January '19 Meetup Minutes

08 Jan 2019

Covered Topics:

The January meeting was held at Interim CDA. Thanks again for their generous use of their conference room.

Hillshades

Stu has created a guide to using color ramps in QGIS 3.

Rule Based Styling

Stu demonstrated rule based styling.

Insert Table in Map Layout

Stu has been looking for a way to place a table of polygon attributes on a layout. He had a work around of exporting his project to an image and inserting the table with image editing software. Clifford suggesting asked about using Print Composer, which is not referenced as Layout on QGIS 3 menus. The group determined that you can add a label with arbitrary text and set the properties to do what Stu needs.

Changing Page Size

Peter followed up by asking about using US page sizes. This is changed by right clicking on the layout and selecting Page Properties… from the pop-up menu. You can scroll down past the European page sizes and find Letter and other US page sizes.

QuickMapServices in QGIS3

Clifford asked if anyone else had experienced QuickMapServices not showing up on the Web menu in QGIS3. His is now under the Layer -> Add Layer - > QuickmapsServices at QGIS 3.4.3. Stu still found his under web. Paul subsequently installed QGIS 3.4.4 on MacOS and found his under web. We aren’t sure what is going on.

Freehand Raster Georeferencer Plugin

Clifford demonstrated the Freehand raster georeferencer plugin. Clifford’s demo slides are available on our Reference page.

Automated Label Placement

Clifford demonstrated the Automated Placement Engine for labels. Access its settings from the Layer Properties Labels tab using the button next to the pull down with Single Labels showing by default.

Visual Comparison of Geographic Extents

Stu would like to produce a map comparing the area of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to the area of the District of Columbia. The map will support a thirty page report Stu is submitting as public input on a proposal for oil and gas drilling. Stu’s report considers the visibility of projects as an environmental impact.

The group explored the possibility of using the plugin Clifford demonstrated, but did not have success bringing in the georeferenced TIFF with the plugin. Paul suggested doing it in Composer/Layout with two separate maps added and overlapping. Each with an appropriate equal area projection and both with the same scale.