Tag: en_gb

It’s been a couple of busy weeks, with the QGIS 4.2 release and meetings and conferences all over the place before a few, hopefully quieter, weeks of summer break.

QGIS

First, the Austrian QGIS user group met online on 25 June. The topic was webmapping, with multiple users presenting their webmapping solutions, ranging from Lizmap to QGIS Cloud.

A few days later, QGIS 4.2 was released on 3 July 2026. This release is named Belém do Pará, after the Brazilian city that hosted both FOSS4G and a QGIS user meeting back in 2024. MundoGEO has the details on the naming, if you’re curious about the backstory. Worth noting: 4.2 “Belém do Pará” will be the next LTR, so if you’re using the long-term release, this is the one to watch for.

On a side note, while designing the Belém splash screen, it was interesting to see that historic maps of Belém don’t have north at the top. Instead, they’re rotated with north pointing either left or right. A nice little reminder that “north-up” is a convention, not a law of cartography.

AGIT 2026

This week, I made my way to Salzburg for AGIT, my favorite Austrian GIS conference.

On the first day, I took part in the AGEO Podium discussion, together with Andreas Hocevar (the father of OpenLayers), on the OGC API standards, since many users aren’t even aware of these new standards yet.

Thursday was talk day for me: I presented MobiML, a new Python library designed to streamline the development of machine learning workflows for trajectory data. I hope this library can help make Mobility Data Science more approachable and results more reproducible.

Right after my talk, Michael Szell presented “Assessing the Danish Bicycle Node Network”, building the data and algorithm foundation for active mobility planning and research. If you want to dig into the tools behind it, check out bikenetwork.dk and bikenetkit.org.

Michael is giving a full talk on this on Tuesday at the Complexity Science Hub in Vienna, if you want to hear more.

FOSS4G Europe, from the sidelines

Unfortunately, I missed FOSS4G Europe in Timișoara the week before, so I followed along via the #foss4ge2026 hashtag instead. Iván Sánchez’s talk on the BOSCO ruling, arguing that all government software must be explainable, is just one example of the talks I would have loved to see in person. There was also the already traditional QGIS Feature Frenzy by Kurt Menke and a QGIS hydrological analysis workshop by Hans who also has a full FOSS4G Europe 2026 summary worth reading.

Also relevant: the Birds of a Feather session on AI in OSGeo projects has spilled over onto the OSGeo discuss mailing list. Definitely a thread worth following or getting involved in if you maintain or contribute to open source geospatial projects.

What’s next

Besides MobiML, work also continues on the MovingPandas front. There are a few open pull requests I want to work through ahead of the next release.

After the summer break, the conference season picks back up quickly: FOSS4G 2026 in Hiroshima (30 August–5 September), Spatial Data Science across Languages (SDSL) 2026 in Jena (16–17/18 September), and the QGIS conference 2026 in Switzerland (5–6 October), where I’ll be speaking about AI in the QGIS ecosystem.

For a more complete picture of what is going on in geospatial worldwide, check out (and don’t forget to bookmark) Jakub‘s comprehensive list of geospatial conferences at github.com/Nowosad/geospatial-conferences.

Urban Development Modelling in QGIS

Introducing QCity, a new plugin that brings advanced urban development modeling directly into QGIS. Developed in collaboration with the City of Canning (Perth, Western Australia), QCity enables urban planners to model project areas using predefined frameworks, providing visual 2D/3D insights and detailed statistical reports.

The plugin workflow begins in the “Project Setup” tab, where users either define a new Project Area boundary and input dwelling and parking (both car and bike) parameters, or load a previously saved site or QCity package:

Next, “Development Sites” are created within each Project Area. Development Sites options include:

• Setting the site’s status: constructed, proposed or modelled
• Automatic calculation of the site’s floor space, car and bike parking (based on the specifications defined for the parent project area)
• Setting the parameters for each Development Site

Each Development Site can contain multiple Building Levels, which define the building floorplan and floors. Building Levels contain parameters to determine the composition of each level, such as:

• Usage: percent use for commercial, office and residential purposes
• Residential: percent composition of 1-4+ bedroom dwellings
• The building level height and height above ground
• Based on the entered parameters, the area of Unallocated Residential Floorspace for each building level is automatically calculated

Finally, statistics are calculated for an entire Project Area, such as the total amount of commercial, office and residential floorspace, number of dwellings, and car and bicycle parking availability.

To see the workflow in action, watch the video below where a new project is created with development sites and building levels.

This is the first release of QCity, and accordingly it is currently available as an experimental plugin in the QGIS plugin repository. This initial QCity version is designed for use in Australia only, however future development will enable its use in other parts of the world. On the QCity code repoistory you can see some of the additional capabilities we are thinking of adding. QCity requires QGIS 4.0 or later.

