North River Geographic Systems Inc

Geospatial Problem Solving

rjhale

QGIS Tools and Processing

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It’s ready….mostly.

The first class will be held August 31-Sept 2nd from 12 to 4 EST (12 hours). Cost is $200 dollars and you get a certificate from the QGIS Organization (so part of the money flows back to QGIS). This is an introductory price because the first class out of the gate will be a bit exciting.

Registration: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/qgis-tools-and-processing-tickets-164362441487

Cost is $200 US

The Intro class covers 5ish basic things about QGIS: Interface, Data, Symbology, Editing, and Layouts. The whole goal is you aren’t scared of QGIS and stand a good chance at making a map at the end. You might even see a reason to use Geopackage OR you’re able to pull in some ESRI File Based Geodatabases. Easy Simple.

This one gets more complicated. We cover: Field Calculator, Processing tools, Models, Editing, Forms, and SQL/Virtual Layers. There is a good chance that by the end of August it will contain a section on Layouts. Right now I’m at 12 hours (so this class will be three 4 hour days) but you may end up with 16 hours worth of material.

The assumption is walking into the class you know:

  • Something about Geopackages and data formats in general (You could run this all with Shapefiles or Spatialite – but I’m running with Geopackages for now).
  • Are very familiar with the QGIS Interface
  • Aren’t scared of typing (but I’m giving you the option of copying and pasting code to cut down on confusion)
  • Projections aren’t scary
  • You can symbolize data

If you don’t please take the Intro class – Trust me you’ll have fun.

Essentially you are comfortable with QGIS and you aren’t someone developing plugins or programming QGIS. If you are doing that – you’re good unless you just want to take the class for fun.

The Goal of the Class:

  • Take a hard look at Field Calculator and look at Expressions and Functions.
  • Look at processing tools and building models.
  • We take a look at editing and setting up fields and how field calculator plays a role in this. We also look at data cleanup.
  • Forms come into play and you can set up small tools to help you create and more easily maintain data.
  • We end with virtual layers and dig into SQL
  • **Maybe Layouts and Atlas. Maybe.

What happens next? All good things come in 3s – so there is one more class in the works and it will probably be connecting QGIS up to PostGIS. There is also a good chance there will be a series of small one day classes centered around a few topics I get asked about frequently – like mobile data collection and data cleanup. Maybe. That’s a lot of training and I need to start making some plans on that end. I’m still working with clients and I can’t bog myself down in a ton of training.

QGIS Process Command

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I’m wrapping up the 2nd QGIS Class and have been digging hard into the python/scripting/programming side of QGIS. A programmer I am not and usually I have to pick some sort of path into the software that makes sense to me. Scripting has been coming up more and more as I dive back into the TN 911 Project.

I discovered something that’s been around for the last bit in qgis and I no doubt read the release notes on it……….and immediately forgot about it: qgis_process. You have a command line way to access QGIS Processing tools. My examples will be Linux oriented but it works on <fill in the blank>. Open a shell window and type qgis_process:

If I want a list of tools at my disposal: qgis_process list

If I want to know about a tool in particular: qgis_process help qgis:buffer

What if you want to run a command:

qgis_process run qgis:buffer –INPUT=parks_2274.shp DISTANCE=5000 –OUTPUT=parks_buffer.shp

….and if I check the output using QGIS:

Of course I did it all using shapefiles – I’ve got all the output file types I need at my disposal.

The nice thing is I have this uncomplicated way to access the processing tools and running them. Granted this isn’t Python but still – a command line way to access what you want to access. You could set up a very uncomplicated process to: Buffer -> Clip -> Merge -> Whatever you want without cracking open the desktop.

This points out two problems in my life:

  • Generally just keeping up. QGIS is an exciting side of life for me and one I enjoy. I really enjoy this because I started my life on the desktop with analysis and data cleanup. I’ll most likely end my career still enjoying that side of life – oh yeah Desktop GIS is dead I forgot.
  • Running a business is everything BUT the technical bells and whistles I enjoy. I need to make more time for that even if I have to block off a Friday morning for 2 hours and just buffer parks for no reason.

Announcing QGIS Tools and Processing

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Hey it has a title finally.

Hey it has chapters…..finally. It’s mostly done.

I’ve talked about this class more than I should have. I just searched back through the blog and realized how much I had mentioned this class and how little I’ve gotten done.

Over the last month I’ve been pouring more time into this more advanced class to get it wrapped up – and I’m close. The first hurdle was “what do I cover” and the next has been “how do I blend it all together”. It has to blend together and has to build on the previous topic. It can’t have exercises that stop you from moving forward if you’re having a problem – in other words you can’t start chapter 3 unless you’re done chapter 2. That won’t happen – BUT you will see me referring back to chapter 2 from chapter 5. The knowledge base builds. If you had the pleasure of taking the intro class I’ll be pointing back to that quite a bit also.

