[OSGeo-Discuss] Quick hello and request for assistance finding Open Source

Peter Batty peter.batty at gmail.com
Thu Dec 3 21:39:58 PST 2009


Simon, been out for the evening and going to bed shortly! But you can get
more info on the shape file loader here:
http://postgis.refractions.net/documentation/manual-1.4/ch04.html#id2537558

Good luck!

On Thu, Dec 3, 2009 at 7:24 PM, Simon Cropper (Botanicus Australia Pty Ltd)
<scropper at botanicusaustralia.com.au> wrote:

>  Peter,
>
> Trying the QGIS+Grass option now. Lets see how that goes - experiences to
> date put into the same 'steep learning curve' category but I try it again
> using Giovanni's instructions. I will post my experiences about trying to
> get this to work.
>
>  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>
>
>
> Paul Ramsey wrote:
>
> Thanks for sticking with it, and also reporting on your pain, Simon.
> Knowing where your pain is will help us lower it for those in your
> train.
>
> P
>
> On Thu, Dec 3, 2009 at 5:55 PM, Simon Cropper (Botanicus Australia Pty
> Ltd) <scropper at botanicusaustralia.com.au> <scropper at botanicusaustralia.com.au> wrote:
>
>
>  Peter,
>
> Sort of answered my own question. Found the EXE in the binary directory of
> PostgreSQL.
>
> Tried to get the program to work but I could not get the file to import the
> shapefile into a database. I will need to spend more time working on coming
> to grips with PostgreGIS, PostGIS and others components. This option is not
> a 'quick fix' rather 'a alternative way of thinking' -- resulting in a high
> learning curve as I have to master each individual component and the nuances
> of how the 2-3 utilities interact. Thanks anyway.
>
> 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
> web: 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> <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
> web: www.botanicusaustralia.com.au
>
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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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-- 
Peter Batty - President, Spatial Networking
W: +1 303 339 0957  M: +1 720 346 3954
Blog: http://geothought.blogspot.com
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