QGIS is the leading Free and Open Source Desktop GIS. It allows you to create, edit, visualise, analyse and publish geospatial information on Windows, Mac OS, Linux, BSD and Android (via the QField app). We also provide an OGC Web Server application, a web browser client and developer libraries. Quantum GIS 2.8.1 is a third party application that provides additional functionality to OS X system and enjoys a popularity among Mac users. However, instead of installing it by dragging its icon to the Application folder, uninstalling Quantum GIS 2.8.1 may need you to. View and compare FREE,DOWNLOAD,QUANTUM,GIS,FOR,MAC on Yahoo Finance.
Download QGIS for Mac - Create very complex and detail-rich maps using a large variety of spatial data formats such as vector, raster and databases on a multiple operating systems. Download the QGIS installer from the QGIS download page link given above. Double-click the downloaded installer file. Accept the License Agreement by clicking I Agree. You can choose where to install QGIS in your system by selecting the appropriate directory using the Browse button. Accept the default by hitting Next.
QGIS is the Leading open source, user-friendly, cross-platform and freely downloadable Geographic Information System (GIS) desktop application that is licensed underneath GNU and it helps viewing, editing, and analysis of geospatial data.
Anybody with an internet connection can visit Quantum GIS homepage and download the required package files based on their OS. It will not cost you anything but just your valuable time as it’s Free to use.
Interested user can download its Package for Mac, Windows, and Linux, its installation package is available for all three OS.
Quantum GIS is the best alternative to commercial GIS desktop software such as ESRI’s ArcGIS suite software due to its user-friendly interface and is currently translated into more than 40 languages.
QGIS Desktop: Powerful desktop GIS software for creating, editing, visualizing, analyzing and publish geospatial data.
QGIS Server & Web Client: Publish OGIS projects and layers as OGC compatible WMS and WFS services.
A brief history of QGIS
Version 1.0, called Kore was released in early 2009 although it was originally developed by Gary Sherman in early 2002, and was adopted as an incubator project of the Open Source Geospatial Foundation in 2007.
QGIS at first wrote in C++ and it makes broad utilization of the Qt library.In addition to Qt, required dependencies of QGIS include GEOS and SQLite. To access additional data formats in QGIS, GDAL, GRASS GIS, PostGIS, and PostgreSQL are also recommended.
Updates and bug fixes are regularly released by a group of volunteer developers who maintained Quantum GIS Application. QGIS has an active user and an active developer community that has translated Quantum GIS software into more than 40 languages and the application is currently used internationally in academic and professional environments. Several companies offer support and feature development services.
Supported Data Formats
Quantum GIS supports many raster and vector formats, by using OGR library QGIS can read and write vector data formats including ESRI shapefiles, MapInfo and MicroStation file formats, AutoCAD DXF, PostGIS, SpatialLite, Oracle Spatial and MSSQL Spatial databases. GRASS vectors and PostgreSQL support is supplied by native QGIS data provider plugins which are written in Python or C++ language.
For using external data sources Web Map Service and Web Feature Service are also supported.
There is a large number of Plugins that are supported by QGIS. By using these plugins anyone can perform basic to advance level GIS task, geocode or can do geoprocessing functions within Quantum GIS application.
Key Features
QGIS provides a huge number of capabilities provided by core functions and plugins.
Customizability: User has the freedom to customize the application as per their needs, from Customs data Input forms to personalized user interfaces and workflows.
Extensibility: QGIS support C++ and Python for creating scripts or stand-alone applications based on the QGIS API.
Interoperability: support a huge range of file formats, databases as well as web services.
Implemented Standards in QGIS
- Web Map Service (WMS)
- Web Feature Services (WFS)
- Catalogue Service for the Web (CSW)
- Web Coverage Service (WCS)
- Web Feature Service Transactional (WFS-T)
By Using QGIS Software you can create, edit, manage and export vector and raster layers in several formats. QGIS offers the following:
• Support for editing OpenStreetMap data.
• Can Georeference Raster using a plugin and Georeferenced Images can be saved as screenshots.
• Tools available for OGR supported formats and able to edit shapefiles and GRASS Vector layers.
• Using GPS tools the user can import and export GPX format, and can also convert other GPS formats to GPX.
