Joining an open source project has been one of the best things I did for my career. To better myself in the process of improving QGIS. To grow as a GIS professional. To learn to be part of team and respect each others ideas even if don't agree. To be open to ideas that others have spent a lot of time on. To not just be single tool pusher and learn a wider range of toolkits. To work with people who you have never seen in person, or even talked to.

How did it feel to join an open source project? Scary but awesome I would say. Scary in that that everyone would read my code - my very amateur code. Scary in that I had never really joined an open source project before and wasn't sure what everyone would think of my work, or my ideas. Scary because there are so many people better at this than me and they might think I'm crap.

However all of this fear is outweighed by the awesome feeling of knowing that people benefit from the work you, and the rest of the team, put in. Sometimes even the small things can make a huge difference to what people can do with your software - and yes I did use "your software" on purpose. Contributing to open source means you, personally, are part of the software. Being a contributor, for me at least, gives you a deeper relationship with the project. The kind of relationship that sees you staying up at night when the rest of the family is in bed trying out a new idea, fixing some annoying bug, or writing a blog post about being an open source contributor. All for free! - well mostly. Some call it obsession I prefer passion.

It's not pretty roses all the time. Passion can lead to burnout. Trying to be involved in most of the major parts of the project can result in stretching yourself thin. A project that never sleeps makes this even harder. The wave of ideas can sometimes be a distraction from just getting stuff done. Rejection of your work can be hard to handle the first time, you just have to remember it's never personal. Most of these are just personal demons that need to be managed but they do sneak up if you enjoy what you do. Having a family - and an xbox - helps to ground you and make sure you don't spend all your free time on the computer hacking away.

Like I said, and despite personal demons, joining an open source project has been one of the best things I did. There is an emotional kick working on something and seeing it used by other people. I didn't expect my expression based labeling addition would get such good remarks but it did and that helped push me further into becoming a QGIS contributor.

Join us at FOSS4G Central and Eastern Europe (FOSS4G-CEE) 2013 from 16th – 20th June, National Library of Romania, Bucharest, Romania.

You will meet well known Keynote Speakers (random order): Jeff McKenna, Paul C. Smits, Jáchym Čepický, Schuyler Erle, Maria Antonia Brovelli, Dirk Frigne, Markus Neteler, Alyssa Wright, and Radu Puchiu.

Check the long list of Practical Workshops and Oral Presentations at: http://2013.foss4g-cee.org/program/schedule
Check out for the additional Code Sprint, the Open GeoData Hackathon, and the Open Data Side Event.

How to arrive? See http://2013.foss4g-cee.org/venue/map

There are two things I have coded, re-coded and re-re-coded through all my plugins: the management of the settings and the management of combo boxes associated to layers and their fields.

I have decided to write two generic python modules to solve these tasks to avoid reinventing the wheel every time.

The first one is called QGIS setting manager.
This module allows you to:

• manage different types of settings (bool, string, color, integer, double, stringlist)
• read and write settings in QGIS application or in the QGIS project
• automatically set widgets from corresponding setting
• automatically write settings from widgets of a dialog

This means that the class of a dialog dedicated to editing the plugins settings can be reduced to just a few lines.
You just have to name widgets according to settings and the module automatically detect the widgets, sets/reads the value from the widget and read/write the settings accordingly.

A setting class would look like this

from qgissettingmanager import *

class MySettings(SettingManager):
    def __init__(self):
        SettingManager.__init__(self, myPluginName)
        self.addSetting("myVariable", "bool", "global", True)

reading and write settings are performed by doing

self.settings = MySettings()
self.settings.setValue("myVariable", False)
myVariable = self.settings.value("myVariable")

and a dialog looks like this

class MyDialog(QDialog, Ui_myDialog, SettingDialog):
    def __init__(self):
        QDialog.__init__(self)
        self.setupUi(self)
        self.settings = MySettings()
        SettingDialog.__init__(self, self.settings)

You can find a complete howto here and look at the code on github.

The second module is called QGIS combo manager. This module autmatically manages combo box widgets for layers, fields of vector layers and bands of raster layers.
You can associate a field combo to a layer combo: as soon as the layer has been modified, the fields are updated to the current layer.

