QGIS/C2/Plugins/English

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Visual Cue Narration
Slide Number 1

Title Slide

Welcome to this tutorial on Plugins in QGIS.
Slide Number 2

Learning Objectives

In this tutorial, we will learn to,
  • Enable Core Plugins.
  • Install an External Plugin.
  • Locate a Plugin on QGIS interface.
  • Install QuickMapServices Plugin.
Slide Number 3

Learning Objectives

  • Download OpenStreetMap data.
  • Use QuickOSM Plugin to convert OSM data to shapefile.
  • View 3D visualization of a map layer using Qgis2threejs Plugin.
Slide Number 4

System Requirement

To record this tutorial, I am using
  • Ubuntu Linux OS version 16.04
  • QGIS version 2.18
  • Mozilla Firefox browser 54.0 and
  • A working Internet connection
Slide Number 5

Pre-requisites

To follow this tutorial, you should be familiar with QGIS interface.

For the prerequisite QGIS tutorials, please visit this website. https://spoken-tutorial.org/

Slide Number 6

About Plugins

About plugins,
  • QGIS Plugins add useful features to the software.
  • They are written by developers and other independent users.
  • Plugins option is available on the menu bar on the QGIS interface.
Slide number 7

About Plugins

Plugins have the ability to,
  • insert menu items at various locations on the interface and
  • create new panels and toolbars.
Double-click on QGIS icon.

Click on the menu item plugins.

Click on Manage and install plugins.

Here I have opened QGIS interface.

Click on Plugins on the menu bar.

From the drop-down, select Manage and Install plugins.

Cursor on plugins dialog-box.

Cursor on All Plugins section on the right-panel.

Plugins dialog-box opens.

Here you find menus which allow the user to enable/disable, install/uninstall and upgrade plugins.

You can use the filters on the left panel to find a specific plugin.

Cursor on All menu. By default All menu is selected.

Please read the information given on the right-panel.

Here all the available plugins are listed.

This includes Core plugins and external plugins.

Click on the Install menu.

Click on the check-box or double-click on the name.

Click on the Installed menu from the left panel.

Read the instructions given on the right panel.

Click on the check-box or double-click on the name to activate or deactivate the plugin.

Cursor on interface. Plugins installed on your QGIS are listed here.

Some of these plugins are Core plugins installed during QGIS installation.

In order to use a Core plugin, we need to enable or activate the plugin.

Cursor on Processing plugin.

Type Processing in search box. Click on processing plugin.

Let us locate Processing plugin.

In the search bar type Processing.

The name appears below the search bar.

Click on the name of the plugin.

You will see its details on the right panel.

Point to Processing menu on the menubar.

Point to check box .

Click on close button at the bottom-right corner of the dialog-box.

Processing plugin is a Core plugin.

Click on the check-box next to the plugin name, to enable or activate the plugin.

Close the Plugins dialog-box.

Cursor on menu bar. Processing plugin is now enabled on the menu bar.
Cursor on left panel.

Point to uninstalled and reinstalled buttons.

Again open the Plugins dialog-box.

Clear the search bar and type, Spatial Query.

The name of the plugin appears below the search bar.

This plugin is already enabled.

Click on the Plugin name.

Point to the Plugin name.

Click on the name of the plugin.

This is Core plugin which is installed during QGIS installation.

Core plugins can only be enabled or disabled.

They cannot be uninstalled from QGIS.

Hence the buttons are not highlighted here.

Cursor on right panel.

Click on Vector menu and locate the plugin.

In the plugin description, the Category is Vector.


Which means we can find this plugin in the Vector menu once it is enabled.

Close the dialog-box.

Point to Spatial Query plugin. Point to Spatial Query tool.

Spatial Query tool is available in the Vector menu and also as tool on the tool bar.
Cursor on the canvas.

Point to the dialog-box.

Let us now install an external plugin.


Again open Plugins dialog-box.

Clear the search bar.

Click on Not installed. Click on Not installed menu from the left panel.
Cursor on Not installed. The list of all available plugins that are not installed are shown here.
Cursor on the canvas. Cursor on the canvas.

Let us now install QuickMapServices plugin.

