Ubuntu Manpage: v.in.ogr - Imports vector data into a GRASS vector map using OGR library.

NAME

       v.in.ogr  - Imports vector data into a GRASS vector map using OGR library.

KEYWORDS

       vector, import, OGR, topology, geometry, snapping, create location

SYNOPSIS

       v.in.ogr
       v.in.ogr --help
       v.in.ogr    [-flc2tojrewi]   input=string    [layer=string[,string,...]]     [output=name]
       [spatial=xmin,ymin,xmax,ymax[,xmin,ymin,xmax,ymax,...]]                  [where=sql_query]
       [min_area=float]       [type=string[,string,...]]       [snap=float]       [location=name]
       [columns=name[,name,...]]       [encoding=string]       [key=string]       [geometry=name]
       [--overwrite]  [--help]  [--verbose]  [--quiet]  [--ui]

   Flags:
       -f
           List supported OGR formats and exit

       -l
           List available OGR layers in data source and exit

       -c
           Do not clean polygons (not recommended)

       -2
           Force 2D output even if input is 3D
           Useful if input is 3D but all z coordinates are identical

       -t
           Do not create attribute table

       -o
           Override projection check (use current location’s projection)
           Assume that the dataset has the same projection as the current location

       -j
           Perform projection check only and exit

       -r
           Limit import to the current region

       -e
           Extend region extents based on new dataset
           Also updates the default region if in the PERMANENT mapset

       -w
           Change column names to lowercase characters

       -i
           Create  the location specified by the "location" parameter and exit. Do not import the
           vector data.

       --overwrite
           Allow output files to overwrite existing files

       --help
           Print usage summary

       --verbose
           Verbose module output

       --quiet
           Quiet module output

       --ui
           Force launching GUI dialog

   Parameters:
       input=string [required]
           Name of OGR datasource to be imported
           Examples:
           ESRI Shapefile: directory containing shapefiles
           MapInfo File: directory containing mapinfo files

       layer=string[,string,...]
           OGR layer name. If not given, all available layers are imported
           Examples:
           ESRI Shapefile: shapefile name
           MapInfo File: mapinfo file name

       output=name
           Name for output vector map

       spatial=xmin,ymin,xmax,ymax[,xmin,ymin,xmax,ymax,...]
           Import subregion only
           Format: xmin,ymin,xmax,ymax - usually W,S,E,N

       where=sql_query
           WHERE conditions of SQL statement without ’where’ keyword
           Example: income < 1000 and population >= 10000

       min_area=float
           Minimum size of area to be imported (square meters)
           Smaller areas and islands are ignored. Should be greater than snap^2
           Default: 0.0001

       type=string[,string,...]
           Optionally change default input type
           Options: point, line, boundary, centroid
           Default:
           point: import area centroids as points
           line: import area boundaries as lines
           boundary: import lines as area boundaries
           centroid: import points as centroids

       snap=float
           Snapping threshold for boundaries (map units)
           ’-1’ for no snap
           Default: -1

       location=name
           Name for new location to create

       columns=name[,name,...]
           List of column names to be used instead of original names, first is used for  category
           column

       encoding=string
           Encoding value for attribute data
           Overrides encoding interpretation, useful when importing ESRI Shapefile

       key=string
           Name of column used for categories
           If not given, categories are generated as unique values and stored in ’cat’ column

       geometry=name
           Name of geometry column
           If not given, all geometry columns from the input are used

DESCRIPTION

v.in.ogr imports vector data from files and database connections supported by the OGR
library) into the current location and mapset.

If the layer parameter is not given, all available OGR layers are imported as separate
GRASS layers into one GRASS vector map. If several OGR layer names are given, all these
layers are imported as separate GRASS layers into one GRASS vector map.

The optional spatial parameter defines spatial query extents. This parameter allows the
user to restrict the region to a spatial subset while importing the data. All vector
features completely or partially falling into this rectangle subregion are imported. The
-r current region flag is identical, but uses the current region settings as the spatial
bounds (see g.region).

Supported Vector Formats
v.in.ogr uses the OGR library which supports various vector data formats including ESRI
Shapefile, Mapinfo File, UK .NTF, SDTS, TIGER, IHO S-57 (ENC), DGN, GML, GPX, AVCBin, REC,
Memory, OGDI, and PostgreSQL, depending on the local OGR installation. For details see the
OGR web site. The -f prints a list of the vector formats supported by the system’s OGR
(Simple Features Library). The OGR (Simple Features Library) is part of the GDAL library,
hence GDAL needs to be installed to use v.in.ogr.

The list of actually supported formats can be printed by -f flag.

Topology cleaning
Topology cleaning on areas is automatically performed, but may fail in special cases. In
these cases, a snap threshold value is estimated from the imported vector data and printed
out at the end. The vector data can then be imported again with the suggested snap
threshold value which is incremented by powers of 10 until either an estimated upper limit
for the threshold value is reached or the topology cleaning on areas was successful. In
some cases, manual cleaning might be required or areas are truly overlapping, e.g. buffers
created with non-topological software.

