The Toolbox

The Processing Toolbox is the main element of the processing GUI, and the one that you are more likely to use in your daily work. It shows the list of all available algorithms grouped in different blocks called Providers, and custom models and scripts you can add to extend the set of tools. Hence the toolbox is the access point to run them, whether as a single process or as a batch process involving several executions of the same algorithm on different sets of inputs.

Caja de Herramientas de Procesamiento

Providers can be (de)activated in the Processing settings dialog. By default, only providers that do not rely on third-party applications (that is, those that only require QGIS elements to be run) are active. Algorithms requiring external applications might need additional configuration. Configuring providers is explained in a later chapter in this manual.

In the upper part of the toolbox dialog, you will find a set of tools to:

• work with ^Models: Create New Model…, Open Existing Model… and Add Model to Toolbox…;

• work with ^Scripts: Create New Script…, Create New Script from Template…, Open Existing Script… and Add Script to Toolbox…;

• open the ^History panel;

• open the ^{Results Viewer} panel;

• toggle the toolbox to the in-place modification mode using the ^{Edit Features In-Place} button: only the algorithms that are suitable to be executed on the active layer without outputting a new layer are displayed;

• open the ^Options dialog.

Below this toolbar is a Search… box to help you easily find the tools you need. You can enter any word or phrase on the text box. Notice that, as you type, the number of algorithms, models or scripts in the toolbox is reduced to just those that contain the text you have entered in their names or keywords.

Nota

At the top of the list of algorithms are displayed the most recent used tools; handy if you want to reexecute any.

Processing Toolbox showing search results

To execute a tool, just double-click on its name in the toolbox.

El cuadro de diálogo de algoritmo

Once you double-click on the name of the algorithm that you want to execute, a dialog similar to that in the figure below is shown (in this case, the dialog corresponds to the Centroids algorithm).

Algorithm Dialog - Parameters

This dialog is used to set the input values that the algorithm needs to be executed. It shows a list of input values and configuration parameters to be set. It of course has a different content, depending on the requirements of the algorithm to be executed, and is created automatically based on those requirements.

Aunque el número y el tipo de parámetro dependen de las características del algoritmo, la estructura es similar para todos ellos. Los parámetros encontrados en la tabla pueden ser de uno de los siguientes tipos.

• A raster layer, to select from a list of all such layers available (currently opened) in QGIS. The selector contains as well a button on its right-hand side, to let you select filenames that represent layers currently not loaded in QGIS.

• A vector layer, to select from a list of all vector layers available in QGIS. Layers not loaded in QGIS can be selected as well, as in the case of raster layers, but only if the algorithm does not require a table field selected from the attributes table of the layer. In that case, only opened layers can be selected, since they need to be open so as to retrieve the list of field names available.

  You will see an iterator button by each vector layer selector, as shown in the figure below.

  

  Vector iterator button

  Si el algoritmo contiene varios de ellos, será capaz de cambiar cada uno de ellos. Si el botón correspondiente a una entrada vectorial se cambia, el algoritmo será ejecutado iterativamente en cada uno de sus elementos, en lugar de sólo una vez para toda la capa, produciendo mayor cantidad de salidas como veces que se ejecuta el algoritmo. Esto permite la automatización del proceso cuando todas las características de una capa tienen que ser procesados por separado.

Nota

By default, the parameters dialog will show a description of the CRS of each layer along with its name. If you do not want to see this additional information, you can disable this functionality in the Processing Settings dialog, unchecking the General ‣ Show layer CRS definition in selection boxes option.

• A table, to select from a list of all available in QGIS. Non-spatial tables are loaded into QGIS like vector layers, and in fact they are treated as such by the program. Currently, the list of available tables that you will see when executing an algorithm that needs one of them is restricted to tables coming from files in dBase (.dbf) or Comma-Separated Values (.csv) formats.

• An option, to choose from a selection list of possible options.

