GEOFRAME / 3D SITE CONTEXT FROM PUBLIC DATA
GeoFrame builds a measured 3D model of any neighborhood from public data: LiDAR terrain and building heights, mapped footprints, streets, trees and water. Study massing in context, check sun and shadow, bring in your CAD model and share the result, all in a web browser.
Avila Beach, San Luis Obispo County, rendered live in GeoFrame from open data. Imagery © Esri, Maxar, Earthstar Geographics · Terrain USGS 3DEP · Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors · Building footprints © Microsoft
HOW GEOFRAME WORKS
You choose the ground; GeoFrame does the modelling. It turns the square you select into a measured 3D model of the terrain and everything standing on it, built from public data with nothing traced by hand.
Drag a square on the map anywhere the public data reaches, from 500 m to 2 km a side. Ask for up to 64 of them, 256 km², in one request.
USGS LiDAR becomes real terrain: hills, valleys, creeks and coastline. Buildings rise to their measured heights, with streets, trees and water laid on top.
Fly over it, drop to street level, turn the sun and measure, all in the browser. Bring in your own CAD in 10 formats, and export images, video or a .glb model.
WATCH A DISTRICT GET MADE
SEE IT MOVE
Every GeoFrame district is live 3D: fly the coastline, drop to street level, turn the sun, measure a setback. Every image on this page is a GeoFrame view captured in the browser from districts built entirely from open data.
REAL PLACES, BUILT FROM OPEN DATA
Each view is a live GeoFrame district, captured in the browser at 4K. Terrain, buildings, streets, trees and water were generated from public data; nobody traced a footprint or placed a tree. Select any image to see it full size.
Imagery © Esri, Maxar, Earthstar Geographics · Terrain and heights: USGS 3D Elevation Program · Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors · Building footprints © Microsoft (ODbL)
WHO IT'S FOR
Context models are bought, traced or skipped, and the first neighbor complaint is about a view nobody checked.
Import your massing as DXF, IFC or OBJ, set it on the real lot and check height, sun and sight lines against the buildings that are actually there.
Feasibility starts with a flat parcel map and a lot of imagination.
Draw the site, see terrain, neighbors and zoning in 3D, try three massing options in an afternoon and share a link with partners and lenders.
Commissioners and residents read plan sets, then react to the building once it is framed.
Show the proposal in the neighborhood it will stand in, at the time of day people care about, from a clean presentation account on the projector.
Listings show a pin on a map and an aerial photo from straight above.
Walk a buyer around the property and its surroundings in 3D, with parcels, addresses and nearby uses a click away.
Planning and architecture studios rebuild the same site model every term.
Students model proposals in their own town, in a browser, with no workstation lab and free class accounts.
PROPERTY DATA
Click any building and GeoFrame pulls up the property behind it: the owner of record from the county assessor, the parcel number, the lot size and the zoning, next to the building's own measurements.
From public county records: the County of San Luis Obispo assessor and planning services and each city's public zoning layer, looked up one parcel at a time and labeled with its source. Owner names are shown in San Luis Obispo County; elsewhere the panel shows the APN and lot size. Records can lag recent sales and changes, so verify with the county before relying on them. Presentation accounts hide owner names.
HOW IT WORKS
01
Drag a rectangle on the map, anywhere the public data reaches, from 500 m to 2 km a side. GeoFrame snaps it to the street grid and shows what it will contain before you build.
02
In the background, while you keep working: USGS LiDAR for terrain and building heights, OpenStreetMap footprints and streets, aerial imagery, tree canopy, water and shoreline, county parcels and a street-level photo survey for facades.
03
Open it in the browser. Place massing, import CAD, set the sun, measure, save views and share a named map with your team, your client or the public meeting.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
GeoFrame is professional mapping software for the questions that come before drawings: how tall, how close, what it blocks, and what the neighbors will see.
Scrub the time of day from morning to dusk and watch real shadows fall across real terrain. Presets for golden hour, dusk and night make context views for a hearing in seconds.
Rough out a building in Simple mode with width, depth, floors and use, or open the full 3D editor with roofs, holes, grouping and snapping. Place it on the real lot and walk around it.
Type what you want, such as "three-storey mixed use, retail at grade", and Creator drafts a starting model you can edit shape by shape.
LiDAR building heights, official zoning, parcels, streets, water, tree canopy and traffic: each one a switch, each with its source in the legend.
Two clicks measure ground distance in metres and feet. The status bar shows latitude, longitude and California State Plane coordinates.
Search the county's address points and fly straight to the parcel. Press / anywhere to start typing.
CAD IMPORT
Drop a drawing or a model on the Creator. DXF footprints become extruded volumes with their courtyards; IFC comes in by building element, with walls, slabs, roofs, windows and openings cut; meshes keep their materials. Then place it on the real site, turn it, resize it and save it with the map.
DWG is converted on the server when the converter is installed. Units and up-axis are read from the file.
CUSTOM MAPS & COLLABORATION
Your first change to a district asks for a name and starts a map of your own. It saves as you work and the district as built stays untouched, so five options for one site are five maps, side by side.
ANY SCREEN
GeoFrame runs in the browser with nothing to install. Quality adapts to the device, from a workstation graphics card to an iPad or a phone in the field.
DATA & TRUST
Every district records where its data came from, and the app credits every source on screen.
For agencies, firms and campuses that keep data in-house: GeoFrame installs as a single Debian package on your own server, under a signed, seat-based license that never phones home.
PRICING
Unlimited open-data areas, Creator, exports and share links.
TEAM$299a month for 5 seatsShared areas, client links and admin limits.
PROJECT PASS$499per projectOne site, the whole project team, no subscription.
GOVERNMENTfrom $6,000a year, hostedUnlimited staff seats. 90-day pilot available.
QUESTIONS
About data, accuracy, devices and deployment.
Anywhere the public data covers. Terrain and heights come from the USGS 3D Elevation Program, which covers the United States; footprints and streets come from OpenStreetMap. Parcels, addresses and official zoning are loaded per county. San Luis Obispo County is fully set up today, and we add counties on request.
Building outlines and streets are where OpenStreetMap maps them, and terrain and building heights are measured by LiDAR. What the data can't see, such as a rear wall or a roof shape, is estimated and labeled. It is a credible planning model of a place, not a survey-grade twin.
Yes. Import DXF, DWG, IFC, OBJ, STL, glTF, PLY, Collada, 3DS or FBX into the Creator, or draft a building there from scratch, then place it on the real lot.
Only you, until you share. Edits go into a named map of your own and the district as built never changes. Share a map with your team in one switch.
Yes. GeoFrame runs in desktop browsers, on iPad and on phones, with touch controls and quality that adapts to the device. There is nothing to install.
Yes. The on-premises license installs GeoFrame as one Debian package with a signed, seat-based certificate. No license check leaves your network, and district builds run on your hardware.
SEE YOUR SITE IN 3D
