Module 2 Problem with spatial and temporal loading files to compare

GIS
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Lucy, I need help. I have got totally lost and confused with loading the files for part called ‘see it yourself’ here are the files that I have in my directory.
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Here is my view in QGIS

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Do you have any idea of what I have done wrong as this is stopping me from proceeding and is confusing me. I would be grateful for any help.

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@Andy1357 , it looks like you’re well on the way there :+1: just a few more steps to take:

  1. In QGIS, you’ve already added the VNM_cov coarse-grained landcover layer to compare with the original fine-grained Landcover layer. I’ve uploaded a .qml style file for the VNM_cov layer to this page Introducing GIS for conservation | Resolution & extent to provide the landcover class names and colours - I recommend you download that .qml and save it in the same folder as VNM_cov.grd + .vrt and save/reopen your QGIS project to display the coarse-grained landcover layer in colour
  2. You need to add the WDPA… shapefile (Che Tao NR boundaries from Protected Planet) to your QGIS project, for comparison with the NomascusConcolor_Distribution layer
  3. You need to add the VNM_roads.shp to your QGIS project, for comparison with the OpenStreetMap,CheTwo lines and multilinestrings layers

On the QGIS screenshot, you’re zoomed out to an area on the Thai-Cambodia border. Try right-clicking on the gibbon sightings layer in the Layers panel and selecting Zoom to layer to bring you back to Che Tao

Does all that help?

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Lucy, Thanks for your help which has solved the problem for me and I think practice in using the software will be a great help. I have to admit that I’m am getting confused with the training notes about what are abbreviations, what are file name extensions or a mixture of the two. I think it would be best if I had two screens, one for the course instructions and one for QGIS but I only have one screen so flitting between them is not helping with the confusion. That said i’m still making progress :wink:

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I think QGIS doesn’t help beginners to grasp the new file types with its habit of hiding the file extension in the Layers panel. Do let me know if there’s a particular file type or abbreviation that’s confusing you, so I can improve the learning materials in future. Thanks!

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@Andy1357 Hi Andy, I use two screens for my day to day work, it makes using QGIS (or any GIS for that matter) so much easier. I use two 24" monitors plugged into a USB docking station on my laptop, so could effectivley use the laptop screen as a third monitor if I really needed!.

Yes, the fle extenstions can be confusing, particuraly for the ESRI Shape file format which is comprised of a set of files all with different file extensions, all of which are needed to make it work when you add to QGIS. If someone sends you a a “Shape” file and it just has the *.shp extension, then you havent got them all - you need the *.dbf file (which holds the attibute data) and the *.shx file as a bare minimum (there are others that are frequently but not always there). Using QGIS “hides” all the files that it cant handle, but looking at the Windows explorer folder view (or equivalent if using a Mac) then you can see all the consituent files that you have.
The different formats of data (Json, Google Earth KML, Excel spreadsheet or CSV, Raster files etc will all have diferent extensions which you will be able to see if you look in the laptops folder view rather than direct through QGIS panel.

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Thanks, Jonathan. The other point to add is that on Windows the default view in the Windows Explorer/your file browser is to hide the file extensions. If you can’t see the file extensions in your operating system’s file browser, I recommend you search online for instructions to reveal them, even if you only do that for the folders in which you store your GIS datasets

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