Felt is a cloud-native GIS platform that lets you create maps, apps, and dashboards in seconds. Whether you're working in urban planning, environmental science, real estate, or logistics, Felt empowers your entire organization with spatial superpowers.

Key features

Upload Anything

Work with virtually any spatial data format. Upload files, connect through URLs, spreadsheets, cloud sources, or directly from QGIS. Felt handles both raster and vector data, automatically geocodes and boundary matches, and supports scheduled refreshes to keep your data up-to-date.

Layers

When data is imported into Felt, it becomes a Layer that you can style, edit, and analyze. View and filter the underlying data table, perform spatial analysis, apply custom styling, and configure informative popups to create rich, multi-dimensional maps.

Transform maps into interactive experiences that respond to user interaction with Components like charts, time sliders, and data tables. Developers can extend this functionality using the Felt API or SDK.

Felt AI combines cutting-edge LLM technology with specialized training on Felt's platform. Because it understands geographic relationships and mapping workflows, it helps you instantly , , and write without lengthy development cycles.

Felt's mobile app is built for seamless data collection workflows on mobile devices. Whether you're collecting data in the field, monitoring live operations, or reviewing dashboards between meetings, Field App connects you to your maps with real-time syncing across devices. Available on and .

Work together in real-time with multiple editors, add comments directly on maps, and control access with customizable permissions. Share your maps via links, embed them in websites and applications, or integrate with tools like Notion and PowerBI.

Manipulate and analyze geographic data to extract meaningful insights. Combine layers, identify patterns, and discover spatial relationships to make informed decisions.

Learn more

Build your first interactive map in just minutes. Explore our step-by-step videos covering how to upload your data, style it effectively, and share your completed maps with others.

Step 1: Uploading your data

Felt's feature lets you import geographic data in various formats from multiple sources.

To get started, click Upload Anything in the toolbar and choose your preferred method - direct file upload, URL import, or Enterprise options like cloud sources. Felt automatically identifies spatial information in your data and places it on the map without requiring technical expertise.

After uploading, interact with your data by double-clicking the layer in the legend to center your view and open the style editor. Click the button to see your data in a familiar spreadsheet format. To narrow specific information, your data by either right-clicking on a column to add a filter or use the Filter tab in the style editor to set conditions (like "Revenue greater than 95,000") and watch the map update immediately to display only the relevant data points, allowing you to focus on specific information.

Step 2: Styling your data

The in Felt allows you to transform raw data into customized visualizations.

Access the style editor by selecting a data layer in the . In the General section, choose from including Simple, Categories, Color range, Size range, Heatmap and H3. The options in the style editor adapt to your selected visualization type, with the legend updating automatically as you make your selections.

Beyond basic settings, customize further in the Legend section by adjusting text and captions. Use to control what viewers see when moving their cursor over features in your layer, from simple pop-ups to embedded iframes or custom HTML. For advanced viewer interactions, the section lets you build custom dashboards with charts and statistics that enhance data presentation and interactivity.

Step 3: Easily share your maps

Felt offers flexible options for while keeping your data secure.

At the map level, click the Share button to set permissions (view only, view and comment, or full editing access). For private sharing, set access to "Only people and teams invited," add specific emails, and designate them as viewers who can see and comment, or editors who can make changes. Once shared, you can collaborate in real time, exchange feedback through , and tag teammates to start conversations directly on the map.

For broader collaboration, use level sharing. Add to your workspace by selecting "Invite members" and setting appropriate permissions. Projects help organize subsets of maps within your workspace - making them private allows you to control access without exposing your entire workspace, perfect for client work or team-specific content. Enterprise users can also brand and their maps in internal portals or dashboards using authenticated tokens for , combining geographic data with business insights for better decision-making.

Layer Sliders enable you to slide through raster or vector map layers to spot changes, trends, and patterns more intuitively.

Adding a Layer Slider

Welcome to Felt's Help Center! Here you'll find step-by-step guides, best practices, and troubleshooting tips to help you make the most of Felt. Use the search bar at the top or the table of contents to your left to quickly find answers to your questions.

Getting started

Discover Felt

More resources

Connect to Google BigQuery to analyze and visualize your cloud warehouse data directly in Felt.

1. Create a new, read-only user on your database for Felt access

2. Click on the Library () in the toolbar

3. Click + New Source

4. Select BigQuery

5. Enter Connection Details

   1. Source Name: name of the source in Felt

   2. Project ID: the unique identifier for a Google Cloud Platform project

6. Click Connect

7. Once connected you will see a catalog of your data with previews for your new source

8. From here you can add any of these layers to your spatial dashboards!

Microsoft SQL Server is a robust relational database management system with spatial capabilities. If you have geographic information in your SQL Server database, Felt provides a simple way to connect, query and visualize this data on a map.

