So I am currently making a overview of a water system including manholes and pipelines. However, in some situations the parts are so small that the labels are overlapping. (see picture below) I tried moving the labels by hand using the data-defined placement and call out lines, however, this would take a lot of time for the whole water system. Is there a way QGIS can do this automatically?
QGIS Labeling – Automatically Move Overlapping Labels from Multiple Layers
labelingmappingqgis
Related Solutions
I'm using QGIS 2.16, so it's possible this is a new feature, but I don't think so. Open the Labels tab for the point layer and select the "Blocking" option from the menu at the top. It should block any labels from being placed on top of this layer. 
Labels will only overlap each other if you chose the option to "show all labels for this layer (including colliding labels)". Otherwise, QGIS will normally only display as many labels as possible in the current map extent, with your chosen label settings.
So the solution is to use different label settings, for example:
- smaller font size
- further distance, allowing labels to be placed further from their geographic feature
See the answer I posted here for more detailed explanations.
Best Answer
Have you tried changing
layer properties > Labels > Placement > Obstaclesthere you choose Features act as obstacles and set the Obstacle Weight a bit higher in thesettings.A word of caution here: you may need to try around a bit. How this will look obviously depends also on the zoom-level at which you want to display your map.
Lastly the Priority will determine the placement of labels from different layers (i.e. which label will be prioritized etc.)