Import and export drawings and GIS files

Import file adds a file from a surveyor, an engineer or a GPS unit to the map, for example a CAD drawing of the site or the waypoints you walked. landplan.io reads the file on its server, shows you its layers on the parcel, and adds the layers you tick to the map. Export data does the reverse: it downloads your layers as a CAD, GIS or GPS file, and Export to CAD writes your design as a DXF (or DWG) drawing.

You can import:

File type	What to choose
DWG	An AutoCAD drawing (.dwg), AutoCAD R13 to 2018 and later.
DXF	A CAD drawing (.dxf), any version.
DGN	A MicroStation V7 drawing (.dgn). Save a V8 drawing as DXF first.
LandXML	A .xml from Civil 3D, Carlson or Trimble: survey points, parcels, surface breaklines, alignments and pipe networks.
Shapefile	A .zip with the .shp, .shx, .dbf and .prj, or those files chosen together.
GeoPackage, File geodatabase	A .gpkg, or a .gdb folder zipped (.gdb.zip).
KML / KMZ	Places saved from Google Earth.
GeoJSON, TopoJSON, GML, FlatGeobuf, WKT	Files from web maps and GIS programs.
MapInfo	A .tab (with its .dat, .id and .map) or .mif and .mid, chosen together or in a .zip.
GPX	Waypoints and tracks from a GPS unit.
CSV, Excel	A spreadsheet (.csv, .xlsx, .xls, .ods) of points with coordinate columns.
Point files	A total station or data collector file (.txt, .csv, .pnt, .nez), with or without a header.

A file up to 100 MB (a DXF or DWG drawing up to 40 MB) is read at once. A bigger one, up to 1 GB, imports in the background: see Big files. These are the usual amounts: see Limits. To put GPS points into your design's own layers (soil tests, well, house corners), use Import GPS points instead.

Import a file

Video coming soon: Import file. Until then, follow the steps on this page.

1. Open Tools > Basic tools and click Import file, under Import & export. The Import a drawing or GIS file window opens.
2. Drop the file on the drop zone, or click Choose file. It is uploaded and read on our server at once.
3. Check the layers and the position (below), then click Add N layers to map.

You can also drop the file straight on the map: the same window opens with it.

Check the position

landplan.io works out where the file's coordinates are, so you don't have to pick a projection:

• Units come from the drawing (its INSUNITS setting) or from the coordinate system.
• Coordinates come from the file when it says (a shapefile's .prj, KML, GPX and GeoJSON, a drawing exported from landplan.io or one with a geographic location). Otherwise landplan.io tries the state plane zones, UTM zones and latitude/longitude around your parcel, and picks the one that puts the drawing on it. matches the parcel says it landed there.
• Change lists the other systems near the parcel, with how far each puts the drawing, and None: place it by hand.

The preview shows the parcel in red and the ticked layers in their CAD colours. Drawing fits the parcel within 0.4 ft compares the drawing's property lines with the parcel.

A drawing with no map coordinates (drawn around 0,0) is placed in the middle of the parcel, in its drawing units (change Drawing units if they are wrong). Drag it on the preview to move it, and turn it with the slider until it lines up with the parcel.

For a point file without a header, landplan.io tries the usual column orders (P N E Z D, P E N Z D, N E Z D, X Y Z...) and picks the one that puts the points on your parcel. Column order shows it; click another to read the file that way. P is the point number, N the northing, E the easting, Z the elevation and D the description.

For a CSV, the window finds the coordinate columns by their names (Latitude, Longitude, Northing, Easting, X, Y). If it can't, pick the Easting / longitude and Northing / latitude columns, and the Elevation and Name columns if you like.

Choose the layers

Each layer of the file is listed with what it holds and what it becomes, for example Lines → Property lines or Blocks → Wells, and how many features it has. Select all and None tick or clear them all.

Some layers start unticked:

Badge	What it means
Hidden in CAD	The layer is off or frozen in the drawing.
Not plotted	The DEFPOINTS layer, which CAD never prints.
File not included	An external reference (xref): its drawing wasn't uploaded, so it can't be added.

Dimensions, images, 3D solids and other objects that aren't lines, shapes, points or text aren't imported; a note at the top says how many there were.

Pick part of a file

You don't have to add everything. Above the preview:

• Pick: click a feature to leave it out (it turns hollow and grey); click it again to add it back.
• Box: drag a box on the preview. Only what is in the box is added.
• Inside parcel: leaves out everything more than 50 ft outside the parcel.
• Reset: picks everything again.

The layer list shows how many of each layer are picked, for example 5 of 8.

Choose where each layer goes

Add to, next to each layer, says where its features go:

• Own layer (Uploads): the layer stays as it was in the file, under Layers › Uploads.
• Into the design: Imported points, Well, House, Other building, Hardscape / driveway, Fence, Sewer pipe, Trees or My features. The features are saved with the map like ones you draw, and you can edit them.
• Setback features: your project's isolation features, such as Setback: Stream or Setback: Private Well. Each imported feature gets its setback buffer, and Smart design keeps the system that far from it.

landplan.io starts each layer on the choice its name suggests: a WELL layer goes to Well, a creek to Stream, buildings and driveways to their setback features, survey points to Imported points. Change any of them before you click Add.