1. Create a new, read-only user on your database for Felt access

2. Click on the Library () in the toolbar

3. Click + New Source

4. Select Microsoft SQL Server

5. Enter Connection Details

   1. Source Name: name of the source in Felt

   2. Host & Port: host URL & port number: connection details to your database
6. Click Connect

7. Once connected you will see a catalog of your data with previews for your new source

8. From here you can add any of these layers to your spatial dashboards!

Amazon Redshift is a powerful cloud data warehouse that allows you to store and analyze various types of data, including spatial data. If you have geographic information in your Redshift database Felt provides a simple way to connect, query, and visualize this data on a map.

1. Create a new, read-only user on your database for Felt access

2. Click on the Library in the toolbar

3. Click + New Source

4. Select Amazon Redshift

5. Enter Connection Details

   1. Source Name: name of the source in Felt

   2. Host & Port: host URL & port number: connection details to your database
6. Click Connect

7. Once connected you will see a catalog of your data with previews for your new source

8. From here you can add any of these layers to your spatial dashboards!

Connect to Esri Feature Services to analyze and visualize GIS data directly in Felt.

1. Create a new, read-only user on your database for Felt access

2. Click on the Library () in the toolbar

3. Click + New Source

4. Select Esri Feature Server

5. Enter Connection Details

   1. Source Name: name of the source in Felt

   2. URL: the URL of your Feature Server. These always end in /FeatureServer or /MapServer and, optionally, an integer layer ID (such as /FeatureServer/3

6. Click Connect

7. Once connected you will see a catalog of your data with previews for your new source

8. From here you can add any of these layers to your spatial dashboards!

Connect to standard Web Map Service (WMS) and Web Map Tile Service (WMTS) data sources to incorporate authoritative geographic information into your maps. These OGC-compliant services allow you to access and display map imagery from government agencies, research institutions, and other spatial data providers.

1. Click on the Library () in the toolbar

2. Click + New Source

3. Select WMS/WMTS

4. Enter Connection Details

Felt connects directly to raster data cloud storage, with support for Cloud Optimized GeoTIFFs (COGs) and Spatio-Temporal Asset Catalogs (STACs). Your raster data is streamed in place, indexed for location and metadata filtering, and made available for immediate visualization without moving or duplicating files.

For guidance on preparing your data for use in Felt, see Organizing your raster data.

Felt offers a comprehensive set of styling options for both vector and raster layers to enhance your map's visual appeal. Change your map background between default, satellite, light/dark themes, or add custom backgrounds via URLs. Style vector data (points, lines, polygons) by adjusting colors, opacity, stroke width, and creating size-based or categorical visualizations based on data attributes. Use zoom-based styling to ensure your map looks good at all scales by automatically adjusting feature size and opacity as users zoom. For raster data, apply color ranges, categorical styling, hillshading, or perform raster algebra operations. The sandwiching feature lets you control whether features appear above or below basemap elements like roads and water, creating professional-looking visualizations.

Learn more about styling vector and raster layers.

Felt's layer grouping feature allows you to organize related layers together, making your maps more structured and easier to navigate. Learn how to create and manage layer groups, and control which layers appear in your legend.

Creating layer groups

To organize related layers into a group:

• From List view select the layers (holding Ctrl/Cmd) you want to add to a group

• Group the selected layers by right clicking and choosing the option to Group > Group selection

• Give your new group a descriptive name

When your layers are in a group, you can also a .

Adding captions to layers and groups

Enhance your legend with descriptive captions:

• Select a layer or group in List view

• Find the "Legend" section in the style editor

• Enter your descriptive text in Caption

• The caption will appear below the layer or group name in the Legend view

Reorganizing layers and groups

You can move layers between groups or change their order:

• In List view, drag and drop layers to reorder them within groups

• To move a layer to a different group, select it and drag and drop it into the desired group or right click to move it.

Felt offers two different views for managing map content:

• List View: Shows all layers and annotations in your map. This is your workspace as a map editor, where you make changes and customizations.

• Legend View: Shows what viewers will see when looking at your shared or embedded map.

The sidebar List shows every object on your map: all annotations, layers, as well as the map background.

Toggling the list

The List is accessible when editing a map. You can view the List in two ways:

• Clicking the List tab in the left sidebar

• Using the Shift+2 keyboard shortcut

Ordering objects in the list

The order of objects in the List reflects their position in the map. You can reorder objects by dragging and dropping them, via the Arrange menu when right-clicking on an annotation or layer, or via the keyboard shortcuts [ , ], Shift+[, and Shift+].

To ensure maps look great by default, Felt always draws annotations on top of layers on the map. Among layers, regardless of List order, point layers are drawn on top of line layers, which are always drawn on top of polygon and raster layers.

