Thank you Alex - that answers my question completely. Arni
Árni Geirsson *Alta ehf* // +354 582 5000 // +354 897 9549 www.alta.is // Alta á Twitter <http://twitter.com/alta_ehf> // Alta á Facebook <http://www.facebook.com/pages/Alta/161795813838691?v=wall> On Tue, Jul 28, 2015 at 4:15 PM, Alex Mandel <tech_...@wildintellect.com> wrote: > It's more elaborate than that. Not all applications in the toolbox can > read Spatialite yet either (e.g. SAGA). So the intermediate is something > all the tools can use. At some point the toolbox might get developed to > were any ogr data source can be used for the intermediates, but it isn't > there yet. I ran into this issue with Postgis a couple of years ago, and > the whole point of using Postgis was to escape the limitations of the > shapefile (particularly file size). > > In some ways if you use Spatialite or Postgis you don't actually need a > lot of the basic tools as those can all be done with SQL via the DB > Manager or QSpatialite. > > As for Geopackage, keep in mind it's an exchange format. Even with 2.8 > I've had no issues reading GPKG files in, though I've been creating them > with ogr2ogr on the command line to convert whole databases at a time > between Spatialite and other formats. > > Shapefile still remains the lowest common denominator. I agree other > formats should be suggested first by the save dialog since shp can cause > data loss (date/time, field names, etc). > > Thanks, > Alex > > > On 07/28/2015 09:04 AM, Árni Geirsson wrote: > > Thanks for the answer Jim. I understand that the shapefiles are lingua > > franca but to me that would imply that they should be used when exchange > > with other applications is needed - which is not always. But I had not > > realized that I might be constraining the set of available tools if I use > > SpatiaLite. Does this mean that if I have my date in SpatiaLite, many of > > the tools in the Processing toolbox would not be available to me? > > > > Arni > > > > > > Árni Geirsson > > *Alta ehf* // +354 582 5000 // +354 897 9549 > > www.alta.is // Alta á Twitter <http://twitter.com/alta_ehf> // Alta á > > Facebook <http://www.facebook.com/pages/Alta/161795813838691?v=wall> > > > > On Tue, Jul 28, 2015 at 3:54 PM, James Keener <j...@jimkeener.com> wrote: > > > >> More tools support it. Spatialite wasn't supported in esri until very > >> recently and other tools may not support anything but shape files. It's > >> become a lingual franca, and like English: it's terrible, but works well > >> enough. > >> > >> Jim > >> > >> On July 28, 2015 11:38:24 AM AST, "Árni Geirsson" <a...@alta.is> wrote: > >> > >>> Hello > >>> I find it interesting that the ancient shapefile format is (or at least > >>> appears to be) the default file format for QGIS when SpatiaLite seems > to be > >>> a much more capable format. I have been using mostly shapefiles and > when > >>> using for example the tools under the vector menu, intermediate > results are > >>> saved as shapefiles, leading to a big pile of files after a short > session > >>> of vector processing. Now, I have discovered that by using the > processing > >>> tools the intermediates can be temporary files (still shapefiles, just > >>> hidden away in a temporary folder). After saving a temporary file as a > >>> SpatiaLite file, I can enter field names longer than 10 characters but > I > >>> can not add a text field that accommodates more than 255 characters. > >>> So my question is: Why is the shapefile format the default? > >>> > >>> I have also noticed that with 2.10 I can save in Geopackage format. > Does > >>> that mean that support for this format has improved? > >>> > >>> Any insights are highly appreciated. > >>> > >>> Arni Geirsson > >>> > >>> ------------------------------ > >>> > >>> Qgis-user mailing list > >>> Qgis-user@lists.osgeo.org > >>> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-user > >>> > >>> > >> -- > >> Sent from my Android device with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity. > >> > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Qgis-user mailing list > > Qgis-user@lists.osgeo.org > > http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-user > > > >
_______________________________________________ Qgis-user mailing list Qgis-user@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-user
