[Qgis-user] network building tool

[Brent Fraser]

Tim,

   Graphviz (http://www.graphviz.org/) will do most of what you 
described, but I don't think you can specify the coordinates of the 
nodes (that would be nice) so the result is just a diagram, not a map .  
And it's stand-alone, not a QGIS plugin.

Best Regards,
Brent Fraser

On 11/20/2013 9:40 AM, Tim Michelsen wrote:
> Dear list,
> I am looking for a tool or plugin that could help me building the basis for
> an infrastructure network (e.g. eletrical grids, gas or water piping
> network, etc.).
>
> The areas I am working do usually not have a good topographic mapping basis
> and no infrastructure.
>
> Usually, I would have the coordinates of the nodes (e.g. substations or
> pumping stations) as a result from a survey or data gathering from a provider.
>
> In a next step, I would need to build a network.
>
> This be all done manually:
> 1) digitise the nodes
> 2) digitise the lines interconnecting the nodes depending on charateristics
> (e.g. tube diameter, drinking water or grey water)
>
> Now the difficulty is when a node was digitised wrongly or needs to be
> corrected, all lines connecting to this node would need to be changed.
>
> So the solution I am dreaming of is:
> 1) prepare a point vector layer with all nodes having unique IDs
> 	(e.g. Paris, Madrid, Berlin)
> 2) have a table where all connecting lines are listed:
>       LINE_NAME, LINE_START, LINE_END
> 	 big tube     , Paris,           , Berlin
> 	 big tube2   , Madrid,        , Berlin
> 	 big tube2   , Madrid,        , Paris
>
> Then, a procedure would read the connections from the table and draw
> automatically these connecting lines between the nodes.
> These could then slightly adjusted manually be adding more vertices or alike.
> But the procedure would easy up the effort of building the network.
> And in the ideal case, it would also take care of updating the lines if a
> node is shifted on the map.
> (Similar to a "connector" line in an Openoffice Impress drawing)
>
> The closes tool I found so far is the
> https://plugins.qgis.org/plugins/FlowMapper/
> But I think it's too complicated for my purpose.
>
> I would really appreciate to receive any pointers or suggestions.
>
> Thanks a lot in advance,
> Kind regards,
> Timmie
>
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