Collapsing list sections

You can collapse the Annotations or Layers sections in the List by clicking on the chevron next to them.

You can access your map's settings from theicon in the toolbar. The Map settings panel allows you to customize your map's behavior and control how viewers interact with your data

Description

Add a detailed description to provide context about a map. This description appears at the top of the legend.

Map constraints

Focus your map on the most relevant area for your viewers or collaborators. Set a boundary for the map, and optionally limit the zoom range at which the map is viewable.

Viewer permissions

Define what actions viewers can take:

• Duplicate map and data: Use this setting to allow public viewers or viewers belonging to a separate Felt account to copy the map over to their account. (Note: these viewers need to have editor access in other accounts to duplicate).

• See map presence: Set if live editor avatars should appear to map viewers in the top bar.

• View data table: Manage whether map viewers can view layer data tables. When enabled, data tables are accessible to viewers via the ••• buttons in the legend. Available to customers on the .

The Extract tool can be used to get polygon annotations for boundaries or building footprints.

• Click on the Extract tool in the toolbar

• As you move your cursor over the map, different boundary options will highlight based on your current zoom level

• Click on a highlighted boundary or add many by holding Shift to draw a selection area to extract as a new polygon annotations(s)

Zoom level and boundary types

The Extract tool is zoom-sensitive, offering different boundary options based on how far you've zoomed in:

• Zoomed out: Country and large administrative areas

• Medium zoom: States, provinces, counties

• Zoomed in: Cities and neighborhoods

• Highly zoomed in: Building footprints

You can see the level that you are at as you zoom the map

Available boundaries

United States

• Countries

• States

• Counties

• Cities

Rest of the world

• Countries

• First-order Administrative Divisions

• Second-order Administrative Divisions

• Buildings

The best seed for a successful map is another map. Whether you’re making a template for your students or exploring different scenarios with coworkers, duplicating a map makes a copy that you can modify.

How to duplicate a map

When viewing the map, click on the Felt menu (top-left corner), then File, then Duplicate Map option.

You can also duplicate maps from the home page from the overflow ... menu:

Disabling map duplication

By default, maps can be duplicated by any viewer. You can turn off map duplication via the Duplicate map and data toggle found within Map settings (the gear icon in the editor toolbar).

Publishing a layer

To publish a layer from a map to your Workspace's layer library:

• Click on the overflow menu: ...

• Click Actions

• Select Publish...

Select the Workspace you want to publish the layer to and click Publish

Using library layers

Any editor can add a layer from the library to their map. Once on the map, it can be edited to meet the design needs of that map. Edits will not impact the library layer.

Export your current map view as an image or PDF from the Felt Menu (Felt > File > Export view...)

• You can choose whether to include the legend or not

• The high-resolution export will include your scale-bar and a Made with Felt banner.

Everything in Felt happens within your workspace - the central hub where all your maps and data live. Whether you're working solo or with an entire organization think of it as your mapping headquarters, where you can organize projects, manage collaboration and create maps. Your workspace can be customized to fit your specific mapping needs, allowing you to structure your projects as they grow and evolve over time.

Workspace basics

Understanding your workspace layout will help you navigate Felt efficiently, giving you quick access to settings, collaborator management, and your maps.

Connect to to analyze and visualize your data lake insights directly in Felt.

1. Click on the Library () in the toolbar

is a powerful spatial database extension for PostgreSQL that allows you to store, query, and analyze geographic data. Felt provides a simple way to connect, query and visualize this data on a map.

1. Create a new, read-only user on your database for Felt access

Connect to a bucket in (GCS) to browse and visualize your vector and/or raster data in Felt.

1. Click on the Library ( ) in the toolbar

(WFS) is an open standard for exchanging geographic information over the internet. It allows you to access and query spatial data from remote servers regardless of the underlying database system. If you have geographic information available through WFS endpoints that you want to visualize on maps, Felt provides a simple way to connect and display this data.

Keep your maps current with Felt's dynamic data updating options. Whether you've uploaded files, connected via URL, or integrated with cloud data sources, you can refresh your layers to reflect the latest information while preserving your styling and configuration. Set up automated refreshes for live data sources or manually update when needed to ensure your spatial visualizations always represent the most current data.

URL connected layers

• Select the layer you want to refresh from the

Felt supports direct connections to Esri REST services, including those hosted on ArcGIS Online, ArcGIS Enterprise, or any public-facing Esri server. You can connect your data directly to Felt and immediately start collaborating with your team. This integration eliminates the need to export or duplicate your Esri datasets, keeping your workflows efficient while making your geospatial data accessible to everyone who needs it.

Supported services

Filters are conditions added to your data layers to only show a subset of features in the map, in the or as the input for .

