Starter Tutorial
From OpenStreetMap
This is a very brief tutorial for new users who have never worked on openstreetmap.org.
General Instructions
- If you have recorded traces with your GPS unit, transfer your tracks to your computer as GPX files. One way is to use GPSbabel. If your files have been saved in a different format, GPSbabel can do the conversion.
- Ensure you have a recent Java runtime installed. At time of this writing (September 2006) you should use Java 1.5 or later from Sun Microsystems. Java's tool to do this
- Now download and install the latest version of JOSM
- Start it by double clicking on it on most platforms, or typing
java -jar josm-latest.jar
- From the menu »File« choose »Open« and load the track from your local harddrive
- From the menu »Connection« choose »Get from OSM«
- You can now see already existing segments for your region (if any exist). If not, you start from scratch. Choose the node-tool and add new nodes over your existing tracks. Add as much as necessary to describe your track, but not more than necessary.
- After that, connect the nodes to segments using the tool below the node tool. Try to keep the segments of a road in one direction (Preferences -> Draw direction arrows) to facilitate map rendering. Segment direction is especially important for one-way roads and motorways.
- Choose the select tool and click into empty space to ensure nothing is selected. Then press and hold down the shift key and select all segments that belong to a way. Only select segments which form a continuous way. For Y-formed streets etc. create two different ways. Now press the key »w« on you keyboard to make the selected segments a way
- Now tag the way according to [Map Features]; with the Way still selected, click the Add button in the properties sheet. For example, a residential street gets the tags
highway=residential name=Main Street
- Deselect the current selection by clicking into empty space. Proceed with further ways.
- To tag POIs (telephones, restaurants etc.) create a standalone node and applying the tags directly to it.
- Upload your edits so other users can see them. Select the menu »Connection« and choose »Upload to OSM«. If prompted, enter your username and password as created for the OSM webpage.
- You should also upload the GPX tracks via the traces page using your OSM account. The created segments are now credible and editable (without guessing) by all. JOSM currently does not provide functionality to upload tracks, in part because you might work on a track several times to make different ways from it.
Hints
To make your life easier, JOSM provides presets for commonly used tags. Please ask for the presets on the mailing lists.
Traps
While using JOSM, do not right-click on the gpx layer and use the "convert to data layer" function. Usually far too many nodes and segments are created, and every inaccuracy in your tracklog will show up in a road. It is important to keep the node count down for various reasons: storage requirements, server performance, required computing power at editing clients, map renderers and route planning applications. Thus the "convert to data layer" needs external track editing by software like gpsbabel to purge it (perhaps some nice developer will write a JOSM Plugin to remove redundant nodes).
