Downloading OpenStreetMap vector datasets effectively

OpenStreetMap data download to QGIS

OpenStreetMap platform is a worldwide free geographic database, updated and maintained by free volunteers. The primary advantage of this platform is the availability of the data, which can be downloaded anytime by the user unlike Google Maps, which requires appropriate payments. In fact, there are a few options for getting the GIS vector data from … Read more

The correct way of using QGIS Viewshed plugin

QGIS Viewshed plugin

Visibility analysis constitutes great importance in many fields such as sensor deployment, decisions for placement of mobile towers for maximum coverage, military operation planning, gaming, fire monitoring towers in the forest, urban design, landscape planning, etc (Saxena, Mundra, Jigyasu, 2020) or even for location graves (Lockwood, Masters, 2021). The explanations of the current text are … Read more

Using special characters in QGIS expressions

QGIS special characters

This brief text explains how to use some custom symbols in QGIS expression. Obviously, it applies only to the quoted part, which represents the bits with string. There are 2 ways of doing it. The first method uses the char() element, which can give us the desired symbol, letter, or icon. In the case of … Read more

12P/Pons Brooks comet during 2024 total solar eclipse

12 Pons Brooks 2024 total solar eclipse

This text shows some guidelines for the brief moment of the total solar eclipse 2024 occurrence at twilight, which presumably will allow for a fantastic view of the 12P/Pons-Brooks comet being close to its perihelion point.           1. 12P/PONS – BROOKS COMET – GENERAL INFORMATION 12P/Pons-Brooks is a periodic, Halley-type comet, … Read more

Folium Draw plugin – extended functionality

Folium draw plugin

The Draw is a very nice plugin dedicated to anyone who wishes to draw editable vectors on the Folium map. It’s a comprehensive plugin, that can add lines, polylines, polygons, rectangles, circles, circlemarkers, and markers and then edit or delete them. Its functionality is the same as in the Leaflet Draw plugin, where its Folium … Read more

The Google Earth FOV feature usage in long-distance observations

Google Earth FOV and Long Distance Observations

This article presents a nice feature in Google Earth, which lets on getting a telephoto view rendered from any location around the globe. Because the option is to be considered in the aspect of the long-distance observations, it’s indeed a continuation of the thread about the estimation of visibility between two artificial objects. That’s exactly … Read more

Quick access to Street View from various applications (based on Leaflet map example)

Street View access from various maps

Everyone knows how Google Street View is needed for the desktop investigation of various issues. It’s very beneficial since we have access to this Google product from another platform, certainly dedicated to some topic. Indeed, there are quite a few ways of getting the Street View visible at the same time when browsing the specified … Read more

Opening Street View with Python Folium map

Street View with Python folium map

Folium is a powerful Python library dedicated to geospatial data visualization. Its major engine is based on Leaflet – an open-source JavaScript library for mobile-friendly interactive maps. There are a lot of sources on the web, where anyone can find the basics of data displaying with Python Folium in several different ways. Most of them … Read more

Breaking down the Street View permalink

Street View car

Google Street View is a technology, which provides interactive and multiperspective panoramas of many places and streets worldwide. It’s commonly used on a daily basis, but hardly anyone pays attention to the permalink displayed in the URL address bar. In fact, some programmers use it for instant opening the Street View roughly at the desired … Read more

AutoCAD LT – Zoom (search) by coordinates

AutoCAD LT zoom by coordinates

I would like to show you a nice feature in this short article.  You can use it in your AutoCAD software and the LT version. It applies to searching (or zooming) the object by coordinates. When can it be useful? Usually, in the case of validation of your projects, you have thrown some coordinates. Usually, … Read more

Long distance observations – definition & types

Long Distance Observations definitions types

This article is about the general definition of the realm, which has been described occasionally on this website since 2017. Therefore I guess I should have done it much earlier, however better late than never. Anyhow today I would like to focus exactly on both the primary definition as well as the basic divisions of … Read more