Adding filters to a layer

Filters work on all data types, including text, numbers, booleans and dates. Filters can be added to a layer in two ways:

• Directly from the Table View by clicking on a column, then on

There are a variety of ways to interact with Felt’s modern GIS platform outside of the user interface. They can be grouped into two buckets: tools for programmatically creating and modifying maps, and tools for building custom experiences for map viewers. These tools can be used to solve distinct challenges and also be used in tandem with one another.

Visit our to access comprehensive documentation, code examples, and guides to get started.

Create and modify maps with the REST API

Felt’s allows editors to interact with the Felt platform via code, performing actions such as creating new maps, adding data to maps, styling layers, and more. The REST API can be leveraged from any environment that is capable of sending GET and POST requests.

For Python users, interactions with the REST API are simplified through the

Convert your map annotations into layers, giving you flexibility in how you work with and visualize your spatial data.

Annotations vs. layers

oEmbed API

Felt supports , a standardized way of allowing rich embeds on third party sites like Notion or WordPress.

To achieve this, every map contains a line like this in the header following the standard oEmbed protocol:

That line contains a link with the form https://felt.com/oembed?format=json&url={FELT_MAP_URL} which, when followed, returns a standard oEmbed response that can be used to embed the map in a page in the proper way:

Exporting layers

Layers can be downloaded via the overflow (three-dot) menu from the legend or by right-clicking on a layer.

For nonprofits

At Felt, we believe powerful mapping tools shouldn't be limited when it comes to organizations working to create positive change. We're proud to offer specially discounted plans for nonprofit organizations through our nonprofit program. With Felt you can easily transform complex datasets into compelling, shareable maps to drive greater impact, reach broader audiences, and support advocacy efforts with clear, visual storytelling that resonates across communities, media, and stakeholders.

Connect to Databricks to analyze and visualize your data lake insights directly in Felt.

1. Create a new, read-only user on your database for Felt access

2. Click on the Library () in the toolbar

3. Click + New Source

4. Select Databricks

5. Enter Connection Details

   1. Source Name: name of the source in Felt

   2. Host: The server hostname of the cluster or SQL warehouse. You can get this from the Server Hostname value in the tab for your cluster.

6. Enter credential information

   1. Select a credential type

      1. Databricks PAT. See Databricks'

7. Click Connect

8. Once connected you will see a catalog of your data with previews for your new source

9. From here you can add any of these layers to your spatial dashboards!

To make a large collection of raster data quickly available in Felt, we recommend storing it in Cloud Optimized Geotiff format in a cloud storage bucket, with relevant metadata about your files encoded in regular patterns in their paths.

Storage

The easiest way to connect your raster data to Felt is to host it in a cloud storage bucket using one of the following options:

Format

(COGs, for short) are raster files optimized for being read from a remote server, structured in a way that enables efficient cloud workflows.

While Felt can process many raster data formats, COGs will ensure that only the data you actually want to visualize on the map is read. To learn more about how to create COGs that can be streamed efficiently by Felt, .

Structure

Storing your files in cloud storage with a well-defined, strict naming pattern is the best way of making your data discoverable:

• Use folders to organize your files into projects.

• Encode properties that you'd like to search by into the file path.

Here's an example of a naming pattern:

A file following that pattern would look like this:

Extracting properties with regex

Using , Felt can extract metadata properties from the path to files in a cloud storage bucket. Here's a set of regular expressions that can be used to extract the properties defined in the template above.

In this example, the properties project, type, date and resolution will be extracted during bucket inspection, and can be later used to filter and search for objects.

STAC

If your metadata storage needs go beyond a string pattern, or if the number of objects stored is either very large, or very dynamic, using a allows storage of metadata (including spatial and temporal extents) in an explicit format. Both static STACs in JSON format or dynamic STAC APIs can be added to Felt as sources.

Felt can load data directly from , or from any other storage location that exposes the data over HTTPS. The closer your data is to your Felt instance (if you are using a VPC), the less latency you will have in tile serving.

If you wish to without importing the entire file into Felt, the data storage location must support .

While Felt can read many raster formats, storing your data as a Cloud Optimized Geotiff (COGs) allows efficient access of subsets of data for fast viewing.

Configuration

Converting raster files to Cloud Optimized GeoTIFFs

1. Install the command line tools. If you’re using on MacOS, you can do this with brew install gdal

2. Use the command with the COG output format and the -stats flag. This will create a COG with summary stats and overviews that will be most efficiently streamed into Felt.

ESRI Shapefiles

Shapefiles are a multi-file format, with each file containing some specific data. Three file parts are mandatory (.shp, .shx and .dbf) and, without any of them, your upload will not be successful.

A fourth component (.prj) is very common, and used to determine what Spatial Reference System should be used to interpret the coordinates in your data. If this file is not present, Felt will assume the coordinates are in latitude/longitude (represented by the EPSG code 4326).

