Flags:

-b

Do not build topology for the output vector

-c

Combine tools with recommended follow-up tools

--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=name [required]

Name of input vector map
Or data source for direct OGR access

layer=string

Layer number or name (’-1’ for all layers)
A single vector map can be connected to multiple database tables. This number determines which table to use. When used with direct OGR access this is the layer name.
Default: -1

type=string[,string,...]

Input feature type
Options: point, line, boundary, centroid, area, face, kernel
Default: point,line,boundary,centroid,area,face,kernel

output=name [required]

Name for output vector map

error=name

Name of output map where errors are written

tool=string[,string,...] [required]

Cleaning tool
Options: break, snap, rmdangle, chdangle, rmbridge, chbridge, rmdupl, rmdac, bpol, prune, rmarea, rmline, rmsa
break: break lines at each intersection
snap: snap lines to vertex in threshold
rmdangle: remove dangles, threshold ignored if < 0
chdangle: change the type of boundary dangle to line, threshold ignored if < 0, input line type is ignored
rmbridge: remove bridges connecting area and island or 2 islands
chbridge: change the type of bridges connecting area and island or 2 islands from boundary to line
rmdupl: remove duplicate geometry features (pay attention to categories!)
rmdac: remove duplicate area centroids (’type’ option ignored)
bpol: break (topologically clean) polygons (imported from non topological format, like ShapeFile). Boundaries are broken on each point shared between 2 and more polygons where angles of segments are different
prune: remove vertices in threshold from lines and boundaries, boundary is pruned only if topology is not damaged (new intersection, changed attachment of centroid), first and last segment of the boundary is never changed
rmarea: remove small areas, the longest boundary with adjacent area is removed
rmline: remove all lines or boundaries of zero length, threshold is ignored
rmsa: remove small angles between lines at nodes

threshold=float[,float,...]

Threshold in map units, one value for each tool
Default: 0.0[,0.0,...])

Break lines/boundaries

The break tool breaks lines/boundaries at intersections and it also breaks lines/boundaries forming a collapsed loop. For example, 0.0;1.0;0.0 is broken at 1.0.

Threshold does not apply (it is ignored), use an arbitrary value (e.g., 0) if v.clean is run with several tools.

Hint: Breaking lines should be followed by removing duplicates, e.g. v.clean ... tool=break,rmdupl. If the -c flag is used with v.clean ... tool=break, duplicates are automatically removed.

Remove duplicate geometry features

The rmdupl tool removes geometry features with identical coordinates. Categories are merged. If a point and a centroid have identical coordinates, one of them will be removed if both points and centroids are selected with v.clean ... type=point,centroid. The same applies for lines and boundaries.

Threshold does not apply (it is ignored), use an arbitrary value (e.g., 0) if v.clean is run with several tools.

The rmdupl tool should be used after breaking lines and breaking polygons.

Remove dangles or change boundary dangles to type line

A line/boundary is considered to be a dangle if no other line of given type is on at least one end node. If a dangle is formed by several lines, such a string of lines is taken as one dangle and line lengths are summarized. The rmdangle tool deletes a dangle if the (combined) length is shorter than thresh or thresh < 0. If the combined length is larger than thresh, nothing is deleted.

Threshold has to be given as maximum line/boundary length in map units; for latitude-longitude locations in degree. Dangles shorter than thresh are removed sequentially. All dangles will be removed if thresh < 0.

With thresh < 0, only closed loops and lines connecting loops will remain. This is useful to remove all incorrect boundaries after other cleaning operations with thres is < 0. Areas can then be successfully built.

To preferentially remove shortest dangles first, a first pass with a small thresh value can be followed by subsequent passes with higher thresh values. This can be done as one v.clean job by listing the tool several times and by defining a list of increasing thresh values.

The chdangle tool is similar to the rmdangle tool, but works only on boundaries and changes dangling boundaries to lines instead of removing them.

Remove or change bridges connecting an area and an island or two islands

A bridge is an area type connection of an island (polygon in a polygon) to the outer polygon. This is topologically incorrect (but OGC Simple Features allow it). The rmbridge tool removes bridges and the chbridge tool changes bridges to type line:

    +-------------+             +-------------+   +-------------+
    |            P|  P: polygon |            P|   |            P|
    |    +---+    |  I: island  |    +---+    |   |    +---+    |
    |    | I |    |  B: bridge  |    | I |    |   |    | I |    |
    |    |   |    |  L: line    |    |   |    |   |    |   |    |
    |    +-+-+    |             |    +---+    |   |    +-.-+    |
    |      |      |             |             |   |      .      |
    |      | B    |             |             |   |      . L    |
    |      |      |             |             |   |      .      |
    +------+------+             +-------------+   +-------------+

Islands and areas must be already clean, i.e. without dangles or small angles, e.g. v.clean ... type=boundary tool=rmdangle,rmsa,break,rmdupl,rmbridge thresh=-1,0,0,0,0.

