What is it?
Web Map Tile Service (WMTS) is a means of serving map layers as cached map tiles. WMTS is a way to stream your site's imagery—including orthophotos and composite surveys—directly from Propeller into your GIS software of choice.
Why is it useful?
WMTS saves users from downloading each orthophoto individually from Propeller and then uploading those orthophotos into their GIS software, which is time-consuming.
Who can access WMTS?
Portal Owners and users with Admin or Manage Access permissions can access the WMTS page. Having Manage Access permission on a subset of sites within a portal is possible. If this is the case for a particular user, they can only view/generate/delete WMTS links applicable to the site where they have Manage Access permissions.
How does it work?
To get started, click the settings icon (the gear) in the bottom-left corner of your screen.
Under the Organization settings header, select WMTS and API.
Here, you’ll see any links that have already been created. You can copy any of the existing links or delete them.
To create a new WMTS link, click + CREATE.
Name your WMTS link and choose the desired site from the dropdown. Then click CREATE.
Your link is now created and can be found in the list of existing WMTS links.
What data is included? When you create a new WMTS link, it will include up to 50 of the most recent datasets from your selected site. This includes:
Standard orthophotos
Composite surveys
| ℹ️ Note: Any datasets marked as "hidden" in the Platform are automatically excluded from the stream to keep your GIS view clean and relevant. |
As you upload new datasets to the site, the link automatically updates to include them (up to the 50-dataset limit). No action is needed on your end!
| 💡 Tip: Do you want to see Composites? Create a new link. If you have existing WMTS links, they will stay on the previous version. To take advantage of the increased capacity and composite imagery, simply create a new link following the steps above and update it in your GIS software. |
Copy one of the links and navigate to your GIS software of choice. Paste the link, and all the orthophotos and composite surveys from that site become available.
| ℹ️ Note: These WMTS links don't require a username or password, so anyone with the link can access your survey. To keep your site secure, we recommend only sharing them with trusted teammates and avoiding email or messaging apps whenever possible. |
Every WMTS link you generate is unique. If you ever need to revoke access—like if a link is shared accidentally—you can simply delete it from your WMTS and API settings. This instantly stops that specific link from working. To keep things organized, we recommend creating different links for different user groups so you can manage their access independently
Many GIS tools accept WMTS links in different ways. The two videos below show the process for (1) ArcGIS and (2) QGIS.
QGIS WMTS Import Process
ArcGIS Pro WMTS Import Process
ArcGIS Online: MapViewer
Maps From ArcGIS Pro to ArcGIS Online
ArcGIS Online Web App Builder
WMTS is supported in Web Mercator (EPSG: 3857). Setting your site's coordinate reference system (CRS) in third-party software packages may be required to align with other data, such as designs.
- For published CRS, use the EPSG code as a guide.
- For local CRS, depending on the software package, if supported, it may be necessary to modify the geodetic transformation path if the software isn't able to read local parameters.
Some shifts might also be observed for CRS based on the non-GRS80 ellipsoid.
WMTS was verified to function correctly on the below packages. There are likely others or different versions of the software below that also work.
ESRI ArcGIS
- ArcGIS Pro 3.2.0
- ArcGIS Online Map Viewer
- ArcGIS Online Scene Viewer (not supported)
- ArcGIS Online WebApp Builder
QGIS 3.34.0
Global Mapper Pro v24.1 (b042723 or later builds)
Civil 3D 2023/2024 - does not support local CRS
I still can't do it!
We wrote these articles to equip you with everything you need to get the job done on your own, but we understand that sometimes this isn't sufficient.
If you're stuck, you can connect with our support team by clicking the question mark button at the top right corner of your user portal.
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