Book Image

QGIS Python Programming Cookbook, Second Edition - Second Edition

By : Joel Lawhead
Book Image

QGIS Python Programming Cookbook, Second Edition - Second Edition

By: Joel Lawhead

Overview of this book

QGIS is a desktop geographic information system that facilitates data viewing, editing, and analysis. Paired with the most efficient scripting language—Python, we can write effective scripts that extend the core functionality of QGIS. Based on version QGIS 2.18, this book will teach you how to write Python code that works with spatial data to automate geoprocessing tasks in QGIS. It will cover topics such as querying and editing vector data and using raster data. You will also learn to create, edit, and optimize a vector layer for faster queries, reproject a vector layer, reduce the number of vertices in a vector layer without losing critical data, and convert a raster to a vector. Following this, you will work through recipes that will help you compose static maps, create heavily customized maps, and add specialized labels and annotations. As well as this, we’ll also share a few tips and tricks based on different aspects of QGIS.
Table of Contents (16 chapters)
QGIS Python Programming Cookbook - Second Edition
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewer
www.PacktPub.com
Customer Feedback
Preface

Changing the map units


Changing the units of measure on a map, or map units, is a very common operation, depending on the purpose of your map or the standards of your organization or country. In this recipe, we'll read the map units used by QGIS and then change them for your project.

Getting ready

The only preparation you need for this recipe is to open QGIS and select Python Console from the Plugins menu.

How to do it...

In the following steps, we'll access the map canvas, check the map unit type, and then alter it to a different setting:

  1. First, access the map canvas, as follows:

            canvas = iface.mapCanvas() 
    
  2. Now, get the map units type. By default, it should be the number 2:

            canvas.mapUnits() 
    
  3. Now, let's set the map units to meters, which is represented by the number 0:

            canvas.setMapUnits(0) 
    

How it works...

QGIS has seven different map units, which are enumerated in the following order:

  • 0 = Meters

  • 1 = Feet

  • 2 = Degrees

  • 3 = UnknownUnit

  • 4 = DecimalDegrees

  • 5 = DegreesMinutesSeconds...