Hi all!
Complete beginner here, looking for some direction
I am trying to create a very minimal map of only the road vectors in a local area.
It needs to be 3 dimensionally accurate, so I will need to include elevation data.
Ultimately, I will need to express the vectors on a x, y and z axis grid (basically a MGRS or USNG map with elevation included) outside of OSM.
Can anyone tell me the best way to pull only the data I need from OSM? Thanks so much!
-Phil
Other than spot heights for peaks OpenStreetMap doesn’t typically contain elevation data. You will need to get this from another source.
In terms of accuracy, that can vary somewhat from place to place as you might expect from a crowdsourced project.
I’ve not used it myself but Blender-osm claims elevation support in their output, I don’t know if you can specify a specific coordinate system/projection though. If it has to be in one of the grid reference systems you mention you may need to try something more involved. I know QGIS has been adding 3D support recently and is very flexible for projections generally so it might be possible to get what you need with that but that would probably be quite the learning curve.
Thanks so much for the helpful response!
Ok it sounds like I will have my work cut out integrating z values
I’m going to try to get started by pulling just the 2D road vector data available on OSM
Is there a good way to pull only the roads and leave everything else behind?
For small areas an Overpass Turbo will probably get you what you need.
For large areas you will have to download an extract from the planet file. Some providers might do pre-filtered extracts, but you would generally have to filter after you download.
What are you actually trying to do? You want a minimal map but also the 3D data? Someone here might be able to give more specific advice if they knew what it needed to look like downstream.
So I just was looking to get a road vector map from OSM with z values included
QGIS ended up being the answer, thanks for the suggestion! If you pull in the OSM data, along with a DEM from the USGS, QGIS’s Drape function burns the z values in.
Was a bit of a learning curve as you said, but worked out. Thanks again!