Anouncement: Vector cycle-maps now available

Hello,

Finally Mapsforge based cyclemaps with contourlines are available for download.

Many weeks of coding led to a tool that completly rewrites the OpenStreetMap
dataset concerning the cycle relations bevore its feed into the Mapsforge mapwriter.

The quality of the routes is very,very close to the OpenCycleMap.

I'v set up a website with basic informations
- how to install them
- a map legend
- a high contrast render theme

Everone is encouraged to improve the render theme, its pretty easy.
Only ONE additional key with 8 values have to be rendered.
(Netherlands + Belgium need a second one for the cycle nodes)

A pefect base for a transparent theme would be jurajs hiking theme.

The maps are 100% compatible with the osmarender theme.
The borders of the maps are different from the OSM clipbounds,
eg. for Austria I added the border aera of the czech-republic, the NeusiedlerSee, complete Bodensee, Bratilslava, Deutsches Eck etc..

Big countrys are splitt into logical parts (France, Germany) doe to the limtations of my equipment.

If there is realy need of an additional communication platform I will set up a forum,
but - honestly I will try to avoid this.
Locus, Orux and Naviboard forums should be OK at a first glance.

So, now its time for me to start my training, the making of these maps added 4kg to my hips , maybe we will meet outdoors 8-)

So, here you can find the maps: http://www.openandromaps.org

best regard, a plesant summer, happy cycling, walking, paddling or whatever :mrgreen:
Christian aus der Wachau

hello kech61,

i just got it on my phone. at the first look it is very good - that is what i was waitung for, thanks a lot.

now oruxmaps is the perfect substitute for garmin and co - no more reason to spend money for proprietary hard - and software.

greetings from sauerland, germany, thomas

thomashsk wrote:hello kech61,

i just got it on my phone. at the first look it is very good - that is what i was waitung for, thanks a lot.

Thanks for your feedback, if you encounter any problems please just drop me a line.

best regards
Christian aus der Wachau

I have installed the map of south-france on my phone and works very good!
Regards
Gonzalo from Spain.

Hello kech61!

I noticed a difference between cycle maps from your map to opencyclemaps:

bike lanes (not attached to any cycle route) are shown in opencyclemaps and not in your map.





Sorry for the large images in the forum!

chilobo wrote:Hello kech61!

I noticed a difference between cycle maps from your map to opencyclemaps:

bike lanes (not attached to any cycle route) are shown in opencyclemaps and not in your map.

Hello Chilobo,

Thanks for feedback, please send the Lat/Lon of the middle of this area, I will check the OSM-tags and add them to my scripts.

Tanks again for your help
Christian

<wpt lon="8.6183130" lat="49.6488617">

Greetings Christian

chilobo wrote: <wpt lon="8.6183130" lat="49.6488617">

Greetings Christian

Thanks a lot, I check this...

best regards
Christian

kech61 wrote:

chilobo wrote: <wpt lon="8.6183130" lat="49.6488617">

Greetings Christian

Thanks a lot, I check this...

best regards
Christian

Hi,

There were 2 Problems:

- the designated cicle lanes: the key was to catch k="bicycle" v="designated"
- pseudo relations: this was the first time I have seen them, some ways with keys like lcn=yes and rcn=yes are rendered in the OCM like route relations, I added this to the resolving.

The render theme needs no essential changes, maybe the single ways could be rendered a little bit smaller.

Here you can download the map of the small test aera : www.openandromaps.org/files/test/test_lane.zip

With the next mapping run (in a few weeks doe to my limited bandwidth) all maps will have the new resolving.

Thanks again for your help

Christian

kech61 wrote:
Hi,

There were 2 Problems:

- the designated cicle lanes: the key was to catch k="bicycle" v="designated"
- pseudo relations: this was the first time I have seen them, some ways with keys like lcn=yes and rcn=yes are rendered in the OCM like route relations, I added this to the resolving.

The render theme needs no essential changes, maybe the single ways could be rendered a little bit smaller.

Here you can download the map of the small test aera : www.openandromaps.org/files/test/test_lane.zip

With the next mapping run (in a few weeks doe to my limited bandwidth) all maps will have the new resolving.

Looks OK!

Thanks - I hope you didn't mess up your training plan

Christian

I read the instructions, but where I'm supposed to find cycle_orux.map.xml ?

Thank you.