Spreadsheets

See the page for general information on tabular file formats like CSV or Excel.

Point coordinates

• Coordinates must be in latitude and longitude. Other coordinate systems, such as UTM, are not supported.

• Coordinates must be in numeric format, such as 40.7128 or -74.006. Felt cannot parse coordinates with text characters, such as 40° 43' 50.1960'' N or 74.0060° W.

• Coordinates must be in two separate fields.

Geocoding

• By default, Felt will geocode address data for up to 10,000 addresses per upload. If you need a higher limit, to upgrade to our .

• Context is important. Make sure either your address field contains all the necessary information (city, state, country, etc) or you have several fields with that information.

• See the page for general information on how geocoding works.

Geomatching

See the page for general information on how Geomatching works.

Matching Threshold

Geomatching checks columns in your data for values that match codes or names in our available regions. If a column does not contain a majority of values that match, it will be discarded.

Duplicate & Unique Values

Geomatching works best with columns that have unique values. Otherwise, you might end up with the same polygon for California many times, superimposed.

To avoid that, the Geomatching process makes sure the amount of duplicate values (all values that are repeated at least two times) is under a certain threshold.

US FIPS Codes

Make sure your US FIPS codes (states, counties, CBSAs and census tracts) aren’t missing leading zeroes. FIPS codes always have a fixed nº of digits per boundary type: 2 for states, 5 for counties, 11 for census tracts, etc.

US ZIP Codes

Similarly, ZIP codes should always have 5 digits, so watch out for missing leading zeroes. Also, Felt doesn’t currently understand ZIP+4 codes, so remove the extra suffix if present.

Unsupported File Formats

QGIS Metadata Files (.qmd, .qgz, .qgs, .qml)

These files don't actually contain any data, just the metadata that defines a QGIS project (such as the style for layers in the project, references to the actual files, etc). Try uploading the original data files (Shapefiles, Geopackages, GeoJSON, etc) instead.

ArcGIS Layer Files (.lyr and .lyrx)

Similarly, the ArcGIS Layer File format does not contain any actual data, but a reference to another file that stores the actual data (usually a Shapefile or Geodatabase). Try uploading the original data files to Felt instead.

Enhanced Compressed Wavelets (.ecw)

ECW is a proprietary format developed by Hexagon Geospatial. Try exporting your data as GeoTIFF (.tif) instead.

URL Uploads

Maximum layers per upload

Felt will automatically try to parse and upload all layers from an Esri or OGC service. However, Felt has a maximum of 50 layers per upload. If the service hosts more than that amount, an error will be returned.

For OGC services, users can work around this by specifying which layers to request in the URL query parameters:

• WMTS and WFS: a single layer in the form of ?layer=X

• WMS: one or more layers in the form of ?layers=X,Y

Overview

The Data Hosting feature of Felt allows you to control where in the world your data is hosted.

For businesses and organizations dealing with sensitive or regulated data, regional data hosting provides several key benefits:

• Regulatory Compliance: Many regions have data sovereignty laws requiring certain types of data to be stored within specific geographic boundaries. Regional Data Hosting allows users to comply with these regulations by keeping data within required areas.

• Reduced Latency: Storing data closer to where it's being accessed can significantly reduce latency. Users in a specific region can experience faster data access and improved application performance when their data is hosted nearby.

The available regions are:

How to enable

To specify a hosting region, admins must navigate to > Hosting Region and select the region from the drop down menu.

Regional data hosting

The following data is stored in the hosting region you choose.

• Data files

• Features

• Tiles

• Derived statistical information

User details—including subscriber and subscription records, item metadata, sharing settings, map annotations, and billing information—are stored and handled in the United States. Furthermore, location-based functionalities like geocoding, routing, and Felt library layers are processed in the United States.

Data security at Felt

Felt adheres to strict privacy and safety regulations no matter where your data is located. We adhere to SOC 2 Type 2 compliance standards, ensuring the security, availability, and confidentiality of user data. Interested parties can reach out to to request a copy of our SOC 2 Type 2 report. You can also find more information on our security practices at

Regional hosting via AWS at Felt

Felt uses AWS as its regional hosting partner. AWS is the world’s biggest cloud hosting provider, serving the world’s biggest companies and most demanding governments.

The AWS infrastructure consists of multiple, physically separate Availability Zones within each Region, offering enhanced fault tolerance and high availability. AWS Regions meet the highest levels of security, compliance, and data protection.

By using AWS, Felt inherits all these security and compliance features built by AWS and relied upon by the world's biggest companies, including most of the world's leading financial institutions. AWS’ multi-AZ design, with independent power, cooling, and physical security connected via redundant networks, provides Felt with a resilient and secure foundation for its operations.

