[OSM-newbies] Starting with JOSM and OpenStreetMap in general

[graham]

Rick Collins wrote:
> I think this is what I don't understand.  Why do I need to "create" 
> nodes when I already have all these points collected from my 
> GPS?  Clearly I don't want to have to duplicate all of these 
> points?  Or are you saying that I need to trim them down to a minimum 
> that still follows the course of the road accurately?

Yes, that's it.

There are (at least) three reasons for this:

1. You may have a lot of gps points along a straight piece of road, 
which could be represented with just two nodes. Using the gps points as 
nodes would multiply the amount of storage needed hugely, as well as 
complicating things for any software which manipulates the nodes 
(renderers, route finders etc)

2. If all your gps points are along ways, you are lucky. In many cases 
the signal is weak (building shadows etc) and a proportion of the gps 
points are nowhere near where they should be. It takes a human who knows 
the place to look and decide which to keep

3. If like me you're on a bike weaving in an out of parked cars, traffic 
etc then your gps track may be quite accurate but still not really 
represent the road (eg make a straight road look curvy). Again, only a 
human can decide

But you don't need to edit the gps points at all, or delete any: you are 
kind of drawing over the top of them. Personally I find now I'm used to 
it typing in road names etc takes a lot longer than entering the nodes 
and joining them.

best
Graham

> 
> Like I said, the help file adequately explains the controls, so I 
> don't need that explained.
> 
> I do have one small advantage.  I have not used any of this before, 
> so I don't have to get over the hump of the changes this past weekend. :)
> 
> So if I am understanding this correctly, why would the software be 
> designed to not convert my data points to nodes automatically?  If I 
> have to hand edit all of this data, point by point, I am pretty sure 
> I won't be contributing to the database.
> 
> Oh, and I can't really view videos as I am on dialup.  Because of 
> that I don't even have Flash Player installed.  It is just too 
> painful waiting for videos to load.
> 
> 
> Rick
> 
> 
> At 01:13 PM 10/8/2007, you wrote:
>> Rick,
>>
>> The next step is to start creating the ways. use the GPS points only
>> as guides do not manipulate them.
>>
>> start by creating nodes 4th button on the left toolbar (keyboard short
>> cuts "N") and then join the nodes to create a way 5th button (keyboard
>> shotcut "G").
>>
>> Or you can click on the small triangle on the "Add button tool" and
>> select "add node and connect", this tool will create the node and
>> automaticly connect to the last node.
>>
>> check also http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/index.php/Beginners_Guide_1.3.1
>> if you find something missing please add it.
>>
>> and next operation is adding the tag to tell if the way you have
>> created is a motorway or primary way or other.
>>
>> please watch also the tutorial videos
>> http://josm.openstreetmap.de/wiki/TutorialVideos
>>
>> Remember that since yesterday there are no segments, you do not need
>> to create them as before.
>>
>> Alilo
>>
>>
>> On 10/8/07, Rick Collins <gnuarm.2006 at arius.com> wrote:
>>> Maybe this is just my frustration with coming up the learning curve,
>>> but I don't feel like the process of adding my GPS data to the world
>>> map is documented very well.  I have a set of data points I collected
>>> along some streets here and I want to add them to the database.  I
>>> have the most recent version of JOSM (today since the version I
>>> downloaded two days ago is not current enough).  I also downloaded
>>> the most recent version of Java from Sun.  I converted my GPS data to
>>> a GPX file using GPSBabel.  I imported the GPX file to JOSM and can
>>> see the various points collected.  But that is where it ends.  The
>>> data points show on the screen, but I can't manipulate them in any
>>> way.  At this point I am stuck.  All of the JOSM documentation just
>>> seems to explain the controls without explaining the process.  I have
>>> looked in the wiki for OSM and don't see much there except that I
>>> should use JOSM.
>>>
>>> What is the next step and where is this documented?
>>>
>>> Rick
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> newbies mailing list
>>> newbies at openstreetmap.org
>>> http://lists.openstreetmap.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/newbies
>>>
>> _______________________________________________
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