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Overtime, integration between GPS Map technology and CAD Software has become
increasingly advanced. People use these integrations for a wide variety of reasons.
Sometimes they wish to have their location on their Title Block. In other instances, specifying a
location can be helpful when it comes to automated lighting and elevation.
Whatever the case, the sky (literally) is the limit when it comes to bringing these maps onto
AutoCAD. In this tutorial, we will learn to integrate maps in AutoCAD and work with it.
Things you’ll need for this tutorial:
The current AutoCAD has two main forms of location setting. The first one is called “From
Map”, and the second one is called “From File”.
“From File” used to be more practical (and still is if using Google Earth) but for our purposes,
“From Map” is better suited to our needs. Google Maps and Bing Maps are frequently changing
their UI, removing or adding features, and currently, there is no easy method to do the
conversion to KML or KMZ from either of these web apps.
Note: It was once possible to do a Google Maps conversion to KML but it has become more
complicated and involves the use of Google My Maps, a service which allows you to create
custom location-based maps. This process in itself would require a whole tutorial.
For simplicity, throughout the tutorial we are going to be working with one area, the center
building (Student Union) of the University of Central Florida, and its surrounding features.
Before installing the hotfix, make sure that AutoCAD isn’t open, then download and install the
hotfix. After the installation is complete, open AutoCAD.
Click on the Insert Tab in the Ribbon and then in the “Set Location” Panel, click the icon that
looks like a globe. A drop-down will open.
Click From Map. (In the future, a quicker way to accomplish this same task is to type GEO into
the command line and hit ENTER twice.)
A Window will open. Unless you are already signed in to Autodesk 360, you will have to go
ahead and do that. After, this is what the window should look like:
You can see the campus has a circular layout, with a building in the innermost circle. Zoom in on
it, and then click “Drop Marker Here.” After that, you can hit the “Next” button, which is at the
bottom of the Geographic Location window.
The window will now show a list of “Coordinate Systems” you can choose from. Select FL-E,
and keep going. The window will close and a dialogue will follow your cursor. Click anywhere.
Fig 5. Marker location in drawing and north direction
Another dialogue will appear in reference to compass directions. Click again to specify north
direction.
Your entire AutoCAD window should now be a map. You can zoom and pan on this map as if
you were on any ordinary web map service.
You will also notice the addition of a temporary tab in the Ribbon, the Geolocation Tab.
Feel free to play around with it. A feature that’s terrific is the ability to turn on the road map,
satellite, hybrid, or to turn the entire map off.
Fig 7. Map type drop-down menu
The beauty of the Bing Maps integration is anything you add to the drawing will be scalable to
the map, and unlike adding a still-image, the map zooms, pans, and in some cases
even orbits with your drawing.
On our Map, behind the Student Union, circled in Figure 8, there is a plot of grass. Let’s say the
University was considering adding a classroom building in that location. What would that look
like? Well now, we can get a good idea of exactly how.
From here you would be able to figure out how further logistics, like building heights, sidewalk
access, etc look. You can even make a 3D building if you want. If you did make a 3D building,
you’d even be able to import it into the Google Earth of the University and see what the building
would look like next to the others.
For now, though, we’ll stay in the realms of 2D AutoCAD. I’m going to add a simple hatch to
the rectangle and then create potential sidewalks that could be used in the future. These are pretty
big sidewalks too, 18 feet in width.
And these are the hatch settings I used for the sidewalk:
Of course, it is up to you to decide where you think the sidewalks should be placed, or what
kinds of hatches to use.
Change view mode to Realistic then give the walls a Brick material and the roof any Material
you like.
Fig 14. Adding materials to the sidewalk and building
In the Render tab of the Ribbon, there is a Panel called “Sun & Location”. Click on the “Sun
Status” Icon, and then in the following window, select the option circled in Figure 15.
By altering the Date and Time in the Sun & Location Panel, you will see the lighting on the
building change.
There’s a lot more that can be done with Google Maps and Bing Maps in AutoCAD but this
tutorial should lay the foundation for it all.
Other Alternatives
Apart from Bing maps, there are a few other alternatives too which can be used to import the
maps in AutoCAD.
Google Maps
Google maps integration was removed from AutoCAD in favor of Bing Maps. In the future, this
may change. However, for now, as a workaround, we can highlight coordinates from a Google
Maps URL and bring it over to the From Maps in AutoCAD.
This is pretty simple. On Google Maps (maps.google.com), type in Student Union Ucf, hit
ENTER, and then copy-paste the text from the address bar as selected in Figure 13. (Figure 13)
Back in AutoCAD, type GEO into the command line and then hit ENTER twice to bring up the
Geographic Location window. Paste the coordinates into the address bar, and repeat the steps we
initially did to integrate a map.
Map Info
For even more customization and specificity, you should consider getting Desktop Program
“Map Info” as well as the AutoCAD Map 3D toolset. Additionally, it should be noted that
AutoCAD Civil 3D is better equipped for dealing with things such as bridges, roads, and other
location-specific entities.
So, these are the basics of using the map in AutoCAD. If you have questions related to this
article let me know in the comments below.