I hardly ever do Mergin Maps blog posts. I need to do more.
So I’ve been mapping random things in Chattanooga for OSM – which puts me out with my Bad Elf GPS and Mergin Maps. I don’t do nearly enough field work these days. It sort of scratches an itch. It’s fun. I’m probably breaking some crazy security thing by putting Fire Hydrants in OSM – but it’s relaxing.
The latest release of Mergin Maps (Phone and Plugin) adds sketching into the mix. You can take your phone out and make notes on screen. After playing with it it’s basically streaming digitizing with an eraser and about 6 or 8 colors to choose from.
Fire up your QGIS project and go to Project Properties. Scroll to your Mergin Maps Section and be sure to turn on Sketching.
When you go to create your project you’ll have one new option: Map Sketches.
. Zoom way in….and trace a comment with your phone or stylus. Since it’s a new “layer” it’s also a geopackage that will sync back with your project.
So you see something “sketchy” here. Circle it by hitting the small pencil icon in the lower left and choosing a color:
Sync back to QGIS and…….You have your sketch.
Nice – I usually carry a small notebook with me to make notes because I’m old. Maybe I don’t have to do that now. I do tend to create projects on the fly. You can’t do a sketch if you just create a project out i the field – so you need to do some pre-planning and if you need notes – take a notebook and pretend you’re old.
