Juhi Acharya

Creating a Basic Map – QGIS

QGIS 3.2.1 works well for creating interactive maps, using good set of tools and symbology its become easy to implement. In the previous post we learn how to open and view vector data. So, today we are Creating a Basic Map – QGIS. For creating basic map we work with the vector data. Vector data is very common data format it describes the information in points, lines and polygons.

Creating a Basic Map: Adding vector layer

If you are not familiar with QGIS user interface then check our previous article QGIS 3.2.1 GUI

Open QGIS, we have a new blank map.
Add vector layer by choosing the icon.

In the dialog box, click on the Browse button. And navigate to the exercise data. (before using make sure to download the Exercise data)
Select the appropriate file, let say select road.shp
Here you are, this is your basic map
Save the project.

View attributes

If you are absolute beginners then question comes in your mind what is attributes. No worries when we are here, attributes is a data which store information about spatial data. It gives where, what and why about spatial data in tabular form.

So for roads, the layer we loaded in our basic map we will view its attributes. ->> Click on this icon for opening attribute table or you can use F6 or Go to Layer>> Open attribute table.

->> This attribute table provides more data about road layer, the lines that you see in the map are spatial data. These lines represents the roads.

Current basic map is not so easy to read. We will make it more understandable and interactive using Symbology (use of symbol).

Symbology

In the cartography design, symbology is technique to use symbols to represent graphic features of map. Visual appearance is very much important. Follow the steps for making your map more attractive –

Click two times on layer>> Layer properties dialog box will appear. Select symbology OR right on the layer>> click the layer properties in the menu. Symbology window shown below.

This all the creating a basic map – QGIS. Symbology is useful but the information contained in the layer is still hidden. In the next blog we will learn how to represent this data on map.

Hope it will be useful for GIS professional. Suggestions and feedback are most welcomed.

QGIS 3.4.4 open and view vector data

In GIS , geographic features are often expressed in multiple data formats. Vector and raster data are prime data formats. In this post you will know about QGIS 3.4.4 open and view vector file – shapefile, kml, dxf, geosjon etc. Vector describes geographic data into three types of geometry. Data represented in terms of points, line and polygon.

Use MapOG Tool for creating map

QGIS 3.4.4 open and view vector data

Before using QGIS user interface we can add or remove panel by right click on toolbar. We can also do this in view menu. Enable browser panel and layer panel.

Click the “Add Vector Layer” icon Or use “Layer” menu from the toolbar and navigate to “Add Layer” -> “Add Vector Layer”.

Set the Source Type to “File” and Encoding to “System”.

In most cases system encoding is fine but if you find strange characters in attributes table then you have to change appropriate encoding.

Click “Browse” and navigate to the appropriate files, using the appropriate
file types.
You can select and deselect layer from layer panel. Adjust the layer order by clicking and dragging layers up and down in the “Layers” panel.
You can move by Pan Map icon or you can find Pan Map in view menu

Export your saved map as SVG – Scalable Vector Graphics

Selection of feature for editing

If you want to change any feature then choose Select Feature(s) and move feature to entire feature, where you want to do changes.

To save the project click the “Save” icon and designate a file location. When you re-open a project, any layers that you were using should be in the same
locations on your computer; if they are not, you will need to re-designate the appropriate file paths.

Check out step by step approach in video provided below:

Want to Extract a feature from existing shapefile.

Our goal is to provide new users a working knowledge of QGIS. Although we only had time for a handful of operations, I hope that you now have sufficient familiarity with QGIS to explore it further on your own. If you face any problem in implementing above steps please comment. Any suggestion are welcome.

You also publish your data on web without using QGIS visit MapOG Tool

Furthermore on QGIS tutorial please explore: