[OSM-newbies] Converting GPS tracks to ways

[James Ewen]

On Mon, Mar 24, 2008 at 9:12 AM, Andy Robinson (blackadder)
<blackadderajr at googlemail.com> wrote:

> The process is not automatic. If it was we would have all our ways
> consisting of too many (or two few) nodes. Generally speaking its always
> necessary to draw your nodes and create ways over the top of the uploaded
> GPX track.

Okay, what is the purpose of the edit hyperlink on the GPS traces page?

In my understanding, I would go out, collect GPS data for a road, and
then have that converted to a locked way, which I would then edit to a
usuable way that would then be submitted to the database.

Here's a quote from the Wiki:

"You can upload tracklogs from your GPS receiver, using the 'GPS
traces' tab on the site. Once you've done this, you can trace along
them to draw your ways, or even automatically turn them into ways -
though, in that case, you'll need to clean them up a bit, as raw
traces can be untidy and inaccurate."

Here are the instructions:

******

Working with one continuous track:

Find the track using the 'GPS traces' tab on the main site, then click
the 'edit' link next to it.

Potlatch will open with the track and any waypoints ready-loaded.
(This only works with recently uploaded, uncompressed tracks.)

If you like, you can automatically turn it into ways. To do this,
click the 'Track' button after the light blue line has appeared.

Split, tag, and tidy up the ways as usual. Make sure to delete
duplicates (twice along the same road), and to put junctions in
(sharing points with other roads).

These ways and waypoints are 'locked', meaning they won't be written
to the server until you've finished tidying them. To unlock them,
click the padlock by the way number (bottom left).

******

Either I should be able to do this, or the Wiki needs to be edited to
remove these instructions...

> There is a tool in JOSM that allows you to convert a sparse point GPX track
> to a way but that is to be used sparingly and generally its only of use for
> long distance routes across mapping wilderness.

I have JOSM, but have not yet figured out how to do anything in it at
all... what is considered a sparse GPX track? Is there a maximum
number of points that can be used? 50, 100, 1000?

We did a sample track of 180 datapoints over 1.8 km so that we didn't
have a huge tracklog that would cause a problem.

I am in Canada... just about everything around here are long distance
routes across mapping wilderness. There are high resolution aerial
photos of my local area, but 3 miles away, the aerial photos are just
about useless. GPS mapping is necessary to get decent maps of the
area. You can not even see the roads in the trees on the poor
resolution images.

James