What Is It?

A 2D Map is a great way of visualizing geospatial data, or data with locations. This is especially useful for detailed views of street-level data or city-level data. For larger-scale, more global data, consider using a 3D Globe.

Why Is This Important?

Plotting geospatial data on a 2D Map can help with delivery route optimization, enabling shipping companies to save on last mile delivery costs. You can also view signals like cell signal strength in a city to see where additional cell towers should be placed to best improve the connection.

How?

Steps for creating a 2D Map:

1. Drag one feature from the Features list representing Longitude to the X dimension and one feature representing Latitude to the Y dimension.
2. Please note that these Longitude and Latitude features should be in Decimal Degrees (DD) format.
3. By clicking Apply, you will create a 2D Map.
4. Adding a feature to the Z dimension provides each point with a height based on its value, helping to further differentiate points that are close to each other.
5. You can also add features to the Color, Size and Shape dimensions to pack a lot of information onto an easily digestible map.
6. By default, each point will be visualized individually on the map. We also offer a Heatmap to view areas of higher or lower concentrations of points.
7. To turn the Heatmap on or off, open the Plot Settings by clicking on the hamburger menu in the Mapping panel. You will see an option to turn the Heatmap on or off, as well as some visual settings for adjusting the radius and intensity of the Heatmap and the ability to create a new feature from the generated Heatmap.
8. The Plot Settings menu also contains options for the map provider and style, as well as buttons to zoom in and out (this can also be done by using the scroll wheel). The Region Selection tool allows you to quickly zoom down to a finer detail level.

Please note that our 2D Map tiles are loaded live from our map providers, so if you are using Explore offline your map tiles may not load. If you would like to use a different map style than what we currently offer or will be using Explore offline often, you can also load a custom map tile set into Explore. This can be accessed through the Settings panel.

Map Provider Attributions

ArcGIS by Esri

Open Street Map

Map tiles by © OpenStreetMap contributors, under CC BY 3.0. Data by OpenStreetMap, under ODbL.

Stamen Design

Map tiles by Stamen Design, under CC BY 3.0. Data by OpenStreetMap, under ODbL.