Bdtyktl

I am trying to sort point symbols at the same coordinates in a line. The first picture shows how I want it to be (all symbols in a single horizontal line), the second how it looks with the standard grid-based point displacement (multiple, unwanted rows of symbols, and therefor also an unwanted overlap of text and symbols).

Is there any way/plugin to either change the parameters of how the grid is built (number of rows/lines) or any other way to show symbols in a line?

I am not hugely into scripting or programming though.

I would calculate offset distance (dx) for each feature, so that I can position them by (x, y) = ($x+dx, $y).

An example of expression to calculate dx is:

with_variable('my_array', array_agg("symbols", group_by:="geom_to_wkt($geometry)"), 

               5 *(array_find(@my_array, "symbols") - floor(array_length(@my_array)/2)))

• You will need to modify "symbols" according to your attribute field which defines your categorized symbols.


• The second line has a factor 5, but it is arbitrary. Please adjust this number by visually checking your output.

[EDIT]

To modify x-location of symbols according to the dx calculated above, there would be some options:

(Option 1) Geometry generator

This is dynamic way, and probably a preferred option. In the Layer Properties window, click on Change button next to Symbol. Then select Geometry generator as the Symbol layer type and Point/Multipoint as the Geometry type. The actual expression would be make_point($x+"dx", $y).

(Option 2) Create points layer from table

This tool is found under Processing Toolbox | Vector creation. It is more static way and requires new_x field (by $x+"dx") and new_y field ($y, so it is not new). One merit of this approach is that you can later modify new_x and new_y field manually, so that you can place them in two or three rows if you like.

Add extra points at each location to expand the grid layout until the original point symbols fit on a single line of the grid.

Make the extra points invisible by setting the opacity of their symbol to 0%.

In this example I had 5 points at one location. I added another 16 points to expand the grid to 5x5, forcing the main 5 points onto the same line. I left the grid lines on so you can see the layout.

Note: Leave the attributes of the duplicate points blank, so you don't later get confused and think they represent real-world features. It's probably best to make a backup of the point file.