CHAPTER 1

FREEWAT v.1.1.2 - Installation & Requirements

Install QGIS

The first step in order to use FREEWAT is to install QGIS.

Please, notice that the present version of the FREEWAT plugin is NOT yet compatible with QGIS 3. As such,
downloading QGIS version 2.18 Las Palmas is needed.
FREEWAT has been tested within the following QGIS versions:
• 2.14 Essen;
• 2.16 Nodebo;
• 2.18 Las Palmas.
In order to install QGIS version 2.18 Las Palmas, please refer to the official documentation available at the QGIS web
site.
Please, notice that some Users experienced problems with QGIS sub-version 2.18.28. Should this be the case, installation
of QGIS sub-version 2.18.21 is suggested.

Note: In order to avoid conflicts during FREEWAT installation, having ONLY ONE VERSION OF QGIS installed
is highly recommended. However, some Users having QGIS versions 2.18 and 3.x (3.x indicates the most updated
version of QGIS 3) installed on the same pc did not experience any problem. Furthermore, having QGIS and ArcGIS
jointly installed on the same pc is strongly discouraged.

Note: Screenshots of QGIS interfaces reported in the following were made with QGIS version 2.18 Las Palmas.

Install the FREEWAT plugin

Information on how to download the last version of the FREEWAT plugin can be found at this web page. Once
the download area of the FREEWAT web site has been accessed, it will be possible to download the zip file
freewat_v.x.x.zip (x.x indicates the most updated version of the plugin), along with User Manuals and
training material.

Note: The FREEWAT plugin can not be installed on MAC OS machines.

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In all the other Operative Systems (Windows and Linux), once QGIS is run for the first time, the .qgis2 folder is
created.
On Windows machines you can find this folder under C:\Users\user_name\.qgis2, while on Linux machines
it is located in your home folder (/home/user/.qgis2).

Note: Spaces and/or special characters (e.g., accents) must be avoided in the path of the
C:\Users\user_name\.qgis2 or /home/user/.qgis2 folders.

• Step 1. In order to install the FREEWAT plugin, you have to extract the provided plugin
folder (its name is freewat, it is located within the downloaded freewat_v.x.x.zip
file) in C:\Users\user_name\.qgis2\python\plugins (for Windows machines) or
/home/user/.qgis2/python/plugins (for Linux machines). Sometimes the plugins folder
could not exist. In such case, you can just create it (its name must be exactly plugins, lower case letters).
• Step 2. Download the freewat_dep.zip file from the Download area of the FREEWAT website and extract the
content of this zip file in whatever folder of your pc.
• Step 3. From the START button search OSGeo4W Shell -> right click on it and Run as administrator. For
Linux Operative Systems, the OSGeo4W Shell is nothing but the prompt shell.
• Step 4. Browse to the freewat_dep folder using the cd command (e.g., if you extracted the freewat_dep folder
under C:\Users, you must type cd C:\Users\freewat_dep).
• Step 5. Type installer_32bit.bat (for 32-bit machines) or installer_64bit.bat (for 64-bit
machines) and wait until all the required libraries are installed (a couple of minutes are needed). NOTE: this Step
requires connection to the Internet.

• Step 6. A txt file renamed install.txt must be created manually in

C:\Users\user_name\.qgis2\python\plugins\freewat\install or
/home/user/.qgis2/python/plugins. This txt file must contain only the sentence installation
done.

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Start FREEWAT

After QGIS and all the needed dependencies have been correctly installed, run QGIS.
FREEWAT should appear as a drop-down menu in the toolbar of the QGIS Graphical User Interface (GUI).

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If not, just go to Plugins -> Manange and Install Plugins.., type FREEWAT in the Search bar and click on the
corresponding checkbox to activate the plugin, as shown in the picture below:

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The FREEWAT platform can now be used by following the logical workflow presented in the following Chapter.