[Qgis-developer] Make QGIS interact with LibreCAD.

Mon Apr 22 05:53:08 PDT 2013

I'd also suggest to include numerical entry (length, angle, X/Y
coordinates).

Please have a look at
http://plugins.qgis.org/plugins/improvedpolygoncapturing/ (it does not work
well in 2.0 yet).
With advanced snapping environment (include angles, midpoints,
intersections...), I'd say it's the CAD feature I miss the most in QGis.

2013/4/22 Ziegler Stefan <Stefan.Ziegler at bd.so.ch>

>  I would like to see some changes in the snapping interface. If you got
> some 30+ layers it is really difficult to find a specific layer. A layer
> tree for snapping just like for the legend would be great. And add the tree
> as tab like the browser.****
>
> ** **
>
> *Von:* qgis-developer-bounces at lists.osgeo.org [mailto:
> qgis-developer-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] *Im Auftrag von *antoniolocandro
> *Gesendet:* Montag, 22. April 2013 14:36
> *An:* bernhard.stroebl at jena.de; diego.gnesi at gmail.com
> *Cc:* qgis-developer at lists.osgeo.org
>
> *Betreff:* Re: [Qgis-developer] Make QGIS interact with LibreCAD.****
>
>  ** **
>
> I would say add CAD tools within QGIS, ****
>
> ** **
>
> 1. Extend ****
>
> 2. Trim****
>
> 3. Snapping environment****
>
> 4. digitise using either icons or commands on a console****
>
> 5. Intersection, etc.****
>
> ** **
>
> CAD tools are faster for digitising and more precise, having that
> possibility from within QGIS would make it so much better, I find
> digitising in QGIS very limited so for me right now its not to a point I
> can recommend it since in my industry we do a lot of complex shapes and
> edits.****
>
> ** **
>
> ** **
>
> ** **
>
> ** **
>
> Sent from Samsung tablet****
>
>
> Bernhard Ströbl <bernhard.stroebl at jena.de> wrote:
> Hi Diego,
>
> based on a discussion [1] on this list a couple of months ago I started
> coding some of the missing tools as my time allows. This is going to be
> a Python plugin made from scratch.
> What I do have right now is:
> 1) Dissolve multi geometries (code from Alexandre Neto's plugin)
> 2) Split feature with feature of another layer
> 3) Cut out feature with polygon of another layer
>
> I can share what I have on github. Maybe you want to have a look or join
> in.
>
> What would be the tools you have in mind (I do not know LibreCAD)?
>
> Bernhard
>
>
> [1]
>
> http://osgeo-org.1560.x6.nabble.com/more-advanced-editing-tools-td5019552.html
>
> Am 22.04.2013 13:29, schrieb Diego Gnesi Bartolani:
> > Hi Bernhard,
> >
> > I'll take your opinion into account. I'm still in a preliminary phase
> > and I'm still deciding. I verified that adding shapefile support to
> > LibreCAD is relatively simple, due to the good architecture of
> > LibreCAD's IO and geometry classes. Now I'll test how hard is adding
> > advanced cad tools to QGIS and how much time it can require to me.
> > Then I'll compare all the pros and cons of the two solutions and I'll
> > start to work. I need to finish the work before september, when I'll
> > have to use it in my job).
> > I'm not an expert of the QGIS API, and I need to study the source code
> > and the documentation in order to know precisely how can I interact
> > with QGIS while drawing:
> >
> > - changing the snapping behavior and override the default one when
> required;
> > - having context menus with CTRL + right click (like on AutoCAD);
> > - drawing temporary entities (i.e. to trace extension lines);
> > - forcing the pointer to move along specific directions inside the map
> canvas;
> > - fast accessing to vertices, lines and angles of the existing shapes,
> > also for polygons.
> >
> > I also need to understand if I can do all these things from a plugin
> > or do I need to make changes to the QGIS source code (I'll try to
> > avoid this).
> > I'll update this threads with all my progresses in the next days.
> >
> > Diego
> >
> > 2013/4/22 Bernhard Ströbl<bernhard.stroebl at jena.de>:
> >> Hi Diego,
> >>
> >> some of my users with more complex editing tasks (and familiar with CAD
> >> software) are complaining about not having similar possibilities in
> QGIS and
> >> I admit that our CAD has much more to offer in that respect (snapping,
> >> construction), so thanks for the move.
> >> IMHO the best would be to have CAD-like functions in QGIS (strategy #1)
> >> because
> >> 1) many people missing these functions already might use some CAD or
> another
> >> to get their work done and are exchanging data between the two systems
> (with
> >> all problems), so strategy #2 would simply exchange their CAD software
> (if
> >> they are willing to change)
> >> 2) and more important: many things that work in CAD do not work in GIS
> and
> >> vice versa, e.g. CAD: line color, hatching, dimensioning...., GIS:
> >> attributes. Splines could be resolved into polylines, resembling the
> >> original spline, though. In short words: CAD is about drawing, GIS is
> about
> >> data modelling. So if you have the functions in QGIS you can more easily
> >> prevent users from doing silly things.
> >>
> >> my 2 ct
> >>
> >> Bernhard
> >>
> >> Am 21.04.2013 12:52, schrieb Diego Gnesi Bartolani:
> >>>
> >>> Hi,
> >>>
> >>> Yesterday I posted in a wrong thread, so I'm opening a new one. I'll
> >>> copy and paste the previous message and add some notes. Sorry for the
> >>> mess!
> >>>
> >>> Original post:
> >>>
> >>> I am an Italian archaeologist and an enthusiastic QGIS user. I do what
