[OSM-newbies] Polylines vs Polygons

[John-Michael Wiley]

Thanks, that helps a lot.

Is there an  API or a DB maintained somewhere to get the feature types defined on that wiki page and their element types? 

Sincerely,
J.M. Wiley

-----Original Message-----
From: newbies-bounces at openstreetmap.org [mailto:newbies-bounces at openstreetmap.org] On Behalf Of Craig Wallace
Sent: Monday, December 06, 2010 9:53 AM
To: newbies at openstreetmap.org
Subject: Re: [OSM-newbies] Polylines vs Polygons

On 06/12/2010 16:51, John-Michael Wiley wrote:
> What about feature types like natural or power which don’t seem to have a default type? For those should you always set the area='yes'.

This depends on the specific tag.
Check the Map Features page on the wiki, it specifies which tags can be used on ways, and which on areas. Look at the symbols in the column for
"element": http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Map_Features

eg natural=wood can only apply to nodes or areas, so any closed way is obviously an area, so no need to specify this.
Whereas natural=cliff can apply to nodes, ways or areas. So if mapping it as an area (with a closed way), its a good idea to specify area=yes. 
Or if you are mapping a circular cliff as a way, probably also helpful to set area=no on it.

Also for the power tags, things like power=line can only apply to ways. 
Whereas power=generator, power=substation can only apply to nodes and areas, so no need to set area=yes.


Craig

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