Why do nodes in potlatch sometimes appear with flashing red circles around them? asked 16 Oct '10, 21:17  yapmaul edited 19 Oct '10, 08:55  spaetz |
One Answer:
I believe it means that the node lies directly on top of another node, which is a no-no; the two nodes should be merged. answered 17 Oct '10, 03:50  OceanVortex |
Two nodes on top of each other are normally a no-no but there are cases where they should NOT be merged. E.g. if one belongs to a street crossing a river and the second one belong to the river. So don't go blindly merging nodes!
OK. I think this is happening occasionally when I upload a gps trail and convert to a Way and one of the nodes happens to lie over a pre-existing one one eg a river or a powerline, so I simply delete the offending node on my new way or move it a little?
Is it better to not check the 'Convert GPS track to Ways' box and then draw the Way manually. This would also remove the other confusion I had as a beginner where I found it hard to make junctions because I thought I could drag the nodes of the pre-drawn trail rather than drawing the trail.
Yes removing or moving the offending node is the right thing to do in such cases.
Indeed, automatically converting a GPS track to a way and then cleaning it up is often more work then tracing it manually.