Atlas

Atlas positions active spatial layouts in one project-space canvas and switches between overview and detail maps as you zoom. Open Atlas from the Workspace section of the sidebar or from the Spatial page.

Create from Atlas

Right-click the Atlas canvas to create a New node or New spatial layout without visiting another page first. The node form can create only the node or create the node and its spatial layout together. The spatial-layout form asks for an existing owner or lets you create one in the same form.

A project with no spatial layouts shows Create your first place and New spatial layout in the empty Atlas, even when the project already has a Canvas. Create your first place opens the node form. Create + spatial layout is selected by default. Use New spatial layout to choose an existing owner or create one in the layout form. After Weave creates the spatial layout, it opens that layout so you can add geometry or an image. Return to Atlas and place the layout after it has spatial content.

Read the Atlas

Atlas draws a solid outline around each map in the current view. Drag empty canvas space to pan. Use the zoom controls to move closer or farther away, and choose Fit all to bring every placed layout into view.

The zoom control also includes Automatic layout switching and Nearby layout outlines. Turn off automatic switching to keep the selected map while you pan or zoom; choose a dashed outline or Focus on layout to switch maps yourself. Turn off nearby outlines to hide the dashed next-detail and adjacent map cues. Both settings are on by default and save to your Weave account.

Each layout has a detail scale measured in the project’s configured units per screen centimetre. As you get close, Atlas marks every readable map at the next detail level with a dashed outline and a +. Deeper and far-away detail footprints stay hidden. Select a marker to center that map and zoom far enough to enter it. When an active detail map sits under the center of the view, it replaces overlapping overview maps. Atlas does not leave the overview image stretched behind it.

At the current detail level, adjacent maps appear as quieter dashed footprints behind the active map. Select anywhere inside an adjacent footprint to switch to it. Atlas keeps the current zoom and moves only far enough to place the view center safely inside the selected map.

Current view lists the maps being drawn. Other scales lists maps that need more zoom or sit outside the current scene. Use Focus on layout to center any listed map and move close enough to show it.

The coordinate readout at the lower-left shows the project-space position under the cursor in the configured unit, including coordinates beyond the browser’s safe integer range. The scale beside the zoom controls shows how many configured units fit in one screen centimetre, such as 18.9 m/cm.

Select a solid outline or a layout name to open that spatial layout. Atlas follows the same layout availability rules as the rest of Weave: deleted layouts and spatial layouts whose owner is unavailable at the viewed project time do not appear.

Move a layout

Choose Arrange to show the footprint of every on-screen placed layout. Drag anywhere inside a footprint to move that whole layout in project space. The new placement saves when you release the pointer. Local geometry and the layout’s own viewport do not change.

Choose Arrange again or press Esc when you are done. In normal Atlas mode, linked geometry stays clickable instead of acting as a drag surface.

A layout with spatial content appears under Ready to place until it has an Atlas placement. Use the pin action to place it at the center of the current Atlas view, choose Arrange, then drag it into position. Empty layouts remain under No spatial content yet until you add geometry or an image. Atlas derives the outline from saved content. Placed content layers are enabled by default. Atlas starts loading an on-screen map shortly before it appears.

The outline refits automatically when content changes and follows the exact content bounds. Atlas expands only an axis with no extent, such as either axis of a point-only layout, to five of that layout’s grid cells so the outline remains findable. Refit does not change the saved Atlas placement.

Configure coordinates and scale

Choose Coordinates to name the project’s universal spatial unit. One integer coordinate step equals one configured unit throughout the project. Changing the unit label does not rescale saved geometry, layout grids, or Atlas placements. Configure grid geometry and cell size from the Grid control inside each spatial layout.

Atlas placement is translation only. Every spatial layout therefore keeps the same unit size and axis orientation. Canvas zoom affects only display size.

Compare layout content

Use the eye controls to enable or hide a placed layout’s geometry on Atlas. Weave remembers hidden layouts for this project in the current browser. Hidden layouts do not activate or replace broader maps.

Atlas calculates an automatic detail scale from each layout’s current bounds: the longest side activates when it occupies about ten screen centimetres. Use the detail-scale action beside a layout to keep this automatic value or enter a custom units/cm threshold. A smaller threshold activates closer in. Automatic values change as content changes; custom values remain fixed.

When active maps overlap at the center of the view, Atlas keeps the closest detail and removes the broader map from the current view. If custom scales match, the smaller layout takes precedence. This does not change the order of features inside a layout. While panning, Atlas keeps the current detail map for a small screen-space buffer past its footprint. This lets nearby detail maps take precedence over a broader overview during handoff. A nested detail map can still replace the current map as soon as it becomes active under the center.

Atlas keeps each feature in its source layout and translates its saved local coordinates by that layout’s Atlas placement. It preserves style, image, validity, and internal drawing order. It does not merge duplicate representations: if two layouts both draw the same graph node, both shapes remain visible.

Select linked geometry to open its node, relationship, or layout. Unlinked geometry is decoration and does not claim a graph identity. Feature and layout availability follow the current project time, except that an All time layout continues to use its all-time behavior.

Choose Query visible layers to open the existing Query page with the layouts active at the current scale as one scope. The scope contains the deduplicated union of their member nodes. Connected queries stay strictly inside that union; ordinary graph relationships can cross from one selected layout’s members to another’s.

Understand overlap

Layout bounds may overlap or share a border. Detail precedence changes drawing order only; it does not create graph topology, membership, or adjacency. Two maps that touch are still independent until you create explicit graph relationships or navigation links.

To make an empty layout placeable, open it and draw a feature.