These files may take a long time to load in your CAD program. If you don't see the model at first in AutoCAD 2014, you need to recenter the view on the model. In the top left of the viewport, find -Top2D Wireframe and click Top and then Top again to recenter. To integrate Google Maps, OpenStreetMaps. In AutoCAD we use Spatial Manager for AutoCAD. It allows us to establish dynamic background maps in AutoCAD that is updated as we make view changes and captures can be made to embed them in the DWGs (as an external image or as an OLE object).
If you’re new to the AutoCAD 3D game and you’ve been working in 2D until now, you need to do a couple of things before you can start a new 3D model in AutoCAD: You have to change the workspace, and then you have to open a new file by using a 3D template. The following steps explain how:
- Open the Workspaces drop-down list on the Quick Access toolbar, or click the Workspace Switching button on the status bar and then choose 3D Modeling.Toolbars, palettes, and Ribbon panels flash on and off, and soon AutoCAD settles down to display the Ribbon, as configured for the 3D Modeling workspace with a few additional panels.
- Click the Application button and choose New; then click Drawing.The Select Template dialog box appears.
- Choose acad3d.dwt if you’re working in imperial units or acadiso3d.dwt if you’re working in metric. Click Open.A 3D modeling space appears where, rather than look straight down at the drawing area, you look at it at an angle from above.
To switch from 3D to the 2D world, simply click the Workspace Switch button on the status bar and choose Drafting and Annotation.
If you want to import aerial images from Google Earth into your projects, you can use the somehow limited functionality included directly in AutoCAD Civil 3D. But if you need to perform this and many other functions much more conveniently, more precisely, much faster and in full resolution, you can use the add-on application Plex.Earth Tools by Plexscape. This tool allow to use the Google Earth data not only in Civil 3D but in all versions of AutoCAD - i.e. also in AutoCAD Architecture.
Plex.Earth Tools is a simple to use add-on application which automatically inserts the whole mosaic of aligned, tiled color maps covering the complete area of your project - in a single step, on one click. You can specify a polygon to cover (with overlaps) or a buffer-zone (bands) along a corridor (roads, rivers, etc.). Plex.Earth understands over 2.500 regional coordinate systems so you can keep your project in a standard setup.
You can also use this software in the opposite way - to publish your CAD models directly to Google Earth. The latest version of PlexEarth supports also importing 3D terrains from GE to AutoCAD DWGs (digital terrain models) including contour lines.
Thanks to the support of WMS data sources in Google Earth (overlay) you can use it also to insert other types of GIS and cadastral data from online WMS resources. Google Earths acts as a middleware application in this case (see WMS details - in Czech).