[Qgis-user] contour plugin

[Alister Hood]

Hi Dave,
There is no point in installing any libraries for a separately installed Python to use.
On Windows QGIS follows the common Windows practice of every program installing its own copy of all its dependencies.
So QGIS will use the Python that is installed by the QGIS installer if you use the standalone QGIS installer, or by the OSGeo4W installer if you use that.
QGIS should not use any Python that is installed separately (unless you've done some trickery to make it care, or something has changed that I am not aware of).
It is possible to install QGIS using both the QGIS installer and the OSGeo4W installer, and they will both have their own Python.

With OSGeo4W, the steps to install should be:
- run through the OSGeo4W installer and check that you have installed QGIS, matplotlib, python-numpy and python-shapely.
- install the plugin.
There used to be a problem with the matplotlib package that meant you also had to edit a file to make it work unless your install somehow had Tk.  But I believe that is fixed, and it produced a recognisable warning message, anyway.

If you use the standalone installer.  I thought it included all the dependencies of this plugin, but I could be wrong.

Anyway, since you seem to be able to start the plugin, your problem doesn't appear to be with getting it all installed.  Some ideas:
- Try  the plugin on an even smaller dataset to see if it works (If I remember correctly, I think it might be quite slow, but several hours for 400 points does seem like a very long time).
- When the plugin appears to be frozen, can you look in the windows process manager to see if it is actually doing any work?
- Remove the separate Python and all the associated junk to see if that is affecting QGIS.  (But I doubt that it is)
- Provide your data for someone else to check that it works fine on their system.
Also, I could be wrong, but I think I remember this plugin freezing for me, and then somehow working fine when I tried it again with exactly the same options... have you tried it a second time?

Regards,
Alister


> Date: Mon, 09 Jul 2012 09:18:08 -0400
> From: "David M. Lawrence" <dave at fuzzo.com>
> To: qgis-user at lists.osgeo.org
> Subject: Re: [Qgis-user] contour plugin
> Message-ID: <4FFADA10.4030502 at fuzzo.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
> 
> On 7/9/2012 4:40 AM, Giovanni Manghi wrote:
> > ImportError: No module named matplotlib
> > the message is clear, you misses matplotlib, that is easily installable
> > with osgeo4w or with your favourite package manager if you use Linux.
> >
> > cheers
> >
> > -- Giovanni --
> >
> No, the message is not clear.  I am a scientist, journalist, and do a
> fair bit of computer programming in other languages, but could use some
> better documentation myself.
> 
> Can someone provide step-by-step instructions -- with URLs needed to
> obtain modules -- so that those of us can get contour properly up and
> running?
> 
> Bullet points:
> 1) I use Win7-64.
> 2) I have QGIS 1.8 installed.
> 3) I seem to have OSGeo4W installed.
> 4) I separately installed the appropriate version of Python 2.8 for my
> processor.
> 5) I separately installed the appropriate version of NumPy for my
> processor/Python combination.
> 6) I separately installed the appropriate version of SciPyfor my
> processor/Python combination(I thought I saw it was needed for
> matplotlib or one of matplotlib's prerequisites).
> 7) I separately installed the appropriate version of matplotlibfor my
> processor/Python combination.
> 
> After all that, contour still freezes when I run it (all I get is a "Not
> Responding" for several hours with no other error message).  Maybe it
> takes that long, but I only have about 400 points to contour at present.
> 
> I fully appreciate that I may have not installed something properly, but
> after several hours of googling this and that to figure out how to get
> this or that installed and functioning I am no closer to a solution.
> So, please, don't be afraid to insult my intelligence -- you'll fail
> anyway -- but please be explicit and clear as to how I and others
> interested in the plugin can get it running.  Don't assume we know
> something you think is basic information.
> 
> I'm not trying to hurt anyone's feelings here, but I am a communications
> professional -- in addition to being a geographer and natural scientist
> -- and I know something about how to get a message across.  Right now,
> I'd really, really like to get one.
> 
> Thank you all for your time.
> 
> Dave