6 ms·

Tilemill: Maps done right

323 points by will2live 15y ago

untog 15y ago
This looks really, really slick. Next time I'm creating a map-based site I'm going to have a play around and see what customisations I can do. It's very difficult to match the default Google Maps style for clarity, but sometimes it would be good to have more options than their styles permit.
- yxhuvud 15y ago
  Indeed. That css-clone looks like what SLD styling should have been.
  - philipn 15y ago
    BTW, geoserver (which uses SLD) has a CSS-styling extension which is much easier to use.
crenshaw 15y ago
Was just about to download and start using this. No Windows version though. Maybe the start of a weekend project for me.
- jjm 15y ago
  Use cygwin. ;-)
- tmcw 15y ago
  There's a VirtualBox image as well. I wouldn't recommend cygwin unless you want a weekend of hell.
geogra4 15y ago
This looks great, thank you.
jinushaun 15y ago
I've used TileMill pretty extensively, and while TileMill is great for generating static maps (PNGs) for infographics, it won't replace Google Maps any time soon for serving dynamic maps. For example, you can serve a dynamic map of Washington DC on a website using TileStream and TileMap, but if you wanted to also view Fairfax, VA or Baltimore, MD, you're out of luck unless the tileset includes those tiles. With Google Maps, you always have access to all the tiles. That's not to say that TileMill isn't a great product. The choice to use CSS is brilliant. Plus they're based in Washington DC, where I'm currently living! Nice to see tech outside of the Bay Area, NYC and Boston.
- tmcw 15y ago
  You're right by definition - TileMill doesn't serve maps. Right now it generates them, and TileStream serves generated maps. It's extremely fast and stable, but inherently limiting. That's not to say this won't change in the future :)
  - jinushaun 15y ago
    Thanks for releasing a "native" app for OSX! This makes it much easier to use TileMill. The previous installation method was not the most user friendly--this coming from a Node.js developer.
    - incanus77 15y ago
      Glad you like the Mac app. We're definitely shooting for a first class OS X app experience. Feedback on ways to improve it further are welcome, too.
      - apostlion 15y ago
        Did you package it yourself or used some package/library?
        incanus77 15y ago
cal5k 15y ago
I'm consistently impressed by the work DevSeed puts out with such a small team. What's the secret? :-)
- uptown 15y ago
  I couldn't have said it better myself. Hands-down, they're one of the most impressive organizations I've come across on the web both in the products they create and the contribution to society their creations address.
gmbuell 15y ago
The main MapBox site (http://mapbox.com/ http://mapbox.com/) is definitely worth checking out as well. They have a pretty cool iPad app and a nice ~6 minute video demoing everything (http://vimeo.com/20006926 http://vimeo.com/20006926)
nollidge 15y ago
I think the screenshot should use a bit higher-contrast color scheme for the map. I was slouching in my chair a bit and couldn't really see what it was at first :)
domhofmann 15y ago
Really incredible work. Is there anything we can do to speed up exporting, short of manually parallelizing across multiple computers? Distributed export might be a nice feature.
- tmcw 15y ago
  Recent updates (if you haven't updated since 0.3.0 or so) have doubled & tripled export speed by a bunch of optimizations, especially metatiling. If you really want to parallelize, you can run the ./index.js command in the source version of TileMill to do exports programmatically.
- markng 15y ago
  When I first started using tilemill, I missed that you can create indexes for shapefiles. This turned a 12 hour render into a 15 minute render for my particular use case. The devseed guys show how to do it here : http://developmentseed.org/blog/2011/mar/29/speed-optimizations-tilemill-shapefile-indexes http://developmentseed.org/blog/2011/mar/29/speed-optimizati...
icefox 15y ago
I never thought I would see the day where there is OS X and Linux downloads, but only a VM image for Windows. Very cool.
- 3pt14159 15y ago
  I've started saying that the only way for windows to continue to be successful is for windows 9 to be written on top of a common unix. They have lost the hackers completely, but if they can make windows 9 a platform that will autospin up a vm of the windows platform for things like Office, etc. They might have a chance. My house mate is a civil construction engineer. He is so envious of my Ubuntu setup. "Wow, that looks as cool as Android" "Android is actually the same thing only differently packaged" "Really! Can I try out your computer?" "Sure, let me make you an account and show you some hotkeys!" After some time passes "Wow! This is awesome! Can you install it on my laptop?" "Since you use AutoCAD and MS Office I'm afraid it would be too much of a hassle for you, but if you are willing to learn I can." Never thought I'd have someone ask me to install linux because they find it more usable and attractive.
  - leoedin 15y ago
    That's the problem I have. I used to primarily use Ubuntu, but as an aerospace engineering student I often need use Solidworks or other CAD applications. Linux/Mac? Out of luck. Maybe that'll change one day (Dassault have released their free 2D CAD application DraftSight on linux, and they develop Solidworks), but we're probably at least 5 years off a decent linux/mac CAD application for designers.
- donpark 15y ago
  That's because Tilemill is a Node.js app. Node.js 0.5 with Windows support is in the kitchen, however.
henry501 15y ago
Love TileMill, love TileStream, love the tilesets. One day I'll move to DC...
aw3c2 15y ago
The ruleset screenshot reminds me of http://www.maperitive.net/ http://www.maperitive.net/ which is an excellent tool too (not web-based).
jcitme 15y ago
I don't know where to ask this, but this might be the best place so I'll ask. I have a ton of .tiff files that are tiles of a map, at the most zoomed in level. These tiff rasters are accompanied each by a .tfw file, which tells which tile goes where. Is there code that allows me to "live export" maps? As in, without prerendering them into 256x256 tiles first. For example, I receive a batch of files on a filled external hard drive and have to present them to a client in 10 minutes; so I cannot render, but they can tolerate loading times per zoom in for the scale of 30 seconds as each zoom level is pieced together. Is this possible?
dave1010uk 15y ago
The Google Maps API lets you style maps too [1]. You can change colors and show/hide different map features. There's also a wizard [2] to make styling easier. You can get some very interesting effects [3]. [1] http://googlegeodevelopers.blogspot.com/2010/05/add-touch-of-style-to-your-maps.html http://googlegeodevelopers.blogspot.com/2010/05/add-touch-of... [2] http://gmaps-samples-v3.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/styledmaps/wizard/index.html http://gmaps-samples-v3.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/styledmaps/... [3] http://googlegeodevelopers.blogspot.com/2010/10/five-great-styled-maps-examples.html http://googlegeodevelopers.blogspot.com/2010/10/five-great-s...
rmc 15y ago
I have started to play around with this foR custom OpenStreetMap rendering. Carto, the css format, seems a bit easier to play with than the raw mapnik xml.
pbhjpbhj 15y ago
In case anyone is wondering about the shell script for Ubuntu install it checks for maverick or natty and then installs like so: apt-add-repository ppa:developmentseed/mapbox apt-add-repository ppa:chris-lea/node.js apt-get update apt-get install tilemill

