OSM Buildings
AugmentCity can display a global layer of 3D buildings derived from OpenStreetMap data, rendered directly on the terrain surface. This gives your map an immediate sense of urban context without needing to import any data.
Enable it from the Terrain panel (mountain icon) or the Data panel under the Buildings section.
Building impact coloring
Building impact coloring is a zone — a modifier that colours OSM buildings affected by a drawn or analysis polygon, such as a flood outline, shadow study area, or planning boundary. Zones are created and managed from the Layers panel's Modifiers section, not from this page.
See Modifiers: Zones for the full guide, including how to create a zone, match modes, colouring by attribute, drag priority, and saving in scenarios.
Colouring buildings by your own data
You can shade OSM buildings using attribute data from a dataset you upload — for example, building energy ratings, construction year, floor count, ownership type, or any other field linked to each building footprint.
When you import a building dataset (a GeoJSON or Shapefile containing building footprints with attribute columns), AugmentCity automatically activates it, colours the buildings immediately, and opens the Building dataset panel where you can configure the style. You do not need to wait for any processing.
A Coloring badge appears on the layer row in the Data panel and a Color buildings toggle lets you switch the dataset colouring on and off without removing the layer.
Building dataset colouring is currently available for OSM Buildings. Support for additional building sources is planned.
Opening the style editor
Click the Color buildings toggle on the layer row, or open the layer's expanded options and click Edit style, to open the Building dataset panel. The panel contains a full style editor with four colouring modes.
Gradient (colour ramp)
Maps a numeric field to a continuous colour ramp. Use this for fields like building height, age, energy use, or floor area.
- Select Gradient as the colour mode.
- Choose the field to colour by.
- Set the minimum and maximum values for the ramp, or let AugmentCity detect them from the data.
- Choose a colour ramp from the presets.
Buildings whose values fall inside the range are coloured proportionally. Buildings outside the range use the fallback colour (see Fallback and missing-data colours).
Category mapping
Assigns a distinct colour to each unique value in a categorical field — for example, energy rating classes (A, B, C, D), building use type, or ownership status.
- Select Category as the colour mode.
- Choose the field to colour by.
- AugmentCity lists each unique value found in the data. Click a colour swatch next to a value to change its colour.
Buildings with a value not listed use the fallback colour.
Boolean conditions
Colours buildings using a true/false condition — either a boolean field directly, or a comparison rule on a numeric or text field.
- Select Boolean as the colour mode.
- Choose the field and, if it is not already boolean, define the condition (for example,
year_built < 1960). - Set the true colour and false colour.
Fallback and missing-data colours
Two additional colour pickers appear below the main style editor:
| Picker | When it applies |
|---|---|
| Fallback colour | Buildings that do not match any rule in the current mode — for example, a category value with no assigned colour |
| Missing-data colour | Buildings where the chosen field is absent or null entirely |
Setting a distinct missing-data colour is useful for spotting data gaps in your dataset.
Legend
While a building dataset style is active, the Map Legend in the bottom-left of the viewer shows swatches for the active mode:
- Gradient — a colour ramp strip with min and max values
- Category — one labelled swatch per category value
- Boolean — two swatches labelled with the condition outcome
See Map Legend for general legend controls.
Lighting behaviour
Buildings coloured by a dataset render unlit when scene lighting (sun/shadows) is turned off. This keeps the dataset colours fully visible in night mode or abstract presentation styles where sun-based shading would otherwise wash out or darken the colours.
Saving in scenarios
Building dataset colouring is saved with the scenario state. Switching scenarios restores the style — including the chosen mode, field, colour assignments, fallback, and missing-data colour — exactly as it was when the scenario was saved. Coloring also round-trips correctly through shared links.
Use different building dataset styles across scenarios to compare how different attribute cuts (energy band vs. age band, for example) look side by side using Split View.
Enabling buildings
- Click the mountain icon in the centre toolbar to open the Terrain panel.
- Tick OSM Buildings.
- Buildings appear on the globe immediately. Zoom in to see individual structures.
Untick the checkbox to hide buildings.
