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<th align="RIGHT" nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE">Sujet: </th>
<td>Re: [Qgis-developer] Cad-Input for QGIS prototype</td>
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<th align="RIGHT" nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE">Date : </th>
<td>Sun, 26 Jan 2014 21:05:07 +0100</td>
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<th align="RIGHT" nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE">De : </th>
<td>alain <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:al.bertho@free.fr"><al.bertho@free.fr></a></td>
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<th align="RIGHT" nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE">Pour : </th>
<td>Olivier Dalang <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:olivier.dalang@gmail.com"><olivier.dalang@gmail.com></a></td>
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Hi Olivier,<br>
<br>
There is a new category of GIS users: drone's users. There is
already the "Video UAV Tracker" for Qgis.<br>
<br>
For myself, I use underwater drones (Autonomous Underwater Vehicle
or Unmaned Underwater Vehicle) to collect environment data. We
need softwares to prepare AUV missions, supervise these missions,
and analyze data collected during these missions.<br>
<br>
When preparing a mission, we have to gather many data (nautical
charts, seabed sonar raster mozaics, etc...) in a single view,
what Qgis does really well (except for S57 charts). Using all
these data, the user need to plan the AUV itinerary, which can
consists of waypoints, tracks, polygons to survey. Each of these
shapes will receive attributes (for AUV, speed, depth or bottom
altitude to follow, payloads to activate, etc ...).<br>
<br>
The user also need functions, like creating a group of parallel
lines oriented along some heading and spaced by a sonar range, all
these lines clipped by a polygon. These actions have to be done
just using the mouse (not by creating / naming / loading a
shapefile at each step of the process) and the keyboard to input
coordinates, with transforming DDD°MM'SSSS'' to DDD°MM.MMMM' or
DDD.DDDDDD facilities for example, etc.<br>
<br>
So, to build this itinerary, we need CAD-like input, and there's
almost nothing in Qgis really user friendly. Within my colleagues,
every one knows Qgis, but won't even try to use it for this lack.
So, we use expansive softwares, and Qgis is sometimes the swiss
knife to transform data from one software to another. <br>
<br>
For other kind of drones, the problem is the same, with different
constraints. UAV may be very close to AUV (6 degrees of freedom),
and terrestrial robots may be more difficult to handle, because
they may have to extract the robot path from the map, but with the
support of CAD-like functions anyway.<br>
<br>
Well, I'm not telling that Qgis has to be able to prepare missions
for every robot. But think of all the software developers who
won't write a qgis plugin for a robot, because they don't have
builtin CAD-like functions, and will choose another (proprietary)
software that does the job, but certainly won't offer Qgis skills
for managing geographic data, which is really the need for many
types of robot. And I also think about the thousands students
around the world working on robot projects for fun, who are really
inovative, and may adopt QGis easily if they find CAD-like input
functions to build robot mission and then write a plugin that fits
their need to interface the robot.<br>
<br>
About Archicad like input, I think it's a good approach.<br>
<br>
A python plugin may be a good way to show CAD-like input has to be
in QGis core.<br>
<br>
Alain<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Le 26/01/2014 03:08, Olivier Dalang a
écrit :<br>
</div>
<blockquote
cite="mid:CAExk7p0=vkcsUkidP=ab6JdH69C6kfYCnev5SoL0eYA=mR6KBQ@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
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<div dir="ltr">Dear list,
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Some times ago, on this list, we discussed[1] about real
CAD-like input for QGIS, and since I do myself long for such
a feature very much, I'd like to reopen that discussion by <b>proposing
a python prototype</b>.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I know there are already a few plugins aiming in that
direction (CadTools, ImprovedPolygonCapturing,
NumericalInput and a few other).</div>
<div>They provide the functionality, but not the ease of use
you can find in CAD packages.</div>
<div>One key aspect is that they are all specific tools, and
do not work with other tools directly.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>The prototype is inspired from Archicad's input method
which allows to combine numeric input with mouse input in a
very efficient and flexible manner, to get the best of both.</div>
<div>It is currently very raw and not well tested at all... It
also relies on a lot of dirty hacks, since the python API is
not well suited for this type of plugins (have a look at the
README on the github page for more details).</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><b>DEMO (video) : <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://vimeo.com/85052231">https://vimeo.com/85052231</a></b></div>
<div><b>GITHUB (readme, download...) : <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://github.com/olivierdalang/CadInput">https://github.com/olivierdalang/CadInput</a></b></div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Please, tell me what you think :</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>1) Concept<br>
</div>
<div>- Does this kind of input seem interesting to you ?</div>
<div>- How does it fit in a GIS-environment ? Since it comes
from a CAD environment, maybe it's more suited to designing
than digitizing.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>2) API/Core modifications (read <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://github.com/olivierdalang/CadInput#technical-notes">https://github.com/olivierdalang/CadInput#technical-notes</a>
)<br>
</div>
<div>- How do you see the suggested improvements ? Are they
feasible ?</div>
<div>- Does developing this as a python plugin make sense, or
does it have to be in the core from the start ? (I'm not
familiar with core developing)</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>3) Collaboration...</div>
- Is anyone of you currently working on the same topic ?
<div> - Would anyone have some time/interest in collaborating
on this feature ? </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>4) Other ideas are welcome !</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Thanks for your attention,</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div> Olivier</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>[1]: <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://osgeo-org.1560.x6.nabble.com/Make-QGIS-interact-with-LibreCAD-td5048565.html">http://osgeo-org.1560.x6.nabble.com/Make-QGIS-interact-with-LibreCAD-td5048565.html</a> </div>
<div>(To those from this discussion I cc'ed, I though you may
be interested, I hope you don't mind)</div>
<div><br>
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