North River Geographic Systems Inc

Spatial Problem Solving

rjhale

QGIS Training Revisions

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Like I don’t talk about this enough……BUT – can I just say Training is difficult on a good day. You have to pick a day, pick a location, advertise your butt off, and then HOPE beyond hope someone signs up for it. This year has been odd in that I’ve taught three or four times now – all for conferences and clients. So I’ve been on the road bouncing out different versions of the basic classes and gymnastic skills to get training done. I hate flying – and I’ve been on more planes the first 6 months of this year than I have in a good while.

The last few training classes have been enjoyable. At one time I was using the Business Development Center here in town and that was a good spot overall just a bit of a pain to deal with as far as parking and food went. Plus it was more of a numbers game. To make it worth my while I really had to hold a lot of classes – and that went back to my days as an ESRI Certified Trainer.

So – what just changed?

  • Classes will be held again in Chattanooga once a quarter
  • The QGIS Class will now be 2 days and Cover QGIS I and II. It’s all Chattanooga Centric Data also from vector to raster – you’re going to be in the dataset we are going to use.
  • The classes will be held at the new Holiday Inn in Chattanooga. Holiday Inn? Yes. It’s in Downtown Chattanooga and within walking distance of everything you would want to do in Chattanooga at night or during the day (if you happen to bring anyone with you). There will be a special rate at the Holiday Inn for people wanting to stay there. For those not staying there we’ve got parking available and that’s not a hassle.
  • All Classes will be QGIS Certified – so you will get a certificate and funds go back to the QGIS Project.
  • It’s all prepaid. So if you don’t pay you don’t have a spot. This will keep the price lower because I’ll be less stressed.

I’m rounding out the Day 2 class to be more in line with Day 1. I may scrap the QGIS 3 class just because that’s a bit much. I’m still available to come to you vs you coming to me also.

I look forward to you coming to Chattanooga – it’s fun, centrally located, and makes for a good trip out. Plus Chattanooga has a massive mapping history no one knows about. Anyway – dates are coming soon.

 

TN NG-911 Server

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Last year I had the chance to work with Henry County TN’s 911 group on a software migration project. I moved the organization off a basic commercial GIS product to an open source enterprise server. Overall it was a great project with a defined end goal and a lot of flexibility in making it happen.

Once the project ended I never stopped working on the database and the tools. Over the last few months I’ve had the chance to turn the database into something that is 100% compliant with the State of TN’s NG911 System. I present the TN NG911 Server.

What does it look like?

The workflow is simple. Field Personnel go out and collect data using menus set up in Fulcrum.

Data is stored in PostGIS/PostgreSQL and edited with custom menus in QGIS. The database is served out through Geoserver as an OGC service.

Data is exported from the server at night to the the states ESRI database.

The bonuses to this approach:

  • 100% TN NG911 Compliant
  • Cloud Deployment Or Onsite Deployment
  • Local TN Support for your organization
  • Can Interface with Computer Aided Dispatch Systems through managed Exports.
  • Quality Checks on your attributes
  • Topology checks for your data
  • Unlimited Desktop Deployments for everyone
  • Can work with TN’s LIDAR Data and TN’s Imagery Services.
  • Handles more than just the 3 data layers the state needs for NG911

Granted it’s not 100% open source as Fulcrum is a commercial product. Fulcrum will need to be purchased but it’s only a fraction of what you could be spending on software and it has more uses than just address collection.

The TN NG911 Server has a solid deployment that’s been in production a year. If you’re interested in integrating Open Source GIS into your 911 system you should at least look at this approach. Everyone needs good clean data.

Future plans have a plugin and more quality checks on the data. For Version 1 though this is very solid and very functional.

What about the NENA Standard? The TN Standard is not NENA Compliant! Well – stay tuned for more news.

Teaching in Dumas TX

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QGIS Training usually goes one of two ways: Mediocre or great. With a class of 10 you have 2 or 3 that are really excited about QGIS and 2 or 3 that are glad they aren’t at work while the rest scratch their heads and go “Why won’t this guy shut up”. In the training in Dumas Texas – Someone yelled “Holy Sh*t” and I was caught off guard……

 

I’ve been getting more training requests from organizations looking at moving off their COTS system or integrating QGIS into their workflow.  So far I’ve been to 2 conferences to talk about QGIS and 2 organizations to teach QGIS. Last week had me in Dumas Texas. If you fly to Dallas TX and get in a car it’s almost exactly one tank of gas away. Dumas is a town of 16,000 but they also house the North Plains Groundwater Conservation District. NPGCD is moving off their commercial system – actually have moved and have dived fully into Open Source Software. RESPEC had built a backend system for them and most of the work happens there – but work happens in QGIS. RESPEC called and asked if I could do some training. My answer was yes and off I went.

NPGCD is in the groundwater protection business. They work with the local population from farming to industry to protect the water supply. The water supply being the Ogallala Aquifer. Fun part for me – it’s been a bit since I’ve been this close to my old job of “environmental GIS” work and since I’m a geologist by training I find the whole thing of aquifers fascinating.

tractor
I went to the Dumas Museum while I was there. If you like Tractors – have I got the place for you.

One of the fun things with the Intro Class is the exercises – well at least I think it’s the exercises. It took a while but I have them to a point to where I can rip them out and replace them in about half a day. The Problems cover the basics of what I think people struggle with in QGIS …. well GIS in general. So in walking to meet the group the day before class I realized I had all the exercises wrong. What I thought they needed wasn’t what they needed. So – I replaced them the night before class. Granted they were still not perfect but I caught the spirit of the problem. We ran through slides for 4 hours and then I went and sat with each person individually and answering questions.

In 27 years of doing this – people are always stuck with editing and attributes. You can run through toolboxes and python and talk about colors – but it always falls down at editing and attributes .

  • How do we find stuff?
  • How do we edit the stuff we find?
  • How do I save stuff?
  • (plus the How do I make a PDF to print because we need a paper map).

There aren’t many times I get to sit with a client during training and learn what works and what doesn’t. Day 2 we just threw the class out and played “Stump the instructor”. When we touched on editing that’s when the “Holy Sh*t” moment happened. We covered how to edit and merge data and move vertices and not create more problems than you started off with. No one has ever been happy enough in class to curse. It was great.

sunrise
Leaving Dumas while listening to Waylon Jennings

I’ve had some horrid classes. I’ve had some mediocre classes. I think this one was probably the best classes I’ve had the pleasure of conducting….way out in the middle of North Texas. Heading out Saturday morning I stopped on the side of the road and caught the sunrise while Waylon Jennings blared from the radio.

 

 

My People

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Let’s flash back to 1996. The Olympics were in full swing. I was 2 years out of college and working for the federal government. I had only been to one “conference” and that was only a state level academy of science meeting. I found myself standing at the underused Chattanooga Airport headed to Cincinnati and then to Palm Springs to the 1996 ESRI users Conference. Coolest part was I was so inexperienced in flying when we were delayed leaving Chattanooga because Al Gore was coming to the Olympics – I had no worry. I would make my connecting flight because there was no way they would leave Cincinnati  without me on board. In Cincinnati I was standing in front of the near empty gate because the plane had left. So I was then routed to Chicago. I ended up in Palm Springs at nearly midnight. No rental car because somehow that had gotten cancelled. I stumbled into my room and sat there hungry and hating life with no luggage. The Luggage eventually turned up a little worse for wear. I think it went somewhere far away and was driven in….

The next day I found myself at registration at the Conference center in Palm Springs. I registered and went for a walk. I dragged my giant bag of stuff around with me. The Palm Springs convention center was big – but not terribly large. You could draw a dot on a map on “where are you from” and surprise there was only a few TN dots there. There were special interest groups. There were developers walking around. There were users. There was Bob Hope’s house down the street. There was golf. There was a lot of wind.

Two things happened that week.

  • I was blown away by a conference. I think there was only 3 or 4 thousand there. Maybe less. It was a good group of people. I mean the conference was nice – but I found a lot of like minded people there making maps and worrying over data. So I talked to people. I spent a lot of time just wandering the halls taking notes. The one talk that still sticks with me 23 years later – the guy that wrote ArcPlot gave a demo of “Tricks and Tips for Arcplot” (I think). As I was the guy who was getting hit by a lot of map requests I was pretty overjoyed to know I could edit data from Arcplot (plus copy files and move things around on the network without leaving ArcPlot). I also got a chance to hassle one of the arcpress developers (look it up – I’m not explaining it). The guy (whose name I can’t remember) finished the demo and turned to the near silent crowd and went “TADAAAAAAA” and everyone clapped. I may have stood up and clapped – Printing was a big deal back then.
  • I was sitting in the audience when Jack (who seemed really irritated at the Conference Center) announced “We are going to San Diego next year”. I think I went back to San Diego in 98 or 99 and once more in 2002.
  • (Third thing) – Some guy from ESRI Pulled up at a door in a VW bus. He had a keg or three crammed in the back and it was all held in place by some Sun Sparc Servers (look it up). I helped him Unload the beer.  We didn’t drop a server. Imagine that happening in San Diego…….