• A numerical value, to be introduced in a spin box. In some contexts (when the parameter applies at the feature level and not at the layer’s), you will find a ^{Data-defined override} button by its side, allowing you to open the expression builder and enter a mathematical expression to generate variable values for the parameter. Some useful variables related to data loaded into QGIS can be added to your expression, so you can select a value derived from any of these variables, such as the cell size of a layer or the northernmost coordinate of another one.

Entrada basada en expresión

• A range, with min and max values to be introduced in two text boxes.

• A text string, to be introduced in a text box.

• A field, to choose from the attributes table of a vector layer or a single table selected in another parameter.

• A coordinate reference system. You can select it among the recently used ones from the drop-down list or from the CRS selection dialog that appears when you click on the button on the right-hand side.

• An extent, to be entered by four numbers representing its xmin, xmax, ymin, ymax limits. Clicking on the button on the right-hand side of the value selector, a pop-up menu will appear, giving you options:

  • to select the value from a layer or the current canvas extent;

  • or to define it by dragging directly onto the map canvas.

  

  Selector de extensión

  Si se selecciona la primera opción, se verá una ventana como la siguiente.

  

  Lista de Extensión

  Si se selecciona la segunda opción, la ventana de parámetros se ocultará, para que se pueda definir el rectángulo haciendo click y arrastrando dentro del lienzo. Una vez hecho esto, el cuadro de diálogo reaparecerá, con los valores correspondientes ya rellenos en en cuadro de texto.

  

  Arrastrar Extensión

• A list of elements (whether raster or vector layers, tables, fields) to select from. Click on the … button at the left of the option to see a dialog like the following one. Multiple selection is allowed and when the dialog is closed, number of selected items is displayed in the parameter text box widget.

  

  Selección Múltiple

• A small table to be edited by the user. These are used to define parameters like lookup tables or convolution kernels, among others.

  Click en el botón del lado derecho para ver la tabla y editar sus valores.

  

  Tabla Fija

  Dependiendo del algoritmo, el número de filas que pueden ser modificadas o no al utilizar los botones del lado derecho de la ventana.

Nota

Some algorithms require many parameter to run, e.g. in the Raster calculator you have to specify manually the cell size, the extent and the CRS. You can avoid to choose all the parameters manually when the algorithm has the Reference layers parameter. With this parameter you can choose the reference layer and all its properties (cell size, extent, CRS) will be used.

Along with the Parameters tab, there is another tab named Log (see figure below). Information provided by the algorithm during its execution is written in this tab, and allow you to track the execution and be aware and have more details about the algorithm as it runs. Notice that not all algorithms write information to this tab, and many of them might run silently without producing any output other than the final files.

Algorithm Dialog - Log

At the bottom of the Log tab you will find buttons to Save Log to File, Copy Log to Clipboard and Clear Log. These are particularly handy when you have checked the Keep dialog open after running algorithm in the General part of the Processing options.

On the right hand side of the dialog you will find a short description of the algorithm, which will help you understand its purpose and its basic ideas. If such a description is not available, the description panel will not be shown.

For a more detailed help file, which might include description of every parameter it uses, or examples, you will find a Help button at the bottom of the dialog bringing you to the Processing algorithms documentation or to the provider documentation (for some third-party providers).

Un comentario sobre proyecciones

Processing algorithm execution are always performed in the input layer coordinate reference system (CRS). Due to QGIS’s on-the-fly reprojecting capabilities, although two layers might seem to overlap and match, that might not be true if their original coordinates are used without reprojecting them onto a common coordinate system. Whenever you use more than one layer as input to a QGIS native algorithm, whether vector or raster, the layers will all be reprojected to match the coordinate reference system of the first input layer.

This is however less true for most of the external applications whose algorithms are exposed through the processing framework as they assume that all of the layers are already in a common coordinate system and ready to be analyzed.

By default, the parameters dialog will show a description of the CRS of each layer along with its name, making it easy to select layers that share the same CRS to be used as input layers. If you do not want to see this additional information, you can disable this functionality in the Processing settings dialog, unchecking the Show layer CRS definition in selection boxes option.

If you try to execute an algorithm using as input two or more layers with unmatching CRSs, a warning dialog will be shown. This occurs thanks to the Warn before executing if layer CRS’s do not match option.

