Shade Map

Shade Map shows where shadows fall across a city or landscape at a given time, or how many hours of sunlight a location receives during the day. It uses terrain elevation plus building heights from the basemap and any 3D extrusion layers in your project.

Open the tool

Open the right-hand panel, switch to the Tools tab, and select Shade Map. The tool automatically enables 3D mode.

Modes

• Shade — view shadows at a specific date and time. Use the date picker and time slider to scrub through the day.
• Sun exposure — view the cumulative number of sunlit hours each location receives on the chosen date. A colour palette legend shows the hour range for the selected day.

Inputs

• Show 3D buildings — toggle the basemap's 3D building extrusions. When on, buildings cast shadows.
• Date — pick the day to analyse with the calendar popup.
• Time (Shade mode only) — slider in 24-hour CET time; updates shadows in real time.

What gets shaded

Shade Map uses two sources of geometry:

1. The basemap's building source layer (OpenMapTiles) for buildings with height or render_height.
2. Any vector dataset in your project styled with extrusion (3D height).

Underground features are excluded.

Limits and notes

• Shade Map requires 3D mode. The tool turns it on automatically and turns it off when closed.
• If the area has no terrain or building data the tool shows "Shade analysis is not available for this area".
• Times are displayed in CET; convert manually if your area of interest is in another timezone.
• Shadows update only after the basemap finishes loading vector tiles.