Map layers

The Helper adds five official Swiss base maps to the WME layer selector, at the bottom of the right-hand bar.

The five layers

Checkbox	What it shows
Municipal boundaries	The division into municipalities
Cantonal boundaries	The division into cantons
Geographical Names swissNAMES3D	The official place names: localities, summits, watercourses
National Maps (color)	The Swiss national map, the classic topographic background
SWISSIMAGE Background	The federal aerial imagery, in high resolution

Several can be enabled at the same time, and the checked boxes are found just as they were when the editor is reloaded. These backgrounds are always drawn below the segments and the places: they never hide what you are editing.

When to use which

• SWISSIMAGE Background is the most useful working background day to day: much sharper than WME's default imagery over Switzerland, it makes drawing geometries far more reliable.
• National Maps (color) helps where the aerial photo is ambiguous: dense forest, mountain, a path under the trees.
• Geographical Names swissNAMES3D is used to check the spelling of a place name before entering it.
• Municipal boundaries and Cantonal boundaries are used to check the city assigned to a segment, especially when a street changes municipality along the way.

Finding out when the aerial photo was taken

Imagery is not renewed everywhere at the same time: an old image can miss a recent housing development or roundabout. The WME Switzerland Helper tab contains a link to a map that shows, region by region, the year the picture was taken.

If a layer does not show up

• Check that the box is ticked, right at the bottom of the layer selector.
• These backgrounds only cover Switzerland: outside the borders, there is nothing to show.
• The boundary layers are hard to read from very far away. Zoom in if the rendering looks uniform.

Sources

• Script repository: https://github.com/Waze-Dev-CH/WME-Switzerland-Helper
• Maps and imagery: swisstopo, https://www.geo.admin.ch