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The map

Map, at the top right of the drawing (or View → Map), shows the circuit where its coordinates put it, the way a utility planning tool's map does: lines along their routes, buses as dots, each kind of device as a small mark where it connects, loads and DER fanned out around their bus, over an OpenStreetMap background. One-line goes back to the diagram. Both are views of the same circuit; an edit in one is there in the other.

The overlays work on the map too: Voltages colours buses and the lines leaving them, Loading colours lines by how loaded they are, Phases by the phases they carry. Hover over anything for its results.

What you can do there

  • Select an element by clicking it (Shift-click adds to the selection) and edit it in the properties panel.
  • Move a bus: select it, then drag it. One undo step puts it back.
  • Pan by dragging the map, zoom with the wheel, Fit to see it all.

Placing and wiring new elements stays on the one-line, where the terminals are.

Where the coordinates come from

  • A .dss file's BusCoords or LatLongCoords, kept exactly as written.
  • GIS layers imported with File → Import from → GIS layers or CSV tables, which also bring each line's route.
  • A model converted from CYME or Synergi, when the source model has them.

Anything without a coordinate of its own is placed from what it connects to: a transformer or switch midway between its buses, a bus the file gave no coordinate between the buses around it. The status line says how many elements are on the map.

Coordinate systems

Feeder models rarely use latitude and longitude. State Plane feet and UTM metres are more usual, and the numbers alone do not say which. File → Project properties → Coordinate system does:

  • pick from the list — every NAD83 State Plane zone in feet and metres (including the HARN and 2011 realisations), UTM on NAD83 and WGS 84, and more — or type its EPSG code (EPSG:2223, or just 2223);
  • or paste a proj4 string or a WKT definition (a shapefile's .prj is one).

A LatLongCoords import is WGS 84 (EPSG:4326) automatically, and so is GeoJSON; a shapefile brings its .prj. Coordinates with no system are drawn on a plain grid, north up, with no background, and the map offers to set one.

The background

The Map selector on the map's toolbar chooses the tiles:

  • OpenStreetMap (the default), credited in the corner as its licence asks;
  • Custom tiles… — any XYZ tile URL, such as a satellite layer or your own utility's tile server, written as https://…/{z}/{x}/{y}.png ({s} picks a subdomain a, b or c);
  • None.

The choice is remembered in this browser. Tiles are fetched by your browser straight from the tile server; OpenDSS Designer's own server never sees them.