Data
Data is the single door for bringing anything onto your map. It opens as a docked panel listing every source type, grouped and searchable, plus two shortcuts at the top: your Datastore and the Data Hub.
Pick a type and its form opens in the same panel, with a back arrow to the list. Nothing pops over the map, so you keep seeing what you are adding to.
The two shortcuts
Section titled “The two shortcuts”- Datastore is your own storage: everything you have imported, computed or saved. Adding from there is one click and costs no upload. Each item has its own page, with its metadata, what uses it and who it is shared with.
- Data Hub is curated open data you can browse by producer and theme, preview, then add live or download into your Datastore. Satellite imagery search lives here too.
Local files
Section titled “Local files”| Type | Notes |
|---|---|
| Vector Layer | GeoJSON, GeoPackage, zipped Shapefile, KML and KMZ, GML, FlatGeobuf and more. |
| Raster Layer | GeoTIFF and Cloud Optimized GeoTIFF. A plain striped GeoTIFF is offered for conversion on the fly. |
| Delimited Text Layer | CSV and TSV, using longitude and latitude columns to build points. |
| CAD (DXF/DWG) Layer | CAD drawings, parsed in the browser into a plain vector layer. |
| GPX Layer | Tracks, routes and waypoints, split into named layers. |
| MBTiles Layer | A tile archive, converted server side into the PMTiles sibling that renders on the web. |
| OSM PBF Layer | OpenStreetMap extracts. |
A local import gives you three ways in: From computer, a short list of Samples to try a format without owning data, and From Datastore for files you already imported. Vector and GeoParquet imports offer to keep the original file in your Datastore alongside the layer.
You can also drag files straight onto the map.
Web services
Section titled “Web services”| Type | Notes |
|---|---|
| XYZ Layer | Raster or vector tiles from a {z}/{x}/{y} template. |
| WMS Layer | Map images, with click to identify where the service supports it. |
| WFS Layer | Live vector features, with optional auto refresh. |
| WMTS Layer | Pre rendered tile matrices. |
| OGC Vector Tiles Layer | OGC API Tiles, the open standard successor to the XYZ convention. |
| ArcGIS Layer | FeatureServer and VectorTileServer layers. |
| GeoRSS Layer | Geotagged feeds, re fetched on reopen. |
| Video Layer | A video draped on the map with four corner coordinates. |
| Deck.gl Layer | Advanced deck.gl visualizations over your own data. |
A web service is stored as a reference, not a copy. It is re fetched when you reopen the map, so the layer stays in sync with its source.
Some providers refuse browser requests. When that happens ALIGN can relay the tiles server side instead of failing, and tells you so.
Cloud native formats
Section titled “Cloud native formats”| Type | Notes |
|---|---|
| GeoParquet Layer | Columnar vector, read by range request so a large remote file streams instead of downloading. |
| FlatGeobuf Layer | Spatially indexed vector, also read by range request. |
| PMTiles Layer | A single file tile archive, vector or raster. |
| Zarr Layer | Chunked multidimensional arrays. |
| NetCDF / HDF | Scientific grids, common for climate and ocean data. |
3D layers
Section titled “3D layers”| Type | Notes |
|---|---|
| LiDAR Layer | Point clouds, rendered with deck.gl. |
| Splatting Layer | Gaussian splat scenes. |
| 3D Tiles Layer | OGC 3D Tiles, for city and mesh models. |
| 3D Model (glTF) | A single model placed at a coordinate. |
Databases
Section titled “Databases”| Type | Notes |
|---|---|
| DuckDB Layer | Query a DuckDB database and map the result. |
Basemaps
Section titled “Basemaps”The Basemap entry opens the basemap picker. Applying a style keeps the picker open, so you can try several in a row and stop on the one that fits.
Free basemaps come from OpenFreeMap, an open-source project that allows commercial use with no key and no usage limit: Liberty, Liberty 3D, Positron, Bright, Dark and Fiord. Their map data comes from © OpenStreetMap contributors, through the © OpenMapTiles schema, and that attribution appears in the map’s (i) button, including on the maps you publish.
You can bring your own provider by adding your account key, for example Mapbox or MapTiler. Your keys are stored in your account and are never written into the saved map, so a map you publish or hand over carries no secret. See Integrations.
The active basemap sits at the bottom of the Layers panel as Background.
What happens to your data
Section titled “What happens to your data”A layer you import from your computer is stored in your Datastore first, and the map points at that asset. That is why a saved map reopens intact: it never depends on a file path on your machine.
Layers added from a URL or a service stay byteless. Nothing is copied, only the reference is saved.
Saving a web map is capped at about 25 MB of feature data, and which layers count depends on their format; see the size limit on the Web maps page.