Quickly review all the features one by one in QGIS

Question

I have about 400 features in a point dataset. I would like to (quickly) visually check their locations one by one on the map. For now, I open the attribute table alongside the map. I select the first row and use the Zoom to selected feature button. Then I manually select the 2nd row, and click the button again, and so on, and so on.

I was however wondering if there is a way/plugin/shortcut key/... to do that quicker in QGIS?

Answer 1

You can use the following script. It creates a toolbar containing Zoom Previous, Zoom Next actions and ID text box. When you click the action it zooms to next/previous feature (in active layer) with next/previous ID (means feauture.id()) in text box.

Run the script in QGIS Python Editor.

layer = iface.activeLayer()
canvas = iface.mapCanvas()
ID = 0

def zoom_next():
    global ID
    ID += 1
    zoom(ID)
    
def zoom_prev():
    global ID
    ID -= 1
    zoom(ID)
    
def zoom(ID):
    canvas.zoomToFeatureIds(layer, [ID])
    text_id.setText(str(ID))
    
def reset_id():
    global ID
    global layer
    ID = 0
    text_id.setText('0')
    layer = iface.activeLayer()
    canvas.zoomToFeatureIds(layer, [ID])

## ACTIONS
zoom_next_action = QAction("Zoom Next")
zoom_next_action.triggered.connect(zoom_next)

zoom_prev_action = QAction("Zoom Previous")
zoom_prev_action.triggered.connect(zoom_prev)

label = QLabel("ID:")
text_id = QLineEdit()
text_id.setMaximumSize(QSize(40, 100))
text_id.setText('0')

## TOOLBAR
zoom_toolbar = iface.addToolBar("Zoom Features")
zoom_toolbar.addAction(zoom_prev_action)
zoom_toolbar.addAction(zoom_next_action)
zoom_toolbar.addWidget(label)
zoom_toolbar.addWidget(text_id)

iface.layerTreeView().currentLayerChanged.connect(reset_id)

Answer 2

Several ways of doing this, which is good :)

Here is another one using the Space bar (from another answer):

Steps

1. Download the script iterate_features.py and save it in the same folder as your QGIS project.

2. Open the QGIS Python console and enter the following line:

   import iterate_features

3. Close the QGIS Python console.

4. Select a layer in the Layers panel and press the Space bar to start iterating features. Press Escape to reset the iteration.

---

Notes

• You can change the active layer anytime and start iterating its features.
• Iterating points is a special case, so you set the scale that works for you and after pressing the Space bar, the script pans to the next feature. For other geometry types, the script zooms to them.
• Press Shift+F6 (and embed the attribute table) to visualize also the selected feature attributes.
• This works also for geometryless tables. Specially if they have relations with other layers. See it in action:

Answer 3

There is no "Next" and "Previous" buttons,
You could however dock your table for easier viewing of both table and canvas,
and then use the "zoom to selection" keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+J).

Answer 4

@Marc, you can also try this script, super short, for a quick review, sequential, without clicking, you just sit and eat pop corn :D .

Procedure:

1. select the vectorial layer of interest

2. open the console, then open the editor

3. you remove the visibility of any web layer, base maps, either quick map services or xyz tiles (these layers will delay the updating of the canvas, but if you are patient and have a good connection you can leave them)

4. you paste the code, you can change the time, the delay variable, but I recommend to leave it like this

5. place the console window where it does not obstruct the canvas and click run

   import time
   
   tdelay=0.5 #delay of update
   capa= iface.activeLayer()
   le=list(capa.getFeatures())
   canvas=iface.mapCanvas()
   for i in le:
       canvas.zoomToFeatureIds(capa,[i.id()])
       canvas.flashFeatureIds(capa,[i.id()])
       canvas.waitWhileRendering()
       time.sleep(tdelay)
   

It's a bit forced because I stop the execution with time.sleep(), but in my Windows10 computer and QGIS3.4 I work fine.

With higher versions of QGIS you can access the time driver and do something much better, without risk of crash.

Another option is threaded, but requires much more code

Answer 5

As it's been almost 3 years now, it might be a new feature, but with QGIS 3.26.3 I'm able to:

0. Open the Attribute Table
1. Dock the Attribute Table window and set up a nice layout
2. Switch to form view (button at the bottom right corner of the Attribute Table window)
3. Use the toolbar at the bottom with following functionalities:
   • Navigate to previous/next feature
   • Highlight current feature on map
   • Automatically pan/zoom to the current feature

Answer 6

There is a bunch of QGIS plugins for this problem: https://plugins.qgis.org/search/?q=go2nextfeature