Associating a combo box to layers and another one to its fields would look like this:

from qgiscombomanager import *

self.layerComboManager = VectorLayerCombo(self.layerComboWidget)
self.myFieldComboManager = FieldCombo(self.myFieldComboManager, self.layerComboManager)

You can find a complete howto here and look at the code on github.

An advantage of using map services like WMS and WMTS is that your styling has been done by someone else. But this can turn into a disadvantage as well in case the colours of your overlay are similar to the colours in your remote base layer. To show this I created an example using the […]

No words for this one, just pictures! Above: What we are trying to achieve… Above: Our symbol layers Above: The roof colour is data defined A shadow Layer And a highlight layer One other hint – don’t forget to enable symbol levels!

We have no words for this one, just pictures!

Above: What we are trying to achieve...

Above: Our symbol layers

Above: The roof colour is data defined

A shadow Layer

And a highlight layer

One other hint - don't forget to enable symbol levels!

The excitement about the upcoming 2.0 release is growing and to add some fuel to the fires, Mathieu founded the QGIS Flickr Group. Anyone can join and add their maps done with QGIS master.

I’m looking forward to seeing what you have come up with. Please note that this group is meant for maps only (therefore no screenshots of the application please).

Want to show of some the cool maps you have made using QGIS 1.9/2.0?

Mathieu has now setup a new Flickr group to collect and show of cool maps that have been made using the new features in the upcoming QGIS 2.0.

The group can be found at http://www.flickr.com/groups/qgis/pool

Here is one I uploaded a few days ago

and a cool one from Anita

Anyone can join and submit to the group.

There are just a few rules:

No Screen shots of the application Only output from the composer or Save Image As.. List data sources used List any new QGIS features used e.g blending, label buffers, etc Only post maps you are proud of or you would show your mother A QGIS Map Boo k might be on the cards in the future so keep that in mind when uploading a map to the group.

Now go forth and make awesome maps!

Want to show of some the cool maps you have made using QGIS 1.9/2.0?

Mathieu has now setup a new Flickr group to collect and show of cool maps that have been made using the new features in the upcoming QGIS 2.0.

The group can be found at http://www.flickr.com/groups/qgis/pool

Here is one I uploaded a few days ago

and a cool one from Anita

Anyone can join and submit to the group.

There are just a few rules:

No Screen shots of the application Only output from the composer or Save Image As.. List data sources used List any new QGIS features used e.g blending, label buffers, etc Only post maps you are proud of or you would show your mother A QGIS Map Boo k might be on the cards in the future so keep that in mind when uploading a map to the group.

Now go forth and make awesome maps!

Want to show of some the cool maps you have made using QGIS 1.9/2.0?

Mathieu has now setup a new Flickr group to collect and show of cool maps that have been made using the new features in the upcoming QGIS 2.0.

The group can be found at http://www.flickr.com/groups/qgis/pool

Here is one I uploaded a few days ago

and a cool one from Anita

Anyone can join and submit to the group.

There are just a few rules:

No Screen shots of the application Only output from the composer or Save Image As.. List data sources used List any new QGIS features used e.g blending, label buffers, etc Only post maps you are proud of or you would show your mother A QGIS Map Boo k might be on the cards in the future so keep that in mind when uploading a map to the group.

Now go forth and make awesome maps!

De Basisregistratie Topografie (BRT/Top10NL) houdt ongeveer een kilometer na de landsgrens al op. Velen, bijvoorbeeld brandweermensen, hebben behoefte aan meer kaartbeeld over de landsgrens. Die kaartdata is er, en nog kosteloos ook. De Open Street Map (OSM) van de Europese landen is als Shapefiles te downloaden, o.a. via de Duitse GeoFabrik, http://download.geofabrik.de/europe.html. Ze wordt aangeboden in […]

Sextante is quickly becoming the goto geoprocessing toolbox for me. I’ve been working with Sextante 1.0.8 on QGIS 1.8 and lately I’ve started looking into Sextante 1.1 for QGIS 2. This post highlights some of the main differences between the two versions. I’m sure there are many more hidden gems I have not discovered so far.

