Usage

After TileMill is installed you will want to familiarize yourself with the basics of starting and stopping the app as well as configuring any relevant settings.

Mac OS X

V1.0.0 and later

TileMill for Mac OS X is run as a browser application communicating with a separate server.

  • Start TileMill - See the Run TileMill section in Mac Install
  • Stop TileMill - See the Run TileMill section in Mac Install
  • Files used by TileMill are in your user account’s Documents/MapBox folder
  • Logs are viewable in the window that you used to start TileMill
  • Preferences are available from the application’s main screen
  • Advanced preferences can be changed by editing ~/.tilemill/config.json

V0.10.1 and earlier

TileMill for Mac OS X is meant to be run as a desktop-style application.

  • Start TileMill by double-clicking its icon in the Applications folder
  • Stop TileMill by quitting the application
  • Files used by TileMill are in your user account’s Documents/MapBox folder
  • Logs are viewable by choosing Console from the app’s Window menu (or open ~/Library/Logs/TileMill.log)
  • Preferences are available from the application’s main screen
  • Advanced preferences can be changed by editing ~/.tilemill/config.json

Windows

V1.0.0 and later

TileMill has not been tested on Windows. It should run fine, but you will need to install it from source, do an npm start to start the TileMill server, and then go to localhost:20009 to start the client.

V0.10.1 and earlier

  • Start TileMill using the Start menu item at Start > TileMIll > Start TileMill
  • Stop TileMill by quitting the application
  • Files used by TileMill are in your user account’s Documents/MapBox folder
  • Logs are written to a file in your users account folder (%USERPROFILE%) named tilemill.log
  • Preferences are available from the application’s main screen
  • Advanced preferences can be changed by editing ~/.tilemill/config.json

Ubuntu

V1.0.0 and later

TileMill has not been tested on Ubuntu. It should run fine, but you will need to install it from source, do an npm start to start the TileMill server, and then go to localhost:20009 to start the client.

V0.10.1 and earlier

  • Start TileMill using the menu item at Applications > Graphics > TileMill.
  • Stop TileMill by quitting the application
  • Files used by TileMill are in your user account’s Documents/MapBox folder
  • Logs are written to ~/.tilemill.log
  • Preferences are available from the application’s main screen
  • Advanced preferences can be changed by editing ~/tilemill/config.json

Learn how to configure TileMill to run as a remote service on Ubuntu.