qgSurf now supports QGis on-the-fly projection

qgSurf is a plugin for QGis, that allows to calculate the best-fit-plane given a set of point with DEM-derived heights, or the intersection between a geological plane and a DEM. Recently it has added some basic tools for the creation of 3D analytical surface and their deformation, even if they are still at an experimental stage.
The new version, 0.3.1, adds support for on-the-fly projection, so that, for instance, it is easier to use satellite data providers as Bing or Google for geological calculations.

When using the Best-Fit-Plane tool, DEMs can be in lat-long, but in that case the project must be set to a projected, planar CRS. DEM elevations and projected planar distances must be in the same measure unit (e.g., meters).
On the other hand, the DEM-plane intersection tool does not work properly with DEM in lat-long, since it requires that the horizontal distance measure unit to be the same as the vertical one, impossible for DEMs with data in lat-long. Also mixing meters for horizontal distances with feets for elevations will produce erroneous results. It is safe however to have a DEM in UTM 32 (with x, y and z values in meters) and the project CRS in Lambert Conformal Conic.

The plugin can be installed from the QGis plugin manager, or downloaded from http://plugins.qgis.org/plugins/qgSurf/ or https://bitbucket.org/mauroalberti/qgsurf/downloads.
It works for QGis >= 2.0, and has been tested in Windows Vista and Ubuntu LTS 10.2.
Errors in Linux or Windows for the 3D geosurface simulation tools could possibly be related to an old installed Matplotlib version, and solved by updating this last.
 

Please support the upcoming Vienna Code Sprint 2014

http://grass.osgeo.org/news/31/15/Call-for-sponsors/ 

Please support the upcoming Vienna Code Sprint 2014

In the occasion of the upcoming Vienna Code Sprint 2014 [1], the GRASS GIS Project Steering Committee decided earlier this year to  officially join this code sprint, considering it as a great opportunity  for joint activities. More than 60+ developers from the most important OSGeo project communities will be joining the event.

While the GRASS developers are donating their valuable time, the community of enthusiast users (you!) may contribute with donations,  even symbolic, that will be used to cover out-of-pocket expenses of the  participants. Companies can also decide to sponsor specific tasks!  Please don't hesitate to contact us [2] (or Markus Neteler, neteler@osgeo.org) for further details.

As usual, all of the work done in the community sprint will be directly contributed back to the GRASS project for the benefit of everyone who  uses it. Our scope at the sprint is to publish a first release candidate  of the stable GRASS GIS 6.4.4 version as well as a tech preview release of GRASS GIS 7.

For your convenience, here our easy-to-use Paypal button:

http://grass.osgeo.org/donations/

For our alternative bank transfer option, please contact Martin Landa (landa.martin@gmail.com)

Thanks for your support!

The GRASS Developers Team

[1] http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Vienna_Code_Sprint_2014

[2] http://grass.osgeo.org/home/contact-us/

About GRASS GIS

The Geographic Resources Analysis Support System (http://grass.osgeo.org/), commonly referred to as GRASS GIS, is an Open Source Geographic Information System providing powerful raster, vector and geospatial processing capabilities in a single integrated software suite. GRASS GIS includes tools for spatial modeling, visualization of raster and vector data, management and analysis of geospatial data, and the processing of satellite and aerial imagery. It also provides the capability to produce sophisticated presentation graphics and hardcopy maps. GRASS GIS has been translated into about twenty languages and supports a huge array of data formats. It can be used either as a stand-alone application or as backend for other software packages such as QGIS and R geostatistics. It is distributed freely under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL). GRASS GIS is a founding member of the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo).

qProf supports on-the-fly reprojection and multiples profile lines

The new version, 0.2.2, of this plugin for Quantum GIS has now support for on-the-fly reprojection of layers in a project. The profile will be created with the CRS set by the user in the Quantum GIS project.

Moreover, it also possible to use multiple lines for the profile creation, that will be merged into one for the profile creation. Since it could happen that the order of the single lines is not the correct one for the profile creation, it has been added the option of reading the correct order from an integer field defined in the attribute table of the layer (see figure below).

Example of layer with multiple lines (4), that are digitized with an incorrect order (see in the attribute table), but with the correct order set in the field 'id' of the attribute table (also used for the labelling of the lines in the map).

Profile created with the correct line order, set in the attribute table as in the previous figure.

A bug related to the saving of results as shapefiles in Linux has also been removed.

The new version can be installed by using the plugin manager of Quantum GIS, or by downloading it from the Quantum GIS  plugin repository at http://plugins.qgis.org/plugins/qProf/ or at https://bitbucket.org/mauroalberti/qprof/downloads.