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I wanted to add a linestring for the Sierra Nevada mountain range in California with the natural=mountain_range tag, but in iD you have to zoom in quite a bit before the editing tools are enabled, too far in to add a feature as large as this mountain range. Is it possible to add a feature this large in iD without making ton of tiny line segments in iD? Should I be using JOSM instead, or another tool?

asked 29 Sep '22, 18:58

kueda's gravatar image

kueda
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edited 30 Sep '22, 05:24


I would recommend against adding large features like that, especially when they have fuzzy boundaries like a "mountain range". You will generally have disputes at the edges whether a place is "within" or just "near" the mountain range, which is problematic from OSM's "verifiability" point of view.

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answered 29 Sep '22, 19:02

Frederik%20Ramm's gravatar image

Frederik Ramm ♦
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accept rate: 23%

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That's partly why I wanted to add this as a linestring and not a polygon: a polygon will invite more argument about the exact boundaries of a vague geographic concept. I'm new to OSM editing so I'm just now learning about verifiability in OSM. If I only add linestrings that follow the path of a label on a USGS DRG, does that qualify as "verifiable"? Other editors can look at that authoritative source, so it's verifiable in that it's present on another map, though it's not verifiable on the ground, necessarily.

Anyway, that's getting at whether I should do this, which I appreciate, but my question concerned how I do this.

(29 Sep '22, 19:29) kueda

You should really learn more about the OSM data model, as there is no linestring nor polygon in OSM.

(10 Oct '22, 16:34) H_mlet
1

as there is no linestring nor polygon in OSM.

Well there is, effectively - there are features that "anyone creating or consuming OSM data would assume is an area" and other features that "anyone creating or consuming OSM data would assume is a line (perhaps a closed one)". It's true that there are edge cases (hedge and raceway are examples that have changed or caused issues in the past), but you can't talk about the "OSM data model" without thinking about "how people interpret that data".

(10 Oct '22, 16:51) SomeoneElse ♦

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question asked: 29 Sep '22, 18:58

question was seen: 838 times

last updated: 10 Oct '22, 16:56

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