RQGIS Vectorgrid output format issue

Question

I just started using RQGIS. I ran the example code using qgis:polygoncentroids shown on https://github.com/jannes-m/RQGIS with no problem.

I tried then to create a vector grid using qgis:vectorgrid but I get an error, which seems to indicate that the command expects a raster format output, when the output in QGIS for this plugin is a shapefile.

If I run run_qgis without the load_output argument I don't get an error, but no file is created on the disk either (I am on Ubuntu 16.04).

My code is as follows:

library(RQGIS)
library(rgdal)
library(rgeos)
library(raster)
##PARAMETERS
#working directory
work.dir <- "/media/olivier/olivier_ext/gedata_current/jde_coffee/data/ES"
#Location and name of the grid to output
out <- c("Grids","ES_grid_test")
#Resolution of the grid in km
res <- 2
#Location and name of shapefile with the extent and outline of the grid
shp.ext <- c("Boundaries","Espirito_Santo_geo")
#Projection to use
project <- CRS("+init=epsg:32723")
#Set working directory
setwd(work.dir)
#Import boundary and extent
bound <- readOGR(dsn=shp.ext[1], layer=shp.ext[2], stringsAsFactors=F)
bound <- spTransform(bound, project)
#Set a QGIS environment
env <- set_env()
#retrieve the function arguments
args <- get_args_man(alg = "qgis:vectorgrid", options = TRUE, qgis_env = env)
#Fill arguments
args$EXTENT <- as.vector(extent(bound))
args$STEP_X <- res*1000 #In meters if UTM
args$STEP_Y <- res*1000
args$TYPE <- 0
args$OUTPUT <- paste0(work.dir,"/",out[1],"/",out[2],".shp")
grid.shp <- run_qgis(alg = "qgis:vectorgrid", params = args, load_output = args$OUTPUT, qgis_env = env)

I get the following error:

Error in .local(.Object, ...) :
`/media/olivier/olivier_ext/gedata_current/jde_coffee/data/ES/Grids/ES_grid_test.shp' does not exist in the file system, and is not recognised as a supported dataset name.

Error in .rasterObjectFromFile(x, band = band, objecttype = "RasterLayer", : Cannot create a RasterLayer object from this file. (file does not exist)

It makes me believe that run_qgis expects a raster format... But in QGIS it's definitely a shapefile output.

Answer 1

import os, sys
from qgis.core import *
from osgeo import ogr
from PyQt4.QtCore import *
from PyQt4.QtGui import *
from qgis.gui import *
QgsApplication.setPrefixPath('C:/OSGeo4W64/apps/qgis-ltr', True)
app = QgsApplication([], True)
QgsApplication.initQgis()
sys.path.append(r'C:/OSGeo4W64/apps/qgis-ltr/python/plugins')
from processing.core.Processing import Processing
Processing.initialize()
import processing
processing.runalg("qgis:vectorgrid", "0, 1, 0, 1", "0.5", "0.5", "0", None)

Running the code above on the command line produces following message:

'NoneType' object has no attribute 'mapCanvas'
 See log for more details
{'OUTPUT': u'C:\\Users\\pi37pat\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\processing06a684c24f1141349bfaca47bf57b853\095円a1096a941493c9fc04826c0d5c115\\OUTPUT.shp'}

Unfortunately, the specified output folder is empty, i.e. QGIS did not produce the vector grid. I am not sure what is going on here, and I think we should ask the QGIS community for further advice.

The R error output is misleading, I am sorry. The load_output argument first tries to load a shapefile into R, and if that is not working, it secondly tries to load a raster file. However, if no output has been created (as in our case), the function fails with the error message you mentioned. I have already fixed this by checking if the file to be loaded actually exists (https://github.com/jannes-m/RQGIS). If not, the function will now say so and stop. Until we get further feedback from the QGIS community, you can try to use the create grid function:

library("RQGIS")
qgis_env <- set_env()
args <- get_args_man("qgis:creategrid", options = TRUE, qgis_env = qgis_env)
args$TYPE <- 1
args$EXTENT <- "0, 1, 0, 1"
args$HSPACING <- "0.5"
args$VSPACING <- "0.5"
args$CRS <- "EPSG:4326"
args$OUTPUT <- "grid.shp"
run_qgis("qgis:creategrid", params = args, load_output = args$OUTPUT, qgis_env = qgis_env)

• Olivier: Thanks for fixing the error message. I will try with the create grid function then. Vector grid works fine in QGIS itself though.