Threshold does not apply (it is ignored), use an arbitrary value (e.g., 0) if v.clean is run with several tools.

Snap lines to vertex in threshold

The snap tool snaps vertices to another vertex not farther away than thresh. If there is no other vertex within thresh, no snapping will be done. The type option can have a strong influence on the result. A too large threshold and type=boundary can severely damage area topology, beyond repair.

Threshold gives maximum distance to another vertex in map units, for latitude-longitude locations in degree.

Snapped boundaries may need to be cleaned with break,rmdupl,rmsa. If the -c flag is used with v.clean tool=snap, the sequence of break,rmdupl,rmsa is automatically repeated after snapping until no more small angles a left. Additional cleaning with e.g. tool=rmdanglemay be necessary.

Remove duplicate area centroids

The rmdac tool removes duplicate area centroids that can result from deleting boundaries.

Threshold does not apply (it is ignored), use an arbitrary value (e.g., 0) if v.clean is run with several tools.

Break (topologically clean) areas (imported from a non topological

The bpol tool breaks boundaries on each point shared between 2 and more areas where angles of boundary segments are different and on all boundary nodes (start and end points of each boundary). The bpol tool behaves similar to break for boundaries, but does not break collapsed loops. The bpol tool is faster than the break tool but needs more memory.

Threshold does not apply (it is ignored), use an arbitrary value (e.g., 0) if v.clean is run with several tools.

The bpol tool should be followed by rmdupl. If the -c flag is used with v.clean ... tool=bpol, duplicates are automatically removed.

Remove vertices in threshold from lines and boundaries

The prune tool simplifies lines and boundaries by removing vertices according to threshold. This tool preserves area topology, areas are never deleted and centroid attachment is never changed. v.generalize offers much more functionality for line simplification but does not preserve area topology.

Remove small areas

The rmarea tool removes all areas <= thresh. The longest boundary with an adjacent area is removed or all boundaries if there is no adjacent area. Area categories are not combined when a small area is merged with a larger area.

Threshold must always be in square meters, also for latitude-longitude locations or locations with units other than meters.

Remove all lines or boundaries of zero length

The rmline tool removes all lines or boundaries of zero length that may have resulted from other cleaning operations. Zero length boundaries are redundant and do not influence area topology.

Threshold does not apply (it is ignored), use an arbitrary value (e.g., 0) if v.clean is run with several tools.

Remove small angles between lines at nodes

The rmsa tool only concerns angles which are so small that the calculated angle is 0. The following figure should help demonstrate what the tool does.

Threshold does not apply, use dummy value if v.clean is run with several tools.

The rmsa tool should be followed by break,rmdupl. The rmsa tool followed by break,rmdupl may need to be run more than once to remove all small angles. If the -c flag is used with v.clean ... tool=rmsa, the sequence of rmsa,break,rmdupl is automatically repeated until no more small angles a left.

Snap lines to vertex in threshold

v.clean input=testmap output=cleanmap tool=snap threshold=1

Inspecting the topological errors visually

v.build -e map=imported error=build_errors
v.clean -c input=imported output=clean error=cleaning_errors tool=snap,rmdangle,rmbridge,chbridge,bpol,prune threshold=5

d.vect map=imported color=26:26:26 fill_color=77:77:77 width=5
d.vect map=build_errors color=255:33:36 fill_color=none width=5 icon=basic/point size=30
d.vect map=cleaning_errors color=255:33:36 fill_color=none width=5 icon=basic/point size=30

Cleaning OGR imported data (Simple Feature data) such as SHAPE file

v.clean input=areamap output=areamap_clean tool=bpol,rmdupl type=boundary

Extracting intersection points of vector lines

v.clean input=lines1 output=lines2 err=points tool=break type=line

Break lines

v.in.ascii -n out=crossed_lines format=standard << EOF
L 2
 0 5
 10 5
L 2
 5 0
 5 10
EOF
v.clean in=crossed_lines out=crossed_lines_brk \
        error=intersection tool=break type=line

Remove all lines of zero length

v.out.ascii zero format=standard
L  2 1
 -819832.09065589 -987825.2187231
 -806227.28362601 -971104.80702988
 1     1
L  2 1
 -799165.24638913 -972974.16982788
 -799165.24638913 -972974.16982788
 1     2
v.clean input=zero output=zero_clean tool=rmline type=line
v.out.ascii zero_clean format=standard
L  2 1
 -819832.09065589 -987825.2187231
 -806227.28362601 -971104.80702988
 1     1

Repeatedly remove dangling lines up to 50m length

v.clean input=testmap output=cleanmap type=line \
        tool=rmdangle,rmdangle,rmdangle,rmdangle threshold=5,10,20,50