I

n the mapsource tooltip you can identify which factors were taken into account as I put abbreviations into the name. These are much shorter this time, and on my Vista HCx in the routing page, very rarely does a roadname get stripped, on the map page while navigating even less often.

Routing over longer distances should work a bit better now, if the area is well mapped. I tried out a many routes that I know from the past and I was really astonished how closely or often better the route calculated is. Of course good mapping in an area is the key! – I calculated some routes around Garmin Partenkirchen in Germany, and hell, they must be a lot of fun on a mountainbike!

Oh and I nearly forgot to tell, Performance on GPS units when panning the map has increased tremendously, I found some hacks that even Garmin does not seem to know on how to change what gets drawn first, and panning/moving the map ist now a lot quicker (I’ld guestimate on averge 30-50% less waiting, smother moving without decreasing detail level)!

For downhill please enable shorter distance instead of faster route, and then more difficult runs (if more or less in the fallline to your destination) will be chosen. Also using mode bicycle sometimes produces very good results, In general car/motorcycle is better though. The main change with this map update is, that cycleways are not really required anymore to get somewhere, but tracks and pathes are well and often chosen. To get you understand the names, have a look at the abbreviation list:

Abbreviations used:

pri=primary / primary_link
sec=secondary
ter=tertiary
res=residential
min=minor
unsf=unsurfaced
uncl=unclassified
living=living_street
pdstrian=pedestrian
trk=track
pth=path
ft=footway
fp=footpath
brdlwy=bridleway
wy=way
rd=road
bywy=byway
serv=service

cy=cyclway
cwy=cyleway
bklane=cycleway=lane
bktrk=cycleway=track
opp=opposite
opptrk=cycleway=opposite_track
onwy=oneway
CW1=higwhway=* & highway=cycleway. (you should not tag like this).

rt=route
bk=bicycle=yes or simply bicycle therefor bkrt means bikeroute/cycleroute depending on way, mtbroute means mountainbikeroute.
mtb?? – i.e. mtb1:4 means mtb:scale:1 & mtb:scale:uphill4
xbk=bicycle=no
+bk=bicycle=designated

Current Issues: Tooltip on GPS does not show correct mtb:scale/mtb:scale:uphill information, the displayed symbols are correct.
Autorouting on GPS does not work over longer distances.

1. White Background (this can be changed back in the typfile by deleting 0x4b if you don’t like it) – The white background only appears when zoomed in to around 500m or closer. This is dependant on the map data. Should improve visibility a lot on most PNA. Makes no difference to Mapsource. I did change the look of other things too quite a lot. Layout is more consistent now. Still missing a few POI in the Typfile though (you can identify them in Qlandkarte GT or Mapsource looking at the map legend).
2. Autorouting improved once more.New lines visible on GPS and/or Qlandkarte GT
3. Search for roadnames. Not as good as real address search but better than nothing.
4. Icons for Polygons
5. Many more small things.
6. ATTENTION ON UPDATE – Delete all old *.img before copying in the new data. I patched my mkgmap installation to allow for less layers. Now there are only 4 layers (main, main2, mtb1, mtb2). This means you can’t simply overwrite on updating but you need to delete all *.img first, otherwise you might run into problems.

The Openmtbmap.org as of today got a new routing that simply kicks ass. I implemented about 100 additional lines into my main lines stylefile (now 500 lines longs – I will write a spreadsheet for future changes as the rules get really complex by now. Only for highway=track there are about 50 lines to check for most common things like routes, access restrictions, mtb:scale, mtb:scale:uphill and tracktype.

So to get to the point. If you activate “avoid toll roads” on your GPS or in Mapsource you get pristine bicycle routing respecting all laws (if the access rights are set correctly), not using footways, bridleways except if they are part of a bicycle route or have bicycle=yes or bicycle=designated added. Oneway streets (except primary, secondary, tertiary) will also be routed against their direction ( I hope that mkgmap coders find out about how we can set the unpaved and the carpool option – then oneway streets will get their own switch to be respected).

If you deactivate the toll roads option your GPS is ready for Mountainbike and Hiking action. No access rights are respected anymore, gnarly trails will be chosen and if the area you’re in has good OSM coverage and mountainbike routes then just follow the autorouting and you should be guided to the nicest places on your way.

Also the maps got a new stylefile for better readability (forest is very light green now) and I added many more POI into their correct category. Some search example that can come very handy: search for a citybike? Simply search for  the Auto Services –> Auto Rental and all bike rentals will be listed to you and you can use your GPS to let you guide to the next citybike. I’ve been really saved many hours by using that search (kudos to Norbert, or was it Andreas? to import the Viennese Citybikes into OSM). Search for your next bike dealer? Just search for Auto Services –> Auto Repair and not only all car repairs (they can often help us out too) but also all bike dealers are listed. Remember — behave with openmtbmap.org as a ciclyst just like a cardriver. I coded it so that the maps works perfect in car/motorcycle setting. You may try setting bicycle as transport mean and report back here or in the forums if the routing is still sensible or not. I think not.