Type QuickMapServices plugin in search box. In the search box at the top of the Plugins dialog-box, type QuickMapServices.
Click on QuickMapServices plugin.

Click on install button.

In the search results below click on QuickMapServices plugin.

QuickMapServices plugin has a collection of easy to add basemaps.

Click on Install plugin button at the bottom-right corner. Click on Install plugin button at the bottom-right corner.
Click on close button. Wait for the installation to complete.

Close the Plugins dialog-box.

Click on web

Click on QuickMapServices

Click on Web menu on the menu bar.

You will see the newly installed QuickMapServices plugin in the drop-down.

Click on QuickMapServices. Click on OSM.

Click on QuickMapServices.

A sub-menu opens with options like Landsat, NASA, OSM, etc.

OSM is the acronym for Open Street Map.

Click on OSM Standard from the sub-menu. From the sub-menu, click on OSM Standard.
Cursor on interface Open Street Map of the world will be loaded on the canvas.

It represents physical features on the ground for example roads, buildings, etc.

Scroll the center mouse button to zoom in to Mumbai area.

Zoom in the Thane region.

Scroll the center mouse button to zoom in to Mumbai area.


Zoom again in the Thane region.

Click on Current CRS button on the status bar.

For correct usage of the plugin, it is necessary to enable @on-the-fly-reprojection@ and project CRS set to EPSG:3857 for Openlayers background.

Then the coordinates are internally reprojected correctly to WGS84.

Click on Current CRS button on the status bar.

In the CRS selector, check the check-box for Enable On-The-Fly CRS transformation option.

From the Coordinate Reference system select WGS 84 EPSG 4326.

Click on OK button to close the box.

Click on Vector from menu bar.

Click on Openstreetmap. Select Download data.

To download the map, click on Vector menu.

From the drop-down, click on OpenStreetMap option.

From the sub-menu select Download Data.

Cursor on Download Openstreetmap data dialog-box. Download OpenStreetMap data dialog-box opens.

Extent from map canvas is selected by default.

Leave it as such.

Type the file name as Thane.

Select Desktop. Click on Save button.

Click on the button with 3 dots next to Output file field.

A dialog-box opens, type the filename as Thane.osm .

Select a suitable location.

I will select Desktop.

Click on Save button.

In the Download OpenStreetMap data dialog-box.

Click on OK button.

In the Download OpenStreetMap data dialog-box, click on OK button.
Point to the progress in the dialog-box and on the status bar.

Click on OK button.

Click on Close button.

On the status bar you can see the progress of the download and file size.

After the download is complete, successful download message will be displayed.

Click on OK button.

Close Download OpenStreet Map dialog-box.

From the desktop folder open Thane.osm file.

Cursor on Thane.osm file on desktop.

The OSM file you have downloaded is only a data file.


To convert this data into a shapefile, you need a plugin called QuickOSM.

This plugin will help import OSM data into QGIS.

Back on the QGIS interface.

Click on Plugins.

Click on Manage and install plugins

Click on the plugins menu.

Select Manage and Install Plugins. Plugins window opens.

Type QuickOSM in search box. In the search box under Not installed menu type QuickOSM.
Click on QuickOSM. In the search results below, click on QuickOSM.
Click on install button.

Click on Close.

Click on Install plugin button at the bottom- right corner to install it.

Wait for the installation to complete.


Click on Close button.

Click on Vector menu on the menu bar.

Click on QuickOSM. Select QuickOSM.

Click on Vector menu on the menu bar.

Click on QuickOSM.


From the sub-menu, click on QuickOSM.

QuickOSM dialog-box opens. QuickOSM dialog-box opens.
Click on browse.

Navigate to the Thane OSM data.

Click on Open.

Click on OSM file option from the left panel.

In OSM file, click on browse and navigate to the Thane.osm file.

Click on Open button.

Check all the tags for 'Points, Lines, Multilinestrings, multipolygons. Click on Open button.

Click on check boxes for Points, Lines, Multilinestrings, Multipolygons if not already checked.

In QuickOSM dialog-box, click on Open button.

Cursor on the process.

Point to the status bar.

The process may take some time.


When the process is complete the status bar shows 100 percent.

Close the QuickOSM window. Close the QuickOSM dialog-box.


