High Resolution Maps In AutoCAD

Map Service Bonus Tools in ArcGIS for AutoCAD

The ability to access map services and imagery from my ArcGIS sources is one of the primary values of Esri's free ArcGIS for AutoCAD plug-in to AutoCAD .  I see the ArcGIS maps and imagery properly located in my AutoCAD drawings.  The default dynamic redraw behavior allows me to pan and zoom around the drawing and see the correctly positioned ArcGIS maps/imagery for the current view that I am looking at.  I see more detail the more I zoom in.  The resolution of the maps are optimized for performance of the current view that I am looking at.   If I zoom out over a larger view area I see the same high performant image resolution as when I zoom into a smaller area, but when I zoom in I see more detail.

Sometimes I want to see more detail over a larger area, especially when I am printing larger format drawings.  I can set the redraw property of maps to be on-demand and when I pan and zoom the last view stays until I request the map service to be drawn with the current view area for my active viewport.

I can also add multiple references to the same map/image service and set both references to draw on-demand. This way I can see two different higher resolution views of the same map service over a larger area.  The latest collection of ArcGIS for AutoCAD bonus tools includes a command to automatically generate a matrix or map mosaic of these on-demand, multiple reference style services. 

Here is a video that shows the commands in action. 

You can download the free sample bonus tools here.