I just manually (and somewhat inaccurately I'm sure) retrieved the bounding box coordinates for a county polygon, which is a selection from a larger layer of county shapes. I'd like to be able to use a QGIS plugin or other function to calculate this quickly and not-by-hand. This is almost certainly possible but I couldn't find anything with a Google search
6 Answers
The following little Python function will output the bounding box coordinates of the currently active feature:
def printBB():
feature = iface.activeLayer().selectedFeatures()[0]
print feature.geometry().boundingBox().toString()
To define the function, open the Python console from the Plugins menu, copy and paste the three lines into the console, and press enter. Then you can call the function by typing printBB()
and pressing enter while the desired feature is selected.
Edit: For newer Python versions (Python 3.x) use this (print()
with brackets):
def printBB():
feature = iface.activeLayer().selectedFeatures()[0]
print(feature.geometry().boundingBox().toString())
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1I get this error when I try to run this script:
File "<input>", line 4 printBB() ^ SyntaxError: invalid syntax
– cbunnAug 4, 2015 at 22:01 -
@cbunn make sure you have the layer selected in the layers / table of contents - it's very sensitive to this! Sep 21, 2015 at 18:56
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thanks for the help. I was also forgetting to press enter to fully define the function printBB() before calling it.– cbunnSep 22, 2015 at 20:18
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4I had to use print(feature.geometry().boundingBox().toString()) for line 3.– cm1Jun 25, 2018 at 16:08
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I got the following error for this: Traceback (most recent call last): File "C:\PROGRA~1\QGIS32~1.3\apps\Python39\lib\code.py", line 63, in runsource code = self.compile(source, filename, symbol) And many others.– enorFeb 22 at 7:05
QGIS can do it via Polygon from Layer Extent
Vector - Research tools - Polygon From Layer Extent
Will produce a new shapefile with attributes like XMIN XMAX YMIN YMAX AREA WIDTH HEIGHT
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1You have to check
Use only selected obects
andcalculate for every object
to get the desired result.– AndreJDec 3, 2013 at 5:12 -
hmm that didn't work for me, the outputted shapefile was blank essentially Dec 3, 2013 at 19:24
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1You only want to check 'Use only selected objects' if you have objects selected. I left both those fields unchecked and achieved a fine result.– JohannaMar 8, 2016 at 10:03
If you need many polygon's bounding boxes, on the left hand side,
- Right click on your layer
- Click "Export"
- Click "Save Feature As"
The in the dialog that pops up,
- Set "Format" to "GeoJSON"
- Under the "Layer Options" set WRITE_BBOX to YES
Now when you export look inside the file for "bbox" (should be before the feature declaration), like this:
..., "bbox": [ -70.062408006999874, 12.417669989000046, -69.876820441999939, 12.632147528000104 ], "geometry": ...
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1I found a special case bug with export - when your feature crosses the "prime antimeridian" (180 deg longitude), the bounding box values seem wrong. It seems the bounding box coordinates are the max and min coordinates over all the vertices. If the polygon crosses the antimeridian, the min longitude will be close to -180 and the max longitude close to 180. But the most eastward and westward vertices will be different from the min and max longitudes. I believe this represents a bug, but I will need to research further. I encountered this problem working with the U.S. state of Alaska.– sb4Apr 16, 2021 at 14:55
You can also do this using PyShp plugin in Python.. Its a lot simpler...
import shapefile
sf = shapefile.Reader("Path to shapefile...")
shapes = sf.shapes()
bbox = shapes[0].bbox # Retrieves the bounding box of the first shape
print bbox # Will print the bounding box coordinates
More information on PyShp and other functionalities can be found here.
For quick acces, an option is to keep bbox coordinates in the attribute table.
You will get a new field in the attribute table with LEFT coordinate.
Repeat this for RIGHT, BOTTOM, TOP with expressions:
You can then set AutoFields plugin to automatically update these fields when feature is changed.
I had to do this to generate a field I could import as a list elsewhere.
- Install QGIS plugin FieldPyculator
- Toggle editing of layer
- Create new column in attribute table as string e.g. bbox (save edits)
- Open FieldPyculator
- Set Update Field to bbox
In Field expression type something like:
bb = $geom.boundingBox().toString()
bb = bb.replace(' ','')
bb = bb.replace(':',',')
value = bb
Run
- Turn off editing and save layer