Skip to content
ObjectGraph Docs

Geo Elevation

Geo Elevation answers two questions on a map: what is the climb along this line, and what is the ground like inside this area. It runs on iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Vision Pro; Geo Elevation for Mac is the same app sold on its own, and everything here applies to it.

Geo Elevation on the Mac: the Mount Washington area with slope bands and contour lines, two trails crossing it, and the panel with the area's numbers and the trails' profiles

Your first profile in a minute

Section titled “Your first profile in a minute”

  1. Find the place. Search for an address or a name with the magnifying glass (⌘F on the Mac), or scroll and zoom the map to it.

  2. Choose Add Points at the top of the panel (on iPhone, the card at the bottom). For a hike, choose Walking beside the tools so each leg follows the trail.

  3. Tap the start, each bend, and the end. The profile appears after the second point: distance, lowest and highest point, climb, descent and grade.

  4. Want the ground instead? Choose New Area from the + menu and tap the corners. The panel shows the area’s lowest, highest and mean height, its relief and its mean slope; switch on Slope and Contours to see them on the map.

  5. See it in 3D. Choose 3D at the top. Drag to turn, pinch or scroll to zoom.

The window

Section titled “The window”

A Geo Elevation document holds the shapes you draw (paths, areas, circles and rectangles), the spot heights you place, and the elevation data fetched for them. The window has three parts:

  • The map, where you draw.
  • The panel (iPad, Mac, Vision Pro) or the card (iPhone), with the drawing tools at the top, the units, the list of layers, and the selected shape’s numbers and profile.
  • Map | 3D at the top, which switches between the map and the selected shape’s ground in 3D.

The drawing tools at the top of the panel:

Tool What it does Mac
Select Select shapes and points and move them. The map never adds a point. ⌃⌘1
Add Points Each tap or click adds a point to the selected shape, or starts a new path. ⌃⌘2
Freehand Drag on the map to trace a line onto the selected shape. ⌃⌘3
Spot Height Each tap or click reads the height of the ground there. ⌃⌘4

Beside the tools is the way new points are joined: Straight, Walking, Cycling or Driving. It applies only with Add Points, and it is dimmed otherwise.

What would you like to do?

Section titled “What would you like to do?”
Draw a pathPoints, freehand, moving and deleting, reversing.
Follow trails and roadsWalking, cycling and driving legs from Apple Maps.
Read the profileClimb, descent, grade and the chart.
Read the ground of an areaLowest, highest, relief, slope, and the paths through it.
Slope and contoursColour the steep ground, draw lines of equal height.
The ground in 3DTurn it, stretch the heights, point at the surface.
Print on paper and in 3DA page with the map or the 3D view, or an STL for a 3D printer.
Every Mac shortcutThe menus and the keys.