GRASS migration hints

Migrating to GRASS

Welcome! There is a lot of help on the web and a wealth of expertise available on the mailing lists and via IRC.

GIS "The GRASS way"

Interoperability

Collaboration with external software is highly encouraged.

• GDAL/OGR for Import/Export
• R statistics: GRASS/R interface
• DXF: v.in.dxf, v.out.dxf
• Matlab/Octave: r.in.mat, r.out.mat, v.in.mapgen, v.in.ascii, v.out.ascii
• POV-Ray rendering: r.out.pov, v.out.pov
• VMRL: r.out.vrml (3D virtual realilty)
• GMT - Generic Mapping Tools for cartography: r.in.bin, r.out.bin
• Google Earth/KML: v.out.ogr
• VTK (Paraview, etc): r3.out.vtk, r.out.vtk, v.out.vtk
• V5D: r3.in.v5d, r3.out.v5d

Portability

• All code POSIX C and generic UNIX compatible
• Most code MinGW compatible for native MS-Windows

Scriptability

• GRASS is made up of modular tools specifically designed for easy scriptability in any number of common scripting languages

• SWIG interface for direct hooks into higher scripting languages

• if "GRASS_BATCH_JOB=/path/to/script.sh" is set GRASS 6.3+ will run the script as a batch job and exit when it is complete. Start GRASS with the full path to the mapset to avoid the startup menus. See also GRASS and Shell.

Freedom

• How the Open Source software development model works

GRASS Concepts

• GIS concepts

Tips for recent migrants

• Tips for ArcGIS users
• GIS Software to GRASS command translation table and discussion
• GRASS 4 and 5 users: GRASS Module Porting List (check here if you don't find a certain command in GRASS 6)

Software Comparisons

• ArcGIS & GRASS (in Italian)
• MSc thesis 2006 (English), comparing ArcGIS & GRASS