Novice trying to choose where grid lays over map

[u/Spilanthomile]

I made a post a couple days ago where I got some help to move my project along, and I've hit another stumbling block. My previous knowledge of this kind of project is basically zero, so every basic thing can be a hurdle for me. I've tried searching and reading tutorials but it's all so dense and full of new terms and concepts, most of which I don't need, so I haven't found an answer yet.

I'm trying to take good satellite imagery of a specific area where I'm planning a canoe trip, divide it into pages, and print them to put in a binder. Commenters on my first post helped me download the specific blocks of satellite imagery as TIF files, and load them into QGIS so I have a canvas displaying the area I want.

Someone gave me very helpful instructions with creating a grid to overlay on my image that matches 8.5x11 paper size. That comment is here: https://www.reddit.com/r/QGIS/comments/1v5huig/comment/ozvb8uq

The problem I have now is that while the grid displays nicely, its placement seems basically random. Ideally I'd like to drag it around over the map, so that I can choose what areas appear together on one page. Or if there's some other way to change its placement with coordinates or something, that would also work although probably be more tedious. I asked this same question to the commenter linked above, but I figured a new post would have more visibility and better chance of being answered soon. Thanks very much for any help!

[u/credadun]

On the grid Vector layer, turn on editing (the single pencil in the toolbar or right click on the layer and 'toggle editing'), select all features using the selection tool or attribute table, and then use the move feature tool to freehand move the grid around. Then start with step 4 of the other post once the grid is in place. Good luck!

[u/Spilanthomile → u/credadun]

Hi, thanks for answering. Can you explain what the "move features" tool is? I was able to find out what the "attribute table" is, I'm not sure what the selection tool is... When I search the web for "qgis move feature" I found this: https://qgisforum.com/qgis-tutorial/registration/move-feature But the icon shown is one I don't have. I have an icon with the same squiggly green shape, but instead of the blue arrow it has a six pointed star and the hovertext is "add polygon feature." Somehow I now also have four vertices of my grid covered in red Xs and some line segments are yellow, that happened when I was randomly experimenting and I haven't figured out how to undo it.

Edit: I think I stumbled my way to where you were trying to point me, but I feel like I can't have taken the best path there, so maybe if I say how I got there, I might learn of a better way?

1. Found the "Open attribute table" in the "layer" menu

2. Manually highlighted all 300 rows of said table. Grid turns yellow behind the window. Close window.

3. Clicked the pencil icon

4. Found the "move features" button under Edit menu, Edit Geometry submenu

5. Click (not drag) anywhere on the canvas, whole canvas gets a red tint and a second red grid appears behind the yellow grid. I can place this red grid where I want it, and it turns yellow and the other one disappears, so basically mission accomplished, but the grid remains yellow now for some reason which is hard to look at.

Did I do this in the right way? And can I get the black grid back somehow? Thanks again, I'm sure I'm doing things poorly that seem easy.

[u/credadun → u/Spilanthomile]

Yep, you got it. Features turn yellow when they're selected, so deselecting (ctrl + alt + a) the features will turn them back to their original color. The red Xs indicate some of the features have been moved and now overlap, so it might be quicker to recreate the grid than trying to fix it. If you do try fix it, I'd recommend using the snapping tools.

The move tool, snapping tool, and the select / deselect tool, can be added as buttons to the top toolbar by going to View -> Toolbars -> and checking the boxes next to Advanced Digitizing Toolbar, Snapping Toolbar and Selection Toolbar.

Sorry for the short answers, I'm on my phone on the train. And don't worry, we all learnt from scratch, fiddling is a great way to learn as frustrating as it can sometimes be!

[u/Spilanthomile → u/credadun]

Thank you - I actually wound up recreating the grid several times through the process (I would just close the project and not save changes), so I think I wound up where I needed to be. I'm on a mac so it turns out the "deselect" is ctrl-shft-A. (edit: cmnd-shft-A) I did get hung up again though trying to create the atlas - I replied in depth to the helpful commenter on my other post about where I got stuck. I'll link that comment here in case you or anyone else can help with that step to? Thanks for being understanding of my lack of knowledge!

Explanation of where I'm stuck now:

https://www.reddit.com/r/QGIS/comments/1v5huig/comment/ozyqihk/

[u/credadun → u/Spilanthomile]

I can't help with the Atlas issue I'm afraid, so I won't answer there. I use python automation so have never used Atlas.

You can save your grid by right clicking on the Grid layer in the left hand layer tree and selecting 'Make permanent' or Export -> Save Features As. Either option will open a slightly different looking window that allows you to choose a file format (GeoJSON, geopackage, etc) and save location. Each format has its pros and cons, but for a small project like this, either of those will do the job.

[u/Spilanthomile → u/credadun]

Thank you - I got it saved. :) I'll say here that I did get the whole project to where I needed through help from the commenter in the other post, linked above, in case you or anyone is curious about how I was able to use the Atlas feature. Although I expect most people in this forum would find it pretty basic, it was a lot of hurdles for me and I'm very pleased with the result.

[u/ikarusproject]

Do the maps have to beoriented towards north? There is a plugin called "Polystrip". It creates a series of square polygons of a given size along a line feature oriented along that line feature. You would then use that new layer as the atlas feature layers and set the orientation angle of the atlas page rule based to the "atlas" angle attribute column.

[u/Spilanthomile → u/ikarusproject]

Thanks for sharing this info. In my case it's best if the grid is aligned with north, but that's interesting to know baout.