Add the data to the map

Click Add N features. Layers going into the design are added to their layers and saved with the map. Each layer kept as its own becomes a map layer in the Uploads folder of the Layers tab, under the file's name, in its CAD colour (property lines as outlines). Text becomes labels. The map zooms to them.

The layers kept as their own also stay under Notifications › Imports (see Imports) for this map, kept 30 days: when you open the map again, the file is listed there as Ready, and Add to map opens Check layers & position to add it again. Importing the same file again on the same map replaces the copy kept before, so each file is listed once.

Big files

A file over 100 MB (a DXF or DWG over 40 MB), up to 1 GB (a county's parcels as a file geodatabase, a big GeoPackage, a large LandXML survey, a spreadsheet of points), is too big to read at once. landplan.io imports it in the background. Every type Import file takes can be a big file (a shapefile or MapInfo table as a .zip with its parts):

1. Choose or drop the file as usual. The window shows its four steps:
   • Uploaded: the file goes straight to storage in 1 MB pieces, N MB of M MB. If your connection drops, it goes on from the pieces already sent (click Retry, or choose the same file again).
   • Read: its layers, how many features and their coordinate system.
   • Loading into the map server, with how many features are loaded and about how long is left.
   • Ready: check layers and add.
2. Under Only need part of it?, choose how much to keep before the upload ends:
   • This parcel and 500 ft around it (recommended, and the default).
   • What the map shows now.
   • All of it (shown as tiles, view-only).
3. Click Keep working, tell me when ready to close the window: the import goes on. Cancel import stops it and deletes the file.

When it is ready, a notice says … is ready to add and Notifications › Imports lists it; Check layers opens Check layers & position with its layers, as for any file. If it fails, the notice says why, and you can retry it (see Retry a failed import).

If more than 20,000 features are left after clipping, the file is shown as vector tiles: only what is on screen loads. Then:

• Own layer (Uploads) adds the layer to the map as tiles, view-only, under Layers › Uploads.
• A layer going into the design takes the features inside the box you draw with Box on the preview (else the parcel), up to 5,000 at a time. If there were more, the last screen says so: draw a smaller box and add again.

Big imports are kept 30 days unless they are saved with the map. Each member has 3 GB of imports and can run 2 big imports at a time.

Imports

Your imported files are under Notifications: the tray icon in the map's top bar, next to Quick tools. Its Imports section lists the imports of the map that is open, newest first (none until a project's map is open); another map's imports show when you open that map. The icon's badge counts the imports running or ready to add.

Each row shows the file's name, type, size and date, its status (Uploading, Queued, Reading, Loading 62%, Ready or Failed with the reason), its layers and features, and how long it is kept (Kept until 24 Nov). The line at the top says how much of your 3 GB you use.

• Add to map opens Check layers & position with the file's layers: pick the features and choose Add to.
• Progress shows an import still being read.
• Retry tries a failed import again (see below).
• Delete asks first, then deletes the file. Layers you added from it stay on the map.
• Import file opens the import window for another file.

Retry a failed import

Retry is on every failed big import, in Notifications › Imports and on the import window's big-file screen. It reads the file again from storage: you don't upload it again. An upload that stopped goes on from the pieces already sent.

• Choose a coordinate system: a file without a coordinate system that doesn't land near the parcel in any system used there fails with Choose its coordinate system and retry. Pick one in the list: each says how far from the parcel it puts the drawing (Puts the drawing 1,250 ft from the parcel). Then click Retry.
• Choose the columns: a CSV or spreadsheet whose coordinate columns weren't found by name fails with Choose them and retry. Pick the Easting / longitude and Northing / latitude columns (and Elevation and Name if you like), then click Retry.

A retry counts as one of your 2 imports running at a time. A file older than 30 days is no longer kept: import it again.

Limits

So that one very large job can't slow landplan.io for everyone, imports and exports have these limits. They are the usual amounts: landplan.io's admins may change them, and the import and export windows always state the ones in force.

What	Usually
A file read at once	up to 100 MB; a DXF or DWG drawing up to 40 MB
A big file, imported in the background	up to 1 GB
Big imports kept per member	3 GB, each kept 30 days
Big imports running at once	2
Features kept from one big import	2,000,000
Features in one export	50,000
Imports an hour	40
Exports an hour	60
Uploaded a day	3 GB

Over one of them, the window says so and when to try again, for example You have imported 40 files in the last hour. Try again in 12 minutes. When our server is busy reading other files, a big upload waits and goes on by itself. If an export has more features than one export takes, Download stays off: untick some layers, or choose Selected on map.

Work with imported data

An imported layer is like any other layer: show or hide it, change its style, or zoom to it from its ⋮ menu in the Layers tab. See The layer menu.