The min_area threshold value is being specified as area size in map units with the
exception of latitude-longitude locations in which it is being specified solely in square
meters.

The snap threshold value is used to snap boundary vertices to each other if the distance
in map units between two vertices is not larger than the threshold. Snapping is by default
disabled with -1. See also the v.clean manual.

Overlapping polygons
When importing overlapping polygons, the overlapping parts will become new areas with
multiple categories, one unique category for each original polygon. An original polygon
will thus be converted to multiple areas with the same shared category. These multiple
areas will therefore also link to the same entry in the attribute table. A single category
value may thus refer to multiple non-overlapping areas which together represent the
original polygon overlapping with another polygon. The original polygon can be recovered
by using v.extract with the desired category value or where statement and the -d flag to
dissolve common boundaries.

Location Creation

       v.in.ogr attempts to preserve projection information when importing datasets if the source
       format  includes  projection  information,  and  if  the  OGR  driver supports it.  If the
       projection of the source dataset does not match the projection  of  the  current  location
       v.in.ogr  will  report  an  error message ("Projection of dataset does not appear to match
       current location").

       If the user wishes to ignore the difference between the apparent coordinate system of  the
       source data and the current location, they may pass the -o flag to override the projection
       check.

       If the user wishes to import the data with the full projection definition, it is  possible
       to  have  v.in.ogr automatically create a new location based on the projection and extents
       of the file being read. This is accomplished by passing the name to be used  for  the  new
       location  via the location parameter.  Upon completion of the command, a new location will
       have been created (with only a PERMANENT mapset),  and  the  vector  map  will  have  been
       imported with the indicated output name into the PERMANENT mapset.

       An  interesting  wrapper  command around v.in.ogr is v.import which reprojects (if needed)
       the vector dataset during import to the projection of the current location.

NOTES

Table column names: supported characters
The characters which are eligible for table column names are limited by the SQL standard.
Supported are:
[A-Za-z][A-Za-z0-9_]*
This means that SQL neither supports ’.’ (dots) nor ’-’ (minus) nor ’#’ in table column
names. Also a table name must start with a character, not a number.

v.in.ogr converts ’.’, ’-’ and ’#’ to ’_’ (underscore) during import. The -w flag changes
capital column names to lowercase characters as a convenience for SQL usage (lowercase
column names avoid the need to quote them if the attribute table is stored in a SQL DBMS
such as PostgreSQL). The columns parameter is used to define new column names during
import.

The DBF database specification limits column names to 10 characters. If the default DB is
set to DBF and the input data contains longer column/field names, they will be truncated.
If this results in multiple columns with the same name then v.in.ogr will produce an
error. In this case you will either have to modify the input data or use v.in.ogr’s
columns parameter to rename columns to something unique. (hint: copy and modify the list
given with the error message). Alternatively, change the local DB with db.connect.

File encoding
When importing ESRI Shapefiles the OGR library tries to read the LDID/codepage setting
from the .dbf file and use it to translate string fields to UTF-8. LDID "87 / 0x57" is
treated as ISO8859_1 which may not be appropriate for many languages. Unfortunately it is
not clear what other values may be appropriate (see example below). To change encoding the
user can set up SHAPE_ENCODING environmental variable or simply to define encoding value
using encoding parameter. Note that recoding support is new for GDAL/OGR 1.9.0.

Value for encoding also affects text recoding when importing DXF files. For other formats
has encoding value no effect.

Defining the key column
Option key specifies the column name used for feature categories. This column must be
integer. If not specified, categories numbers are generated starting with 1 and stored in
the column named "cat".

Supports of multiple geometry columns
Starting with GDAL 1.11 the library supports multiple geometry columns in OGR. By default
v.in.ogr reads all geometry columns from given layer. The user can choose desired geometry
column by geometry option, see example below.

Latitude-longitude data: Vector postprocessing after import
For vector data like a grid, horizontal lines need to be broken at their intersections
with vertical lines (v.clean ... tool=break).

EXAMPLES

The command imports various vector formats:

SHAPE files
v.in.ogr input=/home/user/shape_data/test_shape.shp output=grass_map
Alternate method:
v.in.ogr input=/home/user/shape_data layer=test_shape output=grass_map
Define encoding value for attribute data (in this example we expect attribute data in
Windows-1250 encoding; ie. in Central/Eastern European languages that use Latin script,
Microsoft Windows encoding).
v.in.ogr input=/home/user/shape_data/test_shape.shp output=grass_map encoding=cp1250

MapInfo files
v.in.ogr input=./ layer=mapinfo_test output=grass_map

Arc Coverage
We import the Arcs and Label points, the module takes care to build areas.
v.in.ogr input=gemeinden layer=LAB,ARC type=centroid,boundary output=mymap

E00 file
See also v.in.e00.

