Imagery Menu

This menu allows you to use various sources as a background layer in the Mapview such as aerial imagery, cadastral plans or maps rendered from OpenStreetMap data.

Menu items

The Imagery menu has the following items:

Icon	Name	Shortcut	Description
	Reorder Imagery Layers	various	Reorders non-overlay imagery layers.
	Imagery preferences...		Opens the respective tab in the preferences. Imagery servers can be added and edited there.
	Get Imagery Offset...	Ctrl+Alt+I	Download offsets for current Imagery (optional, from the ​Imagery Offset Database Plugin)
	Store Imagery Offset...		Saves for current imagery an offset in the offset database (optional, from the ​Imagery Offset Database Plugin)
	New offset		Opens a window to adjust the offset of an imagery.
Here will appear all imageries, which are activated in the Imagery preferences. The following eight entries are already activated from the beginning. Clicking on one of the entries will add the imagery to the Layer list panel. Adding an imagery is also illustrated in the introduction.
Icon	Name	Description
	Bing aerial imagery
	Esri World Imagery
	Esri World Imagery (Clarity) Beta
	Mapbox Satellite
	Maxar Premium Imagery (Beta)
	Maxar Standard Imagery (Beta)
	OpenStreetMap Carto (Standard layer)
	OpenStreetMap (Standard Black & White)
Here will appear all non global imageries of category photo, which are available at the current center position and zoom of the Mapview (only if they are not already listed above). This is determined by the bounds of the imagery, which you can see in the Imagery preferences.
Below will appear all non global imageries of the other categories, which are available at the current center position and zoom of the Mapview. If there is more than one imagery of a category they are grouped in a submenu:
Icon	Name	Description
	Elevation map	Map of digital terrain model, digital surface model or contour lines.
	Map	A map.
	Historic or otherwise outdated map	A historic or otherwise outdated map.
	Map based on OSM data	A map based on OSM data.
	Historic or otherwise outdated aerial or satellite photo	A historic or otherwise outdated aerial or satellite photo.
	Map for quality assurance	A map for quality assurance
	Imagery not matching any other category	Any other type of imagery
Icon	Name	Shortcut	Description
	Rectified Image...		Note if you are using these images for editing then you need to ensure the image, and its method of rectification, are free of any copyright issues.
	New picture layer from file...		Allows to add and rectify custom images e.g. a .jpeg file (optional from the ​PicLayer Plugin)
	New picture layer from clipboard		Allows to add and rectify custom images directly from the clipboard (optional from the PicLayer Plugin)
	Mapillary	Shift+,	Adds the mappilary layer. (optional from the ​Mapillary plugin)
	Mapillary object layer		Adds a layer with map objects detected by mappilary e.g. traffic signs. (optional from the Mapillary plugin)
	More...		If the list becomes too long entries of plugins will appear in this More... submenu.

WMS basic troubleshooting

Things to try in case of problem.

No image appears, even after waiting a bit (message No tiles at this zoom level)

• Adjust zoom level so that the scale in the top left says ~300m.

Error: Could not load images from tile server

• The imagery server address can be outdated.
• The imagery server address can temporarily be not available.

Images at bad resolution

• Check if other aerial imageries are available. Make sure OSM has the permission to trace from it!

Exception occurred - red tiles

• This can mean the imagery server is temporarily not available. Landsat and OpenAerialMap seem to be prone to periods of non-availability. Delete the WMS layer and try again 10 minutes later.

Error: bad parameters - red tiles

• Check that Preferences -> Map Projection is set to EPSG:4326 or Mercator.

gray tiles

• if you have non-ACSII symbols in the path to your plugin folder in Windows (e.g. cyrillic letters in your name in C:\Documents and Settings\[your name]\Application Data\JOSM\plugins), a possible solution is to change your name to an equivalent short filename. To find this open a command window and do

   dir /x C:\Documents and Settings
  

In its output the column to the left of your name should contain short version of your name, let it be for example 9335~1. Add a line to the batch file starting JOSM:

 rem   Contents of start_JOSM.cmd
 set APPDATA=C:\Documents and Settings\9335~1\Application Data
 start javaw -jar josm.jar

Caching

To reuse the tiles over JOSM sessions without having the reload them from the server, right click on the WMS layer and set a bookmark. During the next session, select the new WMS created by the bookmark in the WMS menu. Additionally, you may want to modify the following values in the preferences:

• cache.wmsplugin.expire to -1: this is a time in second until the tiles are invalidated. -1 means never flush.
• cache.wmsplugin.maxsize to 999999999: maximal size of the cache (probably in MB).

Even though you have to download an area manually, you can work offline using this technique.

Using a Rectified Image

Do not use copyrighted material, unless you have the right/permission to do so !

Before you start with your own images, it might be a good idea to start with Landsat data so you'll learn how to work with these downloaded images.

To work with your own images in JOSM:

• upload your aerial image / scanned old map to either
  • ​Map Warper
  • Note: please read their privacy/copyright notes first
• rectify it on their site so it fits with reality
• XXX - wait for the image to be processed?
• remember the metacarta id (look at the URL in your browser)
• in JOSM, load some openstreetmap data of the expected image area (to be in the right clipping range)
• click on Rectified Image and enter the id in the upcoming dialog

If the clipping range was wrong, you might see just nothing. In this case zoom out and retry the download.

See also

• RemoteControlCommands - imagery command

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