Aún se puede ejecutar el algoritmo, pero en la mayoría de los casos se producirán resultados incorrectos, como capas vacias debido a que las capas de entrada no se solapan.

Truco

Use Processing algorithms to do intermediate reprojection

When an algorithm can not successfully perform on multiple input layers due to unmatching CRSs, use QGIS internal algorithm such as Reproject layer to perform layers” reprojection to the same CRS before executing the algorithm using these outputs.

Resultados generados por algoritmos

Los tipos de resultados que se pueden generar cor un algoritmo son los siguientes:

• Una capa ráster.

• Una capa vectorial.

• Una tabla

• Un archivo HTML (usado para salidas de texto y salidas gráficas).

These are all saved to disk, and the parameters table will contain a text box corresponding to each one of these outputs, where you can type the output channel to use for saving it. An output channel contains the information needed to save the resulting object somewhere. In the most usual case, you will save it to a file, but in the case of vector layers, and when they are generated by native algorithms (algorithms not using external applications) you can also save to a PostGIS, GeoPackage or SpatiaLite database, or a memory layer.

To select an output channel, just click on the button on the right side of the text box, and you will see a small context menu with the available options.

In the most usual case, you will select saving to a file. If you select that option, you will be prompted with a save file dialog, where you can select the desired file path. Supported file extensions are shown in the file format selector of the dialog, depending on the kind of output and the algorithm.

The format of the output is defined by the filename extension. The supported formats depend on what is supported by the algorithm itself. To select a format, just select the corresponding file extension (or add it, if you are directly typing the file path instead). If the extension of the file path you entered does not match any of the supported formats, a default extension will be appended to the file path, and the file format corresponding to that extension will be used to save the layer or table. Default extensions are .dbf for tables, .tif for raster layers and .gpkg for vector layers. These can be modified in the setting dialog, selecting any other of the formats supported by QGIS.

If you do not enter any filename in the output text box (or select the corresponding option in the context menu), the result will be saved as a temporary file in the corresponding default file format, and it will be deleted once you exit QGIS (take care with that, in case you save your project and it contains temporary layers).

You can set a default folder for output data objects. Go to the settings dialog (you can open it from the Settings ‣ Options ‣ Processing menu), and in the General group, you will find a parameter named Output folder. This output folder is used as the default path in case you type just a filename with no path (i.e., myfile.shp) when executing an algorithm.

Al ejecutar un algoritmo que utiliza una capa vectorial en modo iterativo, la ruta del archivo introducido se utiliza como la ruta de la base para todos los archivos generados, los cuales se denominan utilizando el nombre base y añadiendo un número que representa el índice de la iteración. La extensión del archivo (y el formato) se utiliza para todos los archivos generados.

Apart from raster layers and tables, algorithms also generate graphics and text as HTML files. These results are shown at the end of the algorithm execution in a new dialog. This dialog will keep the results produced by any algorithm during the current session, and can be shown at any time by selecting Processing ‣ Results Viewer from the QGIS main menu.

Algunas aplicaciones externas pueden tener archivos (sin restricciones de extensión particulares) como de salida, pero no pertenece a ninguna de las categorías anteriores. Esos archivos de salida no serán procesadas por QGIS (abierto o incluido en el proyecto actual de QGIS), ya que la mayor parte del tiempo que corresponden a formatos de archivo o elementos no compatibles con QGIS. Esto es, por ejemplo, en el caso de archivos LAS utilizados para datos LiDAR. Los archivos se crean, pero no se ve nada nuevo en su sesión de trabajo en QGIS.

Para todos los otros tipos de salida, encontrará una casilla de verificación que se puede utilizar para decirle al algoritmo si se debe cargar el archivo una vez que se genera por el algoritmo o no. Por defecto, se abren todos los archivos.

Optional outputs are not supported. That is, all outputs are created. However, you can uncheck the corresponding checkbox if you are not interested in a given output, which essentially makes it behave like an optional output (in other words, the layer is created anyway, but if you leave the text box empty, it will be saved to a temporary file and deleted once you exit QGIS).