Base Maps

Rolling out

Smart base maps are on dev.landplan.io now and come to landplan.io with a coming release. Until then, landplan.io has the Basemaps folder in the Layers tab.

The base map is the background under your design: aerial imagery, or a street or topographic map. Every project opens on the best imagery for its place, already chosen and checked: landplan compares the imagery sources near the project (county, state and national) by date, sharpness, coverage and speed. You can pick another one at any time, and your pick is kept with the map.

Video coming soon: Base map (picker, strength, compare). Until then, follow the steps on this page.

One base map shows at a time. Your design layers always draw over it.

The Base map section

The Base map section is at the top of the Layers tab of the left panel. It has:

• Imagery for this project: the imagery sources for the project, best first. Each row shows the year, the resolution and how much of the project it covers, for example 2023 · 4 in · covers all of the project. A badge says why it is listed: Best here, Newest, Sharpest, Fastest or Safety net (the national imagery that covers everywhere). A dot shows its speed: Fast, OK, Slow, Checking or Down.
• Maps: Streets, Topo (USGS topographic), Bing road where it is offered, and No base map to show only your layers. Bing aerial is listed with the imagery.
• Strength: how strong the base shows under your design. Turn it down to make your lines stand out.
• Auto-switch, Labels on top (roads, places), Show imagery coverage, Start new maps on Streets and Compare two images: see below.

Click a row to make it the base map. While the sources are being checked the section says Finding the best imagery; when it is done it says Chosen for this project and how many sources were checked.

Keep a second image on

To keep another imagery on over the base map, for example an older year, Shift-click its row (on a touch screen, press and hold it). Up to 3 can be kept on at once, each with its own Opacity. Shift-click it again to stop keeping it on.

The chip and the picker

The chip at the bottom left of the map shows the base map on screen and its speed. Click it to open the base map picker in its place: the imagery as cards with a live preview of the project, the maps, Strength, Auto-switch and Compare two. Point at an imagery card to outline where it has imagery. Picking keeps the picker open; click ×, press Esc or click the chip to close it.

When the best imagery is on and you haven't picked one, a short pill under the search bar says Best imagery for this project is on.

Imagery or a map

• Imagery is a photo of the ground. Use it to see the house, driveway, trees and water. Your design is drawn with a thin light edge and label halos so it reads on dark imagery.
• Streets and Topo carry their own road and place names. Topo shows the contour lines of the USGS maps.
• Labels on top (roads, places) adds road and place names over imagery, or over no base map.

To open every new map on Streets instead of imagery, turn on Start new maps on Streets. A map you picked a base for keeps your pick.

Compare two images

Click Compare two images (in the section) or Compare two (in the picker) to see two imagery sources side by side, for example two years of the same parcel. Drag the line, or use the arrow keys, to swipe between them. Choose each side under Left and Right, click Swap to switch them, and Done to finish. Comparing needs two imagery sources for the project.

Imagery coverage

Turn on Show imagery coverage to outline on the map where each source has imagery around the project. It helps when a county source covers only part of a parcel.

When imagery is slow

landplan watches the base map's tiles around your project.

• With Auto-switch on, a slow source is replaced by itself with the closest usable one, and a notice says so, for example Medina County 2023 is slow right now. Switched to Ohio statewide 2025 (6 in). Click Undo to go back.
• With it off, the notice asks instead: Medina County 2023 is loading slowly. Click Switch to ... or Keep.
• A source that stops answering is loaded again once, then switched. Its row says Slow since 10:42 AM; click Try again to retry it.

It never switches right after you picked a source yourself, and at most a few times per session.

On a phone

On a phone, tap the round base map button in the map controls. A sheet opens from the bottom with the imagery as a row of cards, Streets, Topo and None, Strength, Auto-switch when slow and Labels on top. Tap a card to pick it. Tap the close button, or the map above the sheet, to close it.

Shared maps and printing

• A shared map opens on the base map its owner picked. The shared map's panel has a short Base map section; changes there aren't saved to the map.
• While printing, the print panel sets the imagery strength, and the base map doesn't switch. See Print a Site Plan.