QGIS Temporal Controller – How to Animate Data with Temporal Controller

animatedmarkerqgistemporal-controller

I have been trying to make an animation with the Temporal Controller in QGIS using a custom .csv file, created by merging lat, lon, arrival_time, departure_time, stop_name and stop_id.

It currently looks like this:

These are the Temporal Controller tab settings:

I have tried converting arrival_time and departure_time to datetime instead of, as they currently are, just date; however, this made no difference and it kept not working.

Current behaviour:

Once the .csv layer is added and the Temporal Controller is active, the dots effectively display on the viewer. However, upong activating it, the timeline starts moving but the dots never move.

Expected behaviour:

The dots to move, like in this or this tutorial.

Best Answer

Below is an animated GIF of what I get following the process described by @Babel. (You may need to click on it to see it animate.) Do you see the same values for Animation range, Step and Current frame?

There are some frames where the dot is not visible. This is because Layer Properties → Dynamic Temporal Control → Event duration is set to 1.00 Minutes. Where these is a gap of more than 1 minute between the arrival_time of features in the CSV, there will be no feature visible for one or more frames.

Related Solutions

[GIS] QGIS Temporal Controller with raster data

I wrote a PyQGIS script to handle the workaround for NetCDF files which uses temporal controller's updateTemporalRange signal. Just copy the following script to QGIS Python editor window, edit your dates, run the script and use Temporal Controller as usual.

import datetime

# These functions are part of https://github.com/GispoCoding/qgis_plugin_tools/blob/master/tools/raster_layers.py

def set_raster_renderer_to_singleband(layer: QgsRasterLayer, band: int = 1) -> None:
    """
    Set raster renderer to singleband
    :param layer: raster layer
    """
    # https://gis.stackexchange.com/a/377631/123927 and https://gis.stackexchange.com/a/157573/123927
    provider: QgsRasterDataProvider = layer.dataProvider()
    renderer: QgsSingleBandGrayRenderer = QgsSingleBandGrayRenderer(layer.dataProvider(), band)

    stats: QgsRasterBandStats = provider.bandStatistics(band, QgsRasterBandStats.All, layer.extent(), 0)
    min_val = max(stats.minimumValue, 0)
    max_val = max(stats.maximumValue, 0)

    enhancement = QgsContrastEnhancement(renderer.dataType(band))
    contrast_enhancement = QgsContrastEnhancement.StretchToMinimumMaximum
    enhancement.setContrastEnhancementAlgorithm(contrast_enhancement, True)
    enhancement.setMinimumValue(min_val)
    enhancement.setMaximumValue(max_val)
    layer.setRenderer(renderer)
    layer.renderer().setContrastEnhancement(enhancement)
    layer.triggerRepaint()
    
def set_band_based_on_range(layer: QgsRasterLayer, t_range: QgsDateTimeRange) -> int:
    """

    :param layer: raster layer
    :param t_range: temporal range
    :return: band number
    """
    band_num = 1
    tprops: QgsRasterLayerTemporalProperties = layer.temporalProperties()
    if tprops.isVisibleInTemporalRange(t_range) and t_range.begin().isValid() and t_range.end().isValid():
        if tprops.mode() == QgsRasterLayerTemporalProperties.ModeFixedTemporalRange:
            layer_t_range: QgsDateTimeRange = tprops.fixedTemporalRange()
            start: datetime.datetime = layer_t_range.begin().toPyDateTime()
            end: datetime.datetime = layer_t_range.end().toPyDateTime()
            delta = (end - start) / layer.bandCount()
            band_num = int((t_range.begin().toPyDateTime() - start) / delta) + 1
            set_raster_renderer_to_singleband(layer, band_num)
    return band_num
    
def set_fixed_temporal_range(layer: QgsRasterLayer, t_range: QgsDateTimeRange) -> None:
    """
    Set fixed temporal range for raster layer
    :param layer: raster layer
    :param t_range: fixed temporal range
    """
    mode = QgsRasterLayerTemporalProperties.ModeFixedTemporalRange
    tprops: QgsRasterLayerTemporalProperties = layer.temporalProperties()
    tprops.setMode(mode)
    if t_range.begin().timeSpec() == 0 or t_range.end().timeSpec() == 0:
        begin = t_range.begin()
        end = t_range.end()
        begin.setTimeSpec(Qt.TimeSpec(1))
        end.setTimeSpec(Qt.TimeSpec(1))
        t_range = QgsDateTimeRange(begin, end)
    tprops.setFixedTemporalRange(t_range)
    tprops.setIsActive(True)
    
def temporal_range_changed(t_range: QgsDateTimeRange):
    layer = iface.activeLayer()
    if isinstance(layer, QgsRasterLayer):
        set_band_based_on_range(layer, t_range)
    
def set_range():
    mode = QgsRasterLayerTemporalProperties.ModeFixedTemporalRange
    
temporal_controller: QgsTemporalController = iface.mapCanvas().temporalController()
temporal_controller.updateTemporalRange.connect(temporal_range_changed)
# Add one second to make the last frame visible
set_fixed_temporal_range(iface.activeLayer(), QgsDateTimeRange(datetime.datetime(2020, 11, 2, 15, 0), datetime.datetime(2020, 11, 3, 11, 0, 1)))

Here is a simple gif animation showing the usage:

QGIS – Troubleshooting Problems with Animating Heatmap in QGIS Temporal Controller

Solved, there were a couple issues going on:

Null date values were showing up in every frame and needed to be filtered out
The radius in heatmap symbology was too large, preventing me from seeing the very small changes.
I played around with the "maximum" option in heatmap symbology to better seperate different densities.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[GIS] QGIS Temporal Controller with raster data

QGIS – Troubleshooting Problems with Animating Heatmap in QGIS Temporal Controller

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