One thing you will notice if you have used previous versions of Sextante is that the new version comes with a simplified interface which groups tools into three categories: geoalgorithms, models, and scripts. If you prefer the old style grouping by algorithm source such as GDAL, GRASS, etc. you can switch to the Advanced interface.

Let’s start with the bad news: Models created in 1.0.8 are not compatible with 1.1 since many of the algorithms have been rearranged in new categories and Sextante cannot find them by their old names anymore, e.g.

1.0.8 … ALGORITHM:ftools:fixeddistancebuffer
1.1 … ALGORITHM:qgis:fixeddistancebuffer

The great news is that the modeler has been improved greatly. Model representations now show the flow of input and output data through the model steps much more clearly:

Sextante 1.0.8 modeler

Sextante 1.1 modeler

I also found the new modeler much more stable – no crashes so far. *fingerscrossed*

Another nice new feature is Sextante commander which can be started using the shortcut Ctrl+Alt+M. It’s a quick launch solution for all Sextante algorithms:

At FOSS4G, I’ll be presenting some work I did evaluation OSM using Sextante 1.0.8. I’d love to hear how you are using Sextante.

Today’s post: More print composer overview magic!

Inverted Map Overviews

Thanks to the “Invert overview” option, we can now chose between highlighting the detail area (left example in the image) or blocking out the surrounding area (right example).

The “Lock layers for map item” option can come in very handy if you want to reduce the number of layers in the overview map while still keeping all layers of interest in the main map.

In the previous tutorial, I showed you how to create a raster terrain model. This is useful by itself for visualising the relief of an area. However, it can be even more useful when used as the basis of further analysis.

Over the next few tutorials, I will show you how to carry out the following types of analysis:-

• Slope
• Aspect
• Hillshade
• Ruggedness Index

I am going to use srtm data for the UK, you can download the file for your area from here: http://srtm.csi.cgiar.org/

Displaying the raster, resolving display problems

• Add the image to the project using the Add Raster Layer button. At first the image opens completely grey, to stretch the black to white gradient to fit between the minimum and maximum values found in the image:-
• Press the Stretch Histogram to Full Data Set on the Raster toolbar
• Alternatively, right click on the layer in the Layer Panel, and
  • Select Properties.
  • Select the Style tab.

  At the bottom, change the Contrast Enhancement pull down to Stretch to Min Max.

• If a grid displays as a continuous grey box, check the Transparency for null cells setting
  • Open the Layer Properties
  • Select the Transparency tab
    

    QGIS Layer Properties

• Check that the correct band is selected in the Transparency Band pull down
• Check the No data value and Percent Transparent entries in the Transparent Pixel list

The DEM Models plugin should appear on the Raster Menu. If it isn’t installed, it can be downloaded by using the menu to select Plugins, fetch Python plugins.

Its operation is similar for all the types of analysis that can be undertaken

1. Select the input raster layer
2. Select the output raster layer that will contain the results
3. Use the pull down to select the analysis:

• Hillshade
• Slope
• Aspect
• Color Relief
• Terrain Ruggedness Index
• Topographic Position Index
• Roughness

DEM Terrain Module

QGIS Cloud and Sourcepole are proud to be official sponsors of the team Öcher-Safari, attending the Allgäu-Orient-Rallye. One of the last adventures in the world of cars. Sourcepole serves the team with know how, infrastructure and more. Information about the team and the charity ideas of this event you can find on Öcher-Safari and the official web site of the Allgäu-Orient-Rallye.

Here is a handy tip to be able to install and update OSGeo4W packages, things like QGIS, GRASS, etc, using the apt utility from OSGeo4W. apt is a command line utility that you can install using OSGeo4W and then run using the OSGeo4W Shell.

First install apt via OSGeo4W

Now open the OSGeo4W Shell

from here you can run the apt utility.

The basic commands are apt update, apt install {package}, apt upgrade

Installing nightly QGIS

For a quick example we will install qgis-dev.

From the shell we can just run:

apt setup
apt update
apt install qgis-dev

apt will install all the needed dependencies

Done!

