Documentation / TileMill

Usage

After TileMill is installed you will want to familiarize yourself with the basics of starting and stopping the app as well as configuring any relevant settings.

Mac OS X

TileMill for Mac OS X is meant to be run as a desktop-style application.

  • Start TileMill by double-clicking its icon in the Applications folder
  • Stop TileMill by quitting the application
  • Files used by TileMill are in your user account’s Documents/MapBox folder
  • Logs are viewable by choosing Console from the app’s Window menu
  • Preferences are available from the TileMill menu

Ubuntu

  • Start TileMill using the menu item at Applications > Graphics > TileMill.
  • Stop TileMill by quitting the terminal window
  • Files used by TileMill are in your user account’s Documents/MapBox folder
  • Logs are written to ~/.tilemill.log
  • Preferences can be changed by editing ~/.tilemill.json

Ubuntu preferences

TileMill configuration should be provided in JSON format. The configuration below, for example, tells the TileMill to listen on port 3001 and behave like a normal web server, allowing other users to access the application via LAN or the Internet:

{
  "port": 3001,
  "listenHost": '0.0.0.0'
}

The most commonly used options include:

  • port the port that the server should listen on. Defaults to 8889.
  • files path to the files directory. Defaults to ~/Documents/MapBox.
  • bufferSize Mapnik render buffer size. Defaults to 128.
  • listenHost Bind the server to the given host. Defaults to 127.0.0.1.