How to Bring in Geo-Referenced JPG of Google/Bing/Open Map into Civil3D

On July 13, 2013, Ishka Voiculescu posted a nice video on YouTube on how to bring in geo-referenced images of Google/Bing map (among other map sources) into AutoCad. What follows is step by step guide that you can follow at your own pace. The steps do not mirror what Ishka does in the video exactly but it's the same thing in the end.

Step 1: Create a Geo-Referenced Image.

  1. Download Terra Incognita here. The nice thing is that it is portable; you can stick it in a usb key or in a network drive and run it from any computer without having to install it.
  2. Run Terra Incognita (simply referred to as "Terra" from now on).
  3. Choose a map source.
  4. Locate the area that you want and select the desired area.
  5. Choose the zoom level. This will determine the resolution of the image.
  6. Save the image by saving as an ArcView map.

Step 2: Bring in the Image into AutoCad

  1. In AutoCad, set the coordinate system that you want the image to be brought into (e.g. using the EDITDRAWINGSETTINGS command). Hit APPLY and OK.
  2. Bring up the map workspace (MAPWSPACE command, ON).
  3. Click DATA then CONNECT TO DATA. The data connect dialogue window should open.
  4. Make sure "Add Raster Image or Surface Connection" is highlighted on the left window pane, click on the little photo icon to select and the raster you saved from Terra. Then press CONNECT.
  5. Next, we need to set the coordinate system of the image since it's set to <unknown> by default.
    1. double click <unknown> to bring up the "Edit Spatial Contexts" window (You may have to scroll right to bring it into view).
    2. Double click the entry to bring up the "Coordinate System Library" window.
    3. In the blank SEARCH box, type in "world-mercator". Click select to close the Coordinate System Library window. Click ok to close the Edit Spatial Contexts window.
    4. Check off the "Combine into one layer" option and click "Add to Map".

At this point, the image should be in the right place.

If, you see the following image insertion window, however, it means that the image is not coming into the right place. The most likely cause of the problem is the file name size. The image file name, including the full path of its location, must be less than 128 characters for it to work correctly. If it's longer, it will refuse to come in geo-referenced correctly and the Image Insertion window will pop up.

You can check that the image is in with the GEOMAP command (requires that you sign into Autodesk 360.

Step 2a: Alternate Method to Bring Image into Autocad 

If you have existing survey points you can match up to the image, it's actually better to bring in the aerial manually:
  1. Attach the .jpg file generated by Terra Incognita. Place at any location, any scale.
  2. Use the ALIGN command to position the attach image by lining up objects in the aerial to the survey points in the drawing.
    • note 1: remember to turn off object snap for this so that you don't end up using different elevation values and misaligning as a result.
    • note 2:  if you don't have survey points, you can also use the map from the GEOMAP command to align things manually. Remember that coordinates of GEOMAP tend to be off by 1-3m, however.

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