Handle coincident features (i.e. multiple things one spot)

[ansis]

This is a hard one.

Trams are drawn as separate ways that share the nodes of the road. http://www.openstreetmap.us/iD/master/#id=w33910429&layer=Bing&map=19.72/-79.41092/43.66473

Its impossible to select way rendered on the bottom (sometimes the tram, sometimes the road).

I'm seeing a couple possibilities.

1. Offset the line paths so that they don't overlap.
2. Clicking on a line segment selects all parent ways. Add inspector for multiple entities, a list that lets you choose one of them.
3. Not handle this at all. Let users disconnect and move if they need to edit.

P2 and JOSM don't handle this at all.

[ajashton]

JOSM handles this via alt-click. This will select the next object if two or more are coincident. This is also how you can select overlapping objects in Inkscape.

JOSM also has a selection inspector like option 2.

[systemed]

P2 handles it via a magic keypress (of course): select shared node, press / to cycle through all the ways that use that node.

[lhersah]

JOSM: middle click offers a list or multiple middle clicks cycle through the list.

[SomeoneElseOSM]

Just checking to see if anyone's implemented a fix to this and forgotten to update the issue :)

The context is the forum discussion about this changeset http://www.openstreetmap.org/changeset/35882220 (see the links from the changeset discussion) - I'd like to be able to say "just press (something)" to switch between contiguous ways rather than suggesting using another editor.

Shift-click "sometimes" works - it seems to depend on draw order. There's a couple of test overlaps at http://api06.dev.openstreetmap.org/#map=18/51.50434/-2.65264 if anyone wants to experiment. Another options seems to be clicking the end node, clicking "+" on the rotary menu, getting told there are several lines to extend, clicking the only place you can and extending one of the duplicates, then in the same way extending the other duplicate in a different direction. Once you can select each way individually, you can delete the duplicate that you don't want, and remove the extra bit of the other one that you added, but it's not a workflow to suggest to someone who's just started mapping.

[bhousel]

No we haven't implemented this yet.

I'm not really sure the best way to handle this either. The current rendering can make it impossible to know that there even are coincident ways.

[slhh]

In order to make the user aware of coincident ways the cursor symbol could show multiple lines (preferably three lines) instead of a single line when hovering over the coincident ways. In addition the colour of the cursor symbol can change for example to red making the cursor symbol change more evident.

The user might stiil fail to recognize it. Therefore iD should not use something similar to the P2 "/" or JOSM Alt-Click method, but open a selection menu when clicking the coincident ways.

[slhh]

The selection menu can be an around the cursor menu with simply numbered tool icons 1, 2, 3,.. according to the number of coincident ways. Preferably the icon should contain an indication of the object type in addition to the number. Assignment of the numbers must be kept constant when clicking the same edge of the coincident ways multiple times.

Clicking with shift keeps the current selection when opening the selection menu.

Hovering over the selection tool icon should show the tags of the associated way and hilight this way in the map.
Clicking the selection tool icon the selection status of the respective way is toggled. If not using shift somehow this simply means the respective way is selected.
Clicking the selection tool icon without shift the selection menu is closed. Clicking the selection tool icon without shift the selection menu is kept open easily allowing multiple selections. In case a way is already selected the respective selection tool icon should be marked for example using a green border ring.

[sfkeller]

Got the same problem here. My solution in iD in the meantime is

• Move slippy map the desired location fully zoomed in
• Use "?" tool to show all ways in the list to the left
• Browse through the ways with mouse-over until the way is highlighted and cklick on it:
  https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/450020720#map=19/47.22362/8.81296
• Enter edit mode which gives this weblink:
  http://www.openstreetmap.org/edit?way=450020720#map=21/47.22363/8.81337

This has still the drawback that I can't delete the feature - one can only modify tags.

[simonpoole]

Just as a data point: vespucci pops up a disambiguation menu in such cases (mobile doesn't really give a lot of choice how to handle such cases), that has the nice side effect of displaying
a) that there is more than one object
b) what is actually there
and not leaving it to guessing as for example with JOSM.

[slhh]

Due to some recent advances in iD, fixing the issue seems to be quite easy now:
We do just need to select all points, all ways, or all areas at the mouse position, or add them to the section, when shift is pressed.

Identification of partially coincident ways or areas has become easy due to hover styling. Identification based on feature type is already supported too.
Dropping selected items or picking a single one is also available.
Opening the edit menu for the remaining selection is also possible.

[1ec5]

P2 handles it via a magic keypress (of course): select shared node, press / to cycle through all the ways that use that node.

#8264 implements a similar workflow via the \ and < shortcuts.

[blacklocust3]

One workaround for iD is to go to Map Data (shortcut U) -> Map Features and unselect the type of feature you don't want to edit.