User:Patatate douce

patatate_douce's OsmAnd~ setup

This shows how to get a pretty decent OsmAnd setup for hiking and cycling, and do minimal OSM edits on the go (limited to POIs [points of interest]). This is based on f-droid versions of OsmAnd~ on Android. This is meant to be a working example of what can be done with the app. This aims to be more detailed and practical than other guides out there, but this isn't fully step-by-step and you should feel free to explore on your own.

Installation

• Install Droid-ify. By installing OsmAnd via Droid-ify (or f-droid) instead of Google Play, you'll get the pro version for free (no map download limit, all maps+ features and pro features except OsmAnd Cloud).
• Install OsmAnd~ through Droid-ify.

Discovering the app

• Start the app. Download a map for your area if you are prompted to.
• ☰ > Plugins:
  • Enable Online maps, Topography, Weather.
  • If you're gonna do hiking or cycling, enable OsmAnd Rendering (more on it later in this section; it may not be present by default).
  • If you are an OSM contributor, enable OpenStreetMap editing and log in.
• ☰ > Maps & Resources:
  • In the DOWNLOADS tab, in the Regions section, download Standard map, Contour lines, Terrain map (3D), possibly Weather forecast, possibly Wikipedia for your country/area.
  • In the DOWNLOADS tab, in the World maps section, get the World altitude correction and World overview map.
• Let's now work with the walking profile. Select it by clicking the top-left "planet" icon, and you should be able to select the walking profile from the list of default profiles.
• Experiment with:
  • Contour lines: ☰ > Configure map > Contour lines.
  • 3d view: ☰ > Configure map > 3D Relief, then swipe vertically with 2 fingers; more interesting in mountainous areas.
  • Weather map: ☰ > Weather.
• Check out the different rendering styles available (☰ > Configure map > Map style). You may find OsmAnd good enough, you may want to have a look at Topo, Touring view, UniRS. Need something specifically made for hiking? Select the Hiking rendering style (should come with the OsmAnd Rendering plugin, otherwise install it from here.
• Now switch to a different profile and see how the above changes only affected the active profile.
• Navigate to areas where you don't have a detailed map downloaded. You should see a pop-up offering you to download the area. Great. What if you accidentally discarded the offer to download? You could go back to the menus, or you could long-press somewhere on the map, a pop-up will appear with an option to download the area.

Going a bit further: layers, custom buttons, POI filters

Layers

Offline maps are great, but some maps are only available as online tiles. Online maps can sometimes be preferable to offline ones for various reasons: possibly more comfortable rendering, easy browsing without having to actively download stuff, satellite views, heatmaps. The extremely useful WayMarkedTrails layer is only available as an online map.

You can modify the base layer with ☰ > Configure map > Map source....

You can modify underlays/overlays with ☰ > Configure map > Overlaymap....

Advanced: you can pre-load "online" tiles and pack them in an sqlite3 file. Easy to distribute and use, but the creation of suck a file can be somewhat involved.

Custom buttons (formerly quick actions)

You can add shortcuts to toggle options from the main screen. This lets you configure the map on the fly, without having to go through countless menus.

Configured via ☰ > Configure screen > Custom buttons.

I typically use 2 "custom buttons":

1. One that is displayed displayed for all of my profiles: map mode (light/night mode), show/hide favourites, show/hide tracks, POI filter for water/food/toilet, POI filter for bike rental, Wikipedia, OSM notes, POI filter for emergency (police, firefighters, hospitals).
2. One that is profile-specific: change base map, change overlay layer. In bike mode, I'll have a POI filter for rail stops/stations and, another for bike repair locations. For hiking, I'll have one with sleep locations (hotels/hostels/campsites).

POI filters

Creating custom categories is confusing as of OsmAnd 5.1.7.

Go to ☰ > Search > CATEGORIES. Select or type one POI type > Apply > Show > click the floppy icon at the bottom right or click the funnel icon at the top right then ⋮. You can share a single custom button for multiple profiles. You may have to save an incomplete filter before you can edit it again and add more POI categories to it.

To add a POI filter to a "custom button", edit your custom button and Add action > Show/hide -- POI.

Example hiking profile: offline vector maps, hiking waymarkedtrails overlay

• Use the default walking profile or create a new profile for this. To create a new profile: ☰ > click on the profile name at the top-left > Manage.
• I like to use the Hiking rendering for this.
• In ☰ > Configure map > Overlay map..., select Waymarkedtrails Hiking, toggle on Show transparency slider and Show map symbols.
• in ☰ > Configure map, toggle on Hiking routes, Difficulty classification (can have no effect depending on rendering), Fitness trails, Running routes.
• You can now use the slider to adjust the visibility of the Waymarkedtrails layer. I find it useful to be able to quickly adjust it, but that might just be me.
• This profile is partly offline, partly online. The online part is just a more visible rendering of main routes, the profile is definitely usable offline.

• Possibly add a base layer switch in a custom button and allow toggling between offline vector maps and Microsoft Earth.
• (France-specific) With the OsmAnd Rendering plugin you can set up an IGN online map: ☰ > Maps & Resources > OsmAnd rendering online maps > France > Carte topographique IGN.
• Configure the overlay to use IGN Scan25 Touristique.

Routing

Navigation within the app

I suggest you first stick to OsmAnd's default routing engine. If you feel it lacks in quality, you can check the brouter module: OsmAnd help page and companion app. Online routers exist and can be a solution too (e.g. https://router.project-osm.org/route/v1/).

Preparing routes

I mostly use bikerouter.de (a fork of the brouter website) on the computer and I export to GPX, then import in OsmAnd.

Basic OSM editing

You must be logged in in the OpenStreetMap editing plugin.

You can then select a rendered POI (point of interest), or long-press somewhere on the map, click Actions, then Create POI, Modify POI, Open OSM Note.

Tags (key=value combination) are not straightforward and can be deceiving, do not edit unless you know what you're doing!

Some more settings worth exploring

• ☰ > Navigation. Consider your options: native OsmAnd routing, brouter, online routing.
• ☰ > Configure screen:
  • Especially handy are the widgets. I love the Radius ruler widget (then click on the widget multiple times to get the display you like) which lets you quickly see distance from current location to the middle-of-the-screen location. I also use the two Altitude widgets together which I find very handy when hiking. (possible bug: if the widget doesn't show on screen, go back to home screen then come back to the app)
  • Distance by tap can be useful but I find the previous trick more ergonomic.
  • 3D mode is amazing for planning or better understanding your whereabouts in the mountains. Swipe vertically with 2 fingers. Great with a satellite layer.

More on overlays

• You can add an overlay manually via URL if you don't have an sqlitedb file. This is slightly confusing because you need to first change the base map in order to add the overlay:
  • Go into ☰ > Configure map > Map source... > Add manually...
  • Add the URL, confirm, etc. Typically a zoom of 13-18 is what you need but that may vary. Leave the other options alone.
  • Now that the overlay is added, change the Map source... back to what you had initially.
  • You will now have the overlay listed in ☰ > Configure map > Overlay map....
• You have an overlay as an sqlitedb file? Just open it, let OsmAnd open it, and that's it.
• Want to remove an overlay? Go into ☰ > Downloadmaps... > LOCAL, and you'll be able to remove it there.

What more?

I hope this helps give you a better grasp of the tool. The above is only a fraction of what OsmAnd offers.