• Using DB Managers Plugin, User can create spatial database tables from shapefiles.
• DXF Export tool helps to perform CAD-like functions.
Learning QGIS
To learn Open Source GIS application like QGIS, user needs to download the installer packages, which makes it easy to get the software loaded onto their computer. QGIS support groups also available to get help.
Some of the tips on how to get started with QGIS Application:
To Start with, Download the QGIS application for your operating system based on the architecture and make sure it loads properly. Refer the online documentation section of QGIS and download the appropriate user guide. Make use of the sample data available in the user guide. Follow the steps mentioned in the guide to familiarize yourself with QGIS basic functionality. Also take advantage to Video Tutorials available in YouTube Platform.
The best way to learn anything in life is to learn by trial and error. Do some experiment with your input data. The more you try, the more you learn. Try some mapping project idea that you can perform on QGIS.
Take advantage of the User Group to get the right help. The QGIS forum is a great place to get help or any task related to QGIS, if you are stuck after consulting user guide and other online QGIS documentation.
Core Plugins included in QGIS:
- Topology Checker (Find topological errors in vector layers).
- fTools (Analyze and manage vector data).
- DB Manager.
- Dxf2Shp Converter.
- eVIS.
- Metasearch catalogue client.
- GDAL Tools.
- Georeference GDAL.
- GPS Tools.
- GRASS (Integrate GRASS GIS).
- Heatmaps.
- Interpolation Plugin (Interpolate based on vertices of a vector layer).
- SPIT Tool (To Import shapefiles to PostgreSQL/PostGIS)
- Offline Editing (Allow offline editing and synchronizing with databases).
- Oracle Spatial GeoRaster.
- Processing (formerly SEXTANTE).
- Road Graph Plugin (Analyze the shortest path network).
- Zone Statistics Plugin.
- Spatial Query Plugin.
- Coordinate Capture.
- Raster Terrain Analysis (Analyze raster based terrain).
Stable Release
3.2.2
Operating System
Windows, Mac, Linux, BSD Compatible
Website
UPDATE:As of QGIS v. 1.5 (2010) the stand-alone ‘all in one’ bundle for Mac OS X is no longer supported. Installation requires dependent frameworks, each with their own requirements, to be installed in order before the installation of QGIS.
UPDATEHere are revised (2015) instructions for installing QGIS on a Mac
A while back I reviewed MyWorldGIS, indicating my disappointment with the analysis capabilities of other available free or low-cost GIS for the Mac. Well, no longer. Since its birth in 2002, Quantum GIS (qGIS) has grown to be an impressively powerful application in its own right.
qGIS is an Open Source Geographic Information System (GIS) licensed under the GNU General Public License. QGIS is an official project of the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo) and is a volunteer driven project. It runs on Linux, Unix, Mac OSX, and Windows and supports numerous vector, raster, and database formats and functionalities. In this review I’ve chosen to highlight its Mac-ness, both because I am a Mac user and I am often asked about Mac GIS options.
Over its life-cycle, qGIS has dished out a continously growing number of capabilities provided by core functions and plugins – and appears to be still growing strong. You can visualize, manage, edit, analyze data, and compose printable maps. Best of all (in my opinion) is a robust set of vector data analysis, geoprocessing, geometry, and data management tools and functionality now available. Sometimes open-source software gets a bad wrap for being too complicated, particularly in the graphical user interface (GUI) department. It is what it is – made by techies for techies, qGIS is a growing powerhouse of geospatial tools, though it might not win GUI awards for simplicity. Did I mention it is also free?
Overview of qGIS Features
First let’s get acquainted. A summary of features include:
- View and overlay vector and raster data in different formats (including GIS shapefiles) and projections without conversion to an internal or common format.
Create maps and interactively explore spatial data, including on the fly projection, spatial bookmarks, identify/select features, feature labeling, change vector and raster symbology, and more.
Create, edit and export spatial data, including GPS tools to import and export GPX format, convert other GPS formats to GPX, or down/upload directly to a GPS unit.
Perform spatial analysis using the fTools plugin for Shapefiles.
