How to Highlight Specific 3D Buildings on Your Map

3D Building Layers allow you to highlight specific buildings on your map and control their appearance, visibility, and interactivity independently from other buildings.

This is useful for:

• Campuses and universities
• Real estate developments
• Property portfolios
• Tourism and city guides
• Highlighting landmarks in dense urban areas

How ‘3D Building Layers’ Differ from ‘Show All 3D Buildings’

Show All 3D Buildings display all available buildings in 3D across the map. 3D Building Layers allow you to select specific buildings and customize:

• Color
• Visibility rules
• Interactivity
• Layer organization

Create a 3D Building Layer

1. Open Layers from the left menu.
2. Select 3D Buildings.
3. Click Add 3D Building Layer.
4. Enter a layer name.

Select Buildings

1. Click buildings directly on the map to add or remove them from the layer.
2. Selected buildings are highlighted in the map preview.
3. Some buildings are made up of multiple connected parts. If only part of a building is highlighted, click the remaining sections to include the entire building.
4. Click Preview when you’re finished selecting buildings to review your selection.

Selecting Overlapping Buildings

In dense urban areas or when viewing the map in 3D, multiple buildings may overlap from the current viewing angle. If a click intersects more than one building, Mapme treats those buildings as a selection group.

Buildings in the same selection group always share the same selection state. Clicking the group toggles all of its buildings together, rather than changing each building individually. This makes it much easier to select or deselect overlapping buildings.

If you need to select buildings individually, simply rotate, tilt, or zoom the map until the buildings are no longer overlapping, then click the desired building.

Customize the Building Layer

Each 3D Building Layer can be customized independently.

Available settings include:

• Color
• Visibility rules
• Interactivity settings

Visibility

You can control when 3D Building Layers are displayed based on user interactions or the current zoom level.

Visibility Rules

Visibility rules determine when a 3D Building Layer appears on the map. For example, a layer can be displayed:

• Always
• Only when a location is selected
• Only when specific categories are selected
• Based on custom combinations of conditions

Zoom-Level Visibility

By default, 3D Building Layers are displayed between zoom levels 14 and 22. You can further restrict this range using Zoom-Level Visibility.

For example, you can display buildings only between zoom levels 16 and 20, or hide them when users zoom in beyond level 20 to reduce visual clutter.

Interactivity

3D Building Layers can be interactive. When users click a highlighted building, it can:

• Open a location
• Open a category
• Open a URL

Interactivity settings apply to the entire layer. If you want different buildings to open different content, create a separate 3D Building Layer for each building.

For example, if you’re showcasing a construction portfolio or a real estate project, we recommend creating one layer per building so each building can open its own details, gallery, or webpage.

Highlight Buildings on Hover and Selection

To make interactive buildings easier to identify, you can automatically change their color when users hover over or select them.

By default, Mapme generates a highlight color based on the layer color, but you can also choose a custom highlight color.

The highlight applies to the entire layer. If a layer contains multiple buildings, they will all be highlighted together when any building in that layer is hovered over or selected.

3D Building Name Display

By default, layer names are hidden. You can display the building layer name as a label in one of the following ways:

• On Hover: Display the label when users hover over any building in the layer.
• Always: Keep the label visible at all times.
• Zoom-Level Visibility: Display the label only within a specific zoom range.

On touch devices, press and hold a building to display the label.

Label Location

Use the Position Label Location button to choose where the label appears. Drag the map to position the label in the ideal location for the selected buildings.

Tip: For the best results, switch to a top-down view (pitch = 0°) before positioning the label, and place it near the base of the building. This helps keep the label aligned with the building as users rotate or tilt the map.

Label Color

By default, the label background uses the same color as the building layer. The text color is automatically set to either black or white to maximize readability.

When labels are configured to Always Show or displayed within a specific Zoom-Level Visibility range, all labels use a white background with black text. This provides a consistent appearance when multiple labels are visible at the same time.

You can also fully customize the label’s appearance using custom CSS, including the font, text size, background color, and text color.

Manage 3D Building Layers

From the layer list, you can:

• Show or hide a layer
• Zoom to layer
• Edit layer settings
• Duplicate a layer
• Delete a layer

Each 3D Building Layer can contain up to 500 buildings. If you need to highlight more buildings, simply create additional layers and split the buildings between them.

Examples

3D Building Layers are commonly used to highlight:

• Campus buildings
• Featured properties
• Development projects
• Tourist attractions
• Corporate offices

Check advanced use cases, design tips, and real-world examples? Read our complete guide to interactive 3D building maps →

Demo Map

Explore this interactive demo to see how 3D Building layers can highlight specific buildings in a commercial real estate proposal.

Click any highlighted building to open its location details, including information about the available office space.