Timing out on NBN Atlas downloads?

In QGIS Settings->Options->Networks, increase the value of the timeout property from the default value of 60000 milliseconds (60 seconds, i.e. one minute), to something like 600000 milliseconds (600 seconds, i.e. 10 minutes).

Polygon filters

Large polygons with many vertices may exceed the limit that can be used with the web services. Furthermore, complex polygons may included 'unclean' geometry which could cause the web service call to fail. Simple polygons - e.g. those representing a grid square or a buffered point - are normally fine. With other polygons, you just have to try and see if they can be used as a filter. 

WMS limitations

There is currently no way to use the NBN Atlas web service from within QGIS to produce maps for sub-species. Distribution maps can only be produced for taxa recorded at the following ranks: phylum, class, order, family, genus and species.

NBN Web service availability

This tool relies on a number of NBN Atlas web services. These could, on rare occasions, be unavailable, which could result in unexpected behaviour.

Reporting bugs or problems

The very best way to report bugs or other problems is to raise an issue on the GitHub repository where the code for this tool is maintained: https://github.com/burkmarr/QGIS-Biological-Recording-Tools/issues. To raise an issue, you will need a GitHub login (free). Raising an issue automatically sends an email to Rich Burkmar.
