QGIS 1.7 "Wrocław"

20.06.2011 08:02 ·  GIS  ·  qgis, release

After several delays and release postponements, QGIS 1.7 “Wrocław” has finally been released.

There are many reasons for the delays, but there are two main ones. The first is that the developers decided to devote the last meeting to bug fixing, and the second is an update to the project’s infrastructure. The repository is now hosted on GitHub, which has led to a revision of the repository access policy. The old Trac bug tracker has also been replaced by Redmine.

This release is notable not only because the release date has been pushed back several times but also because it is the last release in the 1.x series. (at least that is the plan). The next release will be QGIS 2.0, which is expected to have many groundbreaking changes: API updates, a final transition to a new symbology, and more. A point release of QGIS 1.7.x with bug fixes but no new features will be prepared from time to time. Closer to the release of QGIS 2.0, an interim release of 1.9.x is planned for a limited number of users.

Now about QGIS 1.7.0. This release contains over 300 fixes and many improvements. You can read the detailed description of the changes in the official announcement, but I will limit myself to a short list:

• the new symbology is used by default
• ability to import/export styles of the new symbology
• ability to draw markers at the start, centre and end of the line
• new tools to rotate and move labels, which allow changing corresponding data-defined properties interactively
• two new tools have been added to the GdalTools plugin: gdaldem and gdaltindex
• added new tools to the “Vector” menu: “Voronoi polygons” and “Lines to polygons”
• more user-friendly and convenient dialogue to manage missing project layers
• ability to set default CRS for a project
• support for table joins
• “on-the-fly” reprojection of raster layers
• user-defined directories for C++ plugins
• and much more