Create vector tile in azure maps with a million points

Question

I want to create an Azure map to plot a million data points, how can i create this in azure maps and load the same to my angular application using the map url?

something like this to load my custom points with optimized performance.

//Create a vector tile source and add it to the map.
var source = new atlas.source.VectorTileSource(null, {
tiles: ['https://{azMapsDomain}/traffic/flow/tile/pbf?api-version=1.0&style=relative&zoom={z}&x={x}&y={y}'],
maxZoom: 22
});
map.sources.add(source);

Answer 1

You would need to take your data and convert it into a vector tile data set. This is a fairly complex task but there are many tools available here: https://github.com/mapbox/awesome-vector-tiles

The Azure Maps Creator platform can create vector tiles, however it is currently limited to autocad input files for use in indoor building scenarios. I believe there are plans to expand this service to support other geospatial data formats.

I personally built a little tool for creating vector tiles from data in a SQL database. The key library I used was https://github.com/NetTopologySuite/NetTopologySuite.IO.VectorTiles

If your data crosses a large amount of area (hundreds of miles or more) you may want to consider packaging the tiles within an MBTiles file. This is basically a SQLite database that has standardized tables for storing map tiles. This makes it easier to move the tiles around (trying to upload 100K tiles to blob storage takes forever).

I'm planning to write a series of blog posts on this over the summer, but until then, if you search around, you should be able to find lots of resources on creating vector tiles.