Simple 3D Buildings
This page describes tags for basic 3D attributes of buildings.
The following tagging methods are results of the 2nd 3D Workshop Garching, where most 3D developers agreed on supporting a unified subset of tags in their programs. Basically, we describe the volume of a building using two types of areas: 1) building outlines for the most general area of a complex building and 2) building parts to describe sections of the building, especially those with different height or other attributes.
How to map
Building outlines
The building outline represents the area of land covered by the union of all parts of the building. The outline may in most cases also be considered the building footprint. This is a closed way or multipolygon tagged with building=*.
Building attributes (e.g., address, name, overall height, operator, etc.) must be tagged on the building outline.
The building outline provides backward compatibility for 2D rendering software, such as Mapnik, and other data consumers not interested in 3D modeling. When a building has any building:part=* areas, the building outline is not considered for 3D rendering.
Building parts
Parts of a building that have differing physical characteristics (height, color, etc) are usually modeled by drawing an area within the building outline tagged with the building:part=* tag. The value of the building:part=* tag is usually yes, but it can be any building=* value.
The entire building outline should be filled with building:part=* areas, tagged with their respective height and other attributes. These areas may overlap each other or may be disjunct, depending on the building. That said, while 2D footprints can (and often need to) overlap, avoid overlapping 3D volumes – especially if the volumes have common faces.
See the following section for building attribute tags typically applied to areas tagged with building:part=*.
Areas tagged with building:part=* are mainly considered for 3D rendering. 2D renderers ignore the building attribute tags described in the following section.
Tip: Overlapping shapes like this can be tricky to select. In JOSM, click while holding down 'Alt' key to cycle through overlapping objects and make the selection you want.[1]
Building relations
If at least one part of a building is hanging over the building footprint or if the building has a complex structure with lots of parts, a type=building relation can be used to group the building outline and all building parts together. Otherwise, there is no need to create a type=building relation, i.e. simply position all building parts inside the building outline as described above.
If the type=building relation is present for a building, all building parts must be listed as the relation members with the role 
part. The building outline must be listed with the role outline. The building parts can be located in any possible way (inside, outside, intersecting, touching) relative to the building outline in the presence of the type=building relation.
If there is no type=building relation, an application should treat all building parts within the area of the building outline as part of that building.
Tagging for building outlines and parts
The following tags can be used on both building outlines and building parts.
Height and levels
| Key | Comment |
|---|---|
| height=* | Distance between the lowest possible position with ground contact and the top of the roof of the building, excluding antennas, spires and other equipment mounted on the roof. |
| min_height=* | Approximate height below the building structure. Note that when min_height is used, height is still defined as the distance from the ground to the top of the structure. So "bridge" with 3 meters height, where bottom part of the bridge is positioned 10 meters above ground level will have min_height=10, height=13. |
| building:levels=* | Number of floors of the building above ground (without levels in the roof), to be able to texture the building in a nice way.
If you tag new buildings, try to give a height value. Try to use building:levels=* only in addition to a height tag! |
| building:min_level=* | Levels skipped in a building part, analogous to min_height |
Roof
Roof shape
You can characterize the roof shape of a building using a catalogue of well-known roof types.
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| roof:shape | flat | gabled | gabled_height_moved | skillion |
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| roof:shape | hipped | half-hipped | side_hipped | side_half-hipped |
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| roof:shape | hipped-and-gabled | mansard | gambrel |
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| roof:shape | pyramidal | crosspitched | sawtooth | butterfly |
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| roof:shape | cone | dome | onion | round |
Other common values
| Value | Comment |
|---|---|
| many | Marks that building has multiple different roof shapes at once. It is discouraged to use it because it is useless for rendering (roofs with this value are rendered as flat). Instead, use building:part=* carrying own roof:shape values. History described in detail in roof:shape=many. |
Other roof tags
| Key | Comment |
|---|---|
| roof:height=* | Height of the roof, from the top of the facades to the top of the roof.
See the section below for a good understanding of this tag and the usage of height, building:levels and roof:levels. |
| roof:levels=* | Number of specific floors within the roof only.