Common controls
These controls apply regardless of which style mode is active:
| Control | Description |
|---|---|
| Show outline | Draws edges around each building footprint, making individual structures easier to distinguish |
| Opacity | Controls overall transparency of the building layer — slide from 0% (invisible) to 100% (fully opaque) |
Style modes
Open the Style settings in the Buildings section to choose how buildings are coloured. There are five modes.
Solid
All buildings are rendered in a single colour. Click the colour swatch to open the colour picker and choose any colour.
Use Solid when you want a clean, neutral urban context that does not distract from other data layers.
By height
Colour buildings based on their height using threshold rules. Each rule maps a minimum height value to a colour — buildings that meet or exceed the threshold get that colour.
To build a height band scheme:
- Select By height as the style mode.
- Click Add rule.
- Enter a height threshold in metres and choose a colour for that band.
- Add more rules to define additional bands (for example: below 10 m = grey, 10–30 m = blue, above 30 m = red).
Rules are applied in order from lowest to highest threshold. Buildings shorter than the first threshold receive the default colour.
By type
Colour buildings according to their OpenStreetMap building type tag. Each type gets its own colour. Buildings with a type that does not match any rule use a default colour.
Supported types include: residential, commercial, industrial, office, retail, public, education, healthcare, parking, mixed-use, warehouse, and other.
This mode is useful for land use analysis — for example, showing the distribution of residential versus commercial stock across a study area.
Distance
Colour buildings based on their distance from a reference point (anchor). Buildings close to the anchor use the "near" colour; buildings further away use the "far" colour.
To set up a distance style:
- Select Distance as the style mode.
- Click the map to place an anchor point.
- Adjust the near and far colour swatches as required.
This mode is useful for visualising catchment areas, access zones, or impact radii around a proposed development or transport node.
Advanced
Write raw CesiumJS 3D Tiles style expressions in JSON for full control over building appearance. The expression is applied directly to the Cesium 3D Tileset style engine.
Advanced mode is intended for users familiar with the 3D Tiles Styling specification. Syntax errors in the JSON will prevent buildings from rendering correctly.
Impact coloring
Impact coloring is the same zone modifier described above under Building impact coloring — colouring OSM buildings affected by a drawn area or an analysis result, layered on top of the current building style.
See Modifiers: Zones for how to create a zone (including from a polygon layer's Advanced menu), match modes, managing an existing zone, data coverage, and saving in scenarios.
Per-building overrides
The global style mode sets the appearance for all buildings. Per-building overrides let you customise individual buildings on top of that global style — for example, marking a proposed development, hiding an existing building to model a demolition scenario, or flagging specific structures for stakeholder review.
Applying an override
- Click Override Pick in the Buildings section. The cursor changes to indicate override mode is active.
- Click any building on the map.
- A popover appears with editable fields for that building:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Name | Custom label for the building |
| Building type | Choose from: residential, commercial, industrial, office, retail, public, education, healthcare, parking, mixed-use, warehouse, other |
| Height | Override the building's height in metres |
| Color | Per-building colour. Uncheck Use global style to activate a custom colour for this building |
| Hidden | Hide the building entirely from the map |
| Notes | Free-text notes visible to your team |
- Edit the fields as needed, then click Done to close the popover and apply the override.
- To remove the override for a specific building, click Revert in the popover.
Managing all overrides
All active overrides are listed in the Buildings section of the panel. Each entry shows the building name (or a generated identifier if no name has been set) with a Revert button to remove that override individually.
To remove all overrides at once, click Clear All Overrides.
Per-building overrides are saved as part of the scenario state. You can use different overrides in different scenarios to compare a baseline against a proposed development, for example.
Coverage
OSM building data is available globally, but coverage varies by region. Urban areas in Europe, North America, and major cities worldwide have good coverage. Rural and less-mapped areas may show few or no buildings.
The data is sourced from the Cesium OSM Buildings tileset (Cesium Ion asset 96188). A valid Cesium Ion token must be configured for your AugmentCity installation.
Saving in scenarios
Building visibility, style mode, style settings, active building dataset coloring, impact coloring sets, and all per-building overrides are saved in scenario snapshots. Switching scenarios restores the full building state exactly as it was when the scenario was saved.