r.to.vect(1)

NAME
r.to.vect - Converts a raster map into a vector map.

KEYWORDS
raster, conversion, geometry, vectorization

SYNOPSIS
r.to.vect
r.to.vect --help
r.to.vect [-svzbt] input=name output=name type=string [column=name] [--overwrite] [--help] [--verbose] [--quiet] [--ui]

  Flags:

-s
    Smooth corners of area features

-v
    Use raster values as categories instead of unique sequence (CELL only)

-z
    Write raster values as z coordinate
    Table is not created. Currently supported only for points.

-b
    Do not build vector topology
    Recommended for massive point conversion

-t
    Do not create attribute table

--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 raster map

output=name [required]
    Name for output vector map

type=string [required]
    Output feature type
    Options: point, line, area

column=name
    Name of attribute column to store value
    Name must be SQL compliant
    Default: value

DESCRIPTION
r.to.vect scans the named input raster map layer, extracts points, lines or area edge features from it, converts data to GRASS vector format.

  Point conversion
The r.to.vect program extracts data from a GRASS raster map layer and stores output in a new GRASS vector file.

  Line conversion
r.to.vect assumes that the input map has been thinned using r.thin.

r.to.vect extracts vectors (aka, "arcs") from a raster map. These arcs may represent linear features (like roads or streams), or may represent area edge features (like political boundaries, or soil mapping units).

r.thin and r.to.vect may create excessive nodes at every junction, and may create small spurs or "dangling lines" during the thinning and vectorization process. These excessive nodes and spurs may be removed using v.clean.

  Area conversion
r.to.vect first traces the perimeter of each unique area in the raster map layer and creates vector data to represent it. The cell category values for the raster map layer will be used to create attribute information for the resultant vector area edge data.

A true vector tracing of the area edges might appear blocky, since the vectors outline the edges of raster data that are stored in rectangular cells. To produce a better-looking vector map, r.to.vect smoothes the corners of the vector data as they are being extracted. At each change in direction (i.e., each corner), the two midpoints of the corner cell (half the cell’s height and width) are taken, and the line segment connecting them is used to outline this corner in the resultant vector map. (The cell’s cornermost node is ignored.) Because vectors are smoothed by this program, the resulting vector map will not be "true" to the raster map from which it was created. The user should check the resolution of the geographic region (and the original data) to estimate the possible error introduced by smoothing.

r.to.vect extracts only area edges from the named raster input file. If the raster map contains other data (i.e., line edges, or point data) the output may be wrong.

EXAMPLES
The examples are based on the North Carolina sample dataset:

Conversion of raster points to vector points:

Random sampling of points:

g.region raster=elevation -p
# random sampling of points (note that r.random also writes vector points)
r.random elevation raster_output=elevrand1000 n=1000
r.to.vect input=elevrand1000 output=elevrand1000 type=point
# univariate statistics of sample points
v.univar elevrand1000 column=value type=point
# compare to univariate statistics on original full raster map
r.univar elevation

Conversion of raster lines to vector lines:

Vectorization of streams in watershed basins map:

g.region raster=elevation -p
r.watershed elev=elevation stream=elev.streams thresh=50000
r.to.vect -s input=elev.streams output=elev_streams type=line
# drop "label" column which is superfluous in this example
v.db.dropcolumn map=elev_streams column=label
v.db.renamecolumn map=elev_streams column=value,basin_id
# report length per basin ID
v.report map=elev_streams option=length units=meters sort=asc

Conversion of raster polygons to vector polygons:

Vectorization of simplified landuse class map:

g.region raster=landclass96 -p
# we smooth corners of area features
r.to.vect -s input=landclass96 output=my_landclass96 type=area
v.colors my_landclass96 color=random

KNOWN ISSUES
For type=line the input raster map MUST be thinned by r.thin; if not, r.to.vect may crash.

SEE ALSO
g.region, r.thin, v.clean

AUTHORS
Point support
Bill Brown
Line support
Mike Baba
DBA Systems, Inc.
10560 Arrowhead Drive
Fairfax, Virginia 22030
Area support
Original version of r.poly:
Jean Ezell and Andrew Heekin,
U.S. Army Construction Engineering Research Laboratory

Modified program for smoothed lines:
David Satnik, Central Washington University
Updated 2001 by Andrea Aime, Modena, Italy
Update
Original r.to.sites, r.line and r.poly merged and updated to 5.7 by Radim Blazek

SOURCE CODE

Available at: r.to.vect source code (history)

Accessed: Monday Jul 13 00:51:14 2026

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