MAPTOPLAY

Source Data and Outputs · 6 min read

Assets

Assets are the stored outputs from providers, uploads, editor-created layers, and exports.

What an asset is

An asset is a stored file attached to a project. Assets are the concrete outputs the platform can download, inspect, import into the Editor, or use while exporting.

Most source assets come from successful DTM, OSM, or imagery processing. The Editor can also create assets for manual or empty layers, and completed exports expose output artifacts as assets.

Asset kinds

Project source assets use three main kinds: dtm, vector, and raster. The kind tells the Editor how the file can be used.

  • DTM assets represent terrain elevation and normally become terrain layers.
  • Vector assets contain processed geographic features and normally become vector layers.
  • Raster assets contain positioned images such as imagery, masks, paint layers, or other image-backed editor data.

Metadata and traceability

Assets store metadata such as provider code, provider name, original file name, source task, file format, size, checksum, and processing details when those values are available.

This metadata is why the project detail page can show where a terrain, vector, or imagery file came from, whether it was provider-backed or uploaded, and which task created it.

Using assets in the Editor

The Editor imports source assets as layers. A terrain asset can become a terrain layer, a vector asset can become one or more vector layers using a vector mapping collection, and a raster asset can become a visual image layer.

Editing does not rewrite the original provider download directly. The project stores editor state, layer metadata, vector feature changes, raster edits, modifiers, and created assets separately so the source remains traceable.

Storage

Asset files count toward team storage limits. This includes processed source files, uploaded files that are retained, editor-created files, and export artifacts while they are still stored.

Deleting a project removes its linked project assets and storage objects. Deleting a team or workspace cascades through project deletion, but running task protection can block deletion until processing finishes.