OSM data is loaded on canvas.

Cursor on layers panel. Notice that layers are added in the Layers Panel.
Cursor on canvas. Now we will create three dimensional visualization of vector layers.
Click on Plugins.

Click on Manage and Install Plugins.

Click on the menu item Plugins.


Select Manage and Install Plugins.


Plugins window opens.

Type Qgis2threejs in search box. In the search box at the top of the Plugins dialog-box, type Qgis2threejs.
Click on Qgis2threejs. Click on Qgis2threejs.
Point on the information on right-panel.

About Qgis2threejs plugin.

In the right panel, description of Qgis2threejs is given.
Click on install button.

Click on Close.

Click on Install plugin button in the bottom right corner to install it.


Wait for the installation to complete.

Click on Close button.

Cursor on plugin on toolbar. Qgis2threejs Plugin tool can be seen on the toolbar.

The plugin can also be found under Web menu on the menu bar.

Click on check-box next to Thane Lines, Thane Multilinestrings,

to remove visibility of this layers in layers panel.

In the Layers Panel, hide the Point, Lines and Multistrings layers.

Uncheck the check-boxes next to Lines, Points, Multilinestrings layers.

Only Multipolygons layer in visible on canvas.

Click on Qgis2threejs from toolbar.

(It is present on the 2nd row of the tool bar on extreme right-side.

Click on Qgis2threejs from toolbar.


Qgis2threejs dialog box opens.

Click on checkbox next to Thane Multipolygons in left panel. In the dialog-box, click the check-box next to OSMFile in the Polygon section.
Click on Browse.

Output filename dialog-box opens.

Click on Browse button next to Output HTML file path text box.


Output filename dialog-box opens.

Let us name the file as Buildings.

Select Desktop.

Click on Save button.

Select a suitable location to save the file.


I will choose Desktop.

Click on Save button at the bottom-right corner of the dialog-box.

Cursor on Output HTML file path text box.

Click on run button.

In the Qgis2threejs dialog box, file path appears in the text box.


Click on Run button.


Wait till the process is complete, as shown on the status bar at the bottom.

Buildings window opens.

Scroll centre mouse wheel to zoom-in.

Buildings html file opens in a new browser window.


Zoom in to see three dimensional buildings.

Cursor on canvas.

Plugins>>Manage and Install Plugins. Click on Settings menu from the left panel.

Back on the QGIS canvas.


Open Plugins dialog-box again.


Click on Settings menu from the left panel.

Cursor on all the checkboxes. Under this menu you can use the following options.

1. Check for updates.

2. Show also experimental plugins.

3. Show also deprecated plugins.


Here we also have buttons to add external author repositories.


Demonstration on how to build a new plugin will be covered in the upcoming tutorials.

Close the dialog-box.

Let's summarize
Slide Number 8

Summary

In this tutorial we have learnt to,
  • Enable Core Plugins.
  • Install an External Plugin.
  • Locate a Plugin on QGIS interface.
  • Install QuickMapServices Plugin.
Slide Number 9

Summary

  • Download OpenStreetMap data
  • Use QuickOSM Plugin to convert OSM data to shapefile.
  • View 3D visualization of a map layer using Qgis2threejs Plugin.
Slide Number 10

Assignment

As an assignment,

Create three dimensional buildings map for Bangalore area.

(Hint: Use OpenStreetMap data zoomed in to Bangalore area.)

Slide Number 11

About the Spoken Tutorial Project

The video at the following link summaries the Spoken Tutorial project. Please download and watch it.
Slide Number 12

Spoken Tutorial Workshops

The Spoken Tutorial project team conducts workshops and gives certificates on passing online tests

For more details please write to us.

Slide Number 13

Forum for specific questions

Please post your timed queries on this forum.
Slide number 14 The Spoken Tutorial Project is funded by NMEICT, MHRD Government of India.

More information on this mission is available at the following link.

This tutorial is contributed by Vaishnavi Honap from College of Engineering Pune, Snehalatha Kaliappan and Himanshi Karwanji from IIT Bombay.

Thank you for joining.

Contributors and Content Editors

Karwanjehimanshi95, Nancyvarkey, Snehalathak