1. Start in the right team and workspace

When you register, MapToPlay creates a team for you and makes you its owner. Projects, workspaces, members, usage limits, workers, and billing context all sit under the active team.

The header active-team and active-workspace selectors decide where new work is created. Before you create a map, pick the team you want to use and either keep the default workspace or create a workspace for this set of maps.

This matters because project tasks, assets, exports, provider credentials, and worker availability are all checked against the selected team and workspace.

2. Create a project

Open Projects and choose New Project. The dialog has three creation modes. Project Wizard is the recommended path. Blank Project creates only the project and map dimensions so you can add data manually later. From backup is shown as a disabled restore option until that workflow is available.

Choose the target game during project creation. The target game is saved into project metadata and controls which export targets and game-specific collection behavior the project can use later.

Choose a worker setting. Auto lets MapToPlay assign an available team or shared cloud worker. If no online worker is available, the project can still be created, but queued imports wait until a worker comes online.

3. Select the map area

In Project Wizard, choose the real-world area on the map. You can enter center coordinates, adjust the overall width and height, adjust playable width and height, rotate the selection, and optionally use size stepping so dimensions move in fixed meter increments.

The overall area is the source-data area. The playable area is the part that should become the main playable map. Bounds and transition zones derived from this selection are later visible in the Editor and can be used by modifiers.

Blank Project skips the map picker and focuses on prepared dimensions. Use it when you already know the map size and plan to provide prepared source data yourself.

4. Choose source data

The wizard can prepare three source-data families: DTM for terrain elevation, OSM/vector data for roads, fields, water, buildings, and other map features, and imagery/raster data for visual reference.

DTM can come from a provider or from an uploaded file. Some DTM providers require credentials; the wizard can use saved team credentials or save new credentials from the provider settings you enter.

Vector data can come from OSM provider download or from an uploaded .osm, .xml, or .pbf file. When using OSM, preprocessing can be enabled and a polygon split buffer distance can be set for geometry cleanup.

Imagery can be disabled, downloaded from a provider, or uploaded as a raster file. Provider imagery can fall back to Sentinel-2 where that fallback is enabled. Uploaded DTM and imagery files may be GeoTIFF or prepared PNG/JPG depending on the flow.

5. Let tasks produce assets

When you create the project, the dialog creates the project record first, then queues the selected DTM, OSM, and imagery tasks. Upload flows upload the file first and then queue the matching task with sourceMode set to upload.

Tasks run asynchronously. You can leave the project page while they run. The project setup status is calculated from the latest tasks and processed assets: draft means no processed data yet, processing means work is queued or running, ready means processed assets exist, and needs attention means a required task failed or needs action.

Completed tasks create project-owned assets: DTM assets for terrain, vector assets for OSM-style geometry, and raster assets for imagery. A project can keep multiple assets of each family after reprocessing, but one processed DTM, vector, and imagery asset is selected as the current project source. Raw assets may also be kept for inspection.

6. Open the Editor and import layers

Open the Editor from the project page once processed assets are available. The dashboard opens the editor in a new tab and sends the project, team, API origin, setup status, and latest assets as bootstrap data.

Processed assets do not become editable layers automatically. In the Editor, import pending terrain, vector, and raster assets into layers. Vector import uses a vector mapping collection to decide which OSM features become editor layers and categories.

Importing layers is the step that many new users miss. Export requires ready source assets and imported source layers. If export says to open the project in the editor and import processed assets, this is the missing step. If you later reprocess a source, the project can select the new asset while the Editor still uses layers imported from the old asset until you import or reimport.

7. Make the first useful edits

Start by checking the terrain and source overlays. Use the Toolbox to navigate, sculpt terrain, select vector features, draw missing geometry, cut polygons, paint editable rasters, and configure roads.

Use Modifiers for repeatable operations such as clipping to bounds, buffering road lines, smoothing/refining geometry, grading terrain under polygons, roadbed shaping, rasterizing vector data, and paint lock masks.

Use the Collections Panel when you are ready to apply game-specific assets: trees, buildings, electricity, water surfaces, roads, and foliage. Collections are game/team aware, so the choices depend on the project game and accessible collections.

8. Queue an export

Return to the project page and queue an export. Export is available only when the project setup status is ready and the project has imported source assets. The export dialog reloads project detail, export templates, worker availability, and team usage limits before it opens.

For Farming Simulator 25 exports, choose map size, optional export template, license plate prefix, and extended foliage setting. For Minecraft exports, choose map size and edition. Worker selection can stay on Auto or be set to a specific online team/cloud worker.

The export job runs in the background. If you enable Open after queue, the dashboard navigates to the export detail page. Completed exports expose download links to generated artifact assets.

If something is blocked

If project creation succeeds but tasks did not queue, open the project detail page. Each source-data card can queue or replace its own DTM, OSM, or imagery task.

If a provider is unavailable for the selected area, choose another provider, enable the available fallback where offered, or upload your own file. DTM and imagery provider coverage is checked against the selected project area.

If export is disabled, check three things in order: the setup status must be ready, processed assets must exist, and those assets must have been imported into the Editor as layers.