Provided by: grass-doc_6.4.3-3_all 
NAME
r.out.gdal - Exports GRASS raster maps into GDAL supported formats.
KEYWORDS
raster, export
SYNOPSIS
r.out.gdal
r.out.gdal help
r.out.gdal [-lcf] [input=name] [format=string] [type=string] [output=name]
[createopt=string[,string,...]] [metaopt=string[,string,...]] [nodata=float]
[--verbose] [--quiet]
Flags:
-l
List supported output formats
-c
Do not write GDAL standard colortable
Only applicable to Byte or UInt16 data types.
-f
Force raster export despite any warnings of data loss
Overrides nodata safety check.
--verbose
Verbose module output
--quiet
Quiet module output
Parameters:
input=name
Name of raster map (or group) to export
format=string
GIS format to write (case sensitive, see also -l flag)
Options:
VRT,GTiff,NITF,HFA,ELAS,AAIGrid,DTED,PNG,JPEG,MEM,GIF,XPM,BMP,PCIDSK,PCRaster,ILWIS,SGI,SRTMHGT,Leveller,Terragen,GMT,netCDF,HDF4Image,ISIS2,ERS,JPEG2000,FIT,RMF,WMS,RST,INGR,GSAG,GSBG,GS7BG,R,PNM,ENVI,EHdr,PAux,MFF,MFF2,BT,LAN,IDA,GTX,NTv2,CTable2,ARG,USGSDEM,ADRG,BLX,Rasterlite,EPSILON,PostGISRaster,SAGA,KMLSUPEROVERLAY,XYZ,HF2,PDF,ZMap
Default: GTiff
type=string
File type
Options:
Byte,Int16,UInt16,Int32,UInt32,Float32,Float64,CInt16,CInt32,CFloat32,CFloat64
output=name
Name for output raster file
createopt=string[,string,...]
Creation option(s) to pass to the output format driver
In the form of "NAME=VALUE", separate multiple entries with a comma.
metaopt=string[,string,...]
Metadata key(s) and value(s) to include
In the form of "META-TAG=VALUE", separate multiple entries with a comma. Not supported
by all output format drivers.
nodata=float
Assign a specified nodata value to output bands
DESCRIPTION
r.out.gdal allows a user to export a GRASS raster map layer into any GDAL supported raster
map format. If a GRASS raster map is exported for a particular application, the
application's native format would be preferrable. GeoTIFF is supported by a wide range of
applications (see also NOTES on GeoTIFF below).
To specify multiple creation options use a comma separated list
(createopt="TFW=YES,COMPRESS=DEFLATE").
For possible createopt and metaopt parameters please consult the individual supported
formats pages on the GDAL website. The createopt parameter may be used to create TFW or
World files ("TFW=YES","WORLDFILE=ON").
r.out.gdal also supports the export of multiband rasters as a group, when the imagery
group's name is entered as input. (created imagery groups with the i.group module)
As with most GRASS raster modules, the current region extents and region resolution are
used, and a MASK is respected if present. Use g.region's "align=", or "rast=" options if
you need to realign the region settings to match the original map's before export.
SUPPORTED RASTER FORMATS
The set of supported raster formats written by r.out.gdal depends on the local GDAL
installation. Available may be (incomplete list):
AAIGrid: Arc/Info ASCII Grid
BMP: MS Windows Device Independent Bitmap
BSB: Maptech BSB Nautical Charts
DTED: DTED Elevation Raster
ELAS: ELAS
ENVI: ENVI .hdr Labelled
FIT: FIT Image
GIF: Graphics Interchange Format (.gif)
GTiff: GeoTIFF
HDF4Image: HDF4 Dataset
HFA: Erdas Imagine Images (.img)
JPEG2000: JPEG-2000 part 1 (ISO/IEC 15444-1)
JPEG: JPEG JFIF
MEM: In Memory Raster
MFF2: Atlantis MFF2 (HKV) Raster
MFF: Atlantis MFF Raster
NITF: National Imagery Transmission Format
PAux: PCI .aux Labelled
PCIDSK: PCIDSK Database File
PNG: Portable Network Graphics
PNM: Portable Pixmap Format (netpbm)
VRT: Virtual Raster
XPM: X11 PixMap Format
NOTES
Out of the GDAL data types, the closest match for GRASS CELL, FCELL and DCELL rasters are
respectively Int32, Float32 and Float64. These are not exact equivalents, but they will
preserve the maximum possible data range and number of decimal places for each respective
GRASS raster data type. Please keep in mind that not all CELL rasters will require Int32
- e.g., 0-255 CELL raster are covered by the Byte type as well. Moreover, some GDAL-
supported formats do not support all the data types possible in GDAL and GRASS. Use r.info
to check the data type and range for your GRASS raster, refer to specific format
documentation (on the GDAL website), format vendor's documentation, and e.g. the Wikipedia
article Typical boundaries of primitive integral types for details.
Ranges of GDAL data types
GDAL data type minimum maximum
Byte 0 255
UInt16 0 65,535
Int16, CInt16 -32,768 32,767
UInt32 0 4,294,967,295
Int32, CInt32 -2,147,483,648 2,147,483,647
Float32, CFloat32 -3.4E38 3.4E38
Float64, CFloat64 -1.79E308 1.79E308
If there is a need to keep file sizes small, use the simplest data type covering the data
range of the raster(s) to be exported, e.g., if suitable use Byte rather than UInt16; use
Int16 rather than Int32; or use Float32 rather than Float64. In addition, the COMPRESS
createopt used can have a very large impact on the size of the output file.
