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User Guide

Opening a map

Your administrator sends you a link. Open it and the map is there, set up and ready, with nothing to install and nothing to configure.

Signing in

Some maps ask you to sign in first, with a Sign in with Dropbox and a Sign in with Microsoft button. Use the account you use for shared files at work. You only sign in once. Signed in with the wrong account? See troubleshooting.

The "Sign in to open this map" window, offering a Sign in with Dropbox button and a Sign in with Microsoft button.

Maps that start with your location

Some maps ask where you are before they show anything, so the list can open on what’s closest to you: type an address, click the map, or use your device’s location. Show the map anyway skips the question.

Finding your way around

Groundwork splits the screen: the map canvas on the left, and the Data panel on the right. The map shows where things are; the panel shows what they are. On a phone the map fills the screen and the panel becomes a sheet you drag up from the bottom.

  • Your layer. Your map’s data sits in a layer, the trees in our example, and its features fill the panel’s list. If there’s more than one, click the layer name at the top of the panel to pick one.
  • The location box at the top of the map drops a pin at an address, a spot you click, or your device’s position. Nearby and routes measure from it.
  • The background map. The picker in the bottom-right corner of the map swaps between a street map and aerial imagery.
  • The settings menu, from the button at the top of the panel, holds sharing, rename and delete for the map, plus preferences like theme and units, saved on your device.
  • Sharing a view. Share, in the settings menu, builds a link that opens your current view for a colleague, and tick boxes choose what the link includes.

View-only maps

Some maps open view-only: you can browse, search, filter and download, but the editing tools don’t appear. If you need to edit, ask whoever sent you the link.

Keep the link

Open the link again later and it updates the map you already have. New data needs no new link either: Groundwork reads the map’s data source each time you open it, so other people’s additions and changes are already there.

Groundwork needs an internet connection, so plan for that before heading somewhere with no signal. On a phone, Add to Home Screen (Safari) or Install app (Chrome) gives Groundwork its own window, with more room for the map.

Next: Exploring features.

Try a demo mapExploring features