Chris

Chris Jam wrote:I read the instructions, but where I'm supposed to find cycle_orux.map.xml ?

Hi Chris,

It's here: http://www.openandromaps.org/files/themes/cycle_orux.7z
You have to uncompress it using 7-zip: http://www.7-zip.org/

regards
Christian

Major upgrade for the cyclemaps on www.openandromaps.org :

- All downlaods are now compressed in plain ZIP, this means:
) No more need for special tools for uncompressings
) No more problems with unnown file type (7z), zip is recognized by Android
) Almost every file manager is able to handle zip-files native (I recommend Totalcommander)

- All downloads now include the basic cycle_hc theme for Oruxmaps
) Just copy both files included in the zip-file to the map-folder of Oruxmaps and you are done

- New Maps:
) Special map+theme Iceland
) Canada: British-Columbia in 2 Parts, Vancouver aera

- For all maps the coverage can be seen by klicking the "Map coverage" button

- All Maps are now hosted on a big payed account at Google, the download speed is > 2Mb/sec
(Thanks to all users who made this posible by their Donations !)

best regards
Christian

Christian,

This is absolutely awesome. Thank you!

One question: I'm a hiker in the USA where elevation is still measured in feet (Ancient archaic units -- only pilots and Americans ever use them!). What would be the obstacles to getting similar maps but with elevations in feet? Is the choice of meters vs feet fundamental to the underlying data source, or is it a variable that could be exposed for user control?

Thanks again for a wonderful product!

Derek.

rockymountain wrote:Christian,

One question: I'm a hiker in the USA where elevation is still measured in feet (Ancient archaic units -- only pilots and Americans ever use them!). What would be the obstacles to getting similar maps but with elevations in feet? Is the choice of meters vs feet fundamental to the underlying data source, or is it a variable that could be exposed for user control?

Hi Derek,

Unfortunately the tool (phyghtmap) that converts srtm-elevation data to OSM only works with the metric system.
There is a tool (Srtm2Osm) that works with feet but the base data it can handle is only NASA-Srtm,
a very unreliable Dataset with large void in inaccurate areas especially in the peak regions.

BTW: An update for the USA-Maps with much more accurate contourlines (www.viewfinderpanoramas.org) and land/sea tiles
will be available till end of November.

Best regards
Christian

[/quote]

Unfortunately the tool (phyghtmap) that converts srtm-elevation data to OSM only works with the metric system.
There is a tool (Srtm2Osm) that works with feet but the base data it can handle is only NASA-Srtm,
a very unreliable Dataset with large void in inaccurate areas especially in the peak regions.

[/quote]

Well, it's no big deal. I generally use the contours only for relative height and slope, not for making an absolute measurement. Feet or meters makes little difference to me. I grew up with metric units before I moved to the US, and am just as comfortable with either.

These maps are great! Thank you!

Thank you Christian, great maps. I really like the idea of having editable themes. But these theme files are large and it is not easy (for me) to spot what needs to be edited. Can you give us some hints? I would like to change two things:
* get even more contrast - in sunshine it is always a struggle to see what's on the screen, and
* make the labels (street names, etc) larger, if possible (my eyes are not as young as they used to be).
Thanks!

- Moshe in Vermont

PS: another request: some maps are very large and if you could break them into somewhat smaller pieces that would be nice. The one that affects me in particular is the one covering the states of NY, VT, NH, MA, CT - I suggest making NY a separate piece from the rest of that area.

Hi Moshe,

Nice to have some feedback from overseas!

mbraner wrote:Thank you Christian, great maps. I really like the idea of having editable themes. But these theme files are large and it is not easy (for me) to spot what needs to be edited. Can you give us some hints? I would like to change two things:
* get even more contrast - in sunshine it is always a struggle to see what's on the screen, and
* make the labels (street names, etc) larger, if possible (my eyes are not as young as they used to be).

You may want to have a look at this theme: http://www.openandromaps.org/files/themes/orux/volatile_hike.zip
It does not include cycle ways. However it provides a look closer to usual topo maps and if you compare it with
the Theme that is provided as standard you quickly find a hook to modify it to your needs.

mbraner wrote:
Another request: some maps are very large and if you could break them into somewhat smaller pieces that would be nice. The one that affects me in particular is the one covering the states of NY, VT, NH, MA, CT - I suggest making NY a separate piece from the rest of that area.

