Terrain · Select a property, draw a box or polygon, or upload a boundary
Contour map for any New Zealand property
Make a contour map for any New Zealand property from the LINZ 1 m LiDAR model, at any interval from 0.5 m upward, clipped to the title boundary. Contours for AutoCAD and Civil 3D export as DXF; the same lines export as GeoJSON, Shapefile, KML, SVG and a print-ready PDF.
The 20 m contours on the Topo50 map are too coarse for a driveway, a platform or a drainage plan. A property contour plan at 0.5 m or 1 m shows the ground at the scale those jobs need, in the format your designer already uses.
Free to run · pay to download
See the full result on the map free, with no account. Download the contours as GeoJSON and KML here, or as DXF, Shapefile, SVG and PDF from Download Data with a pass: NZ$49 for 7 days or NZ$299 for 12 months, one-off, GST included, not a subscription. Every download on the site is included while the pass lasts.
Who uses this
- Architects and designers. Drop site contours into CAD for concept design.
- Landscapers. Plan levels, paths, retaining and planting from real contours.
- Owners and builders. Understand the fall across a section before talking to a surveyor.
When to use it
- You need site contours for a concept plan, a driveway, drainage or a landscape design.
- You want contours snapped to a property boundary instead of a whole map sheet.
- The 20 m contours on the topographic map are too coarse for the question.
Which tool for your job
Contour Lines is one step in a bigger question. These are the jobs it helps with, and the tools that go with it.
If you’re working on earthworks, driveways and tracks
How much digging, and can a driveway or farm track make the grade?
- 1.Cut & Fill — Cut and fill volumes to level a pad, at a height you set or the one that balances.
- 2.Elevation Profile — Gradient along a proposed driveway, section by section.
- 3.Route Explorer — Finds a line between two points that stays under a maximum grade.
- 4.Contour Lines (this tool) — Site contours at 0.5 m or finer to hand to a designer.
If you’re working on plans, cad, gis and 3d printing
I need the terrain as a file.
- 1.Download Data — Contours, a GeoTIFF elevation model or a 3D mesh for printing.
- 2.Contour Lines (this tool) — Contours previewed on the map before you export them.
- 3.Elevate a File — Adds ground elevation to your own GPX, KML, GeoJSON or CSV points.
- 4.Add Elevation — A single spot height, for a floor level or a tank.
- 5.Terrain Stats — The highest, lowest and mean ground height of an area, and how the land is spread between them.
How to use it
- Select a property, draw an area or upload a boundary.
- Choose the contour interval. Finer intervals mean more lines and a bigger file.
- Generate. Contours appear on the map with height labels you can toggle.
- Pick an export format and download.
Step by step: Mt Iron, Wānaka
We draw 10 m contours over the eastern face of Mt Iron and the houses below it.
What it showed
- Closely spaced lines are steep ground. The tight band on the east face is where the hill drops to the housing.
- For a site plan, select just the section and use a 0.5 m or 1 m interval.
Screenshots from NZ Elevation Tools. Aerial imagery from LINZ Basemaps. Sourced from the LINZ Data Service and licensed by Environment Southland, Otago Regional Council and Queenstown-Lakes District Council for re-use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.
How it works
The 1 m LiDAR bare-earth model is loaded for the area and traced at each contour height. Fragments are stitched into continuous lines, simplified slightly so the files stay usable, and labelled with their height.
The output resolution follows the size of the area: a building site is traced at full 1 m detail, while a 12 km block is resampled to roughly 12 m per pixel before tracing.
Reading the results
Closely spaced lines mean steep ground; wide spacing means flat. A closed ring with no lines inside is a knoll or a hollow.
Every export names the LiDAR survey and its licensor, which you must credit if you publish the contours.
Limits and warnings
- Areas up to 12 km across.
- Contours below about 2 m interval are only meaningful on 1 m LiDAR. On the 8 m fallback they trace interpolation, not ground.
- The terrain is a snapshot from the LiDAR capture date. Earthworks since then are not shown.
Data and attribution
Results come from the LINZ national 1 m LiDAR bare-earth elevation model, read in your browser, with the national 8 m model filling any gaps. Tools that use the surface model (Sunlight, Viewshed, Object Heights) read the matching LiDAR surface tiles.
Elevation and cadastral data is sourced from the LINZ Data Service and licensed for re-use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence. Copyright in each LiDAR survey belongs to the body that commissioned it — a regional or district council, Waka Kotahi, NIWA and around thirty others — rather than to LINZ, which hosts and processes the national dataset. Every file exported from this site names the licensors whose surveys cover the area, and anything you publish from those files carries the same attribution requirement. See https://www.linz.govt.nz/products-services/data/licensing-and-using-data/attributing-elevation-or-aerial-imagery-data
Questions
Can I get contours as DXF for AutoCAD?
Yes. Generate the contours on the map, then export from Download Data as DXF. Each line carries its height, and the file opens in AutoCAD, Civil 3D and most CAD packages.
What is the finest contour interval?
0.5 m. Intervals under about 2 m are only meaningful where 1 m LiDAR has been flown; elsewhere the tool falls back to the 8 m national model and says so.
Are these contours good enough for building consent?
They are good enough for concept design and early conversations. Consent drawings normally need a topographic survey by a licensed surveyor, who may well use the same LiDAR as a base.
Ready to try it?
Open Contour Lines on the map →Free to use, no account. Runs in your browser on LINZ open data. Downloading the results needs a pass: see prices.