# Map Layers

#### Accessing the Layers Panel

Click the **Layers** button in the top-right corner of the map view. The Map Layers panel appears on the right side of the map, organizing available layers into categories. Each layer shows a count of items currently on the map (e.g., "Competitors 4" or "All Stores 90"). Click any layer to toggle its visibility, or use **Show All** / **Hide All** to control entire categories at once

#### Managing Available Layers

To customize which layers appear in your legend, click the **Manage Layers** button at the bottom of the Map Layers panel. This opens the layer management settings, where you can enable or disable layers for your legend. Disabled layers won't appear in the Map Layers panel but can be re-enabled at any time.

#### Layer Categories

**Area & Traffic**

Visualize geographic context and movement patterns around a site.

* **Trade Area** — Displays the boundary of your selected trade zone. Updates automatically when you change your trade area settings.
* **Local Traffic** — Shows vehicle traffic counts on roads. More detailed data populates as you zoom in, displaying average daily vehicle counts on street segments.

**Places**

Display points of interest for your competitive landscape.

* **Points of Interest (POI)** — All nearby businesses, including your configured competitors (Avoid), complements (Drawn), and neutral tracked brands/categories. Use the **Foot Traffic** and **Tracked** filter toggles to show only POIs matching those criteria.

**Zoning**

Visualize zoning designations to understand land use regulations and development potential around a site.

* **Residential** — Areas zoned for residential development and housing.
* **Commercial** — Areas designated for commercial and retail activities.
* **Industrial** — Zones allocated for industrial and manufacturing uses.
* **Mixed Use** — Areas that allow a combination of residential, commercial, and other uses.
* **Agricultural** — Land zoned for farming and agricultural purposes.
* **Public** — Areas designated for public facilities and government uses.
* **Recreational** — Zones set aside for parks, recreation, and open space.
* **Other** — Zoning categories that don't fall into the standard classifications.

Each zoning type can be toggled individually to focus on specific land use patterns relevant to your site analysis. Use the **Show All** / **Hide All** toggle to control the entire Zoning category at once.

**Your Locations**

Display your store portfolio and related analysis.

* **Cannibalization** — Trade areas of nearby existing stores that may overlap with a potential new site.
* **All Stores** — Every location in your existing store database.
* **Filtered Stores** — Only stores matching your current filter criteria.

**Deal Stages**

Display deals on the map grouped by pipeline stage. Each stage is a separate toggleable layer showing deal count. Use **Show All** / **Hide All** to control the entire category, or toggle individual stages to focus on specific parts of your pipeline.

**Custom Layers**

Custom layers you've created or imported appear here and can be toggled like any other layer.

**Territories**

Territory boundaries you've defined appear as a separate category and can be toggled independently from custom layers.

#### Custom Layers & Territories

To create and manage custom layers, navigate to **My Layers** in the left sidebar under Manage. From the My Layers & Territories page, you can:

* Click **+ New Layer** to create a custom map layer
* Click **Import Layer** to upload an existing map file
* Click **Create Territory** to define territory boundaries

Custom layers you create will appear in the Custom Layers section of the Map Layers panel and can be toggled like any other layer.

#### Customizing Feature Colors and Icons

When editing a custom layer, you can style each feature individually by clicking on it to open the feature panel.

**Colors**

All feature types (points, lines, and polygons) support per-feature color customization:

* Select from a set of preset colors (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, brown, gray).
* Click the **+** button to open a full color picker and choose any custom color.
* Features without a specified color default to **blue** for shapes and lines, and **red** for point markers.

It is best practice to specify a color for each feature so your layer renders consistently.

**Icons (point features only)**

Point markers support a custom icon in addition to a custom color:

* Click the icon dropdown to open the icon picker.
* Choose from icon categories — **Shapes** (circle, star, heart, square), **Places** (pin, store, house, car), and **Other** (flag, person, warning).
* Icons are previewed as circles inside the layer editor but will display as your chosen icon on all other maps.
* The default icon is a **circle**.

***

### Importing Layers

The **Import Layer** feature allows you to upload existing map files to use as custom layers in GrowthFactor.

#### Supported File Formats

You can import layers in the following formats:

* **GeoJSON** (.geojson, .json) — Geographic data in JSON format
* **KML** (.kml) — Keyhole Markup Language files from Google Earth and other mapping tools
* **KMZ** (.kmz) — Compressed KML files
* **CSV** (.csv) — Comma-separated values files with latitude and longitude columns, imported as point layers

**File size limit:** 50MB per file

#### How to Import a Layer

1. Navigate to **My Layers** in the left sidebar under Manage
2. Click the **Import Layer** button
3. Drag and drop your file into the upload area, or click to browse for a file
4. Review the auto-populated layer name (based on the filename)
5. Edit the layer name if desired
6. Click **Import Layer**

The layer will be processed and added to your Custom Layers. You can then toggle it on and off from the Map Layers panel like any other layer.

#### Import Requirements

* Files must be in one of the supported formats (.geojson, .json, .kml, .kmz, .csv)
* Files must be under 50MB
* The file must contain valid geographic data
* **CSV files** must include latitude and longitude columns. Accepted column names include: `latitude`/`lat`/`y` for latitude and `longitude`/`lon`/`long`/`lng`/`x` for longitude. Rows with missing or invalid coordinates are skipped automatically.

#### After Import

Once imported, your custom layer:

* Appears in the Custom Layers section of the Map Layers panel
* Can be toggled on and off like any other layer
* Remains available across all your mapping sessions
* Can be managed from the My Layers & Territories page

***

Layer visibility settings do not affect underlying data or calculations—they only control what's displayed on the map.