I’m new to using QGIS and GIS in general. Looking for users in the San Antonio Texas area to meet up with and learn the software better. al_buckner@yahoo.com
Not in Texas, but if you do have an online meetup I’d be down to join from over here in NC!
Thanks… are you up for some beginner general chat?
Chat away!
On Sat, Aug 30, 2025, 10:04 PM Al via OSGeo Discourse <noreply@discourse.osgeo.org> wrote:
ESD1
August 31Thanks… are you up for some beginner general chat?
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Hello, I’m located in San Antonio and have been using QGIS since 2016
Hi,
I’m in Dallas so not necessarily close but I also provide beginner training in QGIS. I have slides online for my introductory class and my QGIS crash course. Happy to also chat if you have any questions.
Good luck with your exploration of QGIS!
Best,
Richard Dunks, Owner/Founder
Datapolitan, LLC
Book time on my calendar for a call
On Sat, Aug 30, 2025, 10:22 PM dnewcomb via OSGeo Discourse <noreply@discourse.osgeo.org> wrote:
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August 31Chat away!
On Sat, Aug 30, 2025, 10:04 PM Al via OSGeo Discourse <noreply@discourse.osgeo.org> wrote:
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August 31Thanks… are you up for some beginner general chat?
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Hi Richard, Thanks for responding. I’m wanting to keep my mind active and GIS Mapping has been an interest of mine for many years. I’m mostly retired from several jobs and mainly do non-profit volunteer work.
I’ve used Shape Files for years with Google Earth and Google Maps and taught classes where I used these maps that were created by others. Thought it was time to learn something new.
I’ve downloaded QGIS and played with it a bit… the tutorial guide available on their site is very difficult for me to use with my very limited knowledge of GIS. I’m looking for some different learning information.
Thanks for the links to your training, I’ll take a look.
I’m in Vanderpool, far West end of Bandera County.
Thanks Gregory for your response. I will keep you in mind.
Thanks Matthew, I sent you an email response.
I’m curious which tutorial you mean. Are you talking about the Gentle Introduction to GIS? I provide it as a resource but honestly haven’t gone through it in detail myself. I’d be interested in what feedback you have. As an open source project, you (or anyone) can propose changes to make it better and more usable.
In my own experience learning QGIS, I needed some basic information to get me oriented and then I was good to go. The Spatial Thoughts Introduction to QGIS class is also online if you haven’t come across it. Happy to also hop on a video call if you need some extra help getting started.
My partner grew up in Boerne and Pipe Creek not far from Vanderpool. It’s beautiful country out there, in the right season.
Best,
Highly recommend the 30 Days of QGIS class, https://spatialthoughts.com/2024/05/13/30daysofqgis/
I wrote a QGIS tutorial for Biologists (QGIS 101,102) when I was with USFWS, https://iris.fws.gov/APPS/ServCat/Reference/Profile/167849
There is also a YouTube channel of 5-10 minute videos on how to do specific things in QGIS https://www.youtube.com/@automaticknowledge/videos
On Fri, Sep 5, 2025 at 1:36 PM Richard Dunks via OSGeo Discourse <noreply@discourse.osgeo.org> wrote:
Richard_Dunks
September 5I’m curious which tutorial you mean. Are you talking about the Gentle Introduction to GIS? I provide it as a resource but honestly haven’t gone through it in detail myself. I’d be interested in what feedback you have. As an open source project, you (or anyone) can propose changes to make it better and more usable.
In my own experience learning QGIS, I needed some basic information to get me oriented and then I was good to go. The Spatial Thoughts Introduction to QGIS class is also online if you haven’t come across it. Happy to also hop on a video call if you need some extra help getting started.
My partner grew up in Boerne and Pipe Creek not far from Vanderpool. It’s beautiful country out there, in the right season.
