Boost Productivity with TatukGIS Editor: Shortcuts, Plugins, and TricksTatukGIS Editor is a powerful desktop GIS editing environment favored for its responsiveness, extensive format support, and scripting capabilities. Whether you’re preparing clean vector data for analysis, digitizing features from scanned maps, or automating repetitive workflows, small changes in how you use the Editor can yield large productivity gains. This article covers time-saving keyboard shortcuts, valuable plugins and extensions, practical editing tricks, and recommended workflows to help you work faster and with fewer errors.
Why productivity matters in GIS editing
GIS editing often involves repetitive tasks: snapping vertices, cleaning topologies, attributing features, and exporting to multiple formats. Saving minutes per feature scales quickly across projects. Improving productivity reduces fatigue and error rates, lets you process larger datasets, and frees time for analysis and quality assurance.
Keyboard shortcuts that speed up common tasks
Using keyboard shortcuts reduces mouse travel and modal delays. Below are frequently useful actions and suggested keyboard mappings (many are default in TatukGIS Editor; confirm or customize in Preferences > Keyboard Shortcuts).
- Zoom to selection / Zoom to layer — quickly focus the map on the current working set.
- Undo / Redo — essential during digitizing; use Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Y.
- Toggle snapping — enabling/disabling snapping with a single key (e.g., S) speeds between freehand edits and topology-aware edits.
- Start/Stop editing session — toggling edit mode prevents accidental changes.
- Vertex add / delete / move — map vertex-level keys reduce dialog use.
- Measure tool — quick length/area checks without leaving the editor.
- Attribute table open / close — instant access to attributes streamlines bulk updates.
Tip: Map often-used sequences to macro keys (if your keyboard or mouse supports them) to perform multi-step edits with one press.
Plugins and extensions to extend functionality
TatukGIS Editor supports extensibility via plugins, SDK components, and scripting. Consider these categories:
- Automation & scripting
- Use the TatukGIS Developer Kernel (TDK) and scripting (VBScript, Python if available via your build) to automate repetitive tasks: batch reprojection, attribute population, and collision checks.
- Data import/export plugins
- Install or enable drivers for formats you frequently encounter (e.g., GeoPackage, spatial databases, CAD). Reducing format conversions saves time and avoids geometry loss.
- Topology and validation
- Plugins that run topology checks and generate repair suggestions let you catch errors early and fix them in bulk.
- Custom toolbars and UI macros
- Build or install toolsets that group your common tools (snapping, buffer, select-by-attribute) into a single-click panel.
If your workflow includes frequent interaction with remote services, enable or script connectors for WMS/WFS and spatial databases to avoid manual downloads.
Practical digitizing tricks
- Use orthogonal and angle constraints when digitizing linear infrastructure (roads, pipelines) to maintain consistent geometry.
- Toggle dynamic snapping to vertices and edges only while holding a modifier key — keeps free drawing simple but enforces precision when you need it.
- Sketch first, refine later: draw rough geometries quickly, then use vertex-editing tools to snap and align precisely.
- Simplify in stages: use the Douglas–Peucker (or similar) simplification on copies to produce low-vertex datasets for intermediate processing, keeping originals intact.
- Employ an iterative QA loop: digitize → validate topology → correct using the topology repair tools → re-validate.
Attribute editing: speed and consistency
- Use field calculators to compute values across large selections (areas, lengths, derived codes).
- Create value lists and domains for fields with constrained vocabularies (land use codes, road types) to avoid typos.
- Employ templates for recurring feature types so new features auto-populate common attributes.
- Use joins and relates to bring external tabular data in bulk, then use select-by-attribute to update fields for matched records.
Batch processing and automation
- Batch reprojection, clipping, and conversion routines save time when preparing data for multiple outputs.
- Use scripts to:
- Reproject many layers into a target CRS.
- Export map sheets in a loop for atlas-style PDFs.
- Run topology checks and output summary reports.
- Schedule long-running batch jobs (exports, heavy validations) to run overnight.
Example (pseudocode) automation pattern:
for each layer in workspace: reproject(layer, target_crs) run_topology_check(layer) if errors: export_errors(layer, report_folder) else: export(layer, output_folder, format)
Working with large datasets
- Use spatial indexes and optimized storage formats (GeoPackage, spatial databases) to maintain responsiveness.
- Load only required layers or use scale-dependent visibility to keep rendering light.
- Use clipping and queries to focus on a working subset rather than the full dataset.
- For very large edits, work on tile-based subsets and merge edits back into the master dataset with controlled transactions.
Quality assurance and error reduction
- Build a standard QA checklist: topology, null attribute checks, domain compliance, geometry validity, coordinate precision.
- Automate checks where possible and produce reports showing failing features for quick remediation.
- Use versioned or transactional editing when collaborating to prevent overwrites and to track change history.
- Keep backups and use dataset snapshots before running destructive batch operations.
Useful workflow examples
- Road centerline capture for a municipality
- Create templates and domains for road types, speed limits, and maintenance authority.
- Digitize centerlines using orthogonal snaps and angle constraints.
- Auto-calculate lengths and populate pavement_type via field calculator.
- Run topology checks for dangles and overshoots; batch-fix via snapping rules.
- Converting CAD to clean GIS layers
- Import DWG/DXF via CAD drivers; convert layers to named GIS layers.
- Merge/clean polylines into proper multipart features.
- Run simplification with tolerance tuned to preserve intent.
- Reproject and validate geometry before export to GeoPackage.
Tips for collaboration
- Use shared spatial databases (PostGIS, SQL Server spatial) for centralized editing with transaction support.
- Agree on schemas, domains, and CRS ahead of collaborative projects.
- Share scripts and plugin toolsets through a team repository so everyone uses the same utilities.
- Document common workflows in short how-to guides or quick videos for new team members.
Final checklist to boost productivity immediately
- Customize keyboard shortcuts for your top 10 actions.
- Create templates and domains for recurring feature types.
- Automate repetitive conversions and QA checks with scripts.
- Use optimized formats and spatial indexes for large datasets.
- Run topology checks early and often; fix issues in bulk.
Boosting productivity in TatukGIS Editor combines small ergonomic improvements (shortcuts, templates) with larger technical changes (automation, topology tooling, and database workflows). Start by identifying the slowest, most repetitive parts of your process and apply one automation or shortcut at a time — productivity compounds quickly.