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This chapter introduces the QGIS processing framework, a geoprocessing environment that can be used to call native and third-party algorithms from QGIS, making your spatial analysis tasks more productive and easy to accomplish.
In the following sections, we will review how to use the graphical elements of this framework and make the most out of each one of them.
There are four basic elements in the framework GUI, which are used to run algorithms for different purposes. Choosing one tool or another will depend on the kind of analysis that is to be performed and the particular characteristics of each user and project. All of them (except for the batch processing interface, which is called from the toolbox or the algorithm execution dialog, as we will see) can be accessed from the Processing menu item. (You will see more than four entries. The remaining ones are not used to execute algorithms and will be explained later in this chapter).
In the following sections, we will review each one of these elements in detail.
Note
About Vector Menu
Some processing algorithms can be accessed via the Vector menu which lists some tools from the processing framework but also from plugins.