Hie.
I would like to use OSM for a commercial application im building. my idea is that i want to map out a whole city myself using gps’s and make a map by myself.
I read the wiki and the beginners guide but i didnt fully understand the procedure.
can anyone please tell me step by step what do i need to do in order to make a brand new map from scratch?
I want the data to be as good as i can get it so i rather just map the whole thing from scratch.
i know i should use gpx files but i need some guidance if possible.
I’m not sure there are any tools to do it all by yourself. You could use JOSM to edit and then osmarender to render, but that would be very cumbersome for you… Openstreetmap is very centered around its server software, so you would need to setup your own version of that if you are serious about this.
Maybe you should read the beginners guide again, now that the first attempt has sunk in a bit
Yes, first you need GPX files that you can create with most GPS devices.
Then you choose your mapping application (Potlatch or JOSM or Merkaator) and use those GPX files along with (mental) notes to start mapping your city.
When you’ve used JOSM or Merkaator as editor you then need to upload your changes when you’ve done a few hours work or so. Then you wait (upto two days) to see if the editors picked-up your changes and rendered them. In the mean time you can read up on the basic mapping, things like roads types, roundabouts, parks etc. Basically start with an area that you know well and gradually start mapping more complex things.
thanks for the quick reply guys.
I want to use OSM for a project im doing. i don’t mind using the available server and build one of my own.
I think we can also use mapserver/openlayers to do it no?
i would like to render my own maps and use them to output maps like google maps on a commercial website im building.
I just want an area that is not mapped yet so i need to do it from scratch.
i read the beginner’s guide a couple of times and i think i still miss a couple of pieces of the puzzle.
I have GPS to track and the people to do it. after i get all the GPX’s i put them into JOSM and edit my full map using my notes.
Then i need to render the map and install a server to output it.
So far so good?
Yep, so far so good. The map server bit isn’t covered by the beginners guide because most people don’t think about running their own server.
Afaik, the best/easiest way of deploying your own server is to setup a Postgres database, Mapnik renderer and serve the tiles using Apache and the tilecache module. This is a link to a basic setup readme and a wiki page about Mapnik.
On your own site you can host many different things, you don’t have to host them all but some…:
openlayers, this will make it possible to make your own GUI
the tile rendering, to get your own style on the maps
dataserver, to make your own map if you don’t want the OSM license.
These goes from a walk in the park[1] to insanely hard.
In between those extremes you have the ability to: make your own renders of openstreetmap.org data, this is hard and you might need help by someone who have done this. Consider trying to pay someone to do it.