Oh and for those of you that were sometimes routed on highway=motorway or highway=trunk – that’s sorted now. I really kicked out the routing information now. There was a small bug that made them routable in some rare cases. That’s solved!

This applies to all maps uploaded from 10.05 onwards. I will regenerate all maps tonight so you can enjoy the big changes! Switzerland is already online!

Hallo Mountainbiker, Fahrradfahrer und Wanderer – Die Mountainbike Karten sind nun auch fuer Fahrradfahrer und Wanderer tiptop benutzbar

In meiner Mission euch das beste Autorouting zu bringen bin ich einen großen Schritt vorwaerts gekommen. Die Karte hat nun 2 dezidierte Routingmodi welche ueber die Toll Roads / Mautstraßen vermeiden Option eingestellt werden. Die technischen Details dazu stehen oben.

Wie auch immer, wenn ihr den Haken bei Mautstraßen vermeiden setzt  (in Mapsource unter Werkzeuge, Einstellungen, Routing) dann verhaelt sich die Openmtbmap ganz loeblich (die folgenden Eigenschaften sind logisch von vorne nach hinten aufgelistet).Kein Routing auf Fußwegen außer bicycle=yes/designated bzw ist gesetzt, bzw eine Fahrradroute fuehrt ueber den Fußweg. Highway=track wird bei Tracktype Grade3-5 vom Routing ausgeschlossen. mtb:scale=>1 oder mtb:scale:uphill>2 schließt Wege vom Routing aus……..

Einbahnstraßen werden weiterhin nicht respektiert (außer auf primary, secondary, tertiary), ich hoffe hierfuer in Zukunft noch einen dezidierten Switch einbauen zu koennen.

Bei deaktivieren der Mautstraßen Option kommt die Openmtbmap.org so richtig zum leben. Trails, Fußwege, schwierige Tracks, … sind nun freigeschaltet zum Autorouting. Acces Beschraenkungen wie bicycle=no werden missachted und die Karte eignet sich optimal zum wandern und Mountainbiken.

Zusaetzlich (neben der Erweiterung auf ganz Europa falls es jemand noch nicht mitbekommen hat) haben die Karten nun ein neues Design, mit hellerem Wald und duenneren Straßen. Ausserdem wurden viele neue POI aufgenommen. Ich werde die Straßentypen nun nicht mehr groß aendern, also wenn ihr selber weiter optimieren moechtet am Design, dann bearbeitet euer “Typfile” (mtb*.TYP) mit maptk oder anderen Tools und ihr koennt eure ganz persoenliche Kartendarstellung vom Design einstellen. Bei den POI wird aber noch einiges kommen in Zukunft und evtl auch Typaenderungen damit noch mehr POI ueber die Suche auffindbar sind.

Und mein persoenlicher Tipp fuer Anfaenger von Heute. Wusstet ihr schon dass ihr euch mit der Openmtbmap.org zum naechsten Citybike/Fahhradverleih lotsen lassen koennt? Einfach in der Suche nach Autoverleih suchen, aber ihr findet keinen Autoverleih sondern stattdessen die naechsten Citybikes von eurem Aufenthaltsort. Fahrradhaendler findet ihr unter Autowerkstaetten (hier habe ich Autowerkstaetten drinnengelassen, sind ja evtl im Notfall auch wichtig wenn kein Fahrradhaendler fuers groebere Werkzeug in der Naehe ist).

Achted aufs Datum. Nur Karten die ab dem 10.05 hochgeladen sind unterstuetzen die neuen Modi. Ich werde aber heute Nacht alle Laender neu durchrendern! Die Schweiz ist schon online. Die weiteren Karten folgen nun.

1. Over the weekend no editing on OSM was possible due to API migration,

2. As written I ordered a new PC – and wait for it to arrive and do the map updates from that PC.

However with the new PC I hope to be able to publish mountainbike maps for all European countries. Furthermore right now Geofabrik has not yet published any new data – so I can’t update either. I hope the new API works with my tools.

Diese Woche kommen die Mountainbike Karten-updates spaeter…

1. Ueber das Wochenende waren keine Edits bei OSM moeglich.

2. Wie schon geschrieben hab ich einen neuen PC zum Kartengenerieren bestellt, und warte darauf dass ich die Teile zusammenbauen kann.

Allerdings werde ich mit dem neuen PC, hoffentlich Karten fuer ganz Europa anbieten koennen. Das ist also die gute Nachricht. Also wahrscheinlich spaetestens in einer Woche gibt es hier dann Mountainbike Karten fuer ganz Europa. Fruehestens jedoch erst nachdem geofabrik die Planetfiles geupdated hat. Ich hoffe dass die Umstellung der API problemlos mit meinen Tools funzt.