Questions

The questions users actually ask, with short answers and the topic that has the full steps.

How do I spin a globe with day and night lighting and clouds? Build a vector Orthographic map with Live globe on, keyframe Centre Lon on ATLAS Map Root, then Style → Day, night and clouds → Render day, night and clouds: it becomes a PNG sequence that turns with the globe. No raster base needed. Full steps: A spinning globe with day, night and clouds.

Why does my globe not spin? It was built as a Raster image (a raster globe is still), or as Vector shapes with Live globe unticked. Rebuild as Vector shapes with Live globe on. (For a vector globe built still, Update map builds it live once the Root moves; it cannot make a raster globe spin.)

Why does my map not move when I keyframe the Map Root? It is a still map: a vector map without Live map, or a projection with no live form (Robinson, Winkel Tripel, Natural Earth, Miller, Azimuthal, Transverse Mercator, Conic). Build as a Raster image on Mercator, tick Live map, press Update map, or use Playback → Bake to PNG sequence.

The map's edge shows when the camera tilts or zooms. Press Update map (the bar above the status line says when). It builds the map as far as the camera sees.

The map is blurry when zoomed in. Press Update map: it adds sharper zoom levels. On Mercator raster World maps it also draws streets from OpenStreetMap where the zoom reaches city scale (Street detail when zoomed in). Imagery is only as sharp as its source (NASA about 500 m, Sentinel-2 10 m, national surveys 30 cm).

Can Atlas zoom from space to a street? Yes: Camera → Quick: country to street, or a Mercator raster World map with Street detail and a map tour into a z14 stop, then Update map.

Can I use satellite imagery? Yes, without a key: Raster base on the Map tab (inside the map image), or Style → Satellite imagery (a backdrop). Sentinel-2 cloudless covers the world at 10 m; national surveys cover the United States, Switzerland, Austria, the Netherlands, Spain, France, Czechia and Poland at street level.

Do I need an API key or an account? No. Atlas uses only open sources. A key is only ever your own, for a service you choose (a custom tile URL, a Mapbox or MapTiler style).

Does it work offline? World maps always. Street maps after their tiles are cached, or with a region file. Terrain, imagery and open data need the network the first time.

How do I show a county, a state or a region? Elements → Areas and borders: search it ("Lancashire", "Bavaria", "Greater London", "Wales"), Show as Outline only or Fill and outline. Or click it in the Map preview.

How do I animate data over time? Year columns or a date column step a choropleth or bubbles; Appear by makes pins, bubbles and areas appear at their time; Grow by fills a heat map; Draw on by orders arcs; particles play the data's own times.

How do I hand the project to someone without Atlas? Everything is ordinary layers. Save the project and use Settings → Rendered images → Collect beside the project so images travel with it; bake particles (Data → Particles → Bake to PNG sequence) for a machine without the plug-in.

Can an AI build the whole thing? Much of it: maps, styles, pins, arcs, areas, labels, routes, data, particles, camera moves. Map tours, Day, night and clouds, terrain, imagery, textures and the rest are a few panel presses (What only the panel does (tell the user which button to press)).

Why are labels missing? They collided and were dropped (the status counts them): fewer kinds, a larger map, or a shorter template. On a raster map, labels are separate live layers, never part of the image.

Which style should I use? Street Light (the default) for a familiar web-map look; Dark Dashboard or Midnight Teal for dark motion graphics; Documentary Dark or Light for explainers; Classic Atlas, Political or Political Vintage for an atlas look; Terrain Natural, Fieldwork or Hypsometric for physical maps.