These instructions apply to QGIS 3.8.0 (Zanzibar) and later. This guide describes how to load georeferenced Nearmap imagery in QGIS using Web Map Service (WMS).
Simple WMS
Simple WMS shows only the latest imagery for your entire location (Australia, US, Canada, or New Zealand). Read more about Nearmap's Simple WMS.
- Obtain a Simple WMS URL from the customer portal.
- Open QGIS. Click on the Layer menu, select Add Layer, and choose Add WMS/WMTS Layer...
- In the Add Layer(s) from a WM(T)S Server window, click New.
- In the Create a new WMS connection window:
- At Name, enter Nearmap.
- At URL, enter the Simple WMS URL including your API Key.
- Do not enter anything in the Username and Password fields.
- Click OK.
- In the Data Source Manager | WMS/WMTS window, click Connect.
- Choose a map layer by clicking on it.
- Once you have selected a layer, click Change to set the spatial reference system to use.
- In the Coordinate Reference System Selector window, choose the map projection you want to download. This list should only show projections available from the Nearmap server, but be sure to select a projection meant for the location of your survey or it may not load. Once you find your projection of interest, select it in either of the two lists and click OK.
- Back in the Add Layer(s) from a WM(T)S Server window, ensure that JPEG is selected for Image encoding. PNG format is also available and has very slightly higher image quality, but comes at a large cost in both performance and amount of data downloaded. Then click Add once and click Close.
Select the layer in the Browser window to load the imagery. Higher resolution imagery is served on demand as you zoom and pan.
Custom WMS
The Custom WMS shows the imagery for the areas you define. You can create your own polygon/s and select the survey regions/date.
In order to load Nearmap Custom WMS:
- Obtain a Custom WMS URL from the customer portal.
- Open QGIS. Click on the Layer menu, select Add Layer, and choose Add WMS/WMTS Layer...
- In the Add Layer(s) from a WM(T)S Server window, click New.
- In the Create a new WMS connection window:
- At Name, enter Nearmap.
- At URL, enter the custom WMS URL including your API Key.
- Do not enter anything in the Username and Password fields.
- Click OK.
- In the Data Source Manager | WMS/WMTS window, click Connect.
- Choose a map layer by clicking on it.
- Once you have selected a layer, click Change to set the spatial reference system to use.
- In the Coordinate Reference System Selector window, choose the map projection you want to download. This list should only show projections available from the Nearmap server, but be sure to select a projection meant for the location of your survey or it may not load. Once you find your projection of interest, select it in either of the two lists and click OK.
- Back in the Add Layer(s) from a WM(T)S Server window, ensure that JPEG is selected for Image encoding. PNG format is also available and has very slightly higher image quality, but comes at a large cost in both performance and amount of data downloaded. Then click Add once and click Close.
- Select the layer in the Browser window to load the imagery. Right-click the layer, and click Zoom to Layer.
- Higher resolution imagery is served on demand as you zoom and pan.
