North River Geographic Systems Inc

Geospatial Problem Solving

Training

Intro to QGIS Class – August 24-25th 2021

by

I’m holding a virtual Intro to QGIS Class (Over Zoom) On August 24th and 25th 2021.

The class is 8 hours spread over 2 days and covers:

  • Interface
  • Editing
  • Data and symbology
  • Layouts

If you’ve considered adding This open source GIS Desktop to your software stack or replacing existing software this is a good introduction. This is also the lead-in class to the QGIS: Tools and Processing class.

  • Class is limited to 10 total participants
  • Cost is $175
  • Registration is here!
  • Class will be using QGIS 3.16 or QGIS 3.20

This class also benefits the Community. When you take it you receive a certificate from the QGIS Community and approximately 25 dollars flows back to help improve the software.

Also – if you’re part of a non-profit and can’t swing the fee – give me a shout.

QGIS Tools and Processing

by

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.

Oh no he’s talking about training again

by

I’ve been debating shaking up the blog portion of the website for a bit. I start writing and then go “What’s the point” and I’m sitting on a half dozen technical/non-technical things I’ve been working on. So anyway – where to start for this one.

So the Virtual training seems to be working. I teach the first one his month (actually just finished), the next one in April and after that I’ll know what is working and what doesn’t. There have been a never ending stream of emails from people on ranging from “I want to take an advanced class” to “Introduction is too simple” and “what are your plans for something harder”. To which I have asked “What do you consider harder?” and the answer is always “Not Introduction”. So I got that going for me which is nice.

There is another class coming. Actually when I had made all the arrangements to teach in a classroom setting – the class had turned into a 2 day event with the possibility of a third happening. Way back when I was an ESRI instructor it seemed like Intro to Desktop was 2 or 3 days, Intermediate was 2 days, and Advanced was two days. Which I have no plans on doing for 7 or 8 days – BUT – the second class is proving problematic as I’m sitting on about 19 hours of information which is about over 2 full days and almost Five 4 hour days virtually. What to do……..

The thought is currently to call this QGIS: Tools and Processing. Which means I get to cover Processing Tools, Modeler, Editing, and Forms. The problem with that is currently that looks like 10 to 12 hours of “stuff” and I’d like to keep this at 8. Maybe I can’t. Maybe it turns into 3 days which are 4 hours long.

Which in my fever driven fantasies about training that gives me an:

  • Introduction covering the basics
  • The Intermediate part where we are building models and exposing editing tools like forms.
  • Advanced…………

Advanced would end up being PostGIS being brought into the mix with QGIS. So end it on an Enterprise worthy note. Your organization needs multiple editors and a data repository and the normal directory structure isn’t cutting it so you would want this class. Of course this doesn’t cover:

  • Reports/Atlas
  • Time manager
  • LIDAR
  • Stupid amounts of Symbology like the Geometry Generator.

Those 4 things don’t suck up much of my life. They are important though….so Decisions. I don’t want to turn this into a training business which is a problem I worry about. I like working with data and clients. I also don’t want a repeat of 2020 where I realize how fragile my business is against a very small germ.

Anyway – more on training later….

Intro to QGIS Virtual Training – April 27-28 2021

by

With the first class filling up I’ve decided to do another Intro to QGIS Class. Which I know – 2 intro classes but it’s a popular subject for those that just want to know something about QGIS. Again it will be 4 hours a day for 2 days from 12 EST to 4 EST. Plus virtual – which means I’m live.

I’ve revamped the materials to take advantage of the current releases and cleaned up the exercises. So those are now shorter and more plentiful and the hope is you can just do them without me slowing down much. We have a lot of ground to cover.

Again we’ll be covering:

  • Interface
  • Data and Symbology
  • Processing tools
  • Editing
  • Plugins
  • Layouts

Everyone gets a certificate from the QGIS organization (which makes it easy for me to push some of the money back to QGIS).

Anyway – show up. Limit of 10. Cost is $150 US Dollars.

Register here!

Here’s the big change from the March Class:

  • I’m working on a refund policy for those that sign up but can’t attend. Since I’m using EventBrite I’m losing a small part of the cost for less headache. Anyway – I’ll have that posted shortly. Maybe I can put you in another class OR I’ll refund the money or something. We’ll figure it out.
  • If you’re a conservation group and you can’t swing the $150 give me a shout and we’ll figure out a way to get you in the class.

QGIS Virtual Training – March 23-24th 2021

by

  • March 23rd 2021 – 12pm to 4pm EST
  • March 24th 2021 – 12pm to 4pm EST
  • Cost: $150
  • Tickets: EventBrite
  • Participants: 10

So it’s been a year since I’ve taught this class. What a year.

Surprise – Covid is still causing issues. So I’ve decided to go virtual with the class. I’m doing two four hour sessions. I’ve reduced the cost of the class because it’s Virtual AND this won’t be as fun as sitting in a room with everyone. We will make it slightly fun though. Actually a lot of fun.

Anyway – the class is for beginners with QGIS. Maybe you’re curious about using it. Maybe you’ve tried and gotten frustrated. We will cover the interface, data types, layouts, and as many tools as we can. By the time you leave you should be able to do some editing, add data, make a map, and break something. I’ll also be hanging around after class to answer questions or just talk.

We all get a QGIS certificate which helps that project. I’m also holding this to 10 participants. The biggest class I’ve taught had 100 people in it and the smallest has had 3. Ten is a good number. Ten works.

THE BIGGER Conversation

I have 24 (almost 32) hours of material covering Editing, Forms, SQL, Mobile, Field Calculator, etc. No one wants to sit with me for 3 or 4 straight days for 8 hours a day in this class. So I’m splitting it up into probably 3 classes which is how it was originally written before I morphed it into one class. I’m going to teach the intro class for a bit and then offer the rest. I will probably offer a discount for repeat participants.

I’ve been thinking about this for about 2 months and trying to decide what to do and how to do it. Navigating the pandemic as a small business has been maddening. The thought of doing an online class is somewhat exhausting……..except…….

I’ve been teaching this class for about 7 years. The class has changed as QGIS has changed and it went from “talking” to more “doing”. So the problem will be now how to get the next two classes to make sense with regards to the first one…in a virtual environment.

Anyway – see you virtually. Well 10 of you.