How to create a heatmap in the 3D map template

Flourish's 3D map template can accommodate a wide array of map types. Among them, heatmaps, where the points are represented as clusters rather than as individual circles. The following steps will enable you to create your own heatmap and also customize it.

1

Select our Heatmap blueprint from the template chooser to get started






2

At a minimum, upload data containing latitudes and longitudes to the Points sheet. The data in our example looks like this:




Number of wind turbines	Latitude	Longitude
731	33.930462	-116.57593
731	33.928871	-116.5759
731	33.929195	-116.57589
731	33.929596	-116.57589
731	33.929394	-116.57589




3

In the Points settings, select Heatmap. After that, a new set of options will be displayed. You are able to set a minimum and maximum value according to which the heatmap will be plotted. We recommend using the maximum value from your dataset (in our example 731).






TIP: Use Downsampling to make your map more performant – higher values mean that the heatmap is calculated at a lower resolution, so it might look a bit more chunky but will also be a lot faster on low-end devices.

4

Choose a numeric color palette in the Colors settings. We chose a diverging color palette for our data. You can learn more about the differences between diverging and sequential color scales in our help doc.






5

Enable the Terraced gradient settings if you want the colors to blend smoothly. If you keep it disabled, the color gradient is split up into a certain number of steps with hard edges between each step.




TIP: In the image below, the top part would be without terraced gradient, while the bottom is with the setting enabled.