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Guys bare with the silly question. I just searched for a open-source map that I can use on my offline PC...sort of like my own world map. I don't want to use Google products...eventually after searching for options I stumbled on OSM.

I've downloaded the latest weekly planet file planet-130626.osm.bz2 and the MD5 check is ok so I guess I have the entire OSM map correctly downloaded.

What I want to do is;

  • have the map available to preview on my offline PC, the entire world map
  • be able to tag places (like pins on Google maps), possibly with short descriptions

With the OSM file I have, what is my next step, what software do I need? Thanks a lot.

asked 01 Jul '13, 07:42

TM23's gravatar image

TM23
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accept rate: 0%

edited 01 Jul '13, 07:43


Continuing after Frederiks's good answer regarding the use of the planet file …

(some found via questions tagged "offline") you could use those other, maybe more easy, options:

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answered 01 Jul '13, 13:52

aseerel4c26's gravatar image

aseerel4c26 ♦
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accept rate: 18%

edited 03 Jul '13, 00:18

I've installed QLandkarte GT...and I can zoom in on any part of the world. So that's due to internet access I guess.

Is there a way to have this level of functionality without internet access?

(01 Jul '13, 15:49) TM23

The simplest solution is. Garmin BaseCamp is a free download and as a basic world map. If you wish to use OSM with it, and with more detail you can by downloading a garmin.img file see OSM on Garmin in the wiki for details. http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/w/index.php?search=basecamp&title=Special%3ASearch

(01 Jul '13, 21:51) andy mackey

@TM23: I do not use it myself, but you should be able to use garmin image files (like in basecamp; download linked in my answer) in Qlandkarte GT. They can be downloaded for offline use.

(02 Jul '13, 01:15) aseerel4c26 ♦
1

@TM23 At least Marble is able to cache tiles and to download tiles for user-defined areas. However you have to respect the tile usage policy and keep in mind that tiles are large.

(02 Jul '13, 08:44) scai ♦

The file you have downloaded is not a map; it is a file that contains all the OSM data.

The difference is: A map has a certain map style - how thick the lines for roads are on what zoom scale, what the road colours are, and so on. The data doesn't have a style - it just has the information "there's a road of class so-and-so named so-and-so here".

So if you want to see a map, you need a software that draws a map from the raw data. That is usually called a rendering engine. There are no rendering engines that can directly read the OSM planet file; you will have to pre-process the data in some way. Programs that can preprocess and display the whole planet file are e.g. "gosmore" and "navit", both are however geared towards navigation use and will not show all the area and POI types might be used to from browsing www.openstreetmap.org. Another option is importing the data into a PostgreSQL database and then displaying it with MapServer or TileMill; this might give you a u ser experience more like www.openstreetmap.org but at the cost ~ 400 GB of database storage and a couple days data import.

I would strongly suggest that you start with a small data file, just for a state or a country, to try out the software because processing the whole planet file can take hours or, if you have a small machine, even days.

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answered 01 Jul '13, 08:22

Frederik%20Ramm's gravatar image

Frederik Ramm ♦
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accept rate: 23%

Thank you very much for your answer Frederik.

I can't believe that it's so "complicated" to have a map on your computer. Is there a non-navigational map, without street level detail that can serve the purpose?

(01 Jul '13, 08:28) TM23

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question asked: 01 Jul '13, 07:42

question was seen: 7,450 times

last updated: 03 Jul '13, 00:18

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