How to Move a Vehicle or 3D Model Along a Route
There are two ways to put something on the move in Mapimator. Every car, motorcycle, train, ship, bike, and plane route carries a vehicle that travels the line as it draws. For anything else, there is a library of 71 3D models, from fighter jets and tanks to ships and landmarks, that you can place, give a path, and set moving. This guide covers both.
6 min read · Updated October 2, 2026
What you'll learn
- Add a route and pick the vehicle that travels it
- Switch a vehicle between 3D, Flat, and Badge and use the white route outline
- Place a 3D model, draw a path for it, and choose how it moves
- Preview flights, ground moves, and missile strikes
Step-by-step guide
- 1
Add a route
Select the slide where the route should appear, then click Route in the toolbar over the map. A straight blue line is added at the center of the map, with a small bar beside it. Click More to open the route's settings on the right. Start Point and Destination are at the top: search for your two places, and the line follows them.
- 2
Pick a travel mode
At the top of the route's settings, Travel Mode decides what kind of line it is and which vehicle rides it. Car, Moto, and Bike follow real roads and paths, Train follows land corridors between the stops, Sea follows open water and avoids land, and Air draws an arc. Walk follows footpaths. Direct draws a straight line and File uses a GPX, KML, or GeoJSON track; both of those end in an arrowhead instead of a vehicle.
- 3
Choose how the vehicle looks
Under Vehicle, Style has three settings. 3D is a low-poly model, Flat is a white top-down silhouette with a soft shadow, and Badge is a round marker. Air routes offer 3D and Flat only. Under Line you can change the line's color, opacity, and width. White outline, on by default, adds a white casing under the line so it stays readable on any map; switch it off for a plain line. The vehicle travels the line as it draws, so the Duration slider under the route's animation settings is its speed. It runs from 0.5 to 10 seconds.
- 4
Add a 3D model
For anything that is not on a route, click 3D in the toolbar. Pick a category tab and click a model. It is placed at the center of the map and its settings open on the right. The library has 71 models in eight categories: Vehicles, Aircraft, Missiles, Ships, Soldiers, Buildings, Landmarks, and Travel and nature. Use the Size slider to set how large it appears on screen; the jet in this guide is set to 36 px.
- 5
Draw its path
On the Timing tab of the model's settings, open Movement and click Draw a path on the map, then click the map to add stops after the model's starting point. Each stop is numbered. Drag a stop to move it and right-click it to remove it, and leave Round the corners ticked for a smooth curve. Click Done when you have finished. Add more stops later with the Add more stops button.
- 6
Choose how it moves
How it moves has four styles. Ground travels along the surface, and can follow Roads or Sea lanes instead of straight lines. Flight takes off, cruises, banks into turns, and lands, with Altitude for how high it cruises. Strike is a missile arc that dives onto the last stop. Bomb falls from the sky onto its target. Aircraft start on Flight, missiles on Strike, and everything else on Ground. Starts after and Travel time set the timing, Speed switches between Ease in and out and Steady, On arrival can be Stay, Fade out, or Explode, and Trail draws a solid or dashed line behind it.
- 7
Preview it
Click Play Preview. The model appears, waits for its Starts after time, then travels the path facing the way it goes, with the trail drawn behind it. A flying model climbs, cruises, and banks through the turns. Adjust the stops or the timing and play it again until it feels right.
- 8
Try a strike
Missiles and bombs are built for impact. Place a Cruise Missile from the Missiles tab, draw one stop as its target, and it defaults to Strike with a solid trail and an Explode ending. The missile arcs up, dives onto the stop, and a low-poly explosion plays with a fireball and debris. The Aerial Bomb drops onto its own spot with no path at all.
Interactive walkthrough coming soon
A visual step-by-step guide with annotated screenshots will be available here. In the meantime, follow the written steps above or watch the video tutorials.
Watch video tutorials →Pro tips
- Free accounts can place four models: Tank, Fighter Jet, Soldier, and Castle. The rest need Pro and show a PRO badge in the picker. Route vehicles and the movement controls are available on every plan.
- Use a route when the vehicle should travel between two places you can search for and follow real roads or shipping lanes. Use a model when you want to draw the path by hand, or need a jet, a ship, a missile, or a landmark.
- A dark base map suits the white plane and white trails. The clip at the top of this guide uses a dark map style with a light blue route. On a pale map, a white trail has little contrast, so pick a darker trail color or a darker route color.
- Starts after counts from the moment the model appears on its slide, so place the model on the slide where the move should happen. Scale with map, in the model's settings, makes it grow as the camera zooms in instead of keeping a fixed size on screen.