NAME

v.build.polylines - Builds polylines from lines or boundaries.

KEYWORDS

vector, topology, geometry, line, node, vertex

SYNOPSIS

v.build.polylines v.build.polylines --help v.build.polylines input=name output=name [cats= string] [type=string[,string,...]] [-- overwrite] [--help] [--verbose] [--quiet] [--ui]

Flags:

--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

output=name [required]

 

Name for output vector map

cats=string

 

Category number mode

 

Options: no, first, multi, same

 

Default: no

 

no: Do not assign any category number to polyline

 

first: Assign category number of first line to polyline

 

multi: Assign multiple category numbers to polyline

 

same: Create polyline from lines with same categories

type=string[,string,...]

 

Input feature type

 

Options: line, boundary

 

Default: line,boundary

DESCRIPTION

v.build.polylines builds polylines from the lines or boundaries in a vector map. A line is defined by one start node, one end node and any number of vertices between the start and end nodes. The shortest possible line consists of only two vertices where the coordinates of the start and end nodes are identical to those of the two vertices. v.build.polylines picks a line and from its start node, walks back as long as exactly one other line of the same type is connected to this node. Line directions are reversed as required, i.e. it does not matter if the next line is connected to the current node by its start or end node. Once the start line of a polyline is identified, it walks forward and adds all vertices (in reverse order if needed) of connected lines to the start line, i.e. the start line and connecting lines are reversed as needed. That is, if a line is reversed depends on what node is initially picked for building polylines. If the direction of lines is important (it’s not for boundaries to build areas), you have to manually change line directions with either v.edit or the wxGUI vector digitizer. Polylines provide the most appropriate representation of curved lines when it is important that nodes serve to define topology rather than geometry. Curved lines are usually digitized as polylines, but these are sometimes broken into their constituent straight line segments during conversion from one data format to another. v.build.polylines can be used to rebuild such broken polylines.

NOTES

v.build.polylines combines only lines of the same type to a new polyline, i.e. lines and boundaries are kept separate. Category number(s) are assigned to a polyline based on cats parameter. v.build.polylines correctly handles input vector maps containing lines, boundaries, centroids and points. Lines and boundaries will be converted to polylines. Areas are guaranteed to be preserved.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This program was originally written during Mark Lake’s tenure of a Leverhulme Special Research Fellowship at University College London.

SEE ALSO

v.build, v.in.ascii, v.edit, v.split

AUTHORS

Mark Lake, Institute of Archaeology, University College London. Major rewrite by Radim Blazek, October 2002 Category mode added by Martin Landa, FBK-irst, Trento, Italy, October 2007 Support for categories, attributes, and different line types by Markus Metz Last changed: $Date: 2017-02-15 23:17:07 +0100 (Wed, 15 Feb 2017) $

SOURCE CODE

Available at: v.build.polylines source code (history) Main index | Vector index | Topics index | Keywords index | Graphical index | Full index © 2003-2018 GRASS Development Team, GRASS GIS 7.4.3 Reference Manual