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Import a Custom Map

If you have your own MBTiles map -- something you made, something a surveyor gave you, something from another chart source -- you can bring it into Bristol Maps and use it as an overlay like any downloaded layer.

Getting to the page

From the Offline Maps tab, open the Available Maps list and tap Custom Map in the toolbar.

The page is titled Custom Map and opens on Add Custom Map: Import an MBTiles overlay map from a URL or a local file on your device.

Two buttons at the top choose which way you're going:

  • Download from URL
  • Select Local File

Import from a local file

  1. Tap Select Local File.
  2. Tap Choose File. The file picker opens with the title Select MBTiles Map File.
  3. Pick your .mbtiles file. The filename appears under Selected: and the map name is filled in from it if you haven't typed one.
  4. Check or edit Map Name.
  5. Optionally add a Description and a Tide Height (ft).
  6. Tap Import Map.

The button reads "Importing..." while it works, then confirms with Map imported successfully! and returns you to the previous screen.

Map Name is required

The import refuses to run without a map name -- you'll get Missing Information: Please enter a map name.

Import from a URL

  1. Tap Download from URL.
  2. Fill in Map Name, the Download URL (e.g. https://example.com/map.mbtiles), and a Description.
  3. Optionally set Tide Height (ft).
  4. Tap Download Map.

All three fields are required for a URL import

Unlike the local-file path, the URL import checks that Map Name, Download URL, and Description are all filled in. If any is blank you'll get "Please fill ensure all fields are filled in".

Tide height

Tide Height (ft) is marked optional. It is the reference tide level the imagery was captured at -- the same number the app shows on catalog maps. Fill it in if you know it; it makes the map sortable and filterable alongside everything else, and tells you later what water you were looking at.

Supported formats

The page's own Supported Formats note says it plainly:

MBTiles (.mbtiles) -- Standard map tile format. Other formats must be converted before importing.

Nothing else is read directly. GeoTIFF, KAP, ECW and the rest have to be converted to MBTiles first with a tool like GDAL or QGIS.

It's a SQLite file

MBTiles is a SQLite database, so on some platforms the file picker will show .sqlite and .db alongside .mbtiles. Pick the one you actually mean.

After importing

The map joins your local map list and behaves like any other layer -- switch it on for the navigation page, and set its priority and transparency there.

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