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3D Maps in Excel

Article byMadhuri Thakur
Reviewed byDheeraj Vaidya, CFA, FRM

What are Excel 3D Maps?

3D map is a new feature provided by excel in its latest versions of 2016 and so on. It is a feature to introduce maps feature in the excel graph axis in three dimensions. It is an extremely useful tool provided by excel which is like an actual functional map. In excel 3D maps, we represent the data either on a globe that can either be international or on smaller scales. It is totally dependent on the type of data.

3D Maps in Excel

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How to use 3D Maps in Excel?

You can download this 3D Maps Excel Template here – 3D Maps Excel Template

Example #1

Let us consider the following data,

Here we have city names of different locations and have the total number of hospitals available in each city and how many hospitals are those hospitals where cancer can be treated. We will try to plot this data on a 3D map using the 3D map feature provided by excel.

  1. First, select the data we need to plot.


    3D Maps Excel Example 1

  2. In the Insert tabInsert TabIn excel “INSERT” tab plays an important role in analyzing the data. Like all the other tabs in the ribbon INSERT tab offers its own features and tools. Under Insert Tab we have several other groups including tables, illustration, add-ins, charts, Power map, sparklines, filters, etc.read more, click on 3D maps under the tours category.


    3D Maps Excel Example 1-1

  3. A dialog box opens up, like the one below.


    3D Maps Excel Example 1-2

  4. Click on open 3D maps, and we see another set of options,


    3D Maps Excel Example 1-3

  5. As I already have a few open in my excel file, so it is showing some additional tours. We need to click on the New tour button provided.


    3D Maps Excel Example 1-4

  6. We need to may wait for a few seconds, and then another excel windows pop up, which looks something like this,


    3D Maps Excel Example 1-5

  7. Click on the new scene in the scenes tab provided.


    3D Maps Excel Example 1-6

  8. It provides us with three options, and we can choose any one of them,


    3D Maps Excel Example 1-7

  9. Let us choose the first one, which is copy scene 1. And on the left-hand side of the window, we can see a box for the scene created.


    3D Maps Excel Example 1-8

  10. Now, we have different field lists, as we saw in the raw data above, displayed on the right-hand side of the window.


    3D Maps Excel Example 1-9

  11. We need to drag the column headers in the respective fields. First drag city into–>Location.

  12. Now drag a number of hospitals in the heights section, and the number of cancer hospitals has been dragged to the category field.


    3D Maps Excel Example 1-10

  13. While we make these changes, we can see that the Legend entry is changing.


    3D Maps Excel Example 1-11

  14. Now, our 3d Map for the above data is generated.


    3D Maps Excel Example 1-12

We can make specific changes in the 3D Map as our requirements.

Example #2

The above data we took was on a smaller scale. Now let us look at the data on a bigger scale, i.e., on the international level. Have a look at the below data.

3D Maps Excel Example 2

We have the above data for five different countries to import and export revenues for the current year. We will represent this data in a geographical globe.

  • Step 1 – The first thing we need to do is select the data to give ranges to the 3d Maps.
3D Maps Excel Example 2-1
  • Step 2 – Now, in the Insert tab under the tours section, click on 3D maps.
3D Maps Excel Example 2-2
  • Step 3 – A wizard box opens up for 3D maps, which gives us two options,
3D Maps Excel Example 2-3
  • Step 4 – Click on Open 3D maps, and we can see that different templates have been created earlier. Click on the new tour.
Example 2-4
  • Step 5 – Click on New scene from the scenes button.
Example 2-5
  • Step 6 – It will provide us with three options. We will choose the world map as it is international data.
Example 2-6
  • Step 7 – On the left-hand side, we can see that scene two is created for us.
Example 2-7
  • Step 8 – Whereas on the right-hand side, we have our field lists. Drag each one of them in the order.
Example 2-8

(Note: The range for previous data is also visible as this Map is also created in the same workbook)

  • Step 9 – Drag the country to the location box.
  • Step 10 – Now drag export & import in billions of data to category and height, respectively,
Example 2-9
  • Step 11 – Now, we can see that the 3D Map for the above data has been created around the globe.
Example 2-10

We can also hover our mouse to see the different parts of the globe to see the different values of data. We can make changes to axis or data and click on refresh data to see changes in the Map as per our requirements.

Things to Remember

  1. 3D map is not available in excel 2013 or lower version.
  2. It can be used for smaller scales of data or on a bigger scale or an international scale.
  3. 3D maps are used to demonstrate data in location format.
  4. We can use the custom image or global Map provided by excel to represent the data.

Recommended Articles

This has been a guide to 3D Maps in Excel. Here we will learn how to make 3D Maps in Excel and some practical examples and a downloadable excel template. You may learn more about excel from the following articles –

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