Script for updating nightly QGIS

So the good thing about using apt is if you wanted to make a quick batch file that you can run to update to the nightly build it's as simple as

@echo off
set OSGEO4W_ROOT=C:\OSGeo4W
set PATH=%OSGEO4W_ROOT%\bin;%PATH%

apt update
apt install qgis-dev
pause

Now you can just run the batch file to update your QGIS to the nightly build.

Extra tip

If you just want to upgrade all the packages you have installed you can do:

apt setup
apt upgrade

Simple

Here is a handy tip to be able to install and update OSGeo4W packages, things like QGIS, GRASS, etc, using the apt utility from OSGeo4W. apt is a command line utility that you can install using OSGeo4W and then run using the OSGeo4W Shell.

First install apt via OSGeo4W

Now open the OSGeo4W Shell

from here you can run the apt utility.

The basic commands are apt update, apt install {package}, apt upgrade

Installing nightly QGIS

For a quick example we will install qgis-dev.

From the shell we can just run:

apt setup
apt update
apt install qgis-dev

apt will install all the needed dependencies

Done!

Script for updating nightly QGIS

So the good thing about using apt is if you wanted to make a quick batch file that you can run to update to the nightly build it's as simple as

@echo off
set OSGEO4W_ROOT=C:\OSGeo4W
set PATH=%OSGEO4W_ROOT%\bin;%PATH%

apt update
apt install qgis-dev
pause

Now you can just run the batch file to update your QGIS to the nightly build.

Extra tip

If you just want to upgrade all the packages you have installed you can do:

apt setup
apt upgrade

Simple

Here is a handy tip to be able to install and update OSGeo4W packages, things like QGIS, GRASS, etc, using the apt utility from OSGeo4W. apt is a command line utility that you can install using OSGeo4W and then run using the OSGeo4W Shell.

First install apt via OSGeo4W

Now open the OSGeo4W Shell

from here you can run the apt utility.

The basic commands are apt update, apt install {package}, apt upgrade

Installing nightly QGIS

For a quick example we will install qgis-dev.

From the shell we can just run:

apt setup
apt update
apt install qgis-dev

apt will install all the needed dependencies

Done!

Script for updating nightly QGIS

So the good thing about using apt is if you wanted to make a quick batch file that you can run to update to the nightly build it's as simple as

@echo off
set OSGEO4W_ROOT=C:\OSGeo4W
set PATH=%OSGEO4W_ROOT%\bin;%PATH%

apt update
apt install qgis-dev
pause

Now you can just run the batch file to update your QGIS to the nightly build.

Extra tip

If you just want to upgrade all the packages you have installed you can do:

apt setup
apt upgrade

Simple

Did you know you can use textures to fill a polyon in QGIS? No? Well you do now!

The cool thing is you can get results like this with a simple SVG and a texture.

So how do you do it? Lets give it a go.

First grab a texture you want from http://texturelib.com/

Install Inkscape, or any other tool that can create svgs with textures.

Drag and drop your texture into Inkscape and embed the texture into the SVG:

Twaek any settings you need in Inkscape and save it somewhere QGIS can find.

Tip: You can configure extra search paths for svg in Options -> System -> SVG Paths

Open QGIS and load a polygon layer

Change the symbol type for the style to SVG fill and selet your SVG

Hit apply.

Opps that's not right

Enter the handy blend modes added by Nyall.

Change the blend mode to Soft Light and move the layer to the top of the drawing list

SWEEEET!!!!

Now go and make some pirate maps.

Did you know you can use textures to fill a polyon in QGIS? No? Well you do now!

The cool thing is you can get results like this with a simple SVG and a texture.

So how do you do it? Lets give it a go.

First grab a texture you want from http://texturelib.com/

Install Inkscape, or any other tool that can create svgs with textures.

Drag and drop your texture into Inkscape and embed the texture into the SVG:

Twaek any settings you need in Inkscape and save it somewhere QGIS can find.

Tip: You can configure extra search paths for svg in Options -> System -> SVG Paths

Open QGIS and load a polygon layer

Change the symbol type for the style to SVG fill and selet your SVG

Hit apply.

Opps that's not right

Enter the handy blend modes added by Nyall.

Change the blend mode to Soft Light and move the layer to the top of the drawing list

SWEEEET!!!!

Now go and make some pirate maps.