[OSM-talk] "OSMBabel" - a universal OSM-to-other-formats application

[Steve Chilton]

I was at SoC and heard the requests for data outputs, etc. I am in
complete ignorance of how the database is structured, but will make the
following point of principle. At present if I want to get a dataset of
the motorway coverage of UK I would have to download a huge amount of
data from web, through JOSM (in stages) and output to a data file with
all the other "redundant" data still intact and taking filespace
(correct me if I am wrong). What would be better would be the ability to
interrogate and filter the data first in order to pull out only the ways
tagged with specific characteristics (eg tag or combination of tags),
and perhaps combined with some bounding box or other area delimiting
tool. Then have the option to either render that output into map-like
form OR output to other (selectable) format - eg shapefile, AI, xml,
csv, pdf or whatever. The GPSbabel parallel is a good one to consider -
multiple inputs and outputs. Web app through GUI would make it much more
usable than command line approach.

Cheers
STEVE

Steve Chilton, Learning Support Fellow
Learning and Technical Support Unit Manager
School of Health and Social Sciences
Middlesex University
phone/fax: 020 8411 5355
email: steve8 at mdx.ac.uk

Chair of the Society of Cartographers:
http://www.soc.org.uk/
2006 SoC Summer School at Keele Uni:
http://www.esci.keele.ac.uk/soc/


-----Original Message-----
From: talk-bounces at openstreetmap.org
[mailto:talk-bounces at openstreetmap.org] On Behalf Of Nick Whitelegg
Sent: Tuesday, September 26, 2006 3:17 PM
To: talk at openstreetmap.org
Subject: [OSM-talk] "OSMBabel" - a universal OSM-to-other-formats
application


Been thinking a bit more about the issue of renderers, together with the

issues raised in the SoC Keele meeting regarding a desire for
availability 
of OSM data in other formats, e.g. shapefile or pdf.

I'm wondering whether the best way forward would  be to develop a 
universal OSM-to-other-formats application, kind of like GPSBabel in the

sense that it would aim to support a wide range of output formats. It 
could either be run as a command-line application, or as a web app
through 
CGI, and could read in OSM format XML or a read-only version of the OSM 
database. It could use a Map Features-based look-and-feel config file
such 
as the osmarender rules file.

Such an app could have a wide range of uses e.g.

- as an image server in a "slippy" renderer
- ability to generate maps in a wide range of formats e.g PDF, PNG
- ability to generate Polish-format files for import to a GPS device
- ability to generate shapefiles or other formats used by third-party 
applications

etc.

Thoughts?

Nick

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