Overlay

Overlay in comparison to Measurements, Indicators and Globals

An overlay is a layer visualized on top of the terrain and buildings in the 3D visualization. Overlays can provide spatial insight into specific subject, such as the variation of height and ownership. The visualized properties can originate from the current state of the project or from a result of a spatial calculation.

However, most overlays that can be added to a project use an underlying calculation model, which rasterize the spatial data and apply calculations to it to produce various (intermediate) results. These computational overlays can range from simple distance and average operations to complex water simulations. For these more complex Overlays with multiple results, additional Result Child Overlays can be added. The calculation main and child results will always be governed by the main overlay, also called the Result Parent Overlay.

How to access overlays in a project

Overlay buttons in the Navigation Panel can be clicked to show that specific Overlay. The Parent Overlays are indicated with the yellow rectangles and the Child Overlays with the red rectangle

Overlays available to stakeholders appear as buttons on the right side of the interface. Clicking on any of these buttons will switch the view to the specific overlay. Clicking on the "City" overlay will switch the view back to default. Some overlays are automatically added when a project is created. Some overlays are closely related to indicators, such as Heatstress and Livability.

Parent Overlay

Overlays can be grouped together using a Parent-Child hierarchy. Hovering over any of the Overlays in the Navigation Panel will show additional icons for the Child Overlays of that Overlay.

Every Overlay is considered a Parent Overlay, unless it has a Parent Overlay set, in which case it becomes a Child Overlay of that Parent Overlay. Overlays with Child Overlays cannot be a Child Overlay to another Overlay. Result Child Overlays are always Child Overlays of other Overlays.

When a parent overlay is removed, it's child overlays are not removed, unless the child overlay is a result child type overlay. Otherwise, they simply have no parent overlay set anymore and become a parent overlay themselves.

List of available Overlays

Icon	Name	Category	Type	Displays
	City	Default	None	The default view without any overlay
	Ownership	Administrative	Feature	Ownership of constructions/ plots
	Ownership Grid	Administrative	Grid	Ownership of constructions/ plots
	Municipalities	Administrative	Feature	Municipalities in the project area
	Neighborhoods	Administrative	Feature	Neighborhoods in the project area
	Vacancy	Administrative	Feature	Constructions marked as vacant are highlighted
	Zipcodes	Administrative	Feature	Postal codes
	Zoning	Administrative	Feature	Zoning (related to zoning plans)
	Aerius	Environmental	Grid	Impact of traffic on NOX and NH3 polution on Natura 2000 areas in the Netherlands
	Heat	Environmental	Grid	Urban heat stress
	Livability	Environmental	Grid	Livability score
	Traffic Density	Environmental	Grid	Traffic density
	Traffic Noise	Environmental	Grid	Impact of traffic noise polution on surrounding area
	Traffic NO2	Environmental	Grid	Impact of traffic NO2 polution on surrounding area
	Flooding	Water	Grid	Impact of flooding on inundation
	Groundwater	Water	Grid	Underground water tables
	Rainfall	Water	Grid	Impact of rainfall on inundation
	Subsidence	Water	Grid	Areas subject to subsidence
	Watershed	Water	Grid	Discharge areas based on DTM or Water overlay's flow direction.
	Waterwijzer	Water	Grid	Crop yield loss based on ground water levels and type of soil.
	Average	Distance	Grid	Smoothened values of grid cells
	Distance	Distance	Grid	Defined contour around an object
	Sight Distance	Distance	Grid	Combined distance zone with line of sight
	Travel Distance	Distance	Grid	Contour based on travel distance
	Area	Custom	Feature	Selection of Areas
	Attribute	Custom	Feature	Presence of a specific attribute in a data layer
	Combo	Custom	Grid	Combines up to three grid overlays using mathematical functions and boolean operators.
	GeoTIFF	Custom	Grid	External data in GeoTIFF format
	Image	Custom	Grid	A custom image
	WCS	Custom	Grid	Stores the GeoTIFF result of a Web Coverage Service as a Grid Overlay.
	WMS	Custom	Grid	Stores the result of a Web Image Service as a Grid Overlay.
	Digital Surface Model	Topography	Grid	Height of the terrain and building heights (DSM)
	Digital Terrain Model	Topography	Grid	Height of the terrain (DTM)
	Function	Topography	Feature	Highlights specific functions/ buildings
	Source	Topography	Feature	Datasets/sources currently in use for generating the project
	Underground	Topography	Feature	Underground composition
	Network Distance	Networks	Feature	Distance to lines of a network
	Network Overview	Networks	Feature	Lines, loads and cluster topography of a network
	Network Ownership	Networks	Feature	Ownership of lines, loads and clusters of a network

Notes

• The following overlays are added automatically when creating a new project: City, Neighborhoods and Ownership. Depending on the project sources, Zoning and Underground Overlay can also be added.
• Grid overlays have the ability to show the difference between the maquette and the current state. The difference visualization uses its own legend, which can also be manually adjusted. The option to show the difference can be turned on or off per Grid Overlay.
• Overlays can be given Attributes. Some of these Attributes are used by their calculation model.
• Some overlays can have the option to visualize different (intermediate) results of its calculation. These are configured using the result types. For example, for the Water Overlay the result types include the surface last value result type and the groundwater result type for water above and below ground respectively.
• Some overlays store multiple timeframes of results. Examples are the Water Overlay and the Heat Overlay. Each timeframe is a complete snapshot of results of the entire project area. These results can be viewed in sequence. When these overlays are visualized in the 2D map, the last timeframe is shown.

How-to's

General:

• How to add and remove an Overlay
• How to add your own Overlay Icon
• How to sort Overlays
• How to edit an overlay legend
• How to use the Overlay Overview

Grid Overlay specific:

• How to configure a Grid Overlay's legend
• How to set an Overlay to active or inactive
• How to delay Grid Overlay calculations
• How to force Grid Overlays to recalculate
• How to create an overlay for visualizing your own geographical vector information
• How to use a Grid Overlay to change the elevation model
• How to smooth Grid Overlay results

In/out:

• How to export a Grid Overlay as ASCII
• How to export a Grid Overlay as GeoJSON
• How to export a Grid Overlay as GeoTIFF
• How to export a Grid Overlay as png
• How to show Overlays in Power BI

See also

• Grid Overlay

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Overlays

Categorization

Grid • Parent • Result Child • Result Parent • Result type

Default

City

Administrative

Ownership • Ownership Grid • Zipcodes • Zoning • Neighborhoods • Municipalities • Vacancy

Environmental

Heat Stress • Traffic Density • Traffic Noise • Traffic NO2 • Livability • Aerius

Water

Rainfall • Flooding • Groundwater • Subsidence • Watershed • Waterwijzer

Raster Calculation

Average • Combo • Distance • Sight Distance • Travel Distance

Geo Data

Area • Attribute • GeoTIFF • WCS • WMS • Image

Topography

Digital Surface Model • Digital Terrain Model • Underground • Function • Source

Network

Network Distance • Network Overview • Network Ownership

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Current Situation

Current Situation

Buildings • Terrains • Administrative • Areas • Networks • Overlays • Indicators • Panels • Globals •  Queries • Geo Import

Buildings

Function • Function Override • Traffic Units

Terrain

Height sector • Elevation model • Elevation GeoTIFF • Elevation Grid Overlay • Ground Price • Terrain Type • Terrain Type Override

Administrative

Neighborhood • Zone • Permission Popup • Plot • Zip Code

Geo Import

Source • GeoShare

Network

Net Cluster • Net Function • Net Line • Net Load • Net Node • Net Setting

Editor

Current Situation • Future Design • Multi Scenario • Tools • Community