[Qgis-user] QGIS 2.14 Force label tool inquiry

[Michaele James]

Hi there,

Re: QGIS 2.14 Force label tool inquiry

I have been working in QGIS 2.14 creating labels for road polylines on a
large 2.5m x 1.8m wall map.  I have used the various settings in the
automatic labelling tools as much as I can to get a good labelling result,
and have also been working with the manual label tools.  I currently have
X, Y and rotation real fields in my polyline attribute table to assist with
the manual label tools.  So far everything seems to be doing what it has
been advertised to do, however I still have not reached a satisfactory
result.  I am to the point with my research that I have either missed
something entirely or the tool I'm imagining does not exist (aka I'm at a
loss as to what to do next!).  Can anyone please help me out?

Some of the issues I am experiencing are:
 -  Labels displayed on the map canvas do not necessarily display in the
map composer (not scale-based visibility settings are being used)
 -  Changing settings in the automatic labelling tools may fix one issue
but then create a new different labelling problem.  Example 'merge
connected lines to avoid duplicate labels ' can result in some roads
missing labels entirely (bug??).  No label feature size suppression is
being used.
 -  Using the manual label tools are useful for a small number of
alterations, however in the large map environment I am working with it is a
huge cumbersome task  (and there is more than one large wall map to
make...).
 -  Some unique roads in our shire require additional interaction with
their labels.  No amount of automatic programming will fix these issues -
these roads defy the laws of common sense.  So I will need to keep some
manual label interaction.
 -  The lack of ability to quickly and easily reposition or add labels.
The manual labels are very 'manual' and I have a huge map with many labels
to amend, which is why I am looking for alternative solutions.

One way I could describe the features I am looking for is to 'freeze'
labels in a fixed position then 'force' additional labels to appear where I
would like them to be.  Ideally it would be great to be able to:
 1.  Set the automatic label tool settings found in the Layer Property >
Labels window to a point where 90% of the road polyline labels are
positioned, spaced, sized, curved, rotated etc correctly, then
 2.  Mass 'freeze' the labels so that additional panning or scale change of
the map does not reposition the automatic labels (this would assist to
identify the roads missing labels before it goes to print), then
 3.  Have the ability to force additional labels to display at chosen sites
along the polyline as one click tool (not move, rotate, repositioning as
separate steps) and force add missing labels.  Retaining the current label
editing abilities such as rotate, move etc at this point is useful too.

I am from a MapInfo Pro background.  They have some tools similar to the
described above.  Dreaming here, but how awesome it would be if you could
pick 'n' mix your favourite tools from various programs into one..?!

Any alternatives, plugins or tips would be greatly appreciated.

Kind regards,

Michaele James

GIS & Assets Officer
(02) 6962 8192
Michaele.James at griffith.nsw.gov.au



Griffith City Council
www.griffith.nsw.gov.au

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