Processing tools
The ToolBoxes panel, opened from the left rail, collects ALIGN’s geoprocessing tools: vector geometry and overlay, raster terrain and clipping, and format conversion. Pick a category, choose a tool, set the input layer and parameters, then run it. The result is added to your map as a new layer.
Vector
Section titled “Vector”Open ToolBoxes → Vector, pick a tool, choose the input layer and parameters, then Run. The output appears as a new layer.
Geometry
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
| Buffer | Create a buffer polygon around each feature by a fixed distance. |
| Centroids | Compute the centroid point of each feature. |
| Convex hull | Compute the convex hull enclosing all features. |
| Dissolve | Merge polygon features into a single geometry, optionally grouped by a field. |
| Bounding box | Compute the rectangular envelope of all features. |
| Simplify | Reduce the number of vertices using Douglas-Peucker. |
Overlay
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
| Clip | Clip the input layer to the area covered by an overlay layer (keeps input attributes). |
| Intersection | Keep only the areas where both polygon layers overlap (merges attributes from both). |
| Difference | Remove the overlay layer’s area from the input layer (keeps input attributes). |
| Union | Merge two polygon layers into a single combined geometry. |
Join
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
| Spatial join | Attach attributes from a join layer to each input feature based on a spatial relationship (intersects, within, or contains). Choose an inner join to keep only matched features, or a left join to keep all input features. Works with any geometry type. |
| Attribute join | Attach attributes from a join layer (a table) onto each input feature where a key field matches, with no geometry involved (for example, join census stats to boundary polygons by FIPS code). Pick the fields to bring over and an inner or left join. |
Select
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
| Select by value | Extract features whose attribute matches a condition into a new layer. Pick a field, an operator (=, ≠, >, ≥, <, ≤, contains, starts with, is empty, is not empty) and a value. |
| Select by location | Extract features by their spatial relationship to a second layer (intersects, within, contains, or disjoint) into a new layer. Works with any geometry type. |
Vector tools run in your browser by default, with no setup, and can also run on ALIGN’s cloud for projection-aware results backed by GeoPandas and Shapely.
Raster
Section titled “Raster”Open ToolBoxes → Raster, choose an on-map raster layer as the input, set the parameters, then Run. Raster tools run on ALIGN’s cloud; the result is added to your map and is available to download.
Terrain
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
| Hillshade | Compute a shaded-relief raster from an elevation model. |
| Slope | Compute slope (steepness) from an elevation model. |
| Aspect | Compute aspect (the compass direction of the steepest slope) from an elevation model. |
Reproject
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
| Reproject | Warp a raster to a different coordinate reference system. |
| Resample | Resample a raster to a different pixel size (resolution). |
Clip
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
| Clip by extent | Crop a raster to a bounding box (in the raster’s CRS). |
| Clip by mask layer | Clip a raster to the geometries of a vector mask layer. |
Raster to vector
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
| Polygonize | Convert a raster band into vector polygons grouped by pixel value. |
| Contour | Generate contour lines from an elevation model. |
Vector to raster
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
| Interpolation (IDW / Kriging) | Interpolate a point layer’s numeric attribute into a continuous raster surface, using inverse distance weighting or ordinary kriging. |
Conversion
Section titled “Conversion”Open ToolBoxes → Conversion to write your data to cloud-native, interoperable formats:
| Tool | Where it runs | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Vector to GeoParquet | Browser | Hilbert-sorted, compressed GeoParquet. |
| Vector to FlatGeobuf | Cloud | Hilbert-sorted, cloud-optimized, spatially indexed vector. |
| Vector to Shapefile | Cloud | Zipped ESRI Shapefile (field names truncated to 10 characters). |
| Vector to GeoPackage | Cloud | GeoPackage for sharing with QGIS or ArcGIS. |
| CSV to GeoParquet | Browser | Convert a CSV with coordinates to GeoParquet. |
| Vector to PMTiles | Cloud | Build a vector tile archive. |
| Raster to COG | Cloud | Write a Cloud-Optimized GeoTIFF. |
Where the tools run
Section titled “Where the tools run”ALIGN runs the whole Map Builder in your browser, with no install:
- Vector geometry and overlay tools and the browser conversions (GeoParquet, CSV to GeoParquet) run directly in the page.
- Raster tools, the cloud conversions, and the projection-aware vector engine run on ALIGN’s cloud, so you get heavier geoprocessing without leaving the browser.
For layer-by-layer help before you process, see Adding data and Managing layers. For conversational analysis, the AI Assistant can run these same operations for you.