How to get Open Street Map data into Adobe Illustrator with MAPublisher

The following tip is courtesy of Hans van der Maarel of Red Geographics.

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For many areas on Earth, OpenStreetMap is a viable alternative to commercially offered data sources. However, it is not always easy to process. This blog tutorial explains the steps needed to load OpenStreetMap data into MAPublisher.

1. Download and install QGis, this is a free GIS application, available for Windows, Mac and Linux computers. Make sure that after the installation finishes, you activate the OpenStreetMap plugin (Plugins -> Plugin settings).

2. Go to OpenStreetMap in your Web browser and zoom in to an area of interest. Keep in mind that downloads from the OpenStreetMap website are limited in the number of exported objects, so for larger areas you will have to combine multiple downloads yourself, or look for other options (for example Geofabrik or Cloudmade).

Item 2: Coordinate system of the map

3. Go to the export tab and pick OpenStreetmap XML. Save this file as map.osm (it may take a few minutes).

Item 2: Coordinate system of the map

4. Open map.osm in QGis. Tick all options. Note: this uses the "Load OSM from file" option in the OpenStreetMap plugin.

Item 2: Coordinate system of the map

This results are shown in three layers: points, lines and polygons. Note that the OpenStreetMap export will not crop objects, but you can do this later on in MAPublisher.

5. Export these layers one by one. Right-click and choose "Save as shapefile".

Item 2: Coordinate system of the map

6. The three shapefiles can be imported into Adobe Illustrator using MAPublisher. After reprojecting, scaling and cropping we've ended up with the raw OpenStreetMap vectors in Adobe Illustrator, with all attributes still maintained.

Item 2: Coordinate system of the map

7. Once within the data is imported successfully, you may now use any of the MAPublisher and Adobe Illustrator tools to style and customize the map in any way you want.

 

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Posted on Tue, 06/28/2011 - 10:54
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Having trouble opening an

Having trouble opening an .osm file in Illustrator. I get this error message: map (2).osm is not a valid or recognized data source I'm running OS X and have installed the proper version of QGIS, along with requisite GDAL and GSL_Framework. I also looked up the Open Street Map plug-in, and it said "installed", although it also said "only locally available". Thanks for any help.
Posted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 03/18/2013 - 00:36.

Unfortunately, Adobe

Unfortunately, Adobe Illustrator and MAPublisher do not support the OSM file format. You will need to follow the instructions outlined in this post and open the OSM file in QGIS, export them as shapefile format and then import the shapefile into Adobe Illustrator with MAPublisher.
Posted by admin on Thu, 03/21/2013 - 23:23.

QGIS plug-in

It might be worth mentioning that in version 1.7 of QGIS, you need to go to Plug-Ins/Fetch Python Plug-Ins to access this Open Street Map plug-in. For my part, I was unable to install it as the installer says "only locally available", which I suppose precludes those of us behind a firewall.
Posted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 07/13/2011 - 14:31.

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