This guide walks through creating a project and configuring it correctly before you enter any survey data.
Create a project
A project represents one building site. When you create it you set:
- Name — usually the site or job name.
- Coordinate reference system (CRS) — the projected system your control points are published in, selected from the EPSG library. US sites typically use a State Plane zone.
- Display unit — US survey foot, international foot, or meter. This is how coordinates are shown and exported; internally everything is meters.
- Scale factor — the combined grid-to-ground scale factor (usually very close to 1.0). See Coordinate Systems for grid vs. ground.
- Site origin — an approximate latitude/longitude so the 3D scene can fetch terrain and center the view.
- Site rotation — leave at 0 for a properly-tied survey. For an assumed-datum survey (a local grid with no real-world tie), it rotates the site to true-north orientation about the points' centroid.
You can revisit all of these later: the project's Edit dialog changes the same fields, and the Georeference card in the Overlays tab lets you fine-tune the scale, origin, and rotation, then save to refresh the scene.
Choosing the right CRS
The CRS must match what the city used to publish your control points. If you pick the wrong zone, the tie will still solve but every real-world coordinate will be wrong. When in doubt, confirm the zone on the control datasheet.
Choosing units
The US survey foot and the international foot differ by about 2 parts per million. Over a large site that is enough to matter, so SiteLens keeps them distinct. Pick the one your jurisdiction and datasheet use — don't assume.
Invite your team
Your organization's projects are private to your organization. Within it, users have a role:
- Admin — manages the org, users, and all projects.
- Surveyor — full project work: grid, control, imports, transforms, exports.
- Viewer — read-only, for sharing a project with a GC or architect.
Next: Coordinate Systems.