A plan drawn over a real survey or satellite image is right the first time. This lesson puts a picture under the plan and scales it so a metre on the photo is a metre in the model.
Add the reference
Either drag an image file onto the plan — it says Drop a photo to trace over — or click the Add a photo to trace over button on the plan and choose a file. The picture appears behind the grid, and the same button now opens its controls.
Set the scale
The photo is the wrong size until you tell the editor one real distance on it.
- Open the reference controls and choose Set scale (the tool is also at the foot of the rail while a photo is loaded).
- Drag a line over something you know the length of — a fence panel, a house wall, the scale bar on a survey.
- Type the real length in the field and confirm. The photo scales so that span is that long, and the panel shows the factor it applied.
Fit stretches the photo to the whole plan instead — quick, but it replaces any scale you set, so use one or the other.
Position, fade, lock
The same controls move the photo (Offset), turn it (Rotation), fade it (Opacity) so your drawing reads over it, and switch between showing the photo and the shapes on top. Then Lock it: a locked photo cannot be dragged by accident while you draw over it.
Trace
Select the band the feature belongs on, then draw as usual — the pencil for a curved bed, the polygon for a building outline, snapping off so points follow the picture. When you are done, hide or remove the photo from the same controls; it is never part of the 3D view.
Next
Understand the five layers — where each thing you draw belongs.