For an in depth overview of the creation of QCity and a demonstration of its capabilities, please join us for the QGIS Australia July webinar where Gabriel Diosan, Senior Strategic Planning Spatial Analyst from the City of Canning will present Urban Development Modelling in QGIS using QCity:

• 1pm (AEST)Thursday 16th July (Meeting link)
• If you can’t make the webinar, subscribe to the QGIS Australia YouTube Channel to watch it later.

For more information:

• QCity Documentation
• QCity Homepage
• Email us at [email protected] if you have an idea to enhance QCity, or want to speed up any of its capabilities, or have another plugin or QGIS feature you wish for us to help you with.

At the Swiss QGIS User Group Meeting, Oslandia was pleased to present the latest updates to QGIS.

Watch the video recap with Julien Cabieces, Jean Felder, Benoit De Mezzo, and Loïc Bartoletti :

• NURBS integration
• What’s new in SFCGAL
• Creating a 3D style from a 2D style
• New interface customization features

Over the years, QField has gained a number of ways through which authors can share their mapping projects. This post looks at the multiple ways this can be achieved and what scenarios fit each method best.

Leveraging QFieldCloud

Sharing maps to the public

QFieldCloud users all have the ability to configure their projects as ‘public’. When the option is turned on, all QFieldCloud users will be allowed to download and browse these maps at will.

These users coming in to view the map are given a reader role, prohibiting changes to the underlying datasets included in the project. This can be a great option when wanting to share maps to a large number of readers while relying on QFieldCloud to host the content and keep users up-to-date through synchronization.

Upload your mapping projects onto QFieldCloud and make them public through the web interface or QFieldSync. The public can then hop onto QField, log into QFieldCloud, and get to the maps by searching for the user and project names.

QFieldCloud’s registry is free and you get 100MB of free storage, give it a try !

Note that since QField 4.2, improvements made to the experience around cloud projects filtering have made finding these public projects much simpler.

Sharing collaborative maps with organization teammates and co-workers

If the maps are meant to be private and/or editable in a collaborative way, sharing them as part of a QFieldCloud organization plan is the way to go. Members of a registered organization are able to create projects in which the content of maps can be edited collaboratively and synchronized on-the-fly straight from the field.

These projects will automatically appear in the cloud projects list of logged in users that are organization member and a project collaborator, making it effortless to reach and download.

Importing through web URLs

It is also possible to share maps without relying on QFieldCloud. While we strongly believe QFieldCloud offers the best user experience, QField is all about providing its users with the freedom to choose.

Sharing maps can be done by compressing a QGIS project into a ZIP archive or simply sharing a georeferenced PDF and make that file available through a web site URL. Users wanting to import these files into QField then open the local projects and datasets panel from the welcome screen, click on the bottom right plus sign ‘import’ button, and select the ‘Import from URL’ menu action.

Importing from a URL works across all platforms QField runs on: Android, iOS, Windows, and Linux.

Sharing through QR codes

All of what’s described above can be made even easier by leveraging QR codes.

QFieldCloud QR codes

For maps shared on QFieldCloud, users can generate QR codes using their favorite online tool or application by using the following URI format:

qfield://cloud?project={username}/{project_name}

Simply replace the {username} and {project_name} with the username or organization owning the project as well as the project name. The resulting QR code can be scanned from devices using the operating system camera and will automatically open QField to an informative cloud project details view.

Web URL QR codes

For maps shared through a web site URL, similar QR codes can be generated by using the following URI format:

qfield://local?import={url}

Simply replace the {url} with a web URL that points to a compressed QGIS project ZIP or georeferenced PDF file (e.g. http://qfield.org/sample-projects/bees.zip) . When scanning these QR codes, QField will open a dialog asking users whether to proceed forward with the importing of a file name (e.g. map.pdf) from the URL’s domain name.

Here’s another QField release, packed with the features that have been at the top of professional surveyors’ wish list! (hint: it’s in the title) — plus improvements across the board for our wide range of users.

Main highlights

NTRIP & Bluetooth Low Energy

First up, NTRIP support has been added in QField unlocking sub-centimeter accuracy position readings without the need for any third-party app. This has long been requested by cadastral surveyors and other professional field workers in need of highly accurate data where being a few centimeters off can have real consequences.

To configure an NTRIP connection, simply connect to an RTK capable GNSS device via Bluetooth, BLE or TCP from the QField settings positioning panel. Once connected, the NTRIP user interface will be visible just below the positioning devices combo box in the same panel.

From there, users can enter their NTRIP caster details and enable the connection. An NTRIP visual indicator has been added at the top of the map canvas positioning information panel overlay to reflect the status of the connection. A blue dot means everything’s working, a glowing orange dot means the connection has stopped receiving correction data, and a gray dot means the connection has turned off.

