I was dealing with a huge contour layer. And it takes very long time to completely load the layer. Even I have a good computer specs, QGIS will still suffering to load it. But, there is a simple trick to make layer load faster. In this article, I am going to show you how to create spatial index on QGIS. Before we jump into the tutorial, what is spatial index actually do?
A spatial index is a data structure that allows for accessing a spatial object efficiently. It is a common technique used by spatial databases. Without indexing, any search for a feature would require a “sequential scan” of every record in the database, resulting in much longer processing time. In a spatial index construction process, the minimum bounding rectangle serves as an object approximation. Source.
How to Create Spatial Index on QGIS
- Open the layer in QGIS canvas
- Double-click Create Spatial Index
- Select the the input layer from the list
- Click Run