AI extensions let you add custom interactivity to your Felt maps, transforming your map into a purpose-built interactive experience, without writing any code. Felt AI leverages the to generate the tools, panels, and workflows you describe in natural language. Everything happens right in Felt: you can preview, adjust, and save your extension with no extra setup or deployment. When you share your map, your application is live and ready for viewers to use.

Custom AI-coded popups allow you to fully customize the contents and layout of layer interactions within Felt. With this feature you can build a custom interface and layout all within the Felt interface.

Examples

Felt AI SQL transforms natural language questions into optimized database queries, letting anyone on your team perform complex spatial analysis without writing code. Simply ask questions in plain English and watch as Felt AI generates the SQL, executes it against your cloud database, and visualizes the results on your map.

Felt can read raster data like aerial and satellite imagery, Digital Elevation Models (DEMs), surface temperature measurements and more in a variety of formats.

Static files

Connect to a bucket in to browse and visualize your vector and/or raster data in Felt.

1. Click on the Library ( ) in the toolbar

Table view is a tabular interface that lets you quickly inspect all the features in your data layers as rows. In addition to scrolling through the data, you can also rename and sort columns, search for specific terms and add filters.

Working with table view

Directly connect your cloud sources to access your data in Felt as a live catalog of layers. With this integration you can add a layer directly from your database to a spatial dashboard and configure live map updates from the source automatically.

Best Practices

1. Create a new database user for Felt access. Felt does run queries on the db, although we keep these at a minimum. This insures easier audit for your IT team.

2. Maintain only 1 connection per database source. Adding multiple connections to the same database will increase the query load on your database unnecessarily.

3. In case you see an error with the connection

   1. If your connection details have not changed, try hitting refresh to retry the connection

Felt IPs

When Felt connects to your data source, the traffic will come from one of the following IP addresses:

Limiting database access to a specific set of IP addresses enhances security by allowing connections only from pre-approved addresses while blocking all other connections at the firewall level.

Syncing behaviors

Source syncs

Every 24 hours Felt will scan the connected Source to make updates to the data available in Felt. This includes making recently added tables or views available in Felt as well as reflecting any changes or updates to the Source schema. This cadence ensures that Felt matches your source of truth. These syncs do not impact any maps or layers on maps, so they do not contribute towards monthly data processing.

A Source-level sync is successful as long as there is at least one successful table sync. In the scenario that some tables or views are unavailable or fail to sync during a Source sync, those failing tables are skipped and Felt logs those skipped tables.

You can manually sync a source using the setting controls: .

Layer syncs

When creating a map layer from a Source, the layers will be Live by default. Live data will refresh on the map directly from the source based on a frequency set in Felt.

You can control the Live and Frequency settings in the Create layer dropdown:

Live data refreshes will contribute towards your monthly data processing limits. For more information see .

Settings and layout

Access source-level controls in the top-right corner of any Source connection window

• Sync Source: triggers a manual sync for all tables and views in the source

  • Does not sync map layers or impact data processing

• Settings: review and make changes to source connection details, including authentication

Handling edits

added from sources requires disabling live syncing from the original source. This is to prevent edits in Felt from being overwritten by the source when the layer refreshes. To proceed, add your edits to the layer (edit attribute, add feature, delete feature, etc) and then select Edit anyway from the popup.

Snowflake is a powerful cloud-based data platform that allows you to store, analyze, and visualize various types of data, including spatial data. If you have geographic information in your Snowflake database Felt provides a simple way to connect, query, and visualize this data on a map.

1. Create a new, read-only user on your database for Felt access

2. Click on the Library in the toolbar

3. Click + New Source

4. Select Snowflake

5. Enter Connection Details

   1. Source Name: name of the source in Felt

   2. Account ID: Snowflake . Must include the name of the account along with its organization (e.g. myorg-account123)
6. Click Connect

7. Once connected you will see a catalog of your data with previews for your new source

8. From here you can add any of these layers to your spatial dashboards!

Supported Authentication Methods

Key-pair authentication

Snowflake — a combination of a public key (assigned to a specific user in the Snowflake UI) and a private key (uploaded to Felt), optionally protected by a passphrase.

Programmatic Access Token

Programmatic Access Tokens (or PATs, for short) allow you to connect your Snowflake source to Felt using a user-based, long-lived token. .

Password (deprecated)

Connect to a bucket in Azure Blob Storage to browse and visualize your vector and/or raster data in Felt.

1. Click on the Library ( ) in the toolbar

2. Click + New Source

3. Select Azure Blob Storage

4. Fill in the Connection Details

   1. Source Name: name of the source in Felt

   2. Blob Storage Endpoint: a URL to a bucket in Azure Blob Storage, such as https://my-account.blob.core.windows.net/my_bucket/my_prefix. If the URL contains a prefix (in this example, my_prefix

5. Who can see this source?: control access to this source within Felt

6. Click Connect

7. Once connected you will see a catalog of your data with previews for your new source

8. From here you can add any of these layers to your spatial dashboards!

Authentication

For objects hosted in Azure Storage, provide a to grant Felt access to your Azure storage account.