• Turn on snapping to draw your design on the imported lines and points. See Snapping.
• The imported layer belongs to the map you imported it to, and it isn't saved with the map: add it again from Imports or the bell when you open the map.
• Its features aren't saved as design features. To keep some of them in your design, choose Copy features… in the layer's ⋮ menu and copy them into one of your layers.
• To take it off the map, choose Remove from map… in its ⋮ menu.

Drop a file on the map

Drag any file the import takes (DWG, DXF, a zipped shapefile, KML/KMZ, GPX, GeoJSON or CSV) from your computer onto the map. The Import a drawing or GIS file window opens and reads it, as if you had chosen it there.

Export data

Video: Export data

Export data downloads the layers of your map in the file type the next person needs: a CAD drawing, a GIS file or a GPS file.

1. Open Tools > Basic tools and click Export data, under Import & export. The Export data window opens.

2. Under File type, click the format:

   Group	File types
   CAD and engineering	DXF and DWG (beta) open Export to CAD, with LP-* layers, units and a title block. LandXML for Civil 3D, Carlson and Trimble, DGN for MicroStation V7.
   GIS	GeoPackage (a table per layer), Shapefile (a .zip with a file per layer), KML and KMZ for Google Earth, GeoJSON, File geodatabase (.gdb.zip) for ArcGIS. Under More: GML, MapInfo (.tab) and FlatGeobuf.
   Survey and GPS	CSV (a row per feature), Excel (.xlsx, a sheet per layer) and GPX for GPS units.

3. Under What to export, choose Whole layers, or Selected on map to export only the features you selected on the map before opening the window (the button shows how many). Tick the layers: they are listed by folder (Design, Uploads › your file, My features), each with what it holds, for example 4 lines or 3 points. All layers with features ticks or clears them all. Big layers, such as site contours, start unticked.

4. Choose the Coordinate system: your project's system first, or WGS 84 (latitude and longitude). KML, KMZ, GeoJSON and GPX are always latitude and longitude, so they have no choice.

5. Check the File name: it starts as the project's address and today's date.

6. Click Download and the format's name, for example Download GeoPackage. One export takes up to 50,000 features (see Limits): over that, the window asks you to choose fewer layers or only the selected features.

Every feature takes its layer's name, its label, its elevation when it has one (contours, GPS points, soil tests) and its own attributes. The file is written on our server, then opened again and every feature counted before it is sent. The window then shows each layer with the features written and the features read back from the file. A feature with no shape a file can hold is left out, and the table says so. From there, Same layers, another format goes back with another file type chosen, and Download again downloads the file again.

CSV of named GPS points

For a CSV of named points with your own columns (Northing, Easting, their order and length), choose CSV and click Custom GPS columns…. See Export GPS points.

Export to CAD

Video coming soon: Export to CAD. Until then, follow the steps on this page.

Export to CAD downloads your design as a DXF drawing for AutoCAD, AutoCAD LT, Civil 3D, BricsCAD, DraftSight and other CAD programs.

1. Open Tools > Basic tools and click Export to CAD, under Import & export. (In Export data, DXF and DWG open it too.)
2. Choose the File type:
   • DXF, 2010 format: opens in AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT 2010 and newer. Use this one unless your program is old.
   • DXF, R12: for old CAD programs and plotters. Simple lines and text only: no hatches or dimensions.
   • DWG (AutoCAD 2000, beta): a real AutoCAD drawing, listed when our server can write one. If it can't write your drawing, the window says why and offers Download DXF instead.
3. Choose the Coordinates: your project's state plane, the UTM zone of the site in metres, or Local: 0,0 at the parcel corner, for drafters who want small numbers. Choose the Units: US survey feet, feet or metres.
4. Under Include, choose labels as CAD text, dimensions (the parcel's sides and measured lengths), contours with their elevations (turn on a contour layer first) and a title block with a north arrow.
5. Tick the layers to export, and click Download .dxf.

Each part of the design goes on its own CAD layer, always with the same name, so a drawing template can style them:

CAD layer	What it holds
LP-PARCEL	The parcel
LP-SEPTIC-TANK	Septic and pump tanks, hatched
LP-SEPTIC-FIELD	Drain field, trenches, beds
LP-SEPTIC-PIPE	Pipes
LP-SETBACK	Setbacks and buffers
LP-SOIL-TEST	Soil tests, as a block with its name
LP-SITE	Buildings, well, driveway and other site features
LP-TOPO-MAJR / LP-TOPO-MINR	Index contours and the others, at their elevations
LP-NOTES	Measurements and notes
LP-ANNO, LP-DIMS, LP-TITLE	Labels, dimensions, the title block and north arrow
LP-OTHER	Anything else

Every file is written on our server, then opened again and checked before you download it. The drawing says its coordinate system (for example EPSG:3734 NAD83 / Ohio North (ftUS)) in its title block and properties, and its units in its settings.

DWG is in beta

landplan.io never renames a DXF to .dwg: AutoCAD refuses such a file ("drawing file is not valid"). The DWG choice is a real AutoCAD 2000 drawing, and appears only when our server can write one. If a DWG gives you trouble, AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT open the DXF as it is; open it and save it as DWG.