[Talk-GB] Mapping from a survey

David Woolley forums at david-woolley.me.uk
Fri May 13 10:11:15 UTC 2022


On 13/05/2022 10:51, Mark Goodge wrote:
> Can anyone suggest a good way to go about that? I've never mapped from a 
> survey before, and I don't really know what the process is. Are there 
> apps for a phone which I can use to trace lines that I can then transfer 
> to OSM later?

Mapping from a survey is actually the gold standard way of mapping, and 
the ability of the general public to do it was what made OSM possible!

Any good dedicated satellite navigator should be able to log tracks.

Considering Android, I use OSMTracker, for raw track collection, Keypad 
Mapper for house numbers (although I've not used it in a while, and it 
comes up with a warning about being built for an old Android), and 
Vespucci as a full function editor.  The first can directly upload 
tracks, although I generally save to a local file. I've never looked 
into track support on Vespucci.

I use JOSM as the main editor, and it can read tracks from local files 
or from the server and use them as a background for mapping.  You should 
not upload the raw track to form the feature, but rather simplify it and 
smooth it based on what your eyes told you.

You can of course use other methods, like pacing or laser range finding 
distances, triangulation, measuring photographs, etc.



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