Publish your map on the internet using the export to Mapfile capability (requires a webserver with UMN MapServer installed)
These Are a Few of My Favorite Things
As a disclaimer, I typically use qGIS to explore shapefile data, manipulate data, and save selections of shapefiles to prepare them for import into our Ortelius cartography software (to which I am affiliated). My review is clearly influenced by these uses and by the questions we get from our own users wanting to do more with GIS.
qGIS Stand-Alone Installation
On the downside (or upside – depending on your point of view), there are a lot of download options. First, there are separate downloads for each operating system. Each also has a variety of dependancy frameworks with their own requirements. The standalone Qgis does not include GRASS support at all, if you want it you must use the standard Qgis package + frameworks + GRASS if you need GRASS features (GRASS is a GIS used for geospatial data management and analysis, image processing, graphics/map production, spatial modelling, and visualization – it is not required for qGIS though can provide added functionality). Wowza. This might leave many potential casual users puzzled before they even have the software!
Have no fear – a stand-alone installation ‘all in one’ bundle for Mac OS X is provided for “new users.” In fact, I highly recommend it for all but very technically-minded and advanced users.
Analysis With fTools qGIS Plugin
Do you need to count the points of one layer in polygons of another layer? Select by location? Buffer or intersect features? Convert feature geometry?Join attributes with an external table? Or more? If so, you definitely need analysis tools. Choose Plugins > Manage Plugins… from the main menu and enable the fTools plugin for data management and analysis. Doing so will add “Vector” to the main menu and provide a variety of tools for manipulating your vector GIS data.
I am often asked about software to join external spreadsheet data with GIS data. To do this, you need a common data field, such as country name, in both data sets. Choose Vector > Data Management Tools > Join Attributes from the main menu to identify your target GIS layer, join field, and database file to join. Note that you cannot directly link to Pages® or Excel® spreadsheets, rather you must link to a DBF file. This is especially a pain since Excel (Mac 2008) stopped having a DBF export option. I have turned to using open-source software NeoOffice to convert my spreadsheet data to DBF to prepare for linking attribute tables. It is an inconvenient step, so if you have a better solution for Mac users, please share! Once you’re done, the automatic save of the output shapefile makes things especially easy.
X,Y Data to Shapefile
Lots of people have X,Y coordinate data (e.g., latitude/longitude data) in spreadsheet format that they want to display on a map. In fact, if you have a simple address list, you can use a service such as BatchGeocode.com to generate your X,Y data for you, then use the results to create shapefiles in qGIS. First choose Plugins > Manage Plugins… from the main menu and enable the Add Delimited Text Layer plugin. In the main menu, the Plugins menu will now list “Delimited Text” among its options. Use the GUI to import your tab delimited X,Y data.
Vector Editing
qGIS supports editing the points, lines and polygons of shapefile map data. Choose Layer > Toggle Editing to activate the editing toolbar. qGIS has a suite of editing tools to cut and add features.
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Save Selection as Shapefile
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Perhaps I use this most – I simply love the ease of which you can select features in a layer and save them as a new shapefile. Use the Select Features tool from the toolbar to directly select features on your map, or open Attribute Table and select features from the table view. Then, simply choose Layer > Save Selection As Shapefile form the main menu. It’s as easy as that and a powerful tool when pairing down large shapefiles to your area of interest.
Conclusion
While there are a plethora other features that could be mentioned, these are among the ones I use the most. On the down-side, the cartographic rendering in qGIS is typical of a low- to mid-range GIS programs (unfortunately which can easily produce ugly GIS-looking maps). Although packed with features, the program can be overwhelming for new users who are just getting started with GIS. If you are in that lot, the provided Users Manuals are required reading. I find the GUI a bit cluttered with buttons, such as the five different buttons for importing a layer when one might suffice. Organization in the GUI might also be improved by consistently locating active plugins – either by adding active plugins to the Plugin menu or as separate menu items, but not both – it can be confusing when you activate a plugin and it isn’t where you expect it to be.
Overall, qGIS is a strong performer with a dedicated volunteer development base. Kudos to the development team for continuing development on this much needed application. It gets high marks in analysis and data management and I recommend it for Mac GIS users.
There are unlimited uses of GIS software in general, and qGIS specifically, that I haven’t covered. Do you have experience with qGIS you’d like to share? Do you have experience with other GIS for Mac tools? If so, I’d love to hear from you.
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