How can I view OSM extracts?

I'm sure this has been asked thousands of times, but how do I view the map extracts offline? (.osm and .pbf) Is there a (native) app I can use? Can't find any clear information.

9 points · 11 comments · view on lemmy.world

11 Comments

mdione@en.osm.town · 3 pts · 1y (2 replies)

@Irelephant at least .osm files can be loaded in #JOSM, but if your extract is big enough (say, a city or bigger), it might clog it, since it will try to render _everything_. It's mostly aimed at loading changesets, not whole areas.

After that, it seems like you can convert the pbf into a SQLite/Spatialite DB and load it in #QGis, but you're already transforming the data.

EDIT: yay! Federation works! (Answered from Mastodon :)

pietervdvn@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 1y (1 reply)

Yeah, the fediverse is amazing. I've had cases where I answered a lemmy thread without even realizing it was on lemmy ;)

InsertUser@en.osm.town · 1 pts · 1y

@pietervdvn @mdione If you're replying to a reply it sometimes helps to add @openstreetmap to the toot to make sure it gets propagated properly by lemmy.

(although probably not this time as I'm replying to a lemmy.ml account)

pietervdvn@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 1y (3 replies)

What are you trying to do with it?

.pbf is a compression format (a bit like a .zip-file) which contains the .osm-file. The .osm-file is nothing more then an XML-file with a specific format and a .osm-extension.

Those are not meant for day-to-day users but more for developers.There are some programs able to open those files, such as JOSM or Osmosis.

Irelephant@lemm.ee · 1 pts · 1y (2 replies)

To view it offline. There is probably a far better way I am missing.

pietervdvn@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 1y (1 reply)
Irelephant@lemm.ee · 1 pts · 1y

They all seem to be phone apps. I tried using kde marble, but it doesn't work very well (for me)

redd@discuss.tchncs.de · 1 pts · 1y (3 replies)

I asked ChatGPT and there seems to be two options to view OSM extracts:

  1. QGIS can open .osm and .pbf

  2. JOSM can open .osm

I did not verify or test this by myself. Maybe some people have more experience?

mcliquid@en.osm.town · 1 pts · 1y

@redd @Irelephant Correct, both tools will work!

mcliquid@en.osm.town · 1 pts · 1y (1 reply)

@redd @Irelephant And I guess the iD editor in osm.org can also open .OSM files but never tried.

pietervdvn@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 1y

An end user cannot open provided XML files with it