r.plane - GRASS GIS manual
Author: GRASS Development Team
Description: r.plane: Creates raster plane map given dip (inclination), aspect (azimuth) and one point.
Keywords: raster, elevation

## NAME

r.plane - Creates raster plane map given dip (inclination), aspect (azimuth) and one point.

## KEYWORDS

raster, elevation

## SYNOPSIS

r.plane
r.plane --help
r.plane output=name dip=float azimuth=float easting=float northing=float elevation=float [type=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:

output=name [required]
  Name for output raster map
dip=float [required]
  Dip of plane in degrees
  Default: 0.0
azimuth=float [required]
  Azimuth of the plane in degrees
  Default: 0.0
easting=float [required]
  Easting coordinate of a point on the plane
northing=float [required]
  Northing coordinate of a point on the plane
elevation=float [required]
  Elevation coordinate of a point on the plane
type=string
  Type of raster map to be created
  Storage type for resultant raster map
  Options: CELL, FCELL, DCELL
  Default: FCELL
  CELL: Integer
  FCELL: Single precision floating point
  DCELL: Double precision floating point

## DESCRIPTION

r.plane creates a tilted plane raster map given user-specified parameters for inclination, azimuth, and the geographic location of a point on the plane.
The angle orientations of the azimuth parameter increase counter-clockwise, i.e., 0 degree = N, 45 degree = NW, 90 degree = W etc.

Increasing values of the dip parameter progressively lower (or dip) the northern half of the plane, and incline the southern half, assuming the azimuth parameter is held constant at 0 degrees.

## NOTES

`g.region -c` provides the easting and northing coordinates for the center of the current region.

CELL (integer) maps take less disk space than FCELLs (floating point), which in turn take up less space than DCELLs (double precision floating point).

## EXAMPLE

A tilted plane in the North Carolina sample dataset region:

    # set computational region
    g.region raster=elev_lid792_1m -p

    # get center coordinates as an example
    g.region -c
    # get terrain height at point
    r.what map=elev_lid792_1m coordinates=638650.0,220375.0
    # shows elevation: 116.7734

    # generate tilted plane
    r.plane myplane30 dip=30 az=75 east=638650.0 north=220375.0 \
            elev=116.7734 type=FCELL

Figure: Tilted plane shown in NVIZ along with elevation map

## AUTHOR

Stefan Jäger (1994), University of Heidelberg during a stay at USGS
Updated to GRASS 5.7 by Michael Barton, Arizona State University
Full rewrite for GRASS 7 by Glynn Clements

## SOURCE CODE

Available at: r.plane source code (history)

Accessed: Monday Jul 13 00:51:57 2026

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© 2003-2023 GRASS Development Team, GRASS GIS 7.8.8 Reference Manual