[OSGeo-Discuss] Quick hello and request for assistance finding Open Source
Peter Batty
peter.batty at gmail.com
Thu Dec 3 16:01:29 PST 2009
Simon, for what you describe you just need PostGIS, nothing else. It comes
with a utility called pgAdmin that lets you type SQL statements and display
the results in a spreadsheet-like format (among other things).
If you do the standard PostGIS windows install from
http://postgis.refractions.net/download/windows/ I think it should include
pgAdmin, though I'm not 100% sure as I run on Mac. It's been a while since I
installed PostGIS, but I used the packaged install from enterprisedb at
http://www.enterprisedb.com/products/download.do (this is for PostGreSQL but
it includes PostGIS). At that time the standard Mac installation was a
little more work, but the enterprisedb install was a one click deal (I was
amazed how easy it was!). There are a few different options for packaged
installers - another is OpenGeo
http://opengeo.org/products/suite/download/which includes more than
just PostGIS.
I'd look at the basic PostGIS installation first and if you hit issues with
that look at the enterprisedb or opengeo installers.
Others may be able to give you more specific suggestions for installing on
Windows.
Cheers,
Peter.
On Thu, Dec 3, 2009 at 4:42 PM, Simon Cropper (Botanicus Australia Pty Ltd)
<scropper at botanicusaustralia.com.au> wrote:
> Peter & others,
>
> With PostGIS what is the best option for installation to trial this option.
> Where would you enter the SQL query?
>
> If you go to the PostGIS page it pushes you to UDig. Does UDig have the
> functionality to send SQL statements to the database? Does PostGIS install
> if I install UDig or should I install in a set sequence, a bit like Giovanni
> suggested for Grass.
>
> Dumb question - "Is PostGIS-UDig" setup to operate as a desktop type
> system? Everytime I looked at UDig I got the impression it used web
> resources and was geared to enterprise solutions to multiple users to a
> online-resource repository.
>
> Alternatively is anyone aware whether gvSIG can query the database in this
> way with beantools or Jython? If so, how? I know gvSIG can connect to
> PostGIS?
>
> Cheers Simon
>
> Simon Cropper
> Botanicus Australia Pty Ltd
> PO Box 160, Sunshine, Victoria 3020.
> P: 9311 5822. M: 041 830 3437.
> mailto: scropper at botanicusaustralia.com.au<scropper at botanicusaustralia.com.au>
> web: www.botanicusaustralia.com.au <http://www.botanicusaustralia.com.au>
>
>
> Peter Batty wrote:
>
> Simon, you could do this as a PostGIS query. To take the polygon case, if
> you loaded the data into a table in PostGIS called parcel (say), you could
> run a query something like the following (not guaranteeing this is exactly
> correct but something along these lines):
>
> select a.id, b.id,
> ST_distance(a.geom, b.geom),
> ST_distance(ST_centroid(a.geom), ST_centroid(b.geom)),
> ST_azimuth(ST_centroid(a.geom), ST_centroid(b.geom))
> from parcel a, parcel b
>
> This would give you ids, shortest distance, distance between centroids
> and angle between centroids. There are no doubt others here who can correct
> my SQL syntax :) !
>
> There is a simple utility to load a shape file into PostGIS.
>
> Cheers,
> Peter.
>
> On Thu, Dec 3, 2009 at 3:49 PM, Simon Cropper (Botanicus Australia Pty Ltd)
> <scropper at botanicusaustralia.com.au> wrote:
>
>> Hi Everyone,
>>
>> My name is Simon and I am an environmental consultant. I use a variety of
>> open source GIS systems and tools almost every day to analyse flora, fauna
>> and vegetation data. I am interested in OSGeo both from the standpoint (or
>> my underlying belief) that software and data should be free (you know how
>> the mantra goes) and my desire to contribute to a broader community effort
>> to develop appropriate software for users. I have been actively using
>> OpenJUMP, Kosmo, OpenEV, EveryDWG and Sextante. I have tinkered with Ilwis,
>> GRASS, Quantum (various versions) and a few others I have lost track of. I
>> am currently using GVSIG+Sextante, which I find very useful and easy to use.
>> I am an old user of ArcView 3.1+(numerous scripts/extensions).
>>
>> I have a common GIS problem but can not find any OSGeo project that has
>> provided a set of tools to combat it. I need to establish the distance+angle
>> between various geometries (points, lines, polygons) in same layer and in
>> different layers. A specific problem I currently have is finding the minimum
>> distance and angle between 200 odd polygons in the same layer. Each polygon
>> has a unique id and I want to get a table with UID_A, UID_B,
>> MINIMUM_DISTANCE, ANGLE. I know that ArcGIS and ArcView have this
>> functionality, and script exist for old versions of ArcView, but I am
>> looking for an Open Source alternative.
>>
>> Ideally such a tool would create the following data for each geometry
>> type...
>>
>> POINTS -- UID_A, UID_B, DISTANCE, ANGLE
>> LINES -- UID_A, UID_B, DISTANCE_AT_CLOSEST _POINT
>> POLYGON -- UID_A, UID_B, MIN_DISTANCE, MAX_DISTANCE, HAUSDORFF_DISTANCE,
>> CENTROID_DISTANCE, ANGLE_BETWEEN_CENTROIDS
>>
>> What I have found already...
>>
>> - I have noted that Sextante can create a matrix of distances between
>> points within the same layer. With rows and column representing the complete
>> set of points being compared.
>> - I have also found QGIS has a fTools Plugin that allows you to
>> "Measure distances between two point layers, and output results as a) Square
>> distance matrix, b) Linear distance matrix, or c) Summary of distances."
>> QGIS 2009.
>> - I suspect that GRASS would provide this functionality but can't get
>> that package to work on my system (even WinGRASS), so if you point me here
>> please also point me to a tutorial on getting the thing to work (this system
>> is not intuitive; My problem has been in establishing a repository and
>> getting data into it for viewing, let alone analysis; it failed the age old
>> test that if you can't even get the thing running in half an hour, the
>> learning curve is going to be way too high to use in in normal business
>> activities; I have tried - yes following their instructions - several times,
>> and spent several days reading manuals, wiki's,etc to no avail).
>>
>> BUT I can't find any tool that allows me to calculate the minimum
>> distance between polygons and indicate the direction of the polygon.
>>
>> Anyone out there know of such a tool?
>>
>> Note: I am using Windows XP Pro SP3 and store all my GIS data as
>> shapefiles.
>> --
>>
>> Cheers Simon
>>
>> Simon Cropper
>> Botanicus Australia Pty Ltd
>> PO Box 160, Sunshine, Victoria 3020.
>> P: 9311 5822. M: 041 830 3437.
>> mailto: scropper at botanicusaustralia.com.au<scropper at botanicusaustralia.com.au>
>> web: www.botanicusaustralia.com.au <http://www.botanicusaustralia.com.au>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>> Discuss at lists.osgeo.org
>> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Peter Batty - President, Spatial Networking
> W: +1 303 339 0957 M: +1 720 346 3954
> Blog: http://geothought.blogspot.com
>
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--
Peter Batty - President, Spatial Networking
W: +1 303 339 0957 M: +1 720 346 3954
Blog: http://geothought.blogspot.com
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