Interface overview
The Map Builder opens as a single workspace in your browser. This page names each part of that workspace, so the rest of the guide can refer to them.
The header
Section titled “The header”The bar across the top holds your project identity and the main actions.
- On the left, the ALIGN logo and a breadcrumb,
Dashboard › My Projects › your map. The last segment is the editable name your web map is saved under. - On the right, the menus. Add Data brings in layers and basemaps. Save
(or
Ctrl/Cmd+S) writes your web map to the Datastore. Undo and Redo sit at the far right. - While a save is running, a small status indicator appears under the header and narrates the upload and save progress.
The tool rail
Section titled “The tool rail”A vertical rail of icons runs down the left edge. Each icon opens a docked panel:
- Assistant: the AI helper for the Map Builder, in Ask or Agent mode. See the AI Assistant section below.
- Layers: the layer stack for your map. See Managing layers.
- Controls: the catalogue of map controls and widgets (zoom, scale, legend, measure, minimap and more), grouped and toggleable, each with a corner position.
- ToolBoxes: geoprocessing and analysis tools, from vector operations to raster analysis and format conversion. See Processing tools.
- Datastore: your saved assets and web maps. See Web maps.
- Data Hub: browse and import trusted open data (Overture Maps, Sentinel-2 imagery).
The Layers panel
Section titled “The Layers panel”The Layers panel lists every layer in your map, from the top layer down to the basemap. The selected layer drives the Style panel. Toggle visibility, reorder, adjust opacity, zoom to a layer, and open per-layer actions here. See Managing layers.
The Style panel
Section titled “The Style panel”The Style panel edits the appearance of the layer selected in the Layers panel: fill, stroke, points, labels, data-driven symbology for vectors, and image adjustments for rasters. See Styling layers.
The map
Section titled “The map”The map fills the center of the workspace. It renders with MapLibre GL JS, with deck.gl for 3D tiles, point clouds and other advanced overlays. It opens on a globe centered on Europe. Pan by dragging, zoom with the scroll wheel or the on-map buttons, rotate and tilt with the right mouse button. The on-map controls you enable from the Controls panel (zoom, scale, legend and so on) sit in the map corners.
The AI Assistant
Section titled “The AI Assistant”The Assistant is one of ALIGN’s three Geo-AI agents: the one that lives inside the Map Builder. Ask it questions about your data in Ask mode, or let it act on your map in Agent mode. It keeps your conversations so you can pick a thread back up later. Everything the Assistant does, you can also do by hand: it accelerates the work, it never locks you out of it.
Saving your work
Section titled “Saving your work”Your whole workspace is a web map: the view, the basemap, every layer with its style, and the controls you set up. Saving persists it to your Datastore, and you can reopen it at any time. See Web maps.
Runs in your browser
Section titled “Runs in your browser”The Map Builder runs entirely in your browser, with nothing to install. Lighter analysis runs directly in the page, and heavier geoprocessing runs on ALIGN’s cloud.