Creating Vector Data - ARCHIVED

In this QGIS tutorial you’ll learn to create a new vector layer and delineate feature geometries. Follow along as we cover the parameters, procedures and tools to delineate your own custom geometries, add fields and populate feature attributes, as well as copy and modify geometries from other layers of interest. These procedures, demonstrated with a polygon vector, equally extend to creating point and line vector geometries. Additionally, learn to enable and disable non-default (e.g. Advanced Digitizing, Shape Digitizing and Snapping) toolbars within QGIS’s interface, and enable editing tools. Apply these skills in creating layers of interest, such as custom clip layer for an area of interest (AOI), land-cover files, or training data, when equivalent datasets does not exist – enabling you to delineate geometries and populate feature attributes that suit your needs.

We’ll use the AOI layer in upcoming tutorials to standardize the extent of layers for further processing and analysis, so be sure to follow along and save your edits at the end of the demo. Stay tuned for the next tutorial, where we’ll introduce tools to select features by their attributes – enabling you to isolate features by criteria, conditions and values of interest within fields of a vector layer’s attribute table.

In this demo, we’ll delineate features with the Add Polygon Feature tool and additional tools on the Shape Digitizing toolbar. The Add Feature tool is the most common and versatile means for creating new features of any geometry type and form, while the latter tools are exclusive to polygon and line vectors - helping rapidly add regular polygon features. The Advanced Digitizing Panel is applied to snap feature segments at specified angles, while the Snapping tool facilitates aligning the vertices or segments of created features to those of other features. Similarly, copying and pasting feature geometries can also ensure alignment of created features with those of interest in other layers.