We recommend creating a dedicated with only Read and List permissions. Shared Access Signatures may be created at both the storage account level and the individual container level.

When inputting the Azure Connection String into Felt there should be no additional spaces:

Supported file formats

Felt can read in spreadsheet, vector, and raster files from cloud storage connections. To see file formats supported see in our section.

Raster metadata extraction

Felt can extract metadata properties from the filepaths to objects in your bucket. Learn more about Felt's Raster Infrastructure feature in .

Raster data is often displayed as greyscale or color images. However, sometimes you want to style raster layers in different ways depending on the type of data.

Choosing your map type

Image

The default style when you upload a raster data layer. Images will either be grayscale (for rasters with one or two bands) or colored (RGB) for rasters with three or more.

In an Image layer, the only styling property available is the opacity, which can be controlled via a slider or by inputting an exact percentage.

Color range

A common use of raster data is to represent continuous measurements over an area, such as temperature or elevation. In these cases, a Color range style can be useful. Different Data Classification Methods can be used to apply colors to your data.

When using a Continuous classification method, the minimum and maximum data points will be set to three standard deviations from the mean. However, the range can be stretched by simply dragging the sliders under the histogram.

Categories

This map type is useful for categorical data like geology, land use or crop type. Color palette metadata will be applied when available, although colors can always be manually selected.

Other styling options include controlling how colors are sorted in the legend or how many categories to show, whether all of them or only the most frequent ones.

Hillshade

A Hillshade style can be used to represent elevation variations in a Digital Elevation Model. Coupled with a color range, it’s a great way of showing both absolute and relative elevation.

Both the angle of the light source (in ) and the intensity of the hillshade are configurable.

Raster Algebra

Some metrics are available as presets for multi-band raster data:

Manipulate and analyze geographic data to extract meaningful insights. Combine layers, identify patterns, and discover spatial relationships to make informed decisions.

Using spatial analysis

To perform analysis on layers, click on the Spatial analysis icon in the toolbar. The menu is also available via the Felt menu in top-left corner and via feature menu using the Command/Control + K shortcut (simply type Spatial analysis or the name of any specific method, like Buffer).

Available methods

Spatial analysis exercise

Try out Felt’s spatial analysis tools for yourself in this step-by-step tutorial to find suitable habitat for the Iberian Lynx!

Download the datasets:

Annotations in Felt can be visually customized to match your design needs and highlight important information. Annotations can be styled individually or in groups.

Annotation styling

Styling options

• Select a single annotation, multiple annotations or a group of annotations you want to style

• Use the style controls in the right panel to adjust appearance

Selecting annotations

• You can select annotations by clicking on them. To select multiple annotations at the same time, hold the Shift key and click while dragging.

• Use the right-click menu to select annotations of same type, color or icon. Very useful for batch-editing!

Resizing and rotating

Annotations can be resized and rotated. Most annotations can only be resized by pulling from the corner, but you can change the aspect ratio for notes and images by pulling from the side as well.

Locking annotations

Once you’re done creating and fine-tuning your objects, you can lock them to make sure they aren’t inadvertently moved or modified. Locking will prevent making any changes to an object’s style or properties until it’s unlocked.

• Select the annotations you want to lock

• From the three dot menu choose the option to Lock

• To unlock choose the option to Unlock

Arrange options

To arrange the drawing order between annotations

• Select the annotation you want to rearrange

• Right click and hover Arrange to choose the appropriate ordering

Annotation groups

Annotations are great for adding context to the map, but having too many of them can quickly get hard to manage. Grouping annotations is a useful way to categorize and organize annotations and allow for visibility control in the legend.

Creating Groups

To assign annotations to a new or existing group:

• Select the ones you want to group and then click on the Group button.

This also works for multiple annotations selected together, either using Shift+Click+Drag, the Cmd+K menu or right-clicking on an annotations, then picking from the Select similar... options.

Editing groups & toggling visibility

Groups are visible in the . Simply click the eyeball icon to hide or show a group.

By clicking on a group in the Sidebar List, one can select all the contents, change icons for pin annotations inside that group or even update details for many annotations at once.

Felt provides Single Sign-On (SSO) functionality for Enterprise workspaces. This enables IT to easily manage access through a single authentication source. Felt’s SSO is built upon the SAML 2.0 standard.

