You now have an animated map using a KML file. On the Show History Option, click the arrow and set the "Mark to show history for" to All and select Both to plot trails and marks. On the Play Control, select the box "Show History" On the Marks Card, change the dropdown box from Line to Circles. Here is my custom map route imported into Tableau as a KML file.Īnimating the route is also pretty easy. You should now have a path mapping the points in the route. On the Marks Card, change the dropdown box from Automatic to Line. The steps for plotting the map in Tableau are pretty simple.ĭouble click Geometry and your custom points will be plotted on a map. Simply open a new data source in Tableau and select "Spatial file" and select the new file. You now have a KML file that is ready for import into Tableau.
KML file" checkbox and click the download button. Note - Tableau will only work with KML files that have a single map layer (at least as of Tableau 2018.2).Ĭheck the "Export to. Select the Map Layer in the dropdown box that has your points. This will be saved in your Google account for later (assuming you are logged in).Ĭlick on the 3 dots to the right of your map name for options and select "Export to KML/KMZ" (You can save as a KML or GeoJSON) You can click on "Untitled Map" to name your map. When you are done, simply click the last point a second time. The points will automatically sequence for you, which will be important when we import into Tableau.Īdd markers for all of the location points you wish to add. You can hold the CTRL key down to select multiple points quickly along a trail. Select the "Add Marker" icon on the toolbar.Ĭlick on the map for the location of the points that you wish to add. Select "Create New Map" and enter your starting location in the address bar. Here are the steps to create a custom route using Google. There is a great tool from Google that makes this very easy, and it's free.
I don't have a Fitbit or anything that tracks my location, so the first thing I needed to do was map the route. I have a short running/walking route through my neighborhood that I like (with a few variations). However, due to the structure of some of these files, you may wish to convert your files to a different format.
In fact, once imported into Tableau a simple double-click of the Geometry pill will plot the spatial file on a map. This is very handy and makes it very easy to import and create a map. This includes shapefiles (polygon, line and points), GeoJSON and KML files. Tableau has the ability to import and plot a number of spatial file types. Importing and Converting Spatial Files for Tableau