Measuring, drawing and sharing

#Measuring

In Measure, choose Distance or Area and click on the map to add points. The panel shows the distance (or the perimeter) and the area as you go; Undo point takes the last point back, Clear starts again. Measurements are made on the Earth's surface (geodesic), and the units follow the size: metres then kilometres, square metres then hectares then square kilometres.

#Drawing

Draw puts your own shapes and notes over the map — to mark a place, sketch a route, or annotate a sheet before printing.

• Choose a tool: Point, Line, Area, Freehand or Text. For lines and areas, click each corner and Finish shape.
• Pick a Colour, a Width (or a Size for text) and, if you like, a Label for the next shape.
• Edit lets you pick a shape up: drag its points, drag a midpoint to add one, and press Delete to remove a point or the shape. Undo and Clear work on the drawing in progress.

#Saving and sharing a drawing

Signed in, Save drawing keeps it under a name. Choose Who can open it:

• Restricted — you, and the people you add by name;
• Everyone in this app — every member who can open the app (visitors of a public app, who are not signed in, never see it);
• Anyone with the link — whoever has the link.

Share on a saved drawing lets you add people by name as Viewer or Editor, change the general access, and Copy link. An editor can continue the drawing; only its author can share or delete it. Shared drawings appear in the others' Saved drawings, each with an eye to Show or Hide it on the map.

#Bookmarks

Bookmarks → Save current view keeps the view, the layers that are on and the basemap under a name — for you, or Shared with everyone in the app. Click a bookmark to go back to it.

#Compare

Compare puts a divider across the map that you drag with the mouse (or the arrow keys):

• Reveal a layer — the chosen layer, or a whole folder, is shown on one side of the divider only: an orthophoto against the basemap, a new survey against the old.
• Two layers — one layer on the left of the divider and another on the right, for example the imagery of two dates. Swap sides exchanges them.

Stop comparing ends it.

#Sharing a view

Share → Copy link copies a link to the map at the place and zoom you are looking at. The person who opens it needs access to the app like anyone else (a public app opens for anyone). The link carries the place, not the layers you had on — to share a set of layers, save a shared bookmark.