Geospatial data | Mapbox Studio manual (original) (raw)
With Mapbox Studio, you can upload and manage custom data to be added to a map.
Mapbox Studio topics covered in this section:
Upload
Dataset
Tileset
Template style
Custom style
Add data to style
Style data
Publish
Types of uploads
Datasets and tilesets are two different formats you can create when uploading custom data to your Mapbox account. If you want to upload data and edit it before adding to a map, upload as a dataset. If you want to upload data to add directly to a map, upload as a tileset.
Uploading data you can edit (datasets)
When you upload your data as a dataset, feature geometries (points, lines, and polygons) and properties (attributes) can be edited, added, or removed in the Mapbox Studio dataset editor. Once you have finished editing your dataset, you will need to save it and export it as a tileset to add it to a style.
Uploading data to add to a map (tilesets)
Tilesets are lightweight collections of vector or raster data that are optimized for rendering and are not editable but can be styled in the Mapbox Studio style editor. When you upload vector data as a tileset, it is simplified and cut up into vector tiles that can be used directly in your style. Once data is converted to a tileset, it is no longer editable.
Preparing your data for upload
Mapbox Studio allows you to upload your own custom data to use in your map styles. You can upload your files on the Tilesets page.
For a smooth upload process, it helps to make sure that:
- Geospatial data has been projected to Web Mercator (EPSG:3857).
- GeoJSON files have been validated for proper syntax.
- Unnecessary properties have been removed.
Uploading directly to Mapbox Studio
Uploads created in Mapbox Studio via the Mapbox Studio style editor, your tilesets page, or exported from a dataset using the dataset editor are subject to additional limits. These uploads cannot exceed 300 MB, and are limited to 20 uploads per month. Some file types have limits below 300 MB. See the chart below for limits by file type.
Uploading using Mapbox Tiling Service
You can use Mapbox Tiling Service (MTS) to upload vector geographic data to Mapbox Studio, transform the data according to the configuration options described in a tileset recipe, and turn it into a vector tileset. MTS can be accessed using the Tilesets CLI or programmatically using the MTS API endpoints. For more information on how to upload custom data as a tileset using MTS, see the MTS documentation.
You should use MTS for tileset creation unless you need to create raster tilesets, in which case you can use the Uploads API (see below).
Uploading using the Uploads API
You can use the Mapbox Uploads API to upload data and add it to Mapbox Studio to be transformed into a tileset. With the Uploads API, Mapbox provides you with a temporary S3 bucket to stage uploads that can be started and monitored. The Uploads API does not allow you to choose configuration options, making MTS the better choice for uploading data unless you need to upload raster data.
Accepted file types and transfer limits
The accepted file types and transfer limits for dataset and tileset uploads include:
| File type | Datasets | Tilesets | Transfer limits |
|---|---|---|---|
| CSV | check | check | 5 MB for datasets, 1 GB for tilesets |
| GeoJSON | check | check | 5 MB for datasets, 1 GB for tilesets |
| MBTiles | check | 25 GB | |
| KML | check | 260 MB with 15 layers or fewer | |
| GPX | check | 260 MB | |
| Shapefile | check | 260 MB (combined uncompressed size of .shp and .dbf files) You must upload shapefiles as a compressed .zip file. | |
| GeoTIFF | check | 10 GB |
If your file size exceeds these limits or if you run into errors, see our troubleshooting guide.
Zoom levels and simplification
When an upload is completed in Mapbox Studio, it is rendered into a tileset. After the tileset is created, your data is sometimes simplified at lower zoom levels to reduce the complexity of the data and make sure that each tile is below a certain size. Mapbox Studio does this to make your map load faster in areas where details wouldn't be normally noticed.
Uploaded tilesets are also given a zoom extent. This zoom extent is the total zoom range in which features are visible, which is listed on the tileset information page. If you need your tileset to be visible at a different zoom extent, you can adjust this manually.
More about tilesets
See the Tilesets section for more information on how to upload and manage tilesets in Mapbox Studio.
Read about tilesetschevron-right
More about datasets
See the Datasets section for more information on how to upload, manage, and edit datasets in Mapbox Studio.
Read about datasetschevron-right
Troubleshooting common upload errors
Having trouble with uploads? Try our troubleshooting guides.
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Additional Developer Resources