Import an orthophoto (DOP)

What is imported

A georeferenced aerial image is placed as an image instance in a site plan sheet. To scale, in the correct location, congruent with later imported DGM/CityGML data.

Accepted source formats

• GeoTIFF (.tif, .tiff) with embedded georeferencing — the standard case for official orthophotos.
• Other rasters (.png, .jpg, .jp2) with an accompanying world file (.tfw, .pgw, .jgw) in the same directory.

Plain images without georeferencing metadata cannot be imported — GeoBridge would not know where to place them.

Anatomy of a geoportal file

AdV-conformant filenames follow this pattern:

dop{resolution}{channels}_{UTM zone}_{East-LL in km}_{North-LL in km}_{tile size in km}_{state}_{year}.tif

Example:

dop20rgbi_32_595_5629_1_th_2025.tif
└──┘└──┘ └┘ └─┘ └──┘ └┘ └┘ └──┘
20 cm RGBI Z32 East North 1km TH 2025
     (RGB +
      infrared)

Companion files per tile:

• .tif — GeoTIFF with image data and embedded geo tags
• .tfw — world file with 6-value affine transform (pixel ↔ world coords); fallback when geo tags are missing
• .meta — AdV metadata as plain text, not parsed

GeoBridge reads from the source files: the coordinate reference system (GeoTIFF GeoKey tag or accompanying .prj), the geographic extent, and the pixel size in world metres. For plain image formats the geo information comes from the worldfile.

Workflow

1. Preparation — download the orthophoto from the geoportal. Common resolutions: DOP10 (10 cm/pixel), DOP20 (20 cm), DOP40 (40 cm).
2. Click "DOP" in the ribbon.
3. Select file — file picker dialog filtered to the accepted formats.
4. Georeferencing dialog — for the first import, see Before the first import. For later imports, only a brief notice that the existing anchor is being adopted.
5. Placement — GeoBridge places the image as an image instance in the active view. Recommended view: a site plan or a floor plan with project-north orientation.
6. Confirmation — short TaskDialog with source file and placement location.

The orthophoto sits as an image element in the view. It can be moved or scaled like any Revit image instance — accidental manipulation is detected as drift on the next DOP import (see Drift detection).

Import multiple tiles (Pro)

Geoportal DOPs are often split into 1×1 or 2×2 km tiles. Pro accepts a multi-selection in the file dialog and imports all selected tiles in one run. Free imports one file per click.

"Set SP" button in the DOP ribbon (Pro)

The DOP ribbon includes a dedicated "Set SP" button to anchor the Survey Point at a freely chosen UTM point — before the first file import. Useful when the project should rotate around an architectural anchor (building corner, survey nail, handover point) that does not necessarily coincide with the SW corner of the first import. For details and workflow, see Before the first import → Setting the Survey Point manually first.

Pro vs. Free for DOP

Notes

• Transparency: Revit has no native alpha control for image instances. If the orthophoto obscures other elements, use per-view halftone overrides or move it to a separate worksharing stage.
• Very large tiles: tiles above ~200 MB strain Revit's image manager noticeably. For performance issues, clip the tile in QGIS to the area of interest before importing.
• Polygon filter: DOP does not support a polygon filter — the entire raster is placed. To use a smaller area, clip the GeoTIFF beforehand with standard GIS tooling.