Draw Nodes

Keyboard shortcut: A — is a one of the JOSM modes TOC(inline)

This mode behaves differently depending on how you use it.

Try it yourself

Open https://josm.openstreetmap.de/raw-attachment/wiki/Help/Action/Draw/josmwiki-actiondraw.osm using menu item "File > Open Location ..." (Ctrl+L).

Standard Mode

Create a node

When selection is empty, If you click on a blank area of the screen you add a new node independent of any existing way:

Click on node will stop mode

To stop drawing mode, click on selected object (a node) again. This can be done so quickly and some users confuse it with double click. No, you don't need double click:

Draw a segment

With empty selection, if you select one node and then click on a blank area of the screen you add a new node and create a new way (with one segment):

Note: click on second node in segment used to stop drawing mode

Click on node will start new segment similar to empty

• If you are currently not drawing, then you can select node with a left mouse click
• If the node is an end node of a line then also the line gets selected (leaf node + way in selection); this will be explained in #Continuousdrawing

In demo below, left mouse click was used to select first drawing mode, then clicked 6 times at nodes:

Common nodes with another way

This is often necessary when you edit highways.

If a node is previously selected and you click between two nodes in an existing way the new node is added on the existing way, between two existing nodes, and a way is drawn between the previously selected node and the new node.

The new node will belong to both ways. It's often refereed as "common node".

Simplest scenario:

Common nodes are bigger

It help you distinguish them from other nodes.

First drawn way have a common nodes with old way and second drawn way has no common nodes (details how second way was drawn will be explained below):

Double click stops drawing on leaf node

Drawing stops, if you make a double click when creating the last node. This way you don't have to click on last node, but you have to know about this special case:

Continuous drawing

Previous way will be continued if both are true:

1. nothing was selected OR way in question was selected
2. draw mode applied to leaf nodes

If draw mode applied to non-leaf nodes, it will create a new way instead of continuing old one:

Left click on drawn way will stop continuous drawing

It doesn't matter if you click on nodes or create a new node in a way:

Snaps to existing nodes or ways

Note how nodes and way change colour to yellow when hovering over them:

If you click near an existing node it draws a "segment" between what was previously selected and the existing node, and this allows you to re-use existing nodes to make a new way / area (so that certain nodes and "segments" can be reused in more than one way/ area):

Angle snapping

Basic usage

Use this mode to draw segment that is parallel, perpendicular or at precisely defined angles (30, 45, 60, 90) degrees to the reference segment(s):

To enable this mode press A twice (status bar with angle with be highlighted in bright green), then you need to use Right mouse click on segment you want to use as reference.

Any way segment when angle snapping enabled, during enabled "draw mode" :-) allows to use that segment as reference or base segment.

Instead of the Right mouse click you can also hold Ctrl while moving mouse over desired segment.

Angles

You can choose the direction of next segment to make specific angle between segments (0,30,45,90, degrees etc.).

Base segment can be changed as many times as you want

Base segment will be preserved while drawing mode is on

Pay attention how "Draw mode" was NEVER disabled during this illustration:

Advanced settings

To choose angles, disable showing helper geometry, or disable snapping, use right-click on Angle symbol in statusbar and select corresponding item in popup menu.

Modifiers

Alt modifier

If you hold down the Alt key when using this mode it starts a new way, rather than continuing an existing way.

Shift modifier

If you hold down the Shift key while using this mode, it disables the "auto-connect" feature. So segments will not be drawn between new nodes.

Ctrl modifier

If you hold down the Ctrl key whilst using this mode, it disables the snapping to an existing way, allowing you to draw nodes close to, but not part of an existing way.

Combination of modifiers

You may optionally use one or many modifiers at once to get desired result.

Here is Ctrl modifier used with Shift at once:

See also

• Add node ...
• Improve Way Accuracy mode (W)

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