Requirements

• Your workspace is on the Enterprise Plan

• You are an admin in your Felt workspace

• You have an Identity Provider (IdP) that supports SAML 2.0

• You are an admin in your Identity Provider

Supported Identity Providers

• Okta

• Google

• Entra

• OneLogin

Quick Overview

1. Enable SSO on for your Enterprise workspace

2. Configure the SAML connection between Felt and your IdP

   • You’ll share 3 fields from your IdP with Felt

   • You’ll share 3 fields from Felt with your IdP

Detailed Steps

• Navigate to your Felt workspace, click “Settings”, then “Workspace”

• Click “Enable SSO for yourdomain.com” under “Enterprise SSO”

• You’ll be asked to confirm that you have admin access inside your IdP. Click “Configure SAML”

• In the new tab that has been opened, select your Identity Provider

Frequently Asked Questions

Share menu

To share your map, click on the Share button on the top-right corner of your map.

From this menu you can invite editor and viewer collaborators directly via email, or allow public access with dropdown setting.

There are several public access options:

Setting your map view

You can set a default view that Workspace members land on when opening the map. This ensures the map opens to a certain location and zoom level by default:

Felt Menu (top-left) → View → Set current view as default

When copying a map link through the Share menu using the Copy link button (bottom-right corner), the link automatically includes some URL parameters that point to your current view. Take the following URL:

The loc parameter specifies the center coordinates of the center of the view and thez parameter at the end of the URL indicates the level of zoom.

Using these parameters, you can share specific views of your map with people, or even embed different views of a same map on your website.

Troubleshooting

If you or someone you share the map with sees a "This browser or computer isn't supported" error message when opening a map:

This is due to either:

1. WebGL not being enabled on the browser (most common)

2. The device or browser not supporting WebGL

To verify and fix:

1. Go to to verify WebGL is enabled. If enabled, you should see a spinning cube on this page:

1. Confirm graphics/hardware acceleration is enabled for your browser. Search “Enable WebGL in [browser + version]” to find the location of the setting.

   1. Chrome: available in chrome://settings/system
   2. Firefox: available in performance settings: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/performance-settings.

Commenting allows you to attach feedback directly to map locations, organize discussions in threads, and notify team members with @mentions. Share maps with customized viewing and editing permissions, then track feedback through the comment panel where conversations can be resolved and revisited. Comments maintain their location and zoom level, can be shared via direct links, work on mobile devices, and can be exported as georeferenced CSV or JSON files for further analysis.

Comments

Comments are a great way for other users to interact with and collaborate on your map. Add one by clicking on the comment button in the top-right corner of the toolbar, then clicking on your desired location in the map.

All unresolved comments are visible on the map and in the Comments list (toggle it on or off by clicking on the Comments button). Clicking on a comment in the list will take you to the same view that the commenter was seeing.

Public commenting

To allow public commenting, change the public access permissions in the Share menu (top-right corner).

When public commenting is enabled, both authenticated and anonymous viewers can post comments. Anonymous viewers may additionally add a name and an email to their comments.

Note that with public commenting enabled, anonymous viewers (users who are not logged into Felt) will be able to see other anonymous comments, but not the email addresses associated with them.

Using and managing comments

• Data layer features can be tagged in comments, which are included in comment exports

• Answer to another comment to start a thread

• Map owners will receive email notifications when someone comments on their maps

• Commenters will receive email notifications when someone responds to their comment

• Click the checkmark button on a comment or thread to resolve it.

• A can delete comments they've added

• A can delete any comments

Commenting from table view

Add, view, and navigate comments directly from the to create a connection between your map data and conversations, making it easier to discuss specific features while maintaining context of their attributes and related information.

To comment from the table:

• Select the layer you want to add comments to and click the table icon () in the to open the table

• Select a row in the table, right-click and choose the option to Add a comment...

• Type your comment and submit it to attach the comment to the selected feature

• Once comments are added, the table will update to include a comment column that shows which features have comments associated with them

• To sort features by number of comments, click on the column heading and select an option

There are a few different ways to interact with comments between the map and table view:

• When you select a comment on the map, Felt highlights the corresponding row in the table, creating a quick visual connection

• Clicking on the comment icon from a table row zooms to and expands that comment thread on the map

• The table remains open when commenting, allowing you to reference your data while discussing specific features

Exporting comments

You can download comments by clicking on the ... in the comment list. Only map editors can perform this action.

API access for comments

You can export comments programmatically from a map using the API endpoint for or resolve comments via the API using the endpoint to update comment status.

(STAC) use a common language to describe geospatial information, so it can more easily be worked with, indexed, and discovered.

The Add to Felt plugin bridges the analytical capabilities of QGIS with Felt's collaboration features, allowing you to share your QGIS projects with colleagues and clients. Simply install the plugin through QGIS's plugin manager, then use it to send your visible layers to Felt where you can control access permissions and invite others to view, comment on, or edit your maps. Felt ❤️ and we are proud to be a .