See the section below for a good understanding of this tag and the usage of height, roof:height and building:levels. |
| roof:angle=* | Alternatively to roof:height=*, roof height can be indicated implicitly by providing the inclination of the sides (in degrees). |
| roof:direction=* | Direction from back side of roof to front, i.e. the direction towards which the main face of the roof is looking. |
| roof:orientation=along/across | For roofs with a ridge, the ridge is assumed to be parallel to the longest side of the building (roof:orientation=along). But it can be tagged explicitly with this tag. |
| roof:colour=* | The (dominant) colour of the roof. Useful in conjunction with roof:material=*. |
| roof:material=* | The outermost material of the roof. Useful in conjunction with roof:colour=*. |
Usage of height, roof:height, building:levels, roof:levels
There is currently an incompatibility between the meaning of the tags *:levels in 2D and 3D representations.
In 2D, they designate the number of floors of the part: 1 floor, 2 floors... 5 floors, etc.
In 3D, when height tags are not used, the tags *:levels, in the 3D rendering, are converted to simulated heights. Each floor is converted into a 3 meters high rendering.
For example, building:levels=3, roof:levels=1, no tag height=*, no tag roof:height=* will be converted in the 3D rendering into a 12 meters height building with 9 meters under the roof and 3 meters for the roof.
Therefore users can used decimal numbers for levels to have a good height. For example, in taginfo, you can find building:levels=1.5, roof:levels=0.5 or roof:levels=0.2! But what does "0.2 floor" mean in a 2D description of the building?
Rather than using decimal values, add the building heights. You will thus have compatibility between 2D and 3D information.
Example:
- rather than building:levels=1.5, roof:levels=0.7, no tag height=*, no tag roof:height=*,
- use building:levels=1, roof:levels=0, height=6.6, roof:height=2.1
Explanations:
- 1.5 building levels and 0.7 roof levels probably mean 1 useful floor for the building facades and no useful floors for the roof
- 1.5 + 0.7 = 2.2 floors in total = a height of 6.6 meters for the entire building (using 3 meters for each floor)
- 0.7 roof floor = a height of 2.1 meters for the roof
Notes:
- actual building heights are likely unknown for 99% of buildings in OSM. The value 3 meters for a floor is a default value, probably very close to reality for most of these buildings, and will display a good 3D rendering consistent with buildings without height tags. But of course if you know the real heights, use them!
- in some cases both are clearly necessary. For example for a sports hall, the building levels value is usually one (one floor and one ceiling) but the height is higher than the default 3 meters, so you need to add the actual height (for example building:levels=1, height=6). Please do not use a false 2 levels value to simulate a 6 meters high building if the building only has 1 ceiling!
This section is a wiki template, editable here.
Surface color and material
| Key | Comment |
|---|---|
| building:colour=* | Colour of the building façade. See colour=* for possible values. |
| roof:colour=* | Colour of the building roof. See colour=* for possible values. |
| building:material=* | Outer material for the building façade. |
| roof:material=* | Outer material for the building roof. |
3D Examples
To view numerous 3D buildings on a large scale, see examples here: 3D Demo Areas
To view individual 3D buildings, see examples here: 3D Building Examples
Software support
- Main article: 3D development
Many maps and tools support the simple 3D buildings schema. Among the first were the OSM-3D.org renderer in 2009, the OSM2World renderer and Kendzi3D JOSM plugin in 2011, and the Nutiteq Android 3D Mapping SDK (now Carto Mobile SDK) and WikiMiniAtlas in 2012. OSMBuildings launched a 2.5D display in 2012, followed by a 3D version in 2015. In 2013, F4 Map became the first browser-based renderer to fully support the Simple 3D Buildings schema.
