I’ve been thinking for a while now that it would be nice to make some how-to videos explaining various tools and mapping workflows that can be done in JOSM. I recorded this demonstration of a forest mapping technique I use and would love to hear any feedback. For those who are maybe a little bit familiar with JOSM, but don’t use it heavily: is this easy enough to follow along with or is it not clear what I’m doing at times due to all the keyboard shortcuts?
If people find this kind of how-to video for JOSM helpful I might make more as time allows. Let me know if you have ideas for other JOSM features, plugins, or workflows you think would be worth a video.
Thanks for this video, I think it’s perfect for people who are familiar with JOSM and use it regularly, but who didn’t do much landuse mapping so far.
It’s definitely not for beginners and incidental mappers, I think they likely would be intimidated and shy away from JOSM.
As an experienced (in terms of time, not technique) JOSM mapper I liked the video very much. I learned some new, more efficient, work flows and got reminded of the very useful shortcuts.
Your speed was also right for me. If I need to repeat some information I am able to skip back. However, I did not get bored while watching.
Since you asked for feedback, and because there is always another way to do things, for the part when you delete errant stop signs I have an alternative method.
I would prefer the simpler shortcut “E”, ‘select adjacent nodes’, because it does exactly the same thing here, and instead of selecting all nodes, then the way, and unselecting the corner node, just:
split way at intersection
select way you want to delete
press E
delete all tags
select way and delete (since no nodes were tagged, no orphan nodes will be left over)
Same effect, but not as fiddly. Quite nitpicky, and maybe personal preference, but its how I would do it.
Meanwhile, I didn’t know about ‘Update multipolygon’ thank you for that. Learn something new every day.
So select a way then E was new to me. If same, I’ve been doing select way, hit search and enter text child selected which ends you up with only the nodes of the way selected. This I use to e.g. map a powerline first, then tag all the nodes in one go with what type of power/utility pole/tower is used. Most useful shortcut, now 2 at least have learned something new today \o/.
Aha! E (Select Adjacent Nodes) is new to me as well, and simply deleting all tags, then deleting the way is indeed less fiddly. Thank you @Wulfmorn! This is exactly the kind of knowledge I want make videos sharing. JOSM has so many useful tools like this that it is easy to overlook.
I also realized after uploading the video that holding down alt while using Parallel mode gives you a parallel copy of the way without copying any of the tags from the original way or it’s nodes. This simplifies things even further and now I have to remake the video at some point . If I go much further with this project I’ll need to establish a video editing workflow so I don’t have to do the whole thing in one take.
@Peter_Elderson & @Robert46798, thanks for the feedback. This video was definitely aimed at people with some experience, who want to learn a new technique. I’m also considering some videos for people just starting out with JOSM (not absolute beginner mappers), but that would need to be paced differently.
thank you for that. Learn something new every day.
. If I go much further with this project I’ll need to establish a video editing workflow so I don’t have to do the whole thing in one take.