Make lots of maps at once using QGIS print composer

Question

I have around 1250 maps of species distributions. Each species is a different shapefile projected on one base-map.

I can use the TomBio addon to export everything as a single map (PNG) without too much trouble, but I don't want seperate images. I want 8 small maps on a A4 format. Making this in the QGIS print composer is simple, but it takes a lot of time to produce all the maps. I was wondering if there is a faster way to automatically generate all my maps using QGIS.

So: Is there a way to use the template in my print composer (8 small maps of 8 different species on A4 format) to generate this for all of my 1250 species without having to do this all manually.

Answer 1

Use the atlas composer and the lock layers data defined override option

1. Create a csv (or other file) listing all the maps you want to create, this will be a column labelled layerMap1, layerMap2 containing the layers for each map - this will be in the format "ANIMAL|Basemap"
2. load the csv into qgis, then in the print composer, set the atlas coverage layer to the csv
3. In the map item properties turn on lock layers, then in the data defined options set it to the field layerMap1
4. when you activate atlas mode, you should now be able to export as an atlas with data defined layers