You are right, thats always a kind of compromise,
I try to find a way between mapsize (critical for users) and amount of maps (critical for maintaince).
If its a critical issue for you to have a smaller map I can provide one with the borders you need,
just send a borderline as gpx-track or a scanned drawing - no problem at all.

Outlook: End of month a new, reliable, elevation dataset for USA will be available - a strong reason for me
to rerender the whole mapset for USA incl. Hiking ways and Land/Sea tiles.

If you need further informations regarding themes just drop me a line...


Best regards
Christian

The file size is not "critical", in these days of multi-gigabyte SD cards, but still I would prefer to keep such files under 100 megabytes or so.

I've now edited the "volatile_hike" theme for higher contrast. It took some work, going through the big XML file. I would attach it here if I could - is there a way? For now you can get it here. It is not perfect, but I did achieve the following: lighter backgrounds, darker contour lines and roads and trails, larger fonts for most labels.

It appears that to make it work it has to not only be in the same folder as the map, but with the same name? E.g., if the map file is called something.map, then the theme file needs to be called something.map.xml - is that correct?

mbraner wrote:
It appears that to make it work it has to not only be in the same folder as the map, but with the same name? E.g., if the map file is called something.map, then the theme file needs to be called something.map.xml - is that correct?

Hi,

Yes that is correct

best regards
Christian

These vector maps are excellent thank you.

Is there any information available how to make minor edits to the .XML file.
The footpath lines look a bit like a railway track when displayed, I would like to change them to a black dotted line similar to that on an Ordnance Survey map. I have had a play editing the .XML file but ended up with just a black screen without the map.
I also notice that the cycle/hike .xml doesn't display the footpaths shown in the hike .xml.

Thanks.

twoten wrote:These vector maps are excellent thank you.

Is there any information available how to make minor edits to the .XML file.
The footpath lines look a bit like a railway track when displayed, I would like to change them to a black dotted line similar to that on an Ordnance Survey map. I have had a play editing the .XML file but ended up with just a black screen without the map.
I also notice that the cycle/hike .xml doesn't display the footpaths shown in the hike .xml.

Thanks.

Search on mapsforge xml or go to http://code.google.com/p/mapsforge/wiki/RenderThemeAPI . Explanation and description on how to edit can be found there.

Thanks noordfiets,

Slight problem with the link, the '.' at the end needs to be removed.
This information is helpful, I have also found descriptions of the map feature strings that helps identify the different elements of the .xml file https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Map_Features

I had hoped that there would be a tool that makes editing a little easier, at the moment I am editing the .xml file, changing the phone memory to drive, uploading the edited file, changing the phone memory back to charge then loading the map in oruxmaps to check the edits are OK, this is a bit long winded,

twoten wrote:Thanks noordfiets,

Slight problem with the link, the '.' at the end needs to be removed.
This information is helpful, I have also found descriptions of the map feature strings that helps identify the different elements of the .xml file https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Map_Features

I had hoped that there would be a tool that makes editing a little easier, at the moment I am editing the .xml file, changing the phone memory to drive, uploading the edited file, changing the phone memory back to charge then loading the map in oruxmaps to check the edits are OK, this is a bit long winded,

There is no visual editor that I know of. But I don't use drive mode. Instead MTP or ADB keeps the ability to access the sdcard from apps while connected to your computer. All I have to do is change to another map and back to see my editing.

OSM knowledge helps a lot! Mapsforge is based on OSM afterall.

Hello,

There is an important upgrade for the Cycle/Hiking maps from http://www.openandromaps.org

The hiking paths now contain a difficulty scale (sac_scale, dav_scale)

All maps from uploaded from 22.November.2012 on now contain a difficulty scale as far as its tagged in the OSM-Database.
The color codes and the assignement to the colors is discussed in detail here:
- English http://www.openandromaps.org/en/legend.html
- German http://www.openandromaps.org/de/legend.html

Maps ready for download containing the difficulty scale:

austria
CanaryIslands
corse
czech_republic
denmark
hungary
slovakia
slovenia
switzerland

Available soon: Germany, UK

Best regards
Christian

2012-11-28 Bug report:

The maps with the sac_scale contained a major problem the last 36 hours, the fast growing OSM-Database coused ID-colissions with the contourlines.
This is solved now, please redownload the maps in any case.

Sorry for any inconvenience, Christian.