Getting started

1. Choose a drawing tool such as Polygon, Line, Racetrack, Circle, or Point.
2. Click the map to create geometry. Polygon and Line tools use multiple clicks; press Enter or use Finish when complete.
3. Switch to Select to move, edit, duplicate, merge, hide, lock, reorder, or change properties.
4. Use Shift-click to select multiple shapes.
5. Use the GeoJSON controls to import, export, or edit the live FeatureCollection directly.

Keyboard shortcuts

Selection & editing

• Click a shape to select it. Shift-click to build a multi-selection. The selected shape inspector slides up from the bottom of the map.
• Drag a selected unlocked shape to move it. If several unlocked shapes are selected, dragging one moves the selected group.
• Drag ordinary polygon/line vertices to edit geometry. Selecting a vertex or Point exposes exact coordinate controls in the bottom inspector.
• Blue dashed handles add vertices to lines and polygons. Circle and Racetrack use parameter handles instead of manual generated-vertex editing.
• Locked shapes can still be selected, renamed, restyled, hidden, exported, and inspected, but geometry editing and deletion are blocked.
• Hidden shapes remain in the project/sidebar and GeoJSON, but are removed from the map display.

Snapping

• Use the Snap tool to enable or disable snapping.
• New or dragged vertices can snap to other vertices and to the nearest point along line or polygon edges.
• Circle and Racetrack centres can act as snap targets; their generated perimeter vertices are not exposed as ordinary editable vertices.
• Desktop snap distance is smaller than touch snap distance for easier mobile use.

Shape list & drawing order

• Drag the handle on the left of a shape row to reorder it.
• The list order controls map drawing order.
• Use the eye and lock controls to hide/show or lock/unlock a shape.
• Use the Properties button on a shape row to open its custom GeoJSON properties overlay.
• Double-click a shape name to rename it.

Bulk property editing

• Select two or more shapes, then choose Bulk properties.
• Enter a key and value to apply that custom property to the full selection.
• Use Remove from selected to delete the same property key across selected shapes.
• Protected GeoWorkbench fields such as name, style, lock/visibility, and special-shape parameters cannot be changed in bulk.
• Bulk property changes are undoable and appear immediately in the live GeoJSON.

Custom properties

• Custom properties are stored directly in each GeoJSON feature's properties object.
• Values such as numbers, booleans, null, arrays, and objects are interpreted when possible.
• App-reserved fields such as name, style, hidden/locked state, and special Circle/Racetrack parameters are protected from accidental overwrite.

GeoJSON

• Import loads compatible Point, LineString, Polygon, and supported Multi geometries.
• Export downloads the current project as a GeoJSON FeatureCollection.
• View opens the live editable GeoJSON window.
• Valid edits in the live GeoJSON window update the map automatically after a short pause.
• Invalid JSON is flagged without changing the current map.

Settings & units

• Open Settings from the toolbar to change distance, area, and coordinate display units.
• Distance can be shown as automatic metric, kilometres, nautical miles, or statute miles.
• Area can be shown in automatic metric units, m², km², hectares, NM², mi², or acres.
• Coordinates can be displayed and entered as decimal degrees (DD) or degrees/minutes/seconds (DMS).
• GeoJSON remains WGS84 decimal degrees regardless of the display preference.

2D / 3D view

• Use the 3D button to inspect finished shapes on a Cesium globe. The button changes to 2D while the globe is open.
• 3D is view-only: switch back to 2D for drawing, Bézier editing, snapping, dragging, and parametric shape edits.
• The 3D globe uses the WGS84 ellipsoid with Cesium's bundled Natural Earth II imagery and does not require a Cesium ion token.
• An internet connection is required to load CesiumJS and 3D imagery.

Basemaps

• Simple uses the embedded lightweight world map.
• Light Gray provides a muted online basemap so coloured drawings stand out.
• Terrain provides a more detailed topographic online basemap.
• Light Gray and Terrain require internet access; Simple remains the fallback.

Merge polygons

• Select two or more visible, unlocked polygons and choose Merge polygons or press Ctrl/Cmd+M.
• Overlapping polygons are unioned into one Polygon.
• Disconnected polygons are combined into a valid MultiPolygon, so they do not need to overlap.
• MultiPolygon vertex editing is currently disabled, but styling, properties, export, snapping, and selection remain available.

Tips

• The app is designed to open directly via file://.
• Leaflet and Turf are loaded from CDNs, so internet access is still needed unless those libraries are later bundled locally.
• Use the Simple basemap if online map tiles are unavailable.
• Most project operations are undoable with Ctrl/Cmd+Z.