2022
MODULE 4 - DIGITIZING
Credit: Dr. Muhammad Imzan Bin Hassan
MODULE 4 - DIGITIZING
Introduction
Digitizing is the process of interpreting and converting paper map or image data to vector digital
data. You control a cursor, usually with a mouse or digitizing puck, and sample vertices to define
the point, line, or polygonal features you wish to capture. The source media may be hardcopy,
e.g., maps taped to a digitizing table, or softcopy, e.g., a digital image or scanned map. QGIS
software allows us to digitize using either hardcopy or softcopy sources.
For this module, an aerial image will be used.
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Instructions
1) Open the saved project, “QGIS Tutorial.qgz” to continue for digitizing. If there is no saved project
before, open QGIS.
2) After open the saved project, it will loaded as the figure below. PendasJeti_modified and OSM
Standard already loaded in the layers section.
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3) For this module, the OSM Standard is unnecessary, and we can remove the layer. Right click on
OSM Standard layer, then click on Remove Layer…
4) To show the image in full view, go to View >> Zoom to Layer / Zoom Full.
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5) For new QGIS project scenario, the georeferenced image can be inserted through Layer >> Add
Layer >> Add Raster Layer…
6) A dialog of Data Source Manager | Raster will be loaded up as shown in the figure. Click on to
choose the file.
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7) Select the georeferenced image. For this case, the georeferenced image namely,
PendasJeti_modified.tif. Then, click Open button.
8) The selected file will be showed in the Raster dataset(s) space. After that, click on Add followed
by Close button.
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9) The selected image will be loaded as in the figure below. To start digitizing, click on to create
new shapefile for the features.
10) A dialog for New Shapefile Layer will show up. Click on to locate the new shapefile layer. It
will be good if, the layers has their representative folder.
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11) For this case, a new folder named Shapefile was created to store the layers. Then, insert the
layer’s name in the File name’s space. After that, click Open button.
New folder created
Name for the new layer
12) Then, select the geometry type for the layer. Click to select projection. For this tutorial,
GDM2000 / Johor Grid was applied. Then, click OK button.
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13) As can be seen in the figure below, a new shapefile named, Vegetation will automatically load
into the Layers section.
14) Figure below shows another example for new shapefile which is Road. For this layer, line become
as its Geometry type.
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15) In the New Shapefile Layer dialog, new field for the layer can be added. Fill in the properties
(Name, Type, and Length) for the new field. After the information has been inserted, click on Add
to Fields List. The new field will load into the Fields List section.
16) Figure below shows all the created layers. All the layers were generated based on the existed
features in the image.
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17) The properties of the layer can be changed by double click on the layer. For example, click on
symbology to change the layer’s color. Select the feasible colour according to the feature’s type.
Then, click Apply >> OK.
18) To start digitizing, click Toggle Editing to activate the layer.
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19) After Toggle Editing button has been clicked, the layer will be marked with pencil as shown in the
figure below. Then, click Add Polygon Feature button to start digitize. If the layer is a line, the
button will represents as Add Line Feature.
20) Digitize the features according to their shape. Click on Enable Snapping and Enable Tracing to
able digitize the overlap layers.
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21) After activate both buttons, it will automatically trace the overlapping boundaries between the
features during digitizing process.
22) To finish each process of digitizing, right click and insert the id number for the feature. Then,
select OK.
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23) To view the features that have been digitized, open the attribute table. Right click on the feature’s
layer, then click on Open Attribute Table.
24) The attribute table will display the information of digitized features.
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25) After finish digitizing, save the edited layer by clicking on Save Layer Edits button. Repeat the
same steps for other features.
26) Figure below shows all the features in the image that have been digitized. After finish digitizing,
save the project. These layers will be applied in map making process (Module 6).
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