The move to San Diego ended up doubling the crowds. To me it was more of a pain to get a room and navigate your way downtown than it was worth. Yeah it is nice to see 10,000 other people who were doing “GIS” things – but I really don’t remember much from those years except for the times I snuck out of the conference and went to the San Diego Zoo and was probably almost eaten by a shark in La Jolla.

I’ve been watching Twitter and the ESRI UC is coming up for 2019.

I won’t be there. Which – no joke if I bought a ticket I doubt I’d be let in the front door….and that’s completely fine. That side of my career isn’t that exciting currently.

If I look back at my entire career in Geo (now at 27 years) it’s always been a never ending pile of new things coming down the pike that were earth shaking getting announced at this conference. Learn Arcview Avenue – hey now we are switching to VBA. You can compile ArcINFO with TK for a better ArcTools Experience. Lemme learn VBA and now we’re at VB. Hey we have MapObjects…no wait ArcObjects…….no wait we’ve got SDE for databases…….and look a map on the web…Hey Python I should learn that now…3D (Which I saw a demo of in 1996) is going to be revolutionary. My social media is exploding with posts and pics and that was me pre-social media on cloud 9 talking to people and learning that:

“HEY WAIT YOU MEAN YOU’VE HAD ARCMAP CRASH TOO…..IN FRANCE….OMG WE ARE SO CONNECTED”. Hah. I joke. Mostly.

Anyway – where was I going with this. I have no idea to be honest. I spent an hour looking for the pics I took in Palm Springs. I took a ton of pics with my fairly new 35 mm camera (look it up) – and they are somewhere in a box.

I did crank up ArcMap 10.2 this week to fix a problem I had that couldn’t be fixed in QGIS. No Joke. I sat there just staring at the screen. I couldn’t remember how to dump a DWG to a file based Geodatabase. Back in 2014 I spent an inordinate amount of time wishing for functionality that wasn’t in QGIS that I had in Arcmap. Friday I spent an inordinate amount of time wishing for functionality that wasn’t in ArcMap that I had in QGIS. Plus I really need to look at Pro at some point. Sigh.

If I could bounce back in time to 1996 Randy and go “Hey in 2019 you can’t remember how to work ESRI products” he would probably laugh and throw something at me. I would also yell for him to enjoy that hair while it lasted which won’t be much longer. Oh yeah – trade the truck sooner. Go ahead and buy a dumpy house in 1997 on the North End of town and don’t worry – it will be fine as you won’t leave your job for another 10+ years.

For all of you out at the ESRI UC – enjoy yourselves. It will be a massive week of demos and things happening within the ESRI Ecosystem of products. What will I do this week? Teach a QGIS Class for a group who just transitioned out of the ecosystem.  As much crap as I give the ESRI people at times – I do miss it a little (a little).

Anyway – I’m gonna go watch a movie and hope 1996 Van Halen doesn’t Break up.

QGIS 3.8.0 and QGIS 3.4.9 Released

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First off – sorry for the lack of talking on my end. I’ve been sitting/thinking more than usual which has led to a pile of things I want to talk about. This blog has always been good for an outlet and that will happen soon enough. In between the random essays I’ll dive back into my comfort zone of technology like today. The dust has now settled and you should be seeing a new QGIS version(s) out and about.

QGIS 3.8 has appeared. For those of you in the know or not in the know – QGIS gets a new version every 4 months. You never have to sit back and wonder when exactly as it’s all been planned out. I’m going to dive into some 3.8 tech things shortly – but for those who want to read the changelog: http://changelog.qgis.org/en/qgis/version/3.8/

The next important thing – the 3.4 LTR (Long Term Release) has moved to 3.4.9. So for those of you who value having software that doesn’t change for 1 year – update! I get to talk (thankfully) to a lot of people who are using QGIS and I always run into 2 situations: “Hey we just updated to the new release” or “We’re running the LTR and we never update”.  Every release of the LTR brings a new round of bug squashing and improvements but no new functionality which makes it perfect for corporate environments or educational environments.

So choose wisely and happy QGIS’ing.

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