Just before Christmas I was having a conversation on the Mapyx Quo forum (great OS mapping software and cheap OS maps. Well, cheaper than the big name competition) and I was pointed at OpenStreetMap.
Garmin want about £110 for the UK mapping so I've never bothered, but OpenStreetMap is Garmin compatible and free and it covers the world. So I've loaded it to my Garmin handheld GPS (etrex Legend HCx) and I'm very impressed. I just need to try it out in anger now. I do prefer to use a paper map and just use the Garmin for guidance / where the ???? am I / recording tracks to upload to pc / Google but, despite the name, it has paths, contours, features, POIs and so forth.
Openstreetmap is at www.openstreetmap.org/
I got my maps from talkytoaster.info/ukmaps.htm
This is walking oriented, and I'm looking at Garmin because that's what I have, but I guess it is available for other platforms and works with road mapping - that seems to be what it's aimed at.
Anyway, I've mapped a few local features and I'm waiting to see if they turn up on my GPS in a few weeks. No doubt some of you are familiar with this (why didn't you tell me?!) and can add constructive comments, maybe I can help some of you by pointing you to it.
John
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Thanks for that. I have Garmin GPS MAP or whatever it's called for the UK but I'll have a look and compare. The Garmin maps are light on footpaths compared with Landranger, never mind Explorer maps so not a substitute anyway.
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I think OpenStreetMap is tile based (like Google Maps for most applications/access). So you load different tiles at different zoom levels. So is okay for say walking maps (like some of us use from Ordnance Survey) but is useless for navigation. For that you need the actual road/map data.
I think you can access OSM from applications like ViewRanger in mobile phones. I have some Ordnance Survey maps from ViewRanger for my phone too though.
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"useless for navigation." dunno about that r as I don't have a car GPS. My walking GPS will certainly calculate road routes using OSM data. They are sensible routes too, from the limited experimenting I've done. Trouble is set up and display of instructions is, of course, miles behind a dedicated car GPS.
John
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Sounds like it's not tile based maps then - if it's possible to navigate. I've only tried it with the web interface and ViewRanger.
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Just checked on the area where I live in NW Spain - we have a lot of road-building going on (thank you EU taxpayers), and OSM is well ahead of Garmin latest update (Dec 2010) showing these roads. However, OSM is a bit of a curate's egg - good in parts. Looking at other areas, the detail is sparse, and for walking Garmin's Recreational Europe or Topo España would be better
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The advantage of OSM is updates from users end up in the maps quicker. The downside is if users have not updated areas or added some in detail - it's not so good.
As a starting point the other companies (Google and Microsoft included) use Ordnance Survey, TeleAtlas and NavTeq. One would hope somebody didn't take copyrighted data from one of these companies' maps and put in into OMS.
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>>One would hope somebody didn't take copyrighted data from one of these companies'
>> maps and put in into OMS.
>>
If they did, I'm sure they would get found out.
As I understand it, mapping companies always put in errors, to check if other people use their copyrighted data.
This can be as major as putting in a road that doesn't exist, or not showing one that does!
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>> As I understand it, mapping companies always put in errors, to check if other people
>> use their copyrighted data.
The AA fell foul of that about ten years ago - they effectively nicked the Ordnance Survey maps of the time, reprinted them, and got caught partly because of the deliberate errors the OS had put in.
Cost them a cool 20 million quid after many court cases.
Interesting page about map errors here:
wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Copyright_Easter_Eggs
Last edited by: Crankcase on Mon 27 Dec 10 at 22:29
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You do know about OpenStreetMap? - Manatee