Moving onto another functionality that walks hand in hand with NTRIP: QField now supports connecting to external GNSS devices via Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). This means a whole array of GNSS devices can now talk directly to QField on iOS as well, simplifying workflows for field surveyors working on this platform. While the benefit is most visible on iOS as QField previously lacked the ability to talk through Bluetooth altogether on that platform, BLE connections are also available on Android, Windows, and Linux. In many cases, it can offer a more stable connection.

The development of these fantastic features was supported by two QField hardware partners: HappySurvey and ArduSimple. Their support meant we were able to focus on getting the best possible experience running on their devices. Other hardware will definitively work out of the box too, and we’d love to hear about your experiences. However, since we are dealing with functionalities that are often driven by vendor-specific commands and UUIDs, there’s plenty of room to grow when it comes to compatibility. So if you’re a hardware vendor, feel free to reach out, join our certified hardware program and support QField’s growth! :)

Moving on to another noteworthy newly-added functionalities.

Feature form improvements

Starting with QField 4.2, the feature form includes a new gallery editor which shows previews of image, video, and audio content from relationships where the child layer has one or more attachment attributes. It will turn itself on automatically whenever QField detects this setup. The gallery editor also offers a quick snap button allowing for a much faster workflow around photo and video capture. And yes, we’ve updated our notes layer to support this when creating projects using QField.

Another feature form improvement is a wizard mode, which turns a complex set of tabs into a simple, linear flow guided by next and previous buttons that respond to constraints. driven by an easy to use pair of next and previous buttons that are reacting to constraints. The wizard mode is a per-project setting that can be enabled when setting up projects in QGIS. Simply make sure QFieldSync is installed to see the configuration panel in the project properties dialog.

Watch Video

Feature identification in 3D, and more

Users enjoying QField’s recent addition of 3D views will be delighted by what’s coming next. Feature identification by tapping on the terrain in 3D map views is now possible. This removes the need to switch back and forth between 2D and 3D to do attribute editing or getting more information on a nearby point of interest during 3D-enhanced hikes through your favorite national park.

There are countless more improvements that would transform this announcement into a full on essay ;) to highlight a few more:

• A new project information popup accessible via the side dashboard displays crucial project metadata such as the title, the abstract description, and the author(s).

• The features list now reflects attribute table’s row conditional styling configured in QGIS, providing a nice way to add visual hints to make features in need of attention pop out in the list;

• Audio attachments now show a level preview that helps identify key parts of a clip during playback.

• Lines and polygons digitized using a stylus in freehand mode are now smoother with cleaner geometries containing fewer redundant vertices; and

As always, the full changelog is available over here for even more goodies.

A flood of QFieldCloud improvements

This new version of QField is packed with QFieldCloud improvements. The biggest one is the retirement of the cloud projects ‘community’ tab in favor of a completely revamped – and we believe improved – experience around cloud project searching and filtering. Users can now easily filter projects by organization and teammate ownership as well as by keywords. The new user interface also makes searching through the countless cloud projects that have been made public by authors around the world far more intuitive.

A brand new cloud storage indicator has been added to QField to let users know of their current used and remaining storage size. This will help users keep on top of their storage and provide an early warning when space is about to run out. Upgrades are available for users to keep working on these growing cloud projects that were started using the free community plan .

Beyond that, we’ve been hard at work hunting bugs and increasing the overall stability. We’ve also transformed a number of obscure and intimidating error messages into helpful notifications.

‘Coral Sea’ release name

The Coral Sea stretches across the southwest Pacific, bordered by Australia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu. Home to the Great Barrier Reef and some of the most biodiverse coastal ecosystems on the planet, it is also one of the most climate-pressured, with bleaching events and coastal change outpacing many monitoring programs.

Field workers across the region are already responding with QField: mapping seagrass and mangroves for blue carbon conservation with the MACBLUE project , building national environmental monitoring capacity through SPREP’s regional GIS training , running standardized tropical field data collection at the Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research , and driving land cover surveys across 10 Pacific Island nations through Digital Earth Pacific and the maplandscape project .

At OPENGIS.ch, the Coral Sea is a reminder that the places most in need of reliable field data are often the hardest to reach. That is precisely what QField is built for.

Happy field mapping!

issues, expectations and concerns!

Oslandia has been developing QGIS plugins for more than 15 years, and we would like to invite developers to webinar and discussion event Tuesday June 30th at 5pm (Paris time)

The goal is to share QGIS plugin developer’s experiences, our goals, habits and difficulties, as well as discuss available tools. This discussion will also be a good opportunity to share feedback on our experience as a developer, identify needs around QGIS plugins development, and explore ways to make the most of our development work.

Schedule :

• Oslandia – a QGIS plugin developer shares his experience and vision
• Oslandia – quick presentation of various useful tools for QGIS development
• Discussions – share your experience! A moderator will ask questions and you can share your stories.

Registration is free but mandatory. The webinar access link will be emailed to you after registration and a few days before the webinar : https://framaforms.org/webinar-discussion-panel-creating-qgis-plugins-in-2026-1780384809