[Qgis-developer] Re: [Qgis-user] inserting symbols into qgis

John C. Tull john.tull at wildnevada.org
Wed Oct 21 17:45:17 EDT 2009 

Hi All,

Sorry to hijack the topic (and the dev x-post), but this thread  
prompted me to bring up a general issue with custom symbols. The  
current structure for adding new symbols on OS X is pretty poor  
(perhaps on other OS's as well?). It requires the user to copy the  
relevant svg files to a location inside of an application bundle.  
Hence, the changes have to be done with every update of the program.

It would be much better if there was an svg directory inside of the  
same directory where plugins are stored, ~/.qgis on OS X. This would  
maintain symbols across versions and new builds of the program.

For any hackfesters out there, perhaps this can make it on the todo  
list. If this possibility already exists, please correct me.

Regards,
John

On Oct 21, 2009, at 12:06 AM, sunny74 wrote:

>
> Hi Andreas,
>
> Thanks for your reply.
>
> * I am putting the files in the correct installation of QGIS so that  
> is not
> a problem.
> * The cause that the SVG is an invalid SVG seems to be the problem.  
> The SVG
> does not open
>   in any of the browsers. Worst is that it is produced by Inkscape. Is
> there any other tool which will produce a valid .svg.
>
> * permissions seem to be ok.
>
> Pls suggest a couple of other tools for converting raster to .svg.
>
> Regards.
>
> Andreas Neumann wrote:
>>
>> hm - it sucessfully worked for me.
>>
>> I see several potential causes for problems.
>>
>> * Sometimes there are several parallel QGIS installations on your
>> harddrive. Make sure that the .svg files are placed in the correct
>> installation.
>> * your SVG images can't be loaded because they are invalid SVG. Do  
>> the
>> files properly open in a webbrowser?
>> * file permission problems?
>>
>> Other than that it really should work.
>>
>> Andreas
>>
>> On Tue, October 20, 2009 9:14 am, sunny74 wrote:
>>>
>>> Hi
>>>
>>>
>>> Your suggestions did not work.
>>> I converted my .jpg's into .svg's and placed them in  a separate  
>>> folder
>>> within the svg folder of QGIS but it did not show in symbology.
>>> Then I put them in to one of the existing folders but again the same
>>> result,
>>> even though I restarted QGIS.
>>> there is a button called "Load Style" and I tried to use it to add
>>> symbols
>>> but it required .qml files.
>>>
>>> So how to add the symbols.
>>>
>>> Regards.
>>>
>>>
>>> James Card wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Inkscape also has an image tracing utility built-in to convert  
>>>> raster
>>>> images to vectors. If you're willing to do a bit of tinkering  
>>>> with the
>>>> conversion parameters I've had very good results with this process.
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> James Card
>>>> California CAD Solutions, Inc.
>>>> 209-578-5580 - Voice
>>>> 209-521-6493 - FAX
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Thu, 15 Oct 2009 11:46:04 -0700, Andreas Neumann
>>>> <a.neumann at carto.net>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Hi,
>>>>>
>>>>> SVG is a hybrid format. It can also embed raster images  
>>>>> (jpg,png). So
>>>>> theoretically you could embed your existing symbols in a raster  
>>>>> (with a
>>>>> SVG shell around it). However, this is not recommended since the  
>>>>> raster
>>>>> images don't scale properly. They would get pixely/or blurry when
>>>>> enlarged.
>>>>>
>>>>> SVG is the best choice for scalable symbols.
>>>>>
>>>>> If you want quick results and don't care about quality you could  
>>>>> still
>>>>> embed the rasters (you can embed them base64 encoded in the data  
>>>>> URL),
>>>>> so you only have one file and not two files. In Inkscape (at  
>>>>> least in
>>>>> 0.47) you can embed the image in the SVG by using "Extensions" -->
>>>>> "Images" --> "Embed Images".
>>>>>
>>>>> Hope this helps,
>>>>> Andreas
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> sunny74 wrote:
>>>>>> Hi Alex,Fischer
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Thanks to both of you for your replies.
>>>>>> So I understand that only SVG files are accepted by QGIS as  
>>>>>> symbols.
>>>>>> Then I have to convert jpg,bmp etc into svg.
>>>>>> Do I have to use Inkscape i.e http://www.inkscape.org/ for the
>>>>>> conversion.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Warm Regards.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Jürgen E. Fischer wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Hi Alex,
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On Fri, 09. Oct 2009 at 07:44:43 -0700, Alex Mandel wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> In the QGIS installation folder there's a subfolder called  
>>>>>>>> svg. Any
>>>>>>>> svg
>>>>>>>> files you place in there will be picked up the next time QGIS  
>>>>>>>> is
>>>>>>>> started
>>>>>>>> and show up in the symbol picker.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> There's even a context menu in the symbol picker that allows a  
>>>>>>> rescan
>>>>>>> without restarting.
>>>>>>> Jürgen
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> -- Jürgen E. Fischer         norBIT GmbH               Tel.
>>>>>>> +49-4931-918175-20
>>>>>>> Dipl.-Inf. (FH)           RheinstraÃ&#376;e 13            Fax.
>>>>>>> +49-4931-918175-50
>>>>>>> Software Engineer         D-26506 Norden
>>>>>>> http://www.norbit.de
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> -- norBIT Gesellschaft fuer Unternehmensberatung und
>>>>>>> Informationssysteme mbH
>>>>>>> Rheinstrasse 13, 26506 Norden
>>>>>>> GF: Jelto Buurman, HR: Amtsgericht Emden, HRB 5502
>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>> Qgis-user at lists.osgeo.org
>>>> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-user
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
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>>
>>
>> -- 
>> Andreas Neumann
>> http://www.carto.net/neumann/
>> http://www.svgopen.org/
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>>
>>
>
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