Why does the tile size vary in HERE Maps?

Symptoms / Triggers:

1. You see different coverage areas when using HERE map tiles at different zoom levels.
2. You're trying to calculate the ground size of a tile but the size in meters or degrees doesn’t match your expectations.
3. You’re working with road-based layers (e.g., speed limits) and notice that the tile size changes between functional classes (FC1 to FC5).

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Quick Answer:

In HERE Maps, the tile size is defined by the zoom level of the layer, not a fixed geographic size. The ground size of a tile changes depending on the latitude and the zoom level used.

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Step-by-step actions:

1. Determine the tile level for road-based layers:

For road link-based layers, use the formula:

 tile level = road functional class + 8 

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Example: *_FC1 layers use level 9, *_FC2 use level 10, and so on (see the example table in the system answer for full FC levels).
2.Understand the tile’s geographic size in degrees:

The tile’s width in degrees is given by:

 degrees per tile = 360 / (2^level) 

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Example for level 10: 360 / 2^10 = 0.3515625 degrees.
3.Convert degrees to ground size (in meters) if needed:

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One degree in latitude is approximately 111,320 meters, so multiply degrees per tile by 111,320 to get approximate width in meters.
Remember that longitude degrees change in value with latitude, becoming smaller near the poles.
4.Check the layer metadata for non-road based or custom layers:

Use the tileLevels property in the layer’s metadata to determine the zoom level and tiling pattern.
Use the following API to get details about a layer:

 https://smap.hereapi.com/v8/maps/layers/doc.html?layer=LAYER_NAME&apiKey=YOUR_API_KEY 

5.List available layers and their tile levels:

Use this API to see all layers and their properties for a given map:

 https://smap.hereapi.com/v8/maps/layers/list.html?mapName=WEU&mapType=1&apiKey=YOUR_API_KEY 

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Applies to:

HERE Map Attributes API v8
HERE Route Matching API
Tiled content in HERE data products
Road-based layers (e.g., speed limits, traffic patterns, traffic signs)
Layers with tile-based partitions (e.g., HD Live Map)

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Tags:

tile-size
zoom-level
map-attributes-api
road-functional-class
layer-metadata
wgs84-degrees
tile-coverage
* map-tiles