Backgrounds

Including backgrounds allows you to improve network display and orientation as well as add graphic information to scale. This is how a zoning plan or a city map can be applied to the background of the network display for example. Graphic background data can be provided in different ways. You can insert existing files in various graphic or GIS formats as a background for your network display. Vector graphics, e.g. *.shp or *.dxf as well as raster graphics, e.g. *.jpg, *.bmp or *.sid, are supported.

Besides existing graphic files, you may also use city maps or aerial and satellite images, provided by map services on the Internet, as your background image. Map providers offer high-resolution aerial and satellite images as well as detailed city maps for many regions. Apart from commercial offers like, for example, Microsoft Bing Maps (Backgrounds by Bing Maps), data by freely available map providers can be used under certain conditions. You can download the map data automatically and insert it as your background. If you have a permanent Internet connection, you can show the Background graphic layer as an alternative to a statically embedded background. The graphic layer contains the background graphics that match a network section. They are called dynamically by map providers on the Internet (Using Visum: Dynamically embedding background maps provided on the Internet ).

Note: Using data from map providers is subject to license terms and conditions. Please learn about these terms in advance and consider them when working on projects and sharing results.