On their main page they list files that contain all features for each of the continents. They package OSM data by geographic area and feature type.

I started with Geofabrik in Germany, as it was a source I recognized. You have to download and install a special Data Interoperability extension, which is an esoteric thing that’s not part of the standard package and requires a special license from your site license coordinator.Ī better and more targeted approach is to download pre-created extracts that are provided by a number of organizations listed in the OSM wiki.

QGIS is able to handle these files directly you just add them as a vector layer. pbf is a compressed binary version of the osm. The “native” file format of OSM is the osm / pbf format. This is a pretty blunt approach, as you have to be zoomed in pretty close and you grab every possible feature in the view. The most straightforward method would be to export data directly from the main OSM page by zooming into an area and hitting the Export button. In this post I’ll cover three approaches for achieving this in ArcGIS Pro, with references to QGIS. I’m looking for straightforward solutions that I could use for answering questions from students (so no command line tricks or database stuff).

I’ve been using ArcGIS Pro more extensively in my new job and was wondering how I could do the same thing: query features from the OSM based on keys and values (denoting feature type) and geographic area and extract them as a vector layer. The OSM is a great source for free and open GIS data, especially for types of features that are not captured in government sources, and for parts of the world that don’t possess a free or robust GIS data infrastructure.

A couple years ago I wrote a post that demonstrated how to use the QuickOSM plugin for QGIS to easily extract features from the OpenStreetMap (OSM).

Garmin custom maps qgis