Installing plugins

How to install plugins

Step 1: Go to Plugins > Manage and Install Plugins...

Steps 2 + 3 + 4: Search for a plugin under "All", select it from the search results and click "Install Plugin"

A plugin can be installed by following these simple steps:

Step 1: Go to Plugins » Manage and Install Plugins in the QGIS menu.

Step 2: Click on the tab "All" on the left-side of the window that opens.

Step 3: Search for the plugin and select it from the results.

Step 4: Click "Install Plugin" and close the window.

Common issues

Can't find plugin in search results? > Enable experimental plugins

• Can't find a plugin in the search results?

Check if experimental plugins have been allowed in the plugin settings:

1. Go to Plugins » Manage and Install Plugins in the QGIS menu.
2. Click on the tab "Settings" in the plugins window.
3. Check the option "show also experimental plugins".

For more information, see this useful QGIS tutorial.

Can't find plugin after installation? > Go to View » Toolbars and select the plugin you want to show

• Can't find a plugin after installation?

• Sometimes it can be quite difficult to find a plugin after installation because it is not automatically shown in the toolbar.
• To find an installed plugin, go to View » Toolbars and select the one you are looking for from the list. It will then be shown in the toolbar.

Updating plugins

Updating plugins

Make sure to keep your plugins up-to-date by going to Plugins » Manage and Install Plugins... » Installed and clicking on "Upgrade All".

Useful plugins: how to use them

Some useful plugins include:

• PDOK services plugin
• QuickMapServices
• QuickOSM
• OpenLayers Plugin [experimental]
• OSM place search [experimental]

You can also download useful information in Pdok, nationaal georegister en rijkswaterstaat

This section will explain how to use some of these plugins. For more information you can also follow this QGIS lesson.

QuickOSM

Options for opening the QuickOSM plugin

QuickOSM window

QuickOSM query results shown on the map canvas and layers list

QuickOSM is a plugin that can be used to download OpenStreetMap data. Follow these simple steps to use the plugin:

1. Install the QuickOSM plugin using the steps outlined above. This will add two new icons to the toolbar. You can also access the plugin via Vector » QuickOSM.
2. Open QuickOSM. We will be using the "Quick query" tab of the plugin, which is the default.
3. Choose the specific features you would like to download by selecting an appropriate key from the drop down menu. For example, you can download the road network using the key "highway".
4. If you would like to filter the features you are downloading even further, select a value from the next drop down menu. For example, you can download only roads corresponding to motorways by selecting the value "motorway".
5. Choose the area that you would like to download the data for. There are a number of options on how to do this:

• The default is to download data "in" a certain village, town, etc by typing the name of the place into the search box (for example "Amsterdam").
• You can also select data within a certain radius of a place by selecting "around" from the drop down menu rather than "in" and filling in the place name and radius you are interested in.
• Alternatively, you can download data using "canvas extent", which will download all the data available for the current area shown on the map canvas (only use this if you know which area the map canvas is showing otherwise the plugin may try to download data for the entire Earth!).
• Finally, you can also choose to download data based on the extent of a layer already loaded into your QGIS project using "layer extent".

Click the "run query" button to load the data into your project. Note: depending on how large the area is that you've requested data for, the query can take quite some time to complete. Also, the query can return no results if the key/values you have searched for are not present in your chosen area.

The plugin will download a number of vector layers from OpenStreetMap depending on your query (usually three layers are added to the project: polygon, line and point). You can choose which layer is most appropriate for the data you are interested in and delete the others. For example, line geometry would be more appropriate for a road network, while polygon geometry would be more appropriate for buildings.

OSM place search

Open the OSM Place Search panel

Search for a place name and select an option from the list

OSM place search is a plugin that can be used to navigate to a specific location based on OpenStreetMap data. Follow these simple steps to use the plugin:

1. Install the OSM place search plugin using the steps outlined above. This will add a new panel to the side bar. You can also access the plugin via View » Panels » OSM place search....
2. Type a place name into the field beside "Name contains..." (e.g. Delft, Amsterdam, etc) and press enter.
3. Double-click on the most appropriate search result from the list and the map canvas will then display your chosen location.

Useful links

• Tutorial on plugins: https://www.qgistutorials.com/en/docs/using_plugins.html
• QGIS module on plugins: https://docs.qgis.org/3.10/en/docs/training_manual/qgis_plugins/index.html
• QuickOSM plugin tutorial: https://www.qgistutorials.com/en/docs/3/downloading_osm_data.html
• BGT downloaden in Qgis met gebruik van Pdok: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bqs_cFJ2KD8