323 points by will2live 15y ago

untog 15y ago

This looks really, really slick. Next time I'm creating a map-based site I'm going to have a play around and see what customisations I can do. It's very difficult to match the default Google Maps style for clarity, but sometimes it would be good to have more options than their styles permit.

yxhuvud 15y ago
Indeed. That css-clone looks like what SLD styling should have been.
- philipn 15y ago
  BTW, geoserver (which uses SLD) has a CSS-styling extension which is much easier to use.

crenshaw 15y ago

Was just about to download and start using this. No Windows version though. Maybe the start of a weekend project for me.

jjm 15y ago
Use cygwin. ;-)
tmcw 15y ago
There's a VirtualBox image as well. I wouldn't recommend cygwin unless you want a weekend of hell.

geogra4 15y ago

This looks great, thank you.

jinushaun 15y ago

I've used TileMill pretty extensively, and while TileMill is great for generating static maps (PNGs) for infographics, it won't replace Google Maps any time soon for serving dynamic maps. For example, you can serve a dynamic map of Washington DC on a website using TileStream and TileMap, but if you wanted to also view Fairfax, VA or Baltimore, MD, you're out of luck unless the tileset includes those tiles. With Google Maps, you always have access to all the tiles. That's not to say that TileMill isn't a great product. The choice to use CSS is brilliant. Plus they're based in Washington DC, where I'm currently living! Nice to see tech outside of the Bay Area, NYC and Boston.

tmcw 15y ago
You're right by definition - TileMill doesn't serve maps. Right now it generates them, and TileStream serves generated maps. It's extremely fast and stable, but inherently limiting. That's not to say this won't change in the future :)
- jinushaun 15y ago
  Thanks for releasing a "native" app for OSX! This makes it much easier to use TileMill. The previous installation method was not the most user friendly--this coming from a Node.js developer.
  - incanus77 15y ago
    Glad you like the Mac app. We're definitely shooting for a first class OS X app experience. Feedback on ways to improve it further are welcome, too.
    - apostlion 15y ago
      Did you package it yourself or used some package/library?
      - incanus77 15y ago

cal5k 15y ago

I'm consistently impressed by the work DevSeed puts out with such a small team. What's the secret? :-)

uptown 15y ago
I couldn't have said it better myself. Hands-down, they're one of the most impressive organizations I've come across on the web both in the products they create and the contribution to society their creations address.

