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Support tools needed

W

whitav8

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121
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us-california
Arno,
I'm not sure which support tools are needed:
1) OSM to SHP
2) GIS tools to graphically look at SHP
3) Annotator - look at generated AGN files?

For the first two, do I need them and where could I download them? I have just been downloading small SHP files from GEOFABRIK for a simple test of ScenProc.

Thanks
 
Hi,

You don't need any support tools. But it can be useful to use a gis program to view the shapefile and its attributes. Also annotator to view the agn files before loading them in fsx can be useful.

The shapefile from geofabrik should be fine.

Send from my phone using Tapatalk, so excuse the short sentences and possible typos
 
Don't I need an OSM to SHP tool

Arno,
If I use the OpenStreetMap webpage, I can pick a rectangular area to make an OSM file and then I want to convert that to SHP. I have seen a couple of OSM2SHP freeware tools - do you recommend one? (if so, please point me to it) This is assuming that I don't want to use the HUGE GEOFABRIK files for all of France or whatever. I just want to do an airport area at a time.

Thanks again
 
Hi Dave,

I never tried those tools, so I can't recommend one. But I understand what you mean about smaller areas.

Send from my phone using Tapatalk, so excuse the short sentences and possible typos
 
Any idea about map projection choice

Arno,
I realize that you are mostly using just GEOFABRIK data right now but I am trying to figure out a process to go from the rectangular area Export feature of openstreetmap.org to a good SHP file.
I download the freeware called Quantum GIS which can read in SHP - which I can generate (on XP) with the OSM2SHP (set for polygon output) tool - HOWEVER, it doesn't have the correct projection coordinates. I read on some forum that I maybe need EPSG3857 but that didn't seem to work yet. My coordinates are in the millions instead of lat=43, lon=7 or whatever. If I can figure that out, we can get OSM data for small areas. How did you get it for that small island in the Netherlands?

Thanks

Dave
 
Hi Dave,

For my island I split the entire file of the Netherlands using FwTools and a bounding box. That gave me the subset I needed.

I think qgis also had a plugin to load osm data, maybe you can use that as well?

Send from my phone using Tapatalk, so excuse the short sentences and possible typos
 
Oh, forgot the coordinates question. I thought osm uses wgs84, but what you describe sounds more like utm. If you know what projection it is, scenproc can convert it for you.

Send from my phone using Tapatalk, so excuse the short sentences and possible typos
 
Quantum GIS does read in OSM files

Arno,
Thanks for all the pointers. OK, qGIS does read in the OSM files (and the coordinates look correct) that you can get exporting from openstreetmap.org site, BUT it doesn't seem to output polygons - which I think you need for house generation - but instead just outputs lines. They are just like polygons when viewed but don't you need polygons for ScenbProc?
 
Hi Dave,

If I remember correctly there is a setting in the shp reader to handle closed lines as polygons. You'd better check the manual for that though.

Send from my phone using Tapatalk, so excuse the short sentences and possible typos
 
Thanks for the lines to polys tip for QGIS

Arno,
Thanks for the lines to poly tip about QGIS. That seems to be a real help since I can't get/find SHP format data for the US from GEOFABRIK. Therefore, the best approach , although it is lot of work picking (deleting other polys) out the building data by itself with the openstreepmap.org Export to QGIS to ScenProc mode - I tried downloading the OSM data from GEOFABRIK for the smallish area of Washington DC and it's just too big of a file for QGIS and OpenFV won't work with OSM, just SHP. Anyway, there is a way for me - although tedious.
Thanks for the help (What did you think of the snapshots of Monaco?)
 
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