a place

Type in the search box at the top of Area. It finds:

• Towns and cities, with suggestions while typing. Add a state or country to pick between places with the same name, like "Springfield, IL" or "paris texas".
• Streets, addresses, and landmarks. If they aren't in the list, pick Search streets and addresses at the bottom of it.
• Coordinates as latitude, longitude, like "41.8781, -87.6298", or in degrees, minutes, and seconds.
• Bounds as west, south, east, north, which set the whole area.

Picking a place moves the box there but keeps its size, shape, and turn.

Presets and examples

The dropdown arrow beside Examples, next to the search box, opens Presets, with ready-made areas in six groups: LiDAR only, Skylines, City centers, Landmarks, Nature, and Map only. All but Map only are covered by LiDAR surveys the app can read. LiDAR only presets build the whole model from the survey. In the others LiDAR is off until turned on.

A preset sets the size of the box too, points it north, and makes a circle or hexagon a rectangle. A few LiDAR only mountains and craters are circles. Nature presets also color the ground by height, set the terrain to High, and lock the printed size at 170.5 mm across. LiDAR only presets lock it at 170.5 mm too, and picking another preset after one goes back to Map data. If the printed size was locked by hand, other presets put the default scale back.

Examples shows finished models. Open loads one with its settings and colors. The printer, file format, and other export options stay, apart from multi-plate export on the examples made for it. Browse examples in the Presets menu opens it too.

Move and shape the box

Move

Drag inside the box. When the map is zoomed in so far that the box fills it, dragging moves the map instead. Then use the handle with four arrows in the middle of the box to move it.

Nudge

Press the arrow keys to move the box 3 pixels on screen, 15 with Shift, or 1 with Ctrl (Option on a Mac). Zooming in gives smaller steps. At the edge of the view the map follows the box. If the arrow keys move something else, click the map first.

Resize

Drag a corner. The opposite corner doesn't move. Hold Alt to resize around the middle.

Turn

Drag the round handle above the box. It snaps to north, east, south, and west, and holding Shift snaps it to steps of 15°. Rotation under Area takes a number, and Point north again undoes the turn.

Shape

Pick Rectangle, Rounded, Circle, or Hexagon under Shape. Rounded has a Corner roundness slider.

Line up

Press Alignment guides under Zoom to area at the top right of the map, or G, to show lines through the middle of the box and at its thirds. Put the ring in the middle on a landmark to center the box on it. The lines through the middle carry on across the map as dotted lines, to line the box up with a street or a river. The guides also show while the box is being turned.

Cancel

Press Esc during a drag to put the box back.

The label under the box gives its size on the ground, the scale, and the printed size. When the map is zoomed far out, the box is too small for its handles, so they're hidden. Zoom in, or press the Zoom to area button under the zoom buttons at the top right of the map.

More ways to set the area

Fit to map view

Makes the box fill most of what the map shows. With the scale locked this can make the print much bigger, so check Size afterwards.

Copy bounds, Paste bounds

Copy the area as west, south, east, north, or set it from four numbers in that order on the clipboard. Pasted bounds point the box north and make a circle or hexagon a rectangle again. For a turned area, Copy bounds copies the box around it.

Share

Copies a link to this area with all its settings. See Save, share, and settings files.

Map styles

The buttons at the top left of the map switch between Streets, Light, and Satellite. They only change the look of the map, not the model.

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