Trees missing

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by djordje on February 8, 2017 at 3:52am

Maybe I misunderstood your question, without having a look at the definition or screenshot, but here is what I assume is happening. I apologize for a bit longer reply.

Gizmo sorts the OSM geometry into three categories, each one corresponding to different shapeType_ input:

- polygons (shapeType_ = 0): anything consisted of closed polygons: buildings, grass areas, forests, lakes, etc

- polylines (shapeType_ = 1): non closed polylines as: streets, roads, highways, rivers, canals, train tracks ...
- points (shapeType_ = 2): any point features, like: Trees, building entrances, benches, junctions between roads... Store locations: restaurants, bars, pharmacies, post offices...

So basically when you ran the "OSM shapes" component with the shapeType_ = 2, you will get a lot of points. If you would like to get only 3d trees, you run the "OSM 3D" component and it will create 3d trees from only those points which are in fact trees. You can also check which points are trees by looking at the exact location on openstreetmap.org. For example:

Or use the "OSM Search" component which will identify all trees among the points, regardless of whether 3d trees can be created or not.

However, when it comes to 3d trees there is a catch:

Sometimes the geometry which Gismo streams from OpenStreetMap.org does not contain a "height" key. Or it does contain it but the value for that key is missing.
OpenStreetMap is free editable map database, so anyone with internet access and free registered account on openstreetmap.org can add features (like trees) to the map database. However, regular people sometimes do not have height measuring devices which are needed for specific objects as trees.
So "OSM 3D" component will generate 3d trees from only those tree points which contain a valid "height" key.
However, a small workaround is to input a domain(range) into the randomHeightRange_ input of "OSM 3D" component (for example the following one: "5 to 10"):

This will result in creation of other 3d trees which do not have defined height, by randomizing their height. randomHeightRange_ input can also be applied to 3d buildings, and it is definitively something I need to write a separate article on.

In the end it may be that nobody mapped the trees in the area you are looking for.

After you map a tree to openstreetmap.org then it will instantly be available to you or any other user of Gismo. I will be adding some tutorials in the future on how this can be done. But probably not in the next couple of weeks.

Let me know if any of this helps, or if I completely misunderstood your issue.

Permalink Reply by Abraham Yezioro on February 8, 2017 at 5:04am

Hi Djordje,

You understood fully. Thanks for the thorough explanation.

I see that in fact almost no trees are defined in openStreetMaps ... but believe me: there is a lot of them :-)

So it is fine. just wanted to understand the "machine", and now i do.

I'm eager about the explanations how to update this database in OSM. I found that also many buildings don't correspond to reality, at least as for their heights.

Thanks again. This is a great tool!

-A.

Permalink Reply by djordje on February 8, 2017 at 5:29am

I think people have mostly been mapping trees to openstreetmap.org database which are not in some sort of forest. So only those which are in parks, or streets or similar. I may be wrong on this though.
Still openstreetmap.org for some reason renders forests (or woodlands) with trees characters.

So people may think that these are individual trees, but in fact they are not. Only upper presented circles are mapped trees:

It's great to see that you are eager to help!! Adding/editing features to openstreetmap.org will definitively benefit Gismo as well!
I am currently stuck with my private work, and I need to fix bugs with some other un-released Gismo components. So the tutorials won't be coming that quickly.
If you are interested you can check this youtube video which explains a bit on how adding/editing features to openstreetmap.org can be done through a regular internet browser.