r.out.xyz(1)

NAME
r.out.xyz - Exports a raster map to a text file as x,y,z values based on cell centers.

KEYWORDS
raster, export, output, ASCII, conversion

SYNOPSIS
r.out.xyz
r.out.xyz --help
r.out.xyz [-i] input=name[,name,...] [output=name] [separator=character] [--overwrite] [--help] [--verbose] [--quiet] [--ui]

  Flags:

-i
    Include no data values

--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[,name,...] [required]
    Name of input raster map(s)

output=name
    Name for output file (if omitted or "-" output to stdout)

separator=character
    Field separator
    Special characters: pipe, comma, space, tab, newline
    Default: pipe

DESCRIPTION
The r.out.xyz module exports a raster map as a list of x,y,z values into an ASCII text file.

NOTES
This module will by default not export x,y coordinates for raster cells containing a NULL value. This includes cells masked by a raster MASK. Using the flag -i also these raster cells will be included in the exported data.

This module, as all GRASS raster modules, will export cells based on the current region settings. See the g.region module for details.

The r.out.ascii module should be used to export an array (of size row x column) containing z values.

r.out.xyz can combine several input raster maps, which can be convenient when it comes to e.g. produce ASCII point cloud files.

r.out.xyz is simply a front-end to "r.stats -1g[n]".

EXAMPLES
In this example, a LiDAR elevation map in the North Carolina sample dataset location is exported to CSV format.

g.region raster=elev_lid792_1m -p
r.out.xyz input=elev_lid792_1m output=elev_lid792_1m.csv separator=","

In this example, elevation data from the North Carolina dataset are exported along with R,G,B triplet of the related orthophoto into a combined file (requires the import of the supplementary high-resolution color orthophoto, here called "ortho2010_t792"):

g.region raster=elev_lid792_1m res=1 -a -p
r.out.xyz input=elev_lid792_1m,ortho2010_t792.red,ortho2010_t792.green,ortho2010_t792.blue \
        separator=space output=pointcloud.asc
# validate: X Y Z R G B
head -n 3 pointcloud.asc
638300.5 220749.5 126.338218689 78 84 71
638301.5 220749.5 126.3381958008 93 101 86
638302.5 220749.5 126.3414840698 68 77 59

TODO
Implement this script as a r.out.ascii option?

SEE ALSO
g.region, r.mask r.out.ascii, r.stats

AUTHOR
M. Hamish Bowman
Dept. Marine Science
Otago University, New Zealand

SOURCE CODE

Available at: r.out.xyz source code (history)

Accessed: Thursday Jun 04 03:32:12 2026

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