SURVEYING & POSITIONING SOLUTIONS FOR LAND, SEA, & AIR OPERATIONS

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Basic QGIS Training
Map Layouting using QGIS
QGIS (also known as Quantum GIS) is a free and open-source desktop GIS application that
supports viewing, editing, and analysis of geospatial data. To download the software online, go to
http://www.qgis.org/en/site/. The recommended version of QGIS to be downloaded is QGIS 3.28.2
Firenze.
Data Requirements:
● Shapefiles
o Lots
o Roads
o Trees
o Fishponds
● Basemap (requires internet connection)
Plugins Installed:
● DB Manger
● MetaSearch Catalog Client
● Processing
● QuickMapServices

A. Displaying Shapefiles

1. To display the shapefiles, click on the Source Manager button and select Vector Tab
.
2. Set the source type to File and encoding to UTF-8 as default.
3. On the source, browse the shapefile (.shp) to be loaded. Click Add at the bottom of the
window. Do this for all shapefiles needed for the map layout.

B. Displaying Basemaps
4. To display basemap, the QuickMapServices plugin must be installed first.

5. Click the QuickMapServices button and select the basemap to be used on the map
layout. As a default basemap, use Google Hybrid.
C. Viewing and Editing Layer Properties
6. To view the Layer properties, double-click on the layer in the Layers Panel.

7. There are 19-layer properties that can be seen in the Layer Properties window. The tabs
that will be frequently used in map layouting are Symbology and Labels.
8. In the Symbology tab, click the drop down button and select the appropriate symbology
for the layer.
9. In example, the Tree shapefile can be symbolized depending on the tree types. Use
Catergorized as symbology type and select tree_name in the column bar then click Classify.
10. Each symbols on the classified tree types can be edited by double-clicking on it. Click OK
to finish editing.

11. For Labels using Road layer as example, select the Labels Tab and choose Single Labels
in the drop down button. Use Road Name in labeling the layer.
12. The labels can be further edited such as its text and formatting using the available tabs
below. Click OK to finish editing.
D. Creating Map Layout
13. In the Projects Tab, select Layout Manager then in Layout Manager Window, click Create
button on the New from Template and enter the title of the map to be created then click OK.

14. The Layout view window will pop-up. To edit the Page Properties, right click on the map
sheet and select Page Properties.
15. In the Page Properties window, the size and orientation of the map can be assigned and
edited based on the map requirements.

16. In the Layout view window, click the Add New Map button to insert the edited layers.

To move the image in the map, click the Move Item Content button . The scale value can be
seen in the Item Properties of the inserted map and can be edited manually.
17. Right click inside the inserted map and select Item Properties. In the Item Properties, find
Grids to insert grid in map layout.

18. Click the Add New Grid button and click Modify Grid. Select the correct
reference system used, and the interval units for the map.

19. After adding the grid, the North arrow , map title , legend , scale bar , and
other needed information can also be inserted to the layout by using the buttons on the left side
panel of the layout view window.
20. Every map item can be seen on the Items Panel on the top right portion of the layout view
window in which it can be edited manually.
21. Each item can be locked to retain its position and style on map by checking on the Lock
column or by checking lock layers and lock styles for layers in the Item Properties.
E. Exporting Map
22. In the Layout Tab, select Export PDF or any file type depending on the required output but
for default, export the map in PDF.
23. The exported PDF file will be based on the assigned Page Properties of the map during the
layout.