IIT BHU

2020

Exercise 2
INTRODUCTION TO PLUGINS

Dr .Shishir Gaur Dr Anurag Ohri

IIT BHU
Department of Civil Engineering
Last Edited : 10May 2021
 Exercise 2. INTRODUCTION TO PLUGINS

Plugins are the software components that are added to the software to enhance its core
functionality. As QGIS is an open source platform there are several QGIS developers as well as
many independent users who develop these plugins and their contribution is made available to
all for free.

Core Plugins
When QGIS is installed these plug-ins are the part of this installation. As soon as you open the
Plugin Manager there are many core Plugins you can notice under the Installed Tab. All these
installed plugins just need to be enabled and they are ready to be used. First Step to learn
about Plug-ins is to install and enable them. We take an example of Spatial Query Plug-in .

ENABLE PLUGINS

 To open the Plugin Manager dialog box , Goto Plugins ‣ Manage and Install Plugins
 Type Spatial query in the textbox to search for it. In the list of the plug-ins it will
appear.
 Exercise 2. INTRODUCTION TO PLUGINS

 You will notice a check box near each plugin. You just need to check this box and this
will enable all the factions related to this plug-in.
 To identify the location of the enabled plug-in we need to read the description which
say “Category: Vector”. Hence we can locate the Spatial Query Plug- in, in the vector
menu.
 Check the checkbox next to the Spatial query Plugin.
 Click Close to finish

INSTALLING PLUGINS: QUICK OSM

Let’s install “QUICK OSM plug-in”.

 To open the Plugin Manager dialog box , Go to Plugins ‣ Manage and Install Plugins
 Type quick OSM, in the textbox to search for it. In the list of the plug-ins it will appear.
 Click on INSTALL PLUGIN. Once the installation is successful, Quick OSM appears in the
VECTOR TAB of the Menu toolbar.
 Exercise 2. INTRODUCTION TO PLUGINS

Using Open Street Maps and Creating OSM based vector Files

 Open a new QGIS project in which we will run queries on various data of IIT BHU
CASMPUS Varanasi like extracting data, merging layers etc.
 Go to Layer ‣ Data Source Manager to open the Data Source Manager dialog box.

 In the Browser tab, expand the XYZ Tiles drop-down menu and select
the OpenStreetMap option.

 Exercise 2. INTRODUCTION TO PLUGINS

After double clicking the OpenStreetMap , observe that a new layer named “Open street
maps” is added in the Layer panel and the world map opens in the Map View.
Zoom in to the desired location on the map.

1. Now create layer for Varanasi district.

 Exercise 2. INTRODUCTION TO PLUGINS

 Go to Vector Quick OSM Quick OSM

 In the Quick query tab make selection as
 Key drop down menu = boundary,
 Value drop down menu = administrative,
 In to assign the query area and
 Type Varanasi in the text box .
 To finish click on Run Query tab on the bottom right corner.
 When the query operation is successful, three QGIS Vector layers will be created in the
Layer panel .
 Remove the unwanted layer by using the Remove Layer icon on the top right
corner of the layer panel.

 The layers hence created are temporary scratch layers, for these layers the contents will
be discarded after closing this project. Therefore we need to save these layers. Click on
the icon next to the layer name to open the Save As dialog box and save the layer to
the desired location
 Exercise 2. INTRODUCTION TO PLUGINS

2 Extract buildings in Bhu Campus.

 Open the Open street maps from XYZ Tiles .Zoom in to BHU Campus.
 Go to Vector Quick OSM Quick OSM
 Exercise 2. INTRODUCTION TO PLUGINS

 In the Quick query tab make selection as

 Key drop down menu = Buildings,
 Value drop down menu = leave empty ,
 Canvas Extent to assign the query area box,
 In the Advanced drop down menu deselect the points and lines option to avoid the
extraction of unwanted data.
 To finish click on Run Query tab on the bottom right corner.
 Exercise 2. INTRODUCTION TO PLUGINS

 When the query operation is successful, the QGIS Vector layers displaying all the
buildings will be created in the Layer panel .
 Save the layer because this is a temporary scratch file.