"The KML he sent is the legal boundary," Elias said, his voice dropping to a serious tone. "But the physical reality—the trees—are bigger than the line. If we build to the line, we cut down half the grove."

"First rule of modern survey," Elias said. "AutoCAD is a solitary genius, but Google Earth is the map of the world. To make them friends, you need a translator. We’re going to use a plugin—specifically the tools, but for this specific client file, we’re going to use the KML Import workflow."

"Exactly," Elias said, clicking the new shape. "It’s geometry. We can snap to it, we can trim it, we can calculate its area. Look at the properties."

"We have a problem," Elias muttered, not looking up.

"Proof of life," Elias said, hitting send on the email. "I’m sending him back his KML, overlaid with our road alignment. I’m showing him that we respected his data. Speaking his language."

"Close call," Elias said. "But wait—look at the canopy."

Elias clicked the Insert tab, then Set Location . He selected From Map .

with non-technical stakeholders who can view project footprints in Google Earth.

He looked at the screen, where the red polygon sat snugly beside the white road lines.