[OSM-talk] Osmosis Feature Request - Simplify Ways

[simon at mungewell.org]

There are a few postings on how to simplify ways, which mostly point to
the JOSM plugin. I am wondering whether it would be possible for some Java
hacker to port this plugin into Osmosis.

Reasoning:
The JOSM plugin is great for 1 or 2 ways, but is cumbersome to run against
large data set.

As an Osmosis operation, this would enable users to reduce local data set
(not to be uploaded!) to save size/rendering time for GPS and paper maps.


Example:
I am working on a paper map of Amateur Radio repeaters in Alberta (no
special reason, I just got a 2m rig and wanted to know where they were).

The base of the map is just the
highway.[motorway|trunk|primary|secondary], ways which is not a huge
amount of data (about 5,000 ways with 50,000 nodes), but significantly
more than I really need to represent the road structure... as a result the
output map is larger and hence more difficult to work with in the
graphical tools.

If there was the ability to auto-magically simplify the ways I could
significantly reduce the amount of nodes in this data set.

Example 2:
Ripping OSM to Garmin Map. Does one really need 100 nodes representing a
sweeping corner on a device with limited storage?


Suggestion:
A '--simplify-ways' operation with 'crossTrackError' parameter to define
the allowable distance from of the new way from that of the old.

I would imagine that one would want to 'lock' junction (or specially
tagged) nodes, so that they couldn't be removed.


I think all the code is available (from the JOSM plugin), it just needs a
Java hacker to take it on.

Comments? (and you're welcome to tell me to get lost...)

Simon
(aka. Mungewell)
(and now, aka. VA6SDW)