Some software may not recognize all of the compression methods available for a given file
format, and certain compression methods may only be supported for certain data types
(depends on vendor and version).
If the export settings are set such that data loss would occur in the output file (i.e,
due to the particular choice of data type and/or file type), the normal behaviour of
r.out.gdal in this case would be to issue an error message describing the problem and exit
without exporting. The -f flag allows raster export even if some of the data loss tests
are not passed, and warnings are issued instead of errors.
r.out.gdal exports may appear all black or gray on initial display in other GIS software.
This is not a bug of r.out.gdal, but often caused by the default color table assigned by
that software. The default color table may be grayscale covering the whole range of
possible values which is very large for e.g. Int32 or Float32. E.g. stretching the color
table to actual min/max would help (sometimes under symbology).
GeoTIFF caveats
GeoTIFF exports can only be displayed by standard image viewers if the GDAL data type was
set to Byte and the GeoTIFF contains either one or three bands. All other data types and
numbers of bands can be properly read with GIS software only. Although GeoTIFF files
usually have a .tif extension, these files are not necessarily images but first of all
spatial raster datasets, e.g. SRTM DEM version 4.
When writing out multi-band GeoTIFF images for users of ESRI software or ImageMagick, the
interleaving mode should be set to "pixel" using createopt="INTERLEAVE=PIXEL". BAND
interleaving is slightly more efficient, but not supported by some applications. This
issue only arises when writing out multi-band imagery groups.
Improving GeoTIFF compatibility
To create a GeoTIFF that is highly compatible with various other GIS software packages, it
is recommended to keep the GeoTIFF file as simple as possible. You will have to experiment
with which options your software is compatible with, as this varies widely between vendors
and versions. Long term, the less metadata you have to remove the more self-documenting
(and useful) the dataset will be.
Here are some things to try:
Create a World file with createopt="TFW=YES".
Do not use GeoTIFF internal compression. Other GIS software often supports
only a subset of the available compression methods with the supported
methods differing between GIS software packages. Unfortunately this means
the output image can be rather huge, but the file can be compressed with
software like zip, gnuzip, or bzip2.
Skip exporting the color table. Color tables are not always properly
rendered, particularly for type UInt16, and the GeoTIFF file can appear
completely black. If you are lucky the problematic software package has a
method to reset the color table and assign a new color table (sometimes
called symbology).
Keep metadata simple with createopt="PROFILE=GeoTIFF" or
createopt="PROFILE=BASELINE". With BASELINE no GDAL or GeoTIFF tags will be
written and a World file is required (createopt="TFW=YES").
Adding overviews with gdaladdo after exporting can speed up display. Note
that other software might create their own overviews, ignoring existing
overviews.
EXAMPLES
Export the integer raster roads map to GeoTIFF format:
r.out.gdal input=roads output=roads.tif type=UInt16
Export a DCELL raster map in GeoTIFF format suitable for ESRI software:
r.out.gdal in=elevation.10m out=ned_elev10m.tif type=Float64
createopt="PROFILE=GeoTIFF,TFW=YES"
Export R,G,B imagery bands in GeoTIFF format suitable for ESRI software:
i.group group=nc_landsat_rgb input=lsat7_2002_30,lsat7_2002_20,lsat7_2002_10
r.out.gdal in=nc_landsat_rgb out=nc_landsat_rgb.tif type=Byte
createopt="PROFILE=GeoTIFF,INTERLEAVE=PIXEL,TFW=YES"
Export the floating point raster elevation map to ERDAS/IMG format:
r.out.gdal input=elevation.10m output=elev_dem10.img format=HFA type=Float32
Export group of image maps as multi-band file
g.list group
i.group group=tm7 subgroup=tm7 input=tm7_10,tm7_20,tm7_30,tm7_40,tm7_50,tm7_60,tm7_70
i.group -l tm7
r.out.gdal tm7 type=UInt16 out=lsat_multiband.tif
gdalinfo lsat_multiband.tif
GDAL RELATED ERROR MESSAGES
"ERROR 6: SetColorInterpretation() not supported for this dataset.": This
may indicate that the color table was not written properly. But usually it
will be correct and the message can be ignored.
"ERROR 6: SetNoDataValue() not supported for this dataset.": The selected
output format does not support "no data". It is recommended to use a
different output format if your data contains NULLs.
"Warning 1: Lost metadata writing to GeoTIFF ... too large to fit in tag.":
The color table metadata may be too large. It is recommended to simplify or
not write the color table, or use a different output format.
SEE ALSO
The GDAL supported formats page.
r.out.ascii, r.out.arc, r.out.bin, r.out.mat, r.out.png, r.out.ppm, r.out.tiff
r.out.gdal.sh (old shell script version using gdal_translate)
REFERENCES
GDAL Pages: http://www.gdal.org
AUTHORS
Vytautas Vebra (oliver4grass at gmail.com)
Markus Metz (improved nodata logic)
Last changed: $Date: 2010-09-16 00:25:59 -0700 (Thu, 16 Sep 2010) $
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