DuckGIS

High-Performance DuckDB Spatial Studio & Cloud GeoParquet Engine for QGIS

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⚡ What is DuckGIS?

DuckGIS brings the lightning speed of DuckDB and DuckDB Spatial directly into QGIS.

Query millions of spatial records, stream massive cloud datasets (Overture Maps, Source Cooperative, Microsoft Building Footprints) over HTTP/S3 without downloading gigabytes of files, and load the results onto your QGIS map canvas in milliseconds.

-- Stream Overture Maps buildings in your current QGIS view in ~200ms
SELECT 
    id, names.primary AS name, height, ST_GeomFromWkb(geometry) AS geom
FROM read_parquet('s3://overturemaps-us-west-2/release/2024-02-15-alpha.0/theme=buildings/type=building/*')
WHERE 
    bbox.xmin <= {{BBOX_XMAX}} AND bbox.xmax >= {{BBOX_XMIN}}
    AND bbox.ymin <= {{BBOX_YMAX}} AND bbox.ymax >= {{BBOX_YMIN}}
LIMIT 5000;

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✨ Key Features

• 🚀 Blazing Fast Spatial SQL: Powered by vectorized C++ DuckDB engine and DuckDB Spatial extension.
• ☁️ Direct Cloud GeoParquet Streaming: Query remote datasets hosted on AWS S3, HuggingFace, Cloudflare R2, or HTTP without downloading the full archive.
• 📍 Interactive {{BBOX}} Canvas Sync: Inject your active QGIS map bounding box with one click to spatially partition remote queries automatically.
• 🗺️ One-Click "Add to Map Canvas": Converts SQL query results directly into native QGIS vector layers (memory layers or fast GeoPackage).
• 📥 Query Existing QGIS Layers: Expose your active shapefiles, geopackages, or scratch layers as virtual DuckDB tables to perform spatial joins in pure SQL.
• 💡 Built-in Spatial Snippet Library: Pre-loaded queries for Overture Maps, remote GeoParquet, CSV lat/lon conversion, convex hulls, and spatial aggregations.
• 🛠️ 1-Click Dependency Installer: Self-healing setup checks for duckdb inside QGIS's Python environment and installs it with a single click.

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📊 Performance Comparison

Operation	Traditional QGIS	DuckGIS (DuckDB Spatial)	Speedup
Query 5M Row Remote Parquet	❌ Crash / 15+ mins	⚡ 1.2 seconds	~750x faster
Bounding Box Filter on S3	📥 Full Download Required	⚡ 350 ms (HTTP Range Request)	Instant
Spatial Join (100k x 10k points)	⏳ 45 seconds	⚡ 1.8 seconds	25x faster

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🚀 Quickstart & Installation

Option 1: Install via ZIP (Recommended)

1. Download the latest DuckGIS.zip from the Releases page.
2. In QGIS, navigate to Plugins -> Manage and Install Plugins... -> Install from ZIP.
3. Select DuckGIS.zip and click Install Plugin.
4. Click the DuckGIS icon in your toolbar or open via Database -> DuckGIS Studio.

Option 2: Clone into QGIS Plugins Directory

macOS:

cd ~/Library/Application\ Support/QGIS/QGIS3/profiles/default/python/plugins/
git clone https://github.com/Barbhuiya12/DuckGIS.git

Linux:

cd ~/.local/share/QGIS/QGIS3/profiles/default/python/plugins/
git clone https://github.com/Barbhuiya12/DuckGIS.git

Windows (PowerShell):

cd "$env:APPDATA\QGIS\QGIS3\profiles\default\python\plugins\"
git clone https://github.com/Barbhuiya12/DuckGIS.git

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📖 Example Workflows

1. Stream Overture Maps Buildings into QGIS

1. Zoom to your area of interest in QGIS.
2. Open DuckGIS and select the preset: "Overture Maps — Buildings in Current Map View".
3. Click 📍 Map BBox to automatically insert your canvas coordinates.
4. Click ▶ Run (Ctrl+Enter).
5. Click 🗺️ Add to Canvas — your buildings appear instantly on the map!

2. Spatial Join Active Layer with Remote Data

-- Join your active QGIS layer ('my_parcels') with an external GeoParquet dataset
SELECT 
    p.id,
    p.owner_name,
    COUNT(b.geom) as total_structures
FROM my_parcels p
JOIN read_parquet('s3://my-bucket/buildings.parquet') b
  ON ST_Intersects(p.geom, ST_GeomFromWkb(b.geometry))
GROUP BY p.id, p.owner_name;

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🏗️ Architecture

DuckGIS
├── metadata.txt              # QGIS plugin manifest
├── duckgis_plugin.py         # QGIS GUI & action lifecycle manager
├── duckdb_engine.py          # DuckDB connector & spatial extension loader
├── layer_bridge.py           # 2-way conversion: DuckDB Results <-> QGIS Vector Layers
├── ui/
│   ├── dock_widget.py        # Dockable Spatial Studio UI
│   ├── sql_highlighter.py    # Syntax highlighting for SQL & ST_* spatial functions
│   ├── dependency_dialog.py  # 1-click Python package installer
│   └── styles.py             # Theme & UI design tokens
└── presets/
    └── query_library.json    # Curated spatial SQL snippets

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🤝 Contributing & Roadmap

Contributions, suggestions, and PRs are warmly welcome!

• Arrow memory zero-copy sharing between DuckDB and QGIS
• Direct export to Cloud-Optimized GeoTIFF (COG)
• Auto-completion for DuckDB spatial SQL functions

Please open an Issue to discuss feature requests or report bugs.

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📄 License

DuckGIS is open-source software licensed under the GNU General Public License v2.0 (GPL-2.0).