Traditional map tile generation is executed in a single process. With technological advancements, map data has entered the era of massive volumes. Generating digital map tiles (hereafter referred to as tiling) often requires extensive time. For instance, generating multi-scale tiles for a nationwide map with dozens of layers on a standard workstation may take several weeks.

To improve tiling efficiency and rationally utilize computer system resources, provides multi-process tile generation functionality. This feature supports initiating multiple processes on a single computer to execute map cache tasks, as well as deploying multiple processes across multiple computers to acquire and execute subtasks. The multi-process approach maximizes hardware utilization and integrates distributed parallel processing to enhance tiling efficiency, online map service stability, and reliability.

Principles of Multi-Process Tile Generation

Multi-process tile generation divides map tiling tasks into subtasks based on map scales and geographic ranges. These divided tasks are then deployed through shared directories. The output supports both local tile storage and MongoDB database storage.

Key Considerations for Multi-Process Tile Generation

When executing multi-process tiling in desktop software, note the following:

• Data Source Read-Only: During multi-process tiling, each process concurrently accesses data sources associated with map layers. To prevent resource conflicts, set data sources to read-only mode using the "Reopen as Read-Only" option in the data source context menu before execution, then save the workspace.
• Task Splitting: The target map must be divided into multiple tiling tasks. The system generates a master tile configuration file (master .sci file) based on user-defined tile scales and bounds. Multiple sub-.sci files are then derived from this master file to ensure independent, non-overlapping tasks for different processes.
• Shared Workspace Directory: Task splitting produces a working directory containing both the master .sci file and subdivided sub-.sci files for tile storage management.