First we have to convert the E00 file to an Arc Coverage with ’avcimport’ (AVCE00 tools,
use e00conv first in case that avcimport fails):
avcimport e00file coverage
v.in.ogr input=coverage layer=LAB,ARC type=centroid,boundary output=mymap

SDTS files
You have to select the CATD file.
v.in.ogr input=CITXCATD.DDF output=cities

TIGER files
v.in.ogr input=input/2000/56015/ layer=CompleteChain,PIP output=t56015_all \
type=boundary,centroid snap=-1

PostGIS tables
Import polygons as areas:
v.in.ogr input="PG:host=localhost dbname=postgis user=postgres" layer=polymap \
output=polygons type=boundary,centroid
If the table containing the polygons are in a specific schema, you can use:
v.in.ogr input="PG:host=localhost dbname=postgis user=postgres" \
layer=myschema.polymap \
output=polygons type=boundary,centroid
Generally, v.in.ogr just follows the format-specific syntax defined by the OGR library.

OpenStreetMap (OSM)
OSM data are available in .osm (XML based) and .pbf (optimized binary) formats. The .pbf
format is recommended because file sizes are smaller. The OSM driver will categorize
features into 5 layers :

• points: "node" features that have significant tags attached.

• lines: "way" features that are recognized as non-area.

• multilinestrings: "relation" features that form a multilinestring(type =
’multilinestring’ or type = ’route’).

• multipolygons: "relation" features that form a multipolygon (type = ’multipolygon’
or type = ’boundary’), and "way" features that are recognized as area.

• other_relations: "relation" features that do not belong to any of the above
layers.
It is recommended to import one layer at a time.

Import of OSM data requires a configuration file, defined with the OSM_CONFIG_FILE
configuration option. In the data folder of the GDAL distribution, you can find a
osmconf.ini file that can be customized to fit your needs. See OSM map features for keys
and their values. You should set "other_tags=no" to avoid problems with import or querying
the imported vector. Once a OSM_CONFIG_FILE has been created, OSM data can be imported
with e.g.
export OSM_CONFIG_FILE=/path/to/osmconf.ini
v.in.ogr input=name.pbf layer=lines output=osm_data

Oracle Spatial
Note that you have to set the environment-variables ORACLE_BASE, ORACLE_SID, ORACLE_HOME
and TNS_ADMIN accordingly.
v.in.ogr input=OCI:username/password@database_instance output=grasslayer layer=roads_oci

Multiple geometry columns
This example shows how to work with data which contain multiple geometry per feature. The
number of geometry columns per feature can be checked by v.external together with -t flag.
v.external -t input=20141130_ST_UKSH.xml.gz
...
Okresy,point,1,DefinicniBod
Okresy,multipolygon,1,OriginalniHranice
Okresy,multipolygon,1,GeneralizovaneHranice
...
In our example layer "Okresy" has three geometry columns: "DefinicniBod",
"OriginalniHranice" and "GeneralizovanaHranice". By default v.in.ogr reads data from all
three geometry columns. The user can specify desired geometry column by geometry option,
in this case the module will read geometry only from the specified geometry column. In the
example below, the output vector map will contain only geometry saved in
"OriginalniHranice" geometry column.
v.in.ogr input=20141130_ST_UKSH.xml.gz layer=Okresy geometry=OriginalniHranice

WARNINGS

       If a message like "WARNING: Area size 1.3e-06, area not imported." appears,  the  min_area
       may  be  adjusted  to a smaller value so that all areas are imported. Otherwise tiny areas
       are filtered out during import (useful to polish digitization  errors  or  non-topological
       data).

       If  a  message  like  "Try  to import again, snapping with at least 1e-008: ’snap=1e-008’"
       appears, then the map to be imported contains topological errors. The message  suggests  a
       value  for  the  snap  parameter  to  be  tried.  For  more details, see above in Topology
       Cleaning.

ERROR MESSAGES

       DBMI-DBF driver error: SQL parser error: syntax error,  unexpected  DESC,  expecting  NAME
       processing ’DESC’
           indicates  that  a  column  name corresponds to a reserved SQL word (here: ’DESC’).  A
           different column name should be used. The columns parameter  can  be  used  to  assign
           different column names on the fly.

       Projection of dataset does not appear to match the current location.
           You  need  to  create a location whose projection matches the data you wish to import.
           Try using location parameter to create  a  new  location  based  upon  the  projection
           information  in  the  file. If desired, you can then re-project it to another location
           with v.proj.

REFERENCES

           •   OGR vector library

           •   OGR vector library C API documentation

AUTHORS

       Original author: Radim Blazek, ITC-irst, Trento, Italy
       Location and spatial extent support by Markus Neteler and Paul Kelly
       Various improvements by Markus Metz
       Multiple geometry columns support by Martin Landa, OSGeoREL, Czech Technical University in
       Prague, Czech Republic

       Last changed: $Date: 2017-10-08 08:45:15 +0200 (Sun, 08 Oct 2017) $

SOURCE CODE

       Available at: v.in.ogr source code (history)

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       © 2003-2018 GRASS Development Team, GRASS GIS 7.4.0 Reference Manual