[Talk-us] JOSM zoom limits per server solved (fixes Tiger grey overlay )

[Alan Millar]

Maybe everyone else knows this, but I just discovered it myself so I
thought I would share it.

I've been using Remap-a-tron to fix up US roads.  I use both the Bing
imagery and the TIGER 2012 tiles overlaid, and it makes it really
useful.

However, I've been frustrated that I can pretty far in with the Bing
images, but if I go too far, the Tiger (normally transparent) tiles turn
grey and obscure the Bing images.  I've been continually turning off and
back on the Tiger layer, which is a bit annoying after a while.

JOSM has an easy limit in the Preferences for the maximum zoom, but it
affects everything.  I set it to 19, and then I did not get the grey
boxes from Tiger, but did not get the higher detailed photos from Bing
either.

As it turns out, JOSM does have a max-zoom per tile server feature; it
just is not obvious or clearly documented that I could find.

You can enter it as part of the TMS url like this:

tms[19]:http://{switch:a,b,c}.tile.openstreetmap.us/tiger2012_roads/{zoom}/{x}/{y}.png

The number 19, right up front, says that the maximum zoom to use for
this layer is 19.  This solved the whole thing for me.

I also found that if you go into Josm preferences in expert mode, and
dig and dig and dig into the imagery providers entries, this is labeled
as max-zoom.  Too bad it isn't easier to find.

Anyways, hope this helps others too.

- Alan