Some minor enhancements in qProf

qProf is a QGIS plugin for the creation of topographic and geologic profiles. Some minor enhancements were added to qProf in the new, experimental releases 0.2.9 and 0.3.0.

In version 0.2.9 the following options were added:
- the calculation of the absolute slope along the profile; previously only the directional slope was calculated;
- the possibility to flip a profile horizontally (option "Reverse profile direction"), as well as to reverse the orientation of the x axis (option "Reverse x axes direction) were added.

See examples in Figs. 1-4 (below).

Fig. 1. Map of Mt. Alpi zone (Basilicata, Southern Italy), with profile in red (direction from left to right). DEM data: TINITALY.

Fig. 2. Topographic (top) and absolute slope (bottom) profiles (see map trace in Fig. 1).

Fig. 3. Same profile as in Fig. 2, but with profile direction reversed.

Fig. 4. Same profile as in previous figures, but with reversed x axes directions.

In version 0.3.0, released on 2015-03-08, the possibility of configuring the figure save parameters (width, resolution, font size, subplot configuration parameters) was added. These graphic parameters can be saved in a text file and subsequently loaded for being applied to future plots.
This option is available from Export - Figure. Fig. 5 represents the window for defining the parameters, saving or loading them, and also for saving the figure as a file in PDF, SVG or TIF formats.

Fig. 5. Window for saving a figure as a graphic file, and for configuring graphic parameters, and saving or loading them.

The two versions are experimental since the impact of reversing the profile on the geological plotting has not been fully tested. For geological plots, the suggested version is 0.2.8.

Gerrit Tombrink, PhD student at the Goettingen University (Germany), is thanked for proposing the implemented options.