[Talk-us] offline OSM viewers for Windows, for Police/Fire?

Greg Troxel gdt at lexort.com
Mon Sep 12 23:26:38 UTC 2022


I have talked to my police department about OSM, particularly about
using it for trails in conservation areas relating to calls for lost or
injured hikers.

For this to be useful for them, the path is to start with something that
can run on Windows laptops in the patrols cars.  I don't use windows, so
I'm asking for advice about which program to recommend (since I don't
want to make a bad recommendation) to try.  (Yes, I know about OsmAnd
and Organic Maps and have pruned them from the initial steps -- I was
specifically asked for a Windows program.)

My take on requirements:

  - Free Software (I don't want to recommend anything proprietary, even
    if zero cost, because I don't want to try to run it myself)

  - can use pre-downloaded maps stored on the disk, and function without
    internet (basic robustness for emergency use).  Maps can be updated
    by just placing files on the computer, by an IT person, perhaps
    after downloading them on one machine.

  - can enter a marker by decimal degrees (e.g type in 42.12345 -71.67890
    as read by dispatch; that format can be extracted from the E-911
    system) of someone/someplace that needs help

  - can display current location assuming there is some GPS device (I'm
    unclear on that)

and very desirable:

  - either supports some topo/hiking style with contour lines, or can be
    set up for a locally written style
    
a plus for me:

  - works in WINE, or not Windows only and also runs on "reasonable
    POSIX systems" or macOS, but I expect this is already
    overconstrained

I would appreciate recommendations and especially to hear if anyone has
been down this road and how it worked out.  Feel free to unicast reply
if you aren't comfortable giving details in public and I can summarize
recommendations.

Thanks,
Greg
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