Best,
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Richard, This is the Training Manual I downloaded that is giving me trouble. ‘QGIS-3.40-TrainingManual-en.pdf’
I have been able to find a couple video tutorials that make a lot of sense to me. Taking me a lot longer to grasp the basics than I thought it would take… since I do not have a GIS background knowledge.
I’ll also take a look at your recommendations.
Thanks.
Thanks for sharing that. I haven’t seen it but I can see where it gets confusing. It seems laid out so you can ignore sections if they’re too hard or unclear, but I can see how that could be confusing. It’s also not clear to me looking at the first chapter what they’re building towards other than just using an example where you can do a lot of things. It’s not a bad approach but I don’t think it works well for all learners and probably could use some improvements (which I will look into suggesting).
You’ll see in my classes I try to show you what we’re making before we make it and keep the tasks straightforward to the end before layering on different variations or options. I think the “why” is important and may be what you’re missing in this tutorial.
Honestly, I’d suggest just finding some project that you want to do, like maybe download the Bandera CAD GIS data (https://bancad.org/downloads-data-download-disclaimer/) and make a map. When you get stuck, just Google for an answer, that way you learn what you need when you need it for a clear reason. You can also check out the TxGIO data hub for other spatial datasets (https://data.tnris.org/) that might be interesting or go to the Texas Open Data Portal (https://data.texas.gov).
Don’t get discouraged but also try to make it fun and relevant to something you’re interested in. In my experience, the skills will come best when you have a clear purpose that motivates you to learn.
Good luck!
Best,
Richard Dunks, Owner/Founder
Datapolitan, LLC
Book time on my calendar for a call
On Fri, Sep 5, 2025, 11:06 PM Al via OSGeo Discourse <noreply@discourse.osgeo.org> wrote:
ESD1
September 6Richard, This is the Training Manual I downloaded that is giving me trouble. ‘QGIS-3.40-TrainingManual-en.pdf’
I have been able to find a couple video tutorials that make a lot of sense to me. Taking me a lot longer to grasp the basics than I thought it would take… since I do not have a GIS background knowledge.
I’ll also take a look at your recommendations.Thanks.
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Richard, I took your advice and just jumped into my project. I like this way of learning… downloaded data from Bandera CAD.
WOW, QGIS has a million features. Fun figuring out the ones I need to us and learning how to use them.
Got really involved and have come to a point of getting stuck. I did find a work-around that was really time consuming and with it’s problem.
Would you be available to take a look and give me some pointers?, If so, is there a way I can send you my project in it’s entirety?
What I am trying to figure out is using the BanderaCAD Abstract layer. I want to be able to select individual or a group of abstracts to be included into a .shp file. Can’t seem to figure that out. Also, the work around was to create a .shp file by creating the polygon and dragging points to the corners of the abstracts… but can’t seem to open that polygon back up to edit by including additional abstracts.
-Al
I’m glad this is working out for you Al. I’m happy to go over what you have. Probably best to take this off list. Please feel free to reach out to me directly at richard@datapolitan.com and we can find a time for a video call. I think you’re looking at selecting and exporting the selected features into a shapefile. It’s straightforward but there’s a few things that might be helpful for you to know when you do it.
Best,
Thanks Richard for the video conf. It was very helpful and the pointers you showed me really helped. I had to practice them a few times to learn how to do the task without looking at my notes.
The project is moving forward. Waiting on receiving some shapefiles from Uvalde County and Real County. Their shape files are not on-line, like the Bandera CAD files were.
-Al
Would you be available for a meetup to talk QGIS? I get to San Antonio occasionally… not a big fan of big cities! Maybe lunch, on me, and some talk.
-Al
Al,
I am not in the San Antonio area, but willing to chat about QGIS and GRASS.
Doug
On Thu, Sep 25, 2025 at 7:45 PM Al via OSGeo Discourse <noreply@discourse.osgeo.org> wrote:
ESD1
September 25Would you be available for a meetup to talk QGIS? I get to San Antonio occasionally… not a big fan of big cities! Maybe lunch, on me, and some talk.
-Al
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