There are 6 sections:

  • Introduction
  • Field Calculator and Expressions
  • Processing Tools and Model Designer
  • Editing
  • Forms
  • SQL

I’ve finished most of it and I need to review it and test it out on some people. So I’m looking at a Early August date to roll this out. It’s also going to be about 12 hours in length I think. It doesn’t cover everything I want – BUT – it’s enough for a more advanced offering. If I ever go back to “in person” training I may add the missing sections.

I will offer this class less than the intro class. So it will probably get offered once a quarter. Limited to 10 people. Maybe a few more due to the infrequent offerings. Don’t know on Price but I’m working on that and will have that when I schedule the class.

So where do we go from here? We have an intro class. We have an Advanced class….or Intermediate…..depending on what you want to call it. Well I started a third class because things work better in threes.

The final class will be an Enterprise scaled offering of sorts. It’s the “I really need to know if I can do some complicated work with this Open Source Stuff”. So I’m dragging PostGIS into the mix. I’m unsure what else I need to drag into it to be honest. I have an outline out and a few sections written.

WHY

Having now taught 30 people in the Intro class (and conferences and other things) I ask as many that will talk “So what are you doing here” and there are a wide range of answers. The common answer is “we need to get work done” and in some cases the work is simple and in some it’s complicated. They need more software than they have – most cases they X copies of commercial software. They need a database and better data management. So a third class – Anyway – I want to finish that up more quickly than I’ve been moving. Granted this last class will be software specific – BUT I’m going to preach Data Awareness and Data Cleanliness.

Watch for the announcement on Tools and Processing.

More news coming on Part 3 – Revenge of QGIS.

Intro to QGIS classes scheduled the rest of the 2021

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More training news and this will be a two part post.

The Intro to QGIS class had it’s third outing the other day – overall it worked and worked pretty well. Three classes finished well and left the grand total of people getting trained from this class at 30 and that has raised about $600 dollars for the QGIS organization.

Anyway – I made a few adjustments to the class after the third outing and this class will stand as supporting 3.16 through 3.2x and have a set number of exercises and finish up with a certificate.

The classes are set up to be (and should be held rain or shine) since it’s all virtual:

ClassDatesPrice
Intro to QGISJuly 27-28 2021 12 PM EST 4PM EST$175
Intro to QGISAugust 24th 25th 2021 12 PM EST 4PM EST $175
Intro to QGISSeptember 21 22 2021 12 PM EST 4PM EST$175
Intro to QGISOctober 26 27th 2021 12 PM EST 4PM EST $175

Each class is held to 10 people. That’s it. I could do more but 10 lets me hassle people individually and we can look at other things if someone has a specific question. The three classes have run right at 7.5 hours on average – so we have some buffer if something goes wrong and it’s 4 hours a day so it’s nothing strenuous.

Here is the offer moving forward – If you’re in a non-profit (conservation, humanitarian, etc) and you’re doing Geo related work and need software and some training: I am suggesting QGIS and send me an email. NRGS can discount your attendance (you’d be surprised how much). The examples I’m using are all open data from Chattanooga – BUT you should be able to make this work for whatever data you have after the class.

With all of that – Sign up for a class. Each class is recorded. I’m around to answer questions. You get some great software and you get to deal with a fun global community moving forward.

NOW – one more part to the Intro Class. I occasionally am asked (and volunteer) to do workshops at conferences. I’ve done two or three this year. I’ve shrunk the class into a 4 hour and a 2 hour outing. How much can we cover in 2 hours – Not that much but it is fun. So if you’re virtual and want to do something different at a conference – Give me a shout. I’ll do what I can.

Intro to QGIS Class June 22- 23rd 2021

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It’s happening again:

Here is a bit more “behind the scenes” on training and life. When covid was causing me massive issues last year (and it still is – just to a much lesser degree), I was fighting the idea of teaching online. I had taken and had done online classes and it was (for me) harder than I wanted. Coming out of 2020 I made the decision to do 2 to 3 QGIS classes and see what would happen.

Overall it’s not been too bad. Any difficulties that have been encountered were just the normal human error on my part or the participants. I’ve gotten about 24 people trained and raised 560 dollars for the QGIS Organization. Which not that many people or not that much money BUT – this was never attainable holding in person classes. I did decide to bump the class up 25 dollars to cover certificates. Each QGIS certificate is 22 to 24.50 and having that little bit extra helps.

With that I’m in the middle of finishing up the next class with a “final” one being draft out. The problem with the next few classes is time. The Intro class is pretty much 7 hours and 45 minutes. The next one is looking like 16 hours or longer. The last class will be 8 to 12.

Anyway – all of that to say that training is actually going well. Come take a class!