OSMnx · Basemaps & API textures (La Paz)
Drape satellite, street and WMS imagery over the Avenida Naciones Unidas, La Paz terrain. La Paz’s dramatic relief makes each basemap texture fetched through the imagery APIs (Esri, OpenStreetMap, CARTO, Mapbox, MapTiler, Stadia/Stamen, WMS) read clearly across the slopes, so it is the reference case for this workflow.
This walkthrough focuses on Step 5 — Basemap Texture of the Elevation panel and continues from Elevation, DEM & 3D terrain.
Before you begin
- Complete Elevation, DEM & 3D terrain so an OSMnx terrain mesh exists for the 2 km radius around Avenida Naciones Unidas, La Paz. The basemap controls only appear once a terrain object is present.
- Ensure Blender has internet access. The imagery APIs stream map tiles or a WMS image over the network.
- Mapbox, MapTiler and Stadia/Stamen require their own API keys, set in add-on preferences. Esri, OpenStreetMap, CARTO and most public WMS endpoints work without a key.
1. Why La Paz for basemaps
A basemap is fetched for the terrain’s geographic bounding box and UV-mapped onto the mesh, so it follows the elevation surface instead of lying flat. On gentle terrain the difference is subtle; on La Paz’s steep relief the imagery wraps over ridges and valleys, which makes it the clearest case to verify that the texture is georeferenced and aligned with the streets.
2. Choose an imagery source
Expand Step 5 — Basemap Texture and set Source. The dropdown is grouped by provider; each API exposes several styles, so you can pick the exact look that suits the scene (satellite, streets, dark, light, topographic, …).
No API key required
| Provider | Styles | API key |
|---|---|---|
| Esri | Satellite (Imagery), Streets, Topographic, Dark Gray Canvas, Light Gray Canvas, Ocean Base, Hillshade, Terrain Base | No |
| OpenStreetMap | OSM Standard, OpenTopoMap | No |
| CARTO | Voyager, Positron (Light), Dark Matter | No (fair-use) |
API key required (set in add-on preferences)
| Provider | Styles | API key |
|---|---|---|
| Mapbox | Satellite, Satellite Streets, Streets, Outdoors, Light, Dark | Mapbox token |
| MapTiler | Satellite, Satellite Hybrid, Streets, Topographic, Outdoor, Basic, Winter, Ocean | MapTiler key |
| Stadia / Stamen | Alidade Smooth (Light), Alidade Smooth Dark, Outdoors, Stamen Toner (B/W), Stamen Terrain, Stamen Watercolor | Stadia key |
Custom
| Source | Imagery | API key |
|---|---|---|
| Custom WMS | Any OGC WMS GetMap layer |
Depends on server |
For a first pass, Esri · Satellite (Imagery) gives high-resolution satellite imagery with no key. The minimal CARTO and Esri canvas styles (Positron, Dark Matter, Light/Dark Gray) work well as neutral backdrops for data overlays.
For key-bound providers (Mapbox, MapTiler, Stadia/Stamen), set the matching key in add-on preferences. When a key-bound source is selected without a key, the panel names the provider in a hint and the fetch is blocked until the key is provided.
3. Set zoom (tile sources)
For all tile sources (every provider except WMS), set Zoom. Higher zoom means more detail and more tiles to download. A live tile-count estimate is shown so you can balance detail against download size before fetching; very high zoom over the 2 km radius is capped to protect against accidental large requests. Some styles have a lower native maximum zoom and are clamped automatically.
4. Fetch and apply
Press Fetch & Apply. The add-on downloads the tiles (or the single WMS image), stitches them into one georeferenced image, and drapes it over the La Paz terrain using per-vertex UV mapping. The active source and its attribution are shown once the basemap is applied.
Fetching is cancellable. If you interrupt a long download, in-flight tile requests are dropped so Blender’s UI does not freeze.
5. Use a WMS layer
To use an institutional or national orthophoto service, set Source to WMS and fill in WMS URL and Layer. The add-on issues a single GetMap request in EPSG:4326 for the terrain’s bounding box, so the returned image maps linearly onto the mesh.
6. Compare and swap textures
Press Clear to remove the current basemap, then fetch a different source to compare them on the same relief — for example Esri satellite versus a CARTO Dark Matter backdrop versus a Stamen Watercolor style versus a WMS orthophoto. Downloaded tiles are cached, so re-fetching the same source and zoom is fast.
Next steps
This completes the OSMnx tutorials. Move on to the City2Graph tab with Import urban data.