> >>> I can to spread the knowledge about QGIS and other open source
> >>> softwares to my university students (I am a contract professor at the
> >>> Basilicata University and some days ago I've become contract professor
> >>> at the Specialization School of Archeology of Udin, Venice and
> >>> Trieste). The main difficulty I have with open source GIS is the
> >>> advanced editing of vector layers. QGIS doesn't offer too much support
> >>> for digitizing, the CAD Tools plugin has some useful functions but is
> >>> far from being complete and the kind of interaction that it proposes
> >>> is not very productive and time-saving (it's not a critic: CAD Tools
> >>> saved my life a lot of time, and I want to thank the developers and
> >>> maintainers). Many times, I had to convert my vector layers to dxf and
> >>> back in order to perform some complex tasks (with all kind of
> >>> conversion problems, like the preservation of the attributes values,
> >>> etc.).
> >>> I have some experience in programming (about ten years of
> >>> developement, mainly in C# with the .NET Framework, before I switched
> >>> to Linux), and I would like to try (only try, without promising
> >>> anything!!) to implement complete CAD tools and functions (If there
> >>> isn't and analogous project already active; in that case, nevermind!).
> >>>
> >>> I think that developing a CAD plugin from scratch is very hard to me
> >>> and maybe not the better way to get good results, so I'm oriented to
> >>> try to augment the interaction between QGIS and an existing CAD
> >>> software (I'm thinking to LibreCAD). I thought to two possible
> >>> strategies:
> >>>
> >>> 1. Use the LibreCAD library and source code to develop a C++ QGIS
> plugin;
> >>> 2. Create a shapefile/spatialite/postgis driver for LibreCAD in order
> >>> to edit those formats inside LibreCAD.
> >>> 3. Convert some layers of the QGIS project in a dxf file and back
> >>> (each QGIS layer in a different layer of the final dxf file).
> >>>
> >>> I'm asking your opinion about which of those ways could be the faster
> >>> or the better to implement, or which one is impossible to undertake
> >>> according to your knowledge of the QGIS API.
> >>>
> >>> My doubts are:
> >>>
> >>> Strategy #1: Probably the ideal one, but does the implementation of
> >>> complex snaps or constraints against the features of other layers
> >>> (i.e. midpoint, parallels, etc.) require changes to the QGIS API, or
> >>> all these operations can be contained on a plugin? Is it better to
> >>> work directly on QGIS vector layers or to create a plugin layer, edit
> >>> it and then commit the changes to the vector layer? The conversion
> >>> could help me to manage geometries in the way LibreCAD wants. Is it
> >>> possible in your opinion to have an interactive shell (i.e. draw the
> >>> first point, and then inserting the coordinates of the second point)?
> >>>
> >>> Strategy #2: Probably the easier, but I should find a way to disable
> >>> some LibreCAD functions (i.e. the drawing of splines, or the drawing
> >>> of points on a line layer) without disseminating my changes all over
> >>> LibreCAD's source files. For this kind of solution I'll ask to the
> >>> developers of LibreCAD.
> >>>
> >>> Strategy #3: The problem is on committing the changes of the dxf file
> >>> to the original layer: how to specify that a line in the dxf file must
> >>> replace the geometry of and existing record of the original spatialite
> >>> layer? Maybe it's impossible, it doesn't seem to me that I can put on
> >>> a dxf file the necessary metadata to preserve a link to the original
> >>> features.
> >>>
> >>> What do you think? And what do you actually do when you have to draw
> >>> complex shapes on shapefiles or other vector layers?
> >>>
> >>> NEW COMMENTS:
> >>>
> >>> - Antonio Locandro is compiling a list of required CAD features. It
> >>> would be very useful, so please Antonio, get me a link to this list
> >>> when it's finished.
> >>> - The more I explore QGIS and LibreCAD source codes, the more I'm
> >>> convincing that integrating LibreCAD's tools on QGIS is very
> >>> difficult, and it would be easier to develop those tools from scratch.
> >>> To get the best results in a short amount of time, I think that I
> >>> could work to make shapefiles and other vector layers editable in
> >>> LibreCAD (using GDAL). This solution has the issue that it doesn't
> >>> allow to snap to other QGIS layers, nevertheless it could be of great
> >>> help and available in a reasonable amount of time. Then, when I have
> >>> more practice with QGIS and LibreCAD APIs, I'll try to do something
> >>> better (i.e. develop a "QGIS driver" for LibreCAD in order to open the
> >>> whole QGIS project in LibreCAD, organized by layers).
> >>> I'm waiting for the answers to an analogous thread in LibreCAD's
> mailing
> >>> list:
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> http://forum.librecad.org/Using-LibreCAD-s-tools-on-GIS-vector-layers-td5707930.html
> >>>
> >>> I think that I'm going to work on this project in a few weeks.
> >>>
> >>> Let me know what do you think and if you have suggestions.
> >>>
> >>> Diego Gnesi
> >>> _______________________________________________
> >>> Qgis-developer mailing list
> >>> Qgis-developer at lists.osgeo.org
> >>> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-developer
> >>>
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