Installing the plugin
Installation
The first step is to install the plugin. To install the plugin, you should open QGIS and find it in the official QGIS plugin repository as "Bunting Labs AI Vectorizer". This is what you should see.
Once you have the plugin downloaded, create a vector layer, activate editing, and select the Vectorize with AI icon—show below. This will bring you to the log in window.
Logging in
If you have never signed in to our website before, you will be walked through the onboarding, and then will be emailed a log in link. Once you click the link in your email from Stytch with the subject “Your account creation request for Bunting Labs”, you will be able to use the AI.
If you have already signed up via the website, your process to use the plugin is the same except you will be prompted to put in your Secret Key, which is a string of letters and numbers found on your dashboard after you sign in.
You will be on a free trial to use the plugin on your own maps. If you want more digitization throughput, you can upgrade for more usage and more features like fine-grained control over how we store your maps.
Starting the plugin
To use the plugin, you need to have a vector LineString, MultiLine, or Polygon layer and a raster map loaded. Activate editing on the vector layer, activate Vectorize with AI, and you can then start digitizing.
Using the plugin
Zoom
After you activate the plugin and find the feature you want to digitize, zoom in or out to make sure the feature is a few pixels wide. For lines this means that the line fits just inside the circle cursor in QGIS. For polygons, that means zoomed in enough that you can make sure that the first clicks are along the edge of the polygon.
First clicks
To start the AI, click twice along the feature you want to digitize. The accuracy of the AI depends on the accuracy and length of these first two clicks, so make sure that both clicks are on the feature and that the clicks are at least a few pixels apart.
Using the plugin and saving progress
Once you make the first two clicks, you can move your cursor forward along the feature you want to digitize. This will move the rubber band forward, showing you the AI generated line. You can move your cursor to change the direction and length of the generated line. As you move your cursor into new parts of the map, you will load those parts into the server to run the AI on. At the last point that the AI makes a correct completion, you can left click to save its progress. You can then try to get it to digitize through a complicated part of the map or hold down the shift key to make manual completions.
Finishing digitization
When you are finished digitizing a feature, you can right click to create the feature. If you need to export this file to use in other software, you can right click on the vector file and download it as a Shapefile or other vector format.