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Any idea how to extract the centerline of the following polygon (Fig1) using PostGIS functions or Python modules? I was trying Voronoi Function but thats not helpful for this kind of shape. I want something like Fig2 blackline.

Fig1: Polygon Shape Fig2: Centerline

PolyGeo
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Zia
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    You may want to look at this answer: http://gis.stackexchange.com/questions/29863/creating-centrelines-from-road-polygons-casings I know it uses ArcGIS instead, but the approach may be useful. – WhiteboxDev Sep 20 '14 at 19:31
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    How about: http://postgis.net/docs/ST_StraightSkeleton.html ? – Jakub Kania Sep 22 '14 at 23:15
  • @Jakub I am trying to configure SFCGAL (necessary for Skeleton function) to my already existing PostGIS db. Although I have installed the libSFCGAL.so file in /usr/local/lib directory but don't know how to bring ST_StriaghtSkeleton() in the db? Any idea? – Zia Sep 23 '14 at 13:11
  • PostGIS needs to be compiled with SFCGAL support, but that's a diffrent question and not something I'm too familiar with. – Jakub Kania Sep 23 '14 at 17:53
  • @Jakub Thanks. I have somehow solved this SFCGAL configuration by myself here – Zia Sep 24 '14 at 07:35

2 Answers2

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This may be a wrong tool for you, but you can do it simply with OpenJUMP and Skeletonizer plugin. Plugin can be downloaded from http://sourceforge.net/projects/jump-pilot/files/OpenJUMP_plugins/More%20Plugins/JUMP%20Skeletonizer%20Plugin/

Zip file contains a good manual. Plugin is meant for streams and water bodies but your polygon mimics a stream to me.

This is your polygon as I digitized it. Notice vertices in the center lines of inputs/outlets.

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Entry points digitized on a separate layer. Points must snap to vertices on the polygon boundary.

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Use the Skeletonizer tools and fill in the fields

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Get the result

enter image description here

user30184
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  • Unfortunately the jar file contains no manual. Could you please guide me how to add this plugin to my OpenJump-GUI? – Zia Sep 23 '14 at 13:53
  • Look inside the zip, in skeletonizer-1.0\doc\ you should find file "SkeletonizerUserGuide.doc". Installation is done by dropping the jar files from skeletonizer-1.0\lib\ into lib\ext directory in OpenJUMP. – user30184 Sep 23 '14 at 14:01
  • However, it looks like most jars or newer versions of those are already included in OpenJUMP either in \lib or in \lib\ext. Perhaps it is best to copy just those which seem to be missing. Restart is needed after adding new jars. – user30184 Sep 23 '14 at 14:08
  • I found this jar here. But I am getting this error java.lang.Exception: Could not determine shapefile type - data is either all GeometryCollections or empty (Illegal State Exception) while running this Skeletonizer plugin – Zia Sep 23 '14 at 14:34
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If your polygon is raster, digitize it.

Once your polygon is really a polygon :), a first solution lies, like @WhiteboxDev said, it's the straight skeleton, but it has the problem that, besides the centerline you want, it also returns a lot of segments radiating from that line to the border of your polygon. But if you have PostGIS 2.2+, you can use ST_ApproximateMedialAxis() instead, which is what you want.

Marcos Dione
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