gmbuell 15y ago

The main MapBox site (http://mapbox.com/ http://mapbox.com/) is definitely worth checking out as well. They have a pretty cool iPad app and a nice ~6 minute video demoing everything (http://vimeo.com/20006926 http://vimeo.com/20006926)

nollidge 15y ago

I think the screenshot should use a bit higher-contrast color scheme for the map. I was slouching in my chair a bit and couldn't really see what it was at first :)

domhofmann 15y ago

Really incredible work. Is there anything we can do to speed up exporting, short of manually parallelizing across multiple computers? Distributed export might be a nice feature.

tmcw 15y ago
Recent updates (if you haven't updated since 0.3.0 or so) have doubled & tripled export speed by a bunch of optimizations, especially metatiling. If you really want to parallelize, you can run the ./index.js command in the source version of TileMill to do exports programmatically.
markng 15y ago
When I first started using tilemill, I missed that you can create indexes for shapefiles. This turned a 12 hour render into a 15 minute render for my particular use case. The devseed guys show how to do it here : http://developmentseed.org/blog/2011/mar/29/speed-optimizations-tilemill-shapefile-indexes http://developmentseed.org/blog/2011/mar/29/speed-optimizati...

icefox 15y ago

I never thought I would see the day where there is OS X and Linux downloads, but only a VM image for Windows. Very cool.

3pt14159 15y ago
I've started saying that the only way for windows to continue to be successful is for windows 9 to be written on top of a common unix. They have lost the hackers completely, but if they can make windows 9 a platform that will autospin up a vm of the windows platform for things like Office, etc. They might have a chance. My house mate is a civil construction engineer. He is so envious of my Ubuntu setup. "Wow, that looks as cool as Android" "Android is actually the same thing only differently packaged" "Really! Can I try out your computer?" "Sure, let me make you an account and show you some hotkeys!" After some time passes "Wow! This is awesome! Can you install it on my laptop?" "Since you use AutoCAD and MS Office I'm afraid it would be too much of a hassle for you, but if you are willing to learn I can." Never thought I'd have someone ask me to install linux because they find it more usable and attractive.
- leoedin 15y ago
  That's the problem I have. I used to primarily use Ubuntu, but as an aerospace engineering student I often need use Solidworks or other CAD applications. Linux/Mac? Out of luck. Maybe that'll change one day (Dassault have released their free 2D CAD application DraftSight on linux, and they develop Solidworks), but we're probably at least 5 years off a decent linux/mac CAD application for designers.
donpark 15y ago
That's because Tilemill is a Node.js app. Node.js 0.5 with Windows support is in the kitchen, however.

henry501 15y ago

Love TileMill, love TileStream, love the tilesets. One day I'll move to DC...

aw3c2 15y ago

The ruleset screenshot reminds me of http://www.maperitive.net/ http://www.maperitive.net/ which is an excellent tool too (not web-based).

jcitme 15y ago

I don't know where to ask this, but this might be the best place so I'll ask. I have a ton of .tiff files that are tiles of a map, at the most zoomed in level. These tiff rasters are accompanied each by a .tfw file, which tells which tile goes where. Is there code that allows me to "live export" maps? As in, without prerendering them into 256x256 tiles first. For example, I receive a batch of files on a filled external hard drive and have to present them to a client in 10 minutes; so I cannot render, but they can tolerate loading times per zoom in for the scale of 30 seconds as each zoom level is pieced together. Is this possible?

dave1010uk 15y ago

The Google Maps API lets you style maps too [1]. You can change colors and show/hide different map features. There's also a wizard [2] to make styling easier. You can get some very interesting effects [3]. [1] http://googlegeodevelopers.blogspot.com/2010/05/add-touch-of-style-to-your-maps.html http://googlegeodevelopers.blogspot.com/2010/05/add-touch-of... [2] http://gmaps-samples-v3.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/styledmaps/wizard/index.html http://gmaps-samples-v3.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/styledmaps/... [3] http://googlegeodevelopers.blogspot.com/2010/10/five-great-styled-maps-examples.html http://googlegeodevelopers.blogspot.com/2010/10/five-great-s...

rmc 15y ago

I have started to play around with this foR custom OpenStreetMap rendering. Carto, the css format, seems a bit easier to play with than the raw mapnik xml.

pbhjpbhj 15y ago

In case anyone is wondering about the shell script for Ubuntu install it checks for maverick or natty and then installs like so: apt-add-repository ppa:developmentseed/mapbox apt-add-repository ppa:chris-lea/node.js apt-get update apt-get install tilemill