[mkgmap-dev] patch to correct plazas in default style

Tue Mar 3 12:26:09 GMT 2009

On Sun, Mar 1, 2009 at 5:23 AM, Ben Konrath <ben at bagu.org> wrote:
>> Hm... this polygon type (0x13) is not documented in the
>> garmin_feature_list.csv file in the mkgmap resources directory, is it?
>> Where did you find it?
>
> I found it in the cgpsmapper manual - it seems to have more Garmin
> codes than the garmin_feature_list.csv file.

Is polygon type 0x13 not usually used for buildings?

This is what Bernhard Heibler's POI Address + Area POIs v7 patch adds
to the polygon style file:

+building=yes [0x13 resolution 18]

If so, this presents a significant conflict.

>> However, I'm not sure what consequences these polygon types would have
>> for pedestrian/bicycle routing. It would be inconvenient if
>> pedestrians were always routed around plazas and squares as if these
>> areas were impassible obstacles.
>
> That's actually a good point. Giving it a little thought here ... Even
> if these area were marked as a park, would pedestrians be routed
> through the area in any direction? That definitely doesn't make sense
> for the parks or squares I know here in San Jose. I would rather
> specify the paths in the parks and have the pedestrians routed through
> those. Thoughts?

My initial tests in Mapsource indicate that the Garmin routing
algorithm only routes along polylines, and never through areas, even
if such areas are theoretically navigable by the current mode of
transport. I suppose in retrospect, this is quite obvious.

At least with the previous solution, with highway=pedestrian in the
lines style file, pedestrians should be routed around the edge of the
plaza.

> This all said, perhaps we are getting ahead of ourselves here. So far
> it seems that most people are using mkgmap to generate maps for
> driving. Maybe we should revisit this when more people are looking for
> walking maps. I'm not even sure using a Garmin GPS for pedestrian
> routing is a normal use case.

I think you're right: this is most likely something for which Garmin
did not design the routing function. I however, do use my device
extensively for pedestrian and bicycle navigation. In most
circumstances, I can get along fine just using the straight-line
navigation, but pedestrian routing would still be a kind of "luxury"
feature that would be really nice to have. I would not consider this a
high-priority item in any case: this is perhaps left best as a
possibility for those who wish to extensively customize the style
files to produce specialty maps, such as has been done for the
cycling/mtb maps.

Cheers.