Editing tools
| Software name | Platform | Schema support | License | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kendzi3d | Windows, macOS, Linux | yes | BSD | JOSM plugin |
| SketchOSM | Windows | partial | Proprietary | SketchUp plugin in beta, discontinued July 2020 |
Map applications
| Application name | Platform | Schema support | License | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CartoType Maps App | Windows, Linux, Macintosh | partial | Proprietary but unrestricted use | A free demonstration application for the proprietary CartoType library. The CartoType GL version implements most roof shapes. Includes a style sheet editor. |
| F4 Map | Web | yes | Proprietary | Demo Web Map with rendering and scene support |
| Mapbox Static API | Web | partial | BSD | Requires a free Mapbox Studio account. |
| OpenScienceMap | Web | partial | LGPL | Interprets only height/min_height tags client-side. The S3DB Layer uses vtm meshes generated on the server (using plpgsql with PostGIS and SFCGAL). Web map |
| OSG-Maps | Android | partial | Proprietary | |
| OSM2World | Web | partial | LGPL | Currently implementing the remaining features for the 0.2.0 release - slippymap (Germany only) |
| OSM-3D.org | Web | partial | see OSM-3D#Buildings | |
| osmapa.pl Mapnik stylesheet | Web | partial | most roof types implemented in 2.5D view | |
| OSMBuildings | Web | partial | BSD | |
| OSM go | Web | partial | GPL | Only pyramidal and dome (yet, flat is default) |
| WikiMiniAtlas | Web | partial | GPL | only pyramidal roofs |
| VR Map | Web | partial | MPL | Heights and colors only |
Map frameworks
- Main article: Frameworks
| Software name | Platform | Language | Schema support | License | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carto Mobile SDK | Android, iOS, Windows Phone | Java, Objective-C++, Swift, C# | partial | BSD | most roof shapes supported; see Carto's documentation |
| CartoType for Android | Android | Java | partial | Proprietary | Most roof shapes supported.Styles can be controlled using CartoType's XML style sheets. Uses OpenGL ES graphics acceleration. Viewing angle, height, field of view, etc., can be modified. |
| CartoType for iOS | iOS | Objective C, Swift | |||
| CartoType for C++ | Windows, Linux, OS X (Macintosh) | C++ | |||
| CartoType for .NET | Windows | C#, VB.NET and other .NET languages | |||
| CartoType for Qt | Qt on Windows, Mac (OS X) and Linux | C++ | |||
| Mapbox GL JS | Web | JavaScript | partial | BSD | Options for customizing 3D building display are included in the Mapbox Style Specification. (See Mapbox's blog post announcing GL JS support.) |
| Mapbox Android SDK | Android | Java | |||
| Mapbox iOS SDK | iOS | Objective-C, Swift, Interface Builder | |||
| Mapbox macOS SDK | macOS | Objective-C, Swift, Interface Builder, AppleScript | |||
| Mapbox Qt SDK | Qt | C++, QML | |||
| Mapbox Unity SDK | Cross-platform | C# | Apache | ||
| node-mapbox-gl-native | Node.js | JavaScript | BSD | ||
| osm2x3d | Web | partial | Unknown | see also [1] and [2] | |
| OSMBuildings | Web | JavaScript | partial | BSD | 2.5D and 3D versions available |
| Tangram | Web | JavaScript | partial | MIT | Mapzen renders 3D buildings in Tangram and other products |
| Tangram ES | Android, iOS, Linux, macOS | C++ | |||
| VTM | Android, iOS, Web | Java | partial | LGPL | Part of the mapsforge project. |
Design tools
| Software name | Platform | Schema support | License | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| blender-osm | Windows, macOS, Linux | partial | GPL | One click download and import of OpenStreetMap and terrain. Can import more than 100,000 buildings. A large number of roof shapes is supported: flat, gabled, hipped (for a quadrangle outline only), mono-pitched, half-hipped, round, pyramidal, gambrel, dome, onion and saltbox. |
| Mapbox Studio | Web | partial | Proprietary | Includes a Mapbox GL style editor that supports building (part) heights. |
| Maputnik | Web | partial | MIT | A Mapbox GL style editor that supports building (part) heights. |
| Tangram Play | Web | partial | MIT | A Tangram scene editor that supports extruded buildings with heights based on OSM data. |
Terminology
An image can help to understand some architectural terms.
Related Proposals
- F3DB (Abandoned Full 3D buildings proposal)