Place your venue on a real map

Choose the venue location

Background maps are optional. You can use one to help draw your venue and choose separately whether to include it in the visitor map.

1. Open Map settings, then Background map → Set venue location.
2. Enter a venue name, town or address in Search for a place or address, then press Enter or choose Search. Add a town or country if the name is ambiguous. Choose a result to centre the map.
3. Fine-tune by panning, zooming or clicking the map. You can also enter latitude and longitude and choose Find coordinates. The centre cross marks the drawing origin.
4. Choose Use this location. The real map appears beneath your drawing canvas.

New maps open at a world overview. Search uses OpenStreetMap place and address data, so some businesses or addresses may be missing. If no result matches, try a nearby street or landmark and position the map yourself. Search results do not change your venue until you choose Use this location.

Choose the workspace map style

Workspace owners and admins can open Settings → General → Map style → Change. Select Positron for a quiet grey background, Liberty for a colourful street map, or Bright for stronger colours and detail. The live preview lets you compare before saving.

Save map style updates the location picker, editor and full Preview across the workspace. New venues inherit it. Reload any already-open editors before making more changes. Published viewers and embeds keep their existing style until each venue is republished.

Align your reference before drawing

1. Select a floor and add its reference image from References.
2. Reduce the image’s opacity so the map is visible beneath it. Move the image, resize it using a corner, and rotate it with the round handle to match the building and nearby landmarks.
3. Use Set scale with a known distance, or enter the image’s width in metres. Check at least two landmarks spread across the plan.
4. Lock the reference once it lines up, then draw spaces, walls, paths and decorations over it.
5. Repeat for other floors, matching each reference to the same building location.

The reference inspector also offers exact centre coordinates, width, height and rotation for keyboard editing. Drawing bearing changes the drawing’s direction relative to north. Moving or rotating a reference changes only that image.

Choose what visitors see

1. Open Preview and check every floor, place card, label and the alignment.
2. Zoom out to check the surroundings. Drag to pan and use the top/3D control and Reset map view as usual.
3. Save the draft. An owner or admin can then use Share to publish the chosen version.

Saving a different background choice does not change an already published map. Publish saved changes to update the viewer and embeds. The small live 3D window in the drawing canvas continues to show your local working area; use the full Preview for the background map.

If the background cannot load

Background maps need an internet connection. The location picker shows Loading map while it fetches the background. If loading is slow or fails, check your connection and choose Retry map. You can still enter venue coordinates manually. If the service is unavailable, the viewer shows the venue on its own and the editor keeps your drawing editable; reload those views to try again.

The background supplies geographic context. Place search and floor navigation work as before; route directions and live GPS navigation are not included.