Azure Maps Forum

Question

Azure Maps has an MSDN forum here: https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/forums/en-us/home?forum=azurelbs&filter=alltypes&sort=lastpostdesc

StackOverflow here: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/azure-maps

Answer 1

Since you are using Azure, why not use Azure Maps instead. Its Microsoft's newer enterprise mapping platform which is a part of Azure. Azure Maps has higher free limits which exceed what you get with the "Public Website Transactions Level 2" with Bing Maps. 

Here are some useful resources:

• Main site: https://azure.com/maps
• Documentation: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-maps/
• Code Sample Gallery: https://aka.ms/AzureMapsSamples

Answer 2

Also worth mentioning that the Azure Maps routing service supports up to 150 waypoints in a request. Here are some relevant resources: 

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/rest/api/maps/route/getroutedirections

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-maps/how-to-manage-account-keys

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-maps/

https://azure.com/maps

Answer 3

The Bing Maps terms of use only allow storing geocode result details. 

I recommend taking a look at Azure Maps. It allows caching of aby data for up to 6 months and storage of results in Azure for a lot longer. Applying your questions to Azure Maps, here are the answers:

1. Yes, up to 6 months if your database is not in Azure. Longer if your database is in Azure.

2. Detailed coverage information can be found here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-maps/geocoding-coverage

3. There are many point of interest categories oyu can filter on. Here is a complete list: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-maps/supported-search-categories

Here are some useful resources on Azure Maps: 

• Main page: https://azure.com/maps
• Documentation: https://aka.ms/AzureMapsDocs
• Samples: https://aka.ms/AzureMapsSamples

Answer 4

You might want to take a look at Azure Maps. It provides simple extruded building models in its platform. These are exposed as part of their vector tile layers for their base maps. You can check these out in this sample: https://azuremapscodesamples.azurewebsites.net/index.html?sample=Map%20style%20options Zoom in close to a major city and check the "show building models" button. You can use the right mouse button to rotate and pitch the map view. 

Vector tiles are a newer map data format which makes it easy to retrieve base map data globally at different resolutions (zoom levels). The building models consist of some building footprint data combined with height data. Some models are more detailed than others. There is a lot more improvements in the works for this data set as well, so it will only be getting better in the near future. 

I just checked, there is building data in Amsterdam. If you don't see it, try zooming in closer. At the moment you have to be really close for them to load (something we are working on).