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I'm trying to fix the information for a canal which was buried and covered with a multi-use trail. I used the iD editor to change the path's metadata such as the name and type. It turns out that the canal was created as several separate paths, so my change only affected a small portion of the path.

Is it possible to merge the various portions of the path into a single path so that I don't have to make the same change 20 times?

asked 13 May '13, 21:57

amcnabb8's gravatar image

amcnabb8
186336
accept rate: 0%

1

take care to only merge if the single pieces of the path have the same tags (look at the bottom of the right panel after selecting a way at "all tags"). If iD does not recognize the tags then you may not see the difference. If you merge ways with different tags the resulting way simply has all the tags of the single ways with no warning issued. (issue posted)

(14 May '13, 00:33) aseerel4c26 ♦

Also for me both don't work. With Id I get the message lines are not connected and with Potlach 2 the chain symbol is not active. How do I connect the points? I thought they are.

76.52393 15.28646

(23 Aug '13, 20:29) ivolino
1

@ivolino - Trying zooming in a bit further - you'll probably see that they're very close together, but not actually joined.

(23 Aug '13, 21:09) SomeoneElse ♦

@ivolino Perhaps you could explain a bit more what you're actually trying to do? (from reading the comments below) we're a bit confused!

(24 Aug '13, 12:57) SomeoneElse ♦

I uploaded a GPS track. The track has some missing points and branches. I think I have 4 track parts which are 2 roads. Now I want to merge the 2 tracks to one road. I split one track so that there are only 2 lines. I tried all I never get this join. What do I wrong?

(24 Aug '13, 15:04) ivolino

And it is confusing to mark the parts with shift in ID and control in Potlatch 2.

(24 Aug '13, 15:07) ivolino
1

Ok I think I got it. It was not working because there was a branch. Now I split the branch and now I could merge the two tracks. That means a road can never have branches?

(24 Aug '13, 15:16) ivolino

How do I know if I have successfully joined two points?

(24 Aug '13, 15:20) ivolino

@ivolino - You've already posted a link, so people can click on that to have a look. It looks joined and merged to me:

http://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=18/15.28664/76.52334&layers=D

(24 Aug '13, 15:44) SomeoneElse ♦
1

Select the node and wiggle it a bit, that will confirm connection.

(24 Aug '13, 16:15) andy mackey
showing 5 of 10 show 5 more comments

Select one way, hold down Shift and select the next way: a + icon appears, and you can click this to merge the ways. Then Shift-click the next section and click the + icon again. And so on. You don't seem to be able to merge 3 or more ways at once.

Steve

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answered 13 May '13, 22:37

sdoerr's gravatar image

sdoerr
1.5k32031
accept rate: 8%

2

That works. Thanks.

(13 May '13, 22:39) amcnabb8
1

I can't do that. It says that I cannot join the lines since they are not connected. That would make sense, but the lines actually are connected! If I drag the connection point around both lines changes, so that means that the lines are actually connected each other. Am I missing something? Thanks.

(28 Jun '13, 15:25) Febs
2

Could you perhaps add a link to the data that you're seeing this with?

(28 Jun '13, 16:00) SomeoneElse ♦
2

I zoomed as much in as possible but still I don't get the +. Do I just have to drag the one point on the other to connect the point or do I have to do more? Is there any sign that I can see if they are connected? Wow is this difficult.

http://www.openstreetmap.org/edit?editor=id#map=24/15.28661/76.52399

(24 Aug '13, 03:30) ivolino

@ivolino: A prerequisite to merging/combining ways is that they are connected!

  • Step A - make the way be connected first (way are connected if they are sharing nodes): if you drag the node of the eastern way very near to the node of the western ways the nodes will have a red highlight around. After releasing the mouse button the nodes seem to be automatically merged. You can check that by dragging the node - all connected ways move then (be sure to undo that "test move" afterwards).
  • Step B - merge/combine ways (as mentioned by sdoerr above).
(24 Aug '13, 12:34) aseerel4c26 ♦
2

I think that some of the answers are at cross-purposes here. The original question sounded like it was asking "how do I join two things together in the OSM database so that they become one thing". However, @Ivolino's question seems to be "How do I join thing A to thing B so that e.g. routers know that you can get from one to the other".

To answer the second of these, I've just tried it over on the dev server and just dragging the road that joins the other one to the corner creates a join for me.

You can't (in any editor) join ways that together form a Y-shape together into one way the OSM database - ways are only ever lines, never branched.

(24 Aug '13, 12:48) SomeoneElse ♦

@SomeoneElse: I was surprised by the automatic node merging/joining, too. However, the question is about merging paths (usually named "combining").

(24 Aug '13, 12:54) aseerel4c26 ♦

It's annoying not being to merge ways that together form a Y-shape. There's a lot of streets in the city I'm editing that are just like that, with multiple branches but all being one street. I have to edit all branches and give them the exact same name and features. It doesn't really make sense but I understand it's a technical limitation. I just hope that when you search for the street name you won't get one result per street's branch.

(30 Aug '16, 11:17) coolnodje

Where does the plus sign appear? I don't see it except in the cursor when holding down Shift. (Aha! You have to right-click after selecting multiple ways.)

(30 Aug '22, 21:06) brightj
showing 5 of 9 show 4 more comments

Maybe the editor used to work differently, but I have found I need to select the part of the path for which I have already set all the tags for, in the description menu on the left, then hold down a Shift key and click a part of the path adjacent to the selected portion, THEN Right-click the portion just selected... NOW the context menu with the + sign in it will appear so the 2 paths can be Merged into 1 (complete with all the tags previously configured).

Even more convenient, when you get to the edge of the screen where you're drawing a line (e.g. following a GPS trace you've uploaded, to, say, document a trail that's not visible through the trees in satellite view), click and hold the last point near the edge while you drag the screen over, then you can continue that same line... without having to make a bunch of different lines and then Merge them.

Hope that helps.

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answered 14 Nov '21, 22:15

Darr247's gravatar image

Darr247
11
accept rate: 0%

You have to select all the ways you want to merge (without nodes) and then click the + icon in the ring menu.

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answered 09 Nov '14, 20:40

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keepright-ler
51125
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question asked: 13 May '13, 21:57

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last updated: 30 Aug '22, 21:10

NOTICE: help.openstreetmap.org is no longer in use from 1st March 2024. Please use the OpenStreetMap Community Forum