Tag:building=entrance

+/- building=entrance Description To mark the location of a building entrance. Used on these elements Useful combination access=* wheelchair=* some of: addr:housenumber=* addr:staircase=* ref=* Used combinations in World Australia/Oceania Europe (list) Asia (list) Central America (list) South America (list) Africa (list) Status Undefined

The tag building=entrance is used on nodes along and on the building outline to mark the locations of entrances, i.e. doors.

This tag conflicts with building=* because an entrance is not a building, but part of a building. entrance=* has been introduced as a replacement (see Proposed features/entrance). However, building=entrance is still widely used, and currently coexists with entrance=*.

Contents 1 Tagging 2 Some ways to improve the location of the entrances 3 Flats numbering 4 See also 5 Rendering

Tagging

Add a node on the way tagged with building=* and give that node the tag building=entrance.

In some countries each entrance is considered to have distinct housenumber, in others a housenumber is property of the whole building.

• Where each entrance of a single building has a unique house number, tag the addr:housenumber=* on that node; for a reasoning, see the SotM session presentation:

See an example of a very tight numbering on a building.

• Elsewhere an entrance may have a unique identifier in addition to the house number; you should add that on the entrance node.

If the entrance is, say, for personnel only, you can add a access=private.

Some ways to improve the location of the entrances

Although the GPS accuracy is limited, you can get reasonable results by visually approximating how far along the wall the entrance is. That is, is the door exactly at the halfway point, or one third of the wall length from either end? You can also visualize any passenger car of known length along the wall and count the distance accordingly. At least JOSM will show you the distance from any selected node to aid positioning the new node a known distance from the selected corner.

Another method is to approach the building straight to the entrance to have a track that you can extend until it meets the buidling outline.

When combined with meticulously positioned aerial images the result is better than a single GPS measurement at the door could provide. Remember to align the nodes of a straight wall in a line (in JOSM: Tools - Align Nodes in Line), but also remember that not all buildings that appear to be straigt are really straight.

If you estimate the position, please add FIXME=Position estimated. Some software solutions for blind persons rely on accurate positions and give a warning message if there is a FIXME tag set.

Flats numbering

For an apartments building flat numbers can be specified for every building=entrance node. Use addr:flats=NN-MM with the interval, for example, addr:flats=9-17. If the entrance is for only one flat, use a single number: addr:flats=14.

If the numbering is not sequential, separate intervals with a semicolon: addr:flats=3-7;10;14;16-18.

See also

• addr=* for adding house numbers, the current way for that is the Karlsruhe Schema
• entrance=* as another way of tagging entrances
• barrier=entrance

Rendering

The Osmarender map layer shows nodes tagged with building=entrance as small squares of the same bluish gray color as the building outlines.

Related terms: port. door. access. entry. threshold. gate. portal. entrance. opening.