[Qgis-user] I made a good choice

[Stephen Wandling]

My choice to join the QGIS community was a winner.  I have received lots 
of advice and offers for help from a bunch of you.  I have kind of lost 
track of who I have responded to, so I thought I would report here.

As I have said, I joined this community to find sources of usable data 
for some maps I have been struggling to make.  Thing were complicated by 
my having to relearn ArcGIS products after being away from that for 
about 12 years.

I was guided to a good data source, Geogratis, that has 1:50K data for 
free.  But, working my way through the multu-level of cascading 
acronyms, most of which I had not the slightest clue what they meant.  
There is still much learning at that level.

I have 'confessed' elsewhere, that I plugged that data into ArcMap, as I 
could not face another learning experience with QGIS.  ArcMap let me 
know the data was good, but I could not get it to do what I needed it to 
do.

Last night I opened QGIS and loaded the data, along with some data that 
the local Regional District supplies.  I 'instantly' had a great map for 
digital use, but could not figure out how to get it into a form I could 
send to the plotter.  This morning a short search cleared that up and 
soon had Print Composer dancing away.  Another search and I had 
Scale-based Visibility working for me.  And soon after, I sent the PDF 
to a firm in Richmond, BC, called ITMB, for plotting.  They will do this 
for CA$15, which is think is about $0.25 in US dollars? ;-)

I know I have much more learning ahead of me, but luckily, I love 
learning, so that is all good.

Thanks again to everyone who has helped me.  I hope to pass on the favour.

Stephen
In Roberts Creek, BC