Using/not using GPS traces to edit maps

gromit60 · 2011-01-07T05:30:39.000Z

I was given a Garmin GPSMAP 60CSCx for my birthday which has re-ignited my interest in OSM. I’ve been doing lots of reading in
the Wiki (information overload!) and been feeling my way around. I have started by naming the streets where I live in (a recently
established estate on the outskirts of the city). My fiancé and I went for a walk around the neighbourhood and I successfully uploaded a
GPS trace and was able to add a new way (road) onto the map.

My main question is: If I take readings of various points be they points on a road or a POI, is there a way I can add this info to OSM by
using the raw data i.e. Lat/Lon of the location(s) or is it done entirely by GPS traces? I am interested adding information and as my job
(public transport bus driver) takes me all over the city and I’d like to be able add things that I come across which are not yet on the map.

I am currently using Potlatch as I’m easing myself into the process but I gather I would be better off using JOSM. Is that a fair assessment?

Marqqs · 2011-01-07T07:12:45.000Z

Hallo Phil,
welcome!

As far as I remember, I had to import the data from my Garmin device directly via QLandkarteGT or MapSource POIs to get the POIs into a GPX file. The files on the device’s MicroSD card don’t contain the POIs.

If you upload a GPX file which contains POIs, these POIs are stored in Openstreetmap database. To get them visible in Potlatch, you have to start this Editor via your OSM account:
GPS Traces → See just your traces
Now Choose your trace. Then click on “Edit this trace”.

I prefer this alternative: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/DE:Upload_Waypoints#Arbeiten_mit_der_Software (German).
But both ways will work.

Markus

Seventy7 · 2011-01-07T14:16:18.000Z

Hi Gromit60, and welcome.

gromit60:

I am currently using Potlatch as I’m easing myself into the process but I gather I would be better off using JOSM. Is that a fair assessment?

At the risk of starting yet another editor war, they are different editors and they each have their own strengths and weaknesses. I use both, depending on what I’m doing.

Best to try each of them out and decide which features you like. IMHO (and this is not a fact!) Potlatch is more advanced than it first appears and JOSM is less complicated than it first appears!

Steve

Willi2006 · 2011-01-10T11:07:36.000Z

Marqqs:

I prefer this alternative: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/DE:Upload_Waypoints#Arbeiten_mit_der_Software (German).

Please don’t upload tracks which are modified in such a way. Upload only real tracks, no tracks with faked track points.

Of course you can use the modified tracks locally if you like. In JOSM and Potlatch 2 you can open local tracks from your PC.