I really like using PostGIS for geoprocessing purposes.

My two main resons is:

1. It is often very much faster to do complex tasks in the database because you get the help of the query planner to do things in the right order.

2. Just save the sql lines you used in a textfile and you have a very good documentation of what you have done.

My workflow, if the tasks involve a lot of "steps" use to be something like:

1. Build parts of the query or all of it depending of the nature of the task
2. Test the query on a small part of the dataset to see how it performs
3. Do some tweaking if necessary
4. Run the query on the whole dataset
5. Save the lines in a text file with some notes

All this is often about as fast as starting up ArcGIS and wait for a license from the license server.

I really like using PostGIS for geoprocessing purposes.

My two main resons is:

1. It is often very much faster to do complex tasks in the database because you get the help of the query planner to do things in the right order.

2. Just save the sql lines you used in a textfile and you have a very good documentation of what you have done.

My workflow, if the tasks involve a lot of "steps" use to be something like:
1- Build parts of the query or all of it depending of the nature of the task
2- Test the query on a small part of the dataset to see how it performs
3- Do some tweaking if necessary
4- Run the query on the whole dataset
5- Save the lines in a text file with some notes.
All this is often about as fast as starting up ArcGIS and wait for a license from the license server.

I really like using PostGIS for geoprocessing purposes.

My two main resons is:

1. It is often very much faster to do complex tasks in the database because you get the help of the query planner to do things in the right order.

2. Just save the sql lines you used in a textfile and you have a very good documentation of what you have done.

My workflow, if the tasks involve a lot of "steps" use to be something like:

1. Build parts of the query or all of it depending of the nature of the task
2. Test the query on a small part of the dataset to see how it performs
3. Do some tweaking if necessary.
4. run the query on the whole dataset
5. same the lines in a text file with some notes

All this is often about as fast as starting up ArcGIS and wait for a license from the license server.

I really like using PostGIS for geoprocessing purposes.

My two main resons is:

1. It is often very much faster to do complex tasks in the database because you get the help of the query planner to do things in the right order.

2. Just save the sql lines you used in a textfile and you have a very good documentation of what you have done.

My workflow, if the tasks involve a lot of "steps" use to be something like:

1. Build parts of the query or all of it depending of the nature of the task
2. Test the query on a small part of the dataset to see how it performs
3. Do some tweaking if necessary
4. Run the query on the whole dataset
5. Save the lines in a text file with some notes

All this is often about as fast as starting up ArcGIS and wait for a license from the license server.