New QField User - Help setting up a simple.orchard mapping project

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1

Hi,

I’m completely new to QGIS and QField and would really appreciate some help getting my first project set up.

I’m restoring a traditional damson orchard in Cumbria, UK. Ultimately I want to use QField on my phone to:

  • see the orchard on an aerial/satellite map;
  • record the GPS position of each existing tree;
  • record new trees as we plant them;
  • give each tree an ID and record some basic information about it;
  • potentially add photographs and notes;
  • sync the information back to my laptop.

So it is essentially a fairly simple orchard/tree survey, rather than a complex GIS project.

So far I have:

  • installed QGIS on my Windows laptop;
  • installed QFieldSync;
  • created a QFieldCloud account;
  • created a QFieldCloud project;
  • successfully downloaded/synchronised that project into QGIS;
  • added OpenStreetMap as a basemap.

My difficulty is that I cannot even get QGIS to navigate to the location of my orchard. I have tried entering the postcode and coordinates using the locator/coordinate boxes, but the map remains on the whole-world view.

I’m conscious that I may be making this much more complicated than it needs to be.

Could someone advise me on the simplest way to set up this project from this point, particularly how to get an aerial basemap centred on my orchard and then create a simple point layer for recording the trees?

I’m happy to provide screenshots or the orchard location if that would help.

Many thanks,

Jane

2

hello @janeesenior !

Indeed it should be a pretty simple project even if you don’t have too much knowledge about QGIS and QField. Maybe we can get moving one step at a time to see if everything is setup properly, just to make it less overwhelming. There should be no need to publish the location of the orchard.

Let me ask you some questions to better understand your situation:

  1. Are you familiarised with how to navigate the map view on QGIS?
  2. What about coordinate systems (“CRS”)?
  3. How did you created the project? on the phone, on the qfieldcloud website or on QGIS?

As a head-start, you can try installing some plugins on QGIS that would help you find locations:

  1. First, go to the top menu bar, Plugins > Manage and Install Plugins

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  2. The plugin window should open. Make sure you are on the “All” section (1), then type the name of the plugin on the search field (2), select it from the plugin list (3) and install it using the buttons in the bottom right corner (4, but I already have this plugin installed so I don’t have that option):

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  3. Install the following plugins:

    1. OSM place search
    2. QuickOSM
    3. NextGIS OSMInfo
    4. NextGIS QuickMapServices (this one will allow you to easily add satellite images from various sources).

  4. Maybe when you try to install some of these plugins, a popup window may appear asking to install some “dependency manager” called qpip. Just accept to install it also.

3

Also, you must understand that the coordinates you entered in the box (if they are good), pan to the location but don’t zoom to it. Try to zoom first (anywhere) and then enter your coordinates.
Next, as @cuprico said, we must first know what you master and what you don’t in QGis first to help more.

4

Hi,

Thanks for your reply, sorry it’s taken a few days to get back to you but I have needed a few hours to experiment.

Your suggestions were really helpful and I have now managed to set up my project on my lap top and on my phone but have not been successful yet in syncing the right files over.

I down loaded the following plugins you suggested OSM, OSM quick, Next GIS PSMi nfo, I couldnt find Next GIS Quick map services so I down loaded Next GIS connect as I looked like it might do the same thing?

In response to the three questions you asked at the start of your email, I don’t really understand any of these although I may have muddled through. I think it would be great to understand what I am doing.

Thanks again for your help and support. I will have time over the next few days to look at things again and see make sure I have successful saved my project files in the right format so I can successfully sinc to my phone.

Cheers.

Jane

5

Hi,

Thank you for your reply, sorry it’s taken a couple of days to get back to you. I needed a good amount of time to experiment as I am not very experienced at this kind of thing.

I managed set up a project and finally get my orchard up my screen and saved to my project. I didnt manage to get there by putting coordinates. I put in a post code and then using the maginfying glasses on the tool bar to zoom in. Quite a lengthy process! This was done through experimentation and I am not sure I understand what I did! :joy:.

I appreciate your time and help. I have also replied to @cuprico with a bit more detail about my success so far.

Cheers.

Jane

6

No worries for the delay! glad you already managed to make some progress.

hmm, weird that you haven’t found the QuickMapServices plugin, can you share a screen of the Plugins window with the text “nextgis” on the search bar? It should show something like this:

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as you can see, NextGIS QuickMapServices is there, but it is not the first option, maybe you need to scroll down a bit to see it?

7

Hi, thanks for your reply. i have checked my plugins and I have this installed.

I have finally managed to set my project up on the lap top and have synced it to my phone. At the weekend i am going to test it to see how i get on.

Thanks so much for your help and support.

Cheers.

Jane

8

That’s Awesome! Let us know if everything went alright or if there is anything you need help with.