I have old sample OS .gz files, but it would be best to use their current ones. The data SHOULD be available via the "Download our sample data" section at www.ordnancesurveymastermap.com/ (I can't find a direct link to files), but it wouldn't work when I tried. I've reported the problem to OS and am waiting for a human response. A further source of additional information is the OS XML Schema Respository www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/xml/schema/index.html, but I don't know enough about QGIS to understand how to use these. I've tried an old sample .gz file with both 1.6 and 1.7. Neither version supports direct opening of .gz (which would be the simplest way for new users), but actually open the unzipped .gml files. I have had problems in the past with older versions of WinZip (e.g. 12.0) where they couldn't unzip this format correctly, but gzip or other alternatives worked. The latest WinZip (15.0.) also seems to work, although you have to enter the extension of the file to expand, as it doesn't know to add .gml. Unless the latest format has changed, OS uses the 'orientation' attribute for text angle, but the value seems to be (degrees * 10). The loaded GML layer doesn't allow editing, so it isn't possible to add a further attribute calculated from 'orientation'. Saving as a shapefile under 1.6 fails with an error because, when the longer GML attribute names are trimmed to ten significant characters, there are duplicate attribute names.
Andrew ________________________________________ From: Noli Sicad [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: 04 March 2011 05:59 To: Andrew Chapman Cc: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Qgis-user] Public Sector Mapping Agreement Hi Andrew, > To encourage take-up for both GIS and QGIS, it may help if there were > tutorials to take a new user of GIS through the steps to download data from > Ordnance Survey (probably only in GZ format for the topology layers). > To date I've been getting data as shapefiles - when I last tried (an earlier > version) QGIS wouldn't load .gz and the support for .gml may have been > incomplete. > Is anyone else using Ordnance Survey .gz files directly? > Would the best advice for users new to GIS be to convert to shapefiles or > use a database (something I've not yet managed to do)? > Are there any UK users involved with town or parish councils? I think it would be wise to put an example of this OS gz file so we can try if we can open it with QGIS. Just a very simple example of the file :-). Then, post the URL where we can download it. Noli ________________________________________ No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 10.0.1204 / Virus Database: 1435/3479 - Release Date: 03/03/11 _______________________________________________ Qgis-user mailing list [email protected] http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-user
