circle-craters

A crater-counting python plugin for QGIS.

Current Status: In Testing

Originally written for and tested on QGIS version 2.6 (Brighton). Ported to python3/QGIS version 3.16.

Features include:

• Flexibility to crater count in a GIS environment on Windows, OS X, or Linux
• Free software: BSD license
• Three-click input defines crater rims as a circle
• Projection independent

Details

• This QGIS plugin is designed to offer an open source alternative to the craterTools plugin for ArcGIS.
• Crater counting is a technique used by planetary scientists to estimate the age of a surface.
• Collaboration is welcome! Please see the Issues page and the CONTRIBUTING.rst file.
• CircleCraters was initially presented at the 2015 Lunar and Planetary Science Conference
• This plugin will be submitted to the QGIS plugin repository.
• At this time the plugin does works on QGIS 3.16

Installation

1. First install QGIS.
2. Download the contents of the git repository using the git clone command or downloading a zipfile.

3. Use the makefile to compile and copy the files to the QGIS plugin directory (run make deploy).

   On GNU/Linux systems, the QGIS plugin directory should be in

   ~/.local/share/QGIS/QGIS3/profiles/default/python/plugins/

   On OSX system, the QGIS plugin directory should be in

   ~/Library/ApplicationSupport/QGIS/QGIS3/profiles/default/python/plugins/

4. On the command line run:

   $ make deploy

5. You may get see the following error messages:

   make: pyrcc5: Command not found.

   If you see this message install the Python Qt5 developer tools by running:

   On GNU/Linux systems:

   $ sudo apt-get install pyqt5-dev-tool

   On OSX system:

   $ brew install pyqt

   Another commmon error:

   make: sphinx-build: Command not found

   If you see this message install the python sphinx library by running:

   On GNU/Linux systems:

   $ sudo apt-get install python-sphinx

   On OSX system:

   $ brew install sphinx-doc

   Notice that sphinx is keg-only by default. Please make sure that sphinx has been added to system PATH.

6. Enable the plugin from the QGIS plugin manager. Go to Plugins > Manage and Install Plugins. This will connect you to the official QGIS plugin repository, but also searches the QGIS plugin directory on your machine for plugins. Find Circle Craters in the list and select the checkbox to the left of the name.

Installation Tips for QGIS

Instructions on QGIS.org. Hopefully this encourages you to try out QGIS if you have not used it before for planetary data!

Windows / Linux / MacOSX QGIS Installers: https://qgis.org/en/site/forusers/download.html

Contributing

Feedback, issues, and contributions are always gratefully welcomed. See the contributing guide for details.