September brought the biggest batch of changes to TopoLines so far. If you last used it earlier this summer, here’s everything that’s new — from two new export formats to a completely refreshed editor.
CAD and GIS exports: DXF and GeoJSON
Until now, vector output meant SVG. It’s still the format of choice for design work, but it isn’t what everyone needs — so we added two more.
- DXF — the standard vector format for the CAD and fabrication world. Every contour comes through as a polyline, ready to import into CAD software or send straight to a laser cutter, plotter, or CNC toolpath.
- GeoJSON — georeferenced vector output for GIS. Contours keep their real-world coordinates, so the file lines up with other layers in QGIS, ArcGIS, or a web map.
And GeoJSON isn’t locked to one projection. You can choose the output CRS — Web Mercator, Lambert-93, UTM zones, and other national coordinate systems — so the export matches your project’s coordinate system with no reprojection step.
Bare-earth elevation, worldwide
The standard global elevation source is now GEDTM30, a bare-earth model at ~30 m. “Bare-earth” is the important part: it represents the ground surface under forest canopy rather than the treetops. In wooded terrain, that means cleaner, truer contours — no more phantom bumps where the model was really tracing the top of a forest.
National high-resolution data
On paid tiers, TopoLines now reaches for the best national dataset available for your area, automatically:
- IGN RGE ALTI 5 m — France
- USGS 3DEP 10 m — United States
- IGN España MDT 5 m — Spain
More sources will be added over time. The editor’s new Map info panel shows exactly which source a given map was traced from, so you always know the provenance of what you’re exporting.
Bring your own DEM
If we don’t cover your area at the resolution you need — or you have survey-grade data of your own — you can now upload your own GeoTIFF and trace contours directly on it (Pro). Your raster, your contours, same clean exports.
A redesigned editor
The editor got a visual and functional overhaul:
- A flatter, sharper interface with a dark basemap by default.
- A search mode selector — jump to a place by name (with autocomplete), by raw coordinates, or by uploading a DEM.
- The Map info panel — live coordinate system, scale, orientation, and area of your zone, right where you’re working.
- A precision dropdown to pick your elevation source at a glance.
- A subtle scan-line effect while a zone’s contours generate, so you can see the work happening.
Faster, too
Behind the scenes, traces are now cached per zone and inland areas skip the coastline lookup entirely. In practice that means restyling a map or coming back to a place you’ve already generated is close to instant.
Every one of these is live now. Open a zone, and you’ll find the new export formats in the download menu, the elevation sources in the precision dropdown, and the map-info panel already tracking your selection.