What's GRASS?
General Information |
Features |
GRASS Programming |
Supported Platforms |
Import/Export |
Data Management capabilities
General Information
Geographic Resources Analysis Support System, commonly referred to as GRASS
GIS, is a Geographic Information System (GIS) used for data management,
image processing, graphics production, spatial modelling, and visualization
of many types of data. It is Free (Libre) Software/Open Source released
under GNU General Public License (GPL).
Originally developed by the U.S.
Army Construction Engineering Research Laboratories (USA-CERL,
1982-1995), a branch of the US Army Corp of Engineers, as a tool for land
management and environmental planning by the military, GRASS has evolved
into a powerful utility with a wide range of applications in many different
areas of scientific research. GRASS is currently used in academic and
commercial settings around the world, as well as many governmental agencies
including NASA, NOAA, USDA, DLR, CSIRO, the National Park Service, the U.S.
Census Bureau, USGS, and many environmental consulting companies.
The new GRASS 6.0 release introduces
a new topological 2D/3D vector engine and support for vector network analysis.
Attributes are now managed in a SQL-based DBMS. A new display manager has been
implemented. The NVIZ visualization tool was enhanced to display 3D
vector data and voxel volumes. Messages are partially translated
(i18N) with support for FreeType fonts,
including multibyte Asian characters. New LOCATIONs can be auto-generated
by EPSG code number. GRASS is integrated with GDAL/OGR libraries to support an
extensive range of raster and vector formats, including OGC-conformal
Simple Features.
The GRASS Development Team has grown into
a multi-national team consisting of developers at numerous locations.
[see also: Freshmeat.net entry |
Wikipedia entry]
GRASS Features
GRASS (Geographic Resources Analysis Support System) is a raster/vector GIS,
image processing system, and graphics production system. GRASS contains over
350 programs and tools to render maps and images on monitor and paper;
manipulate raster, vector, and sites data; process multi spectral image
data; and create, manage, and store spatial data. GRASS uses both an
intuitive windows interface as well as command line syntax for ease of
operations. GRASS can interface with commercial printers, plotters,
digitizers, and databases to develop new data as well as manage existing
data.
GRASS and network support for teams
GRASS supports workgroups through its
LOCATION/MAPSET concept which can be set
up to share data over NFS (Network File System). Keeping LOCATIONs with their underlying
MAPSETs on a central server, a team can simultaneously work in the same
project database.
[see also: GRASS capabilities]
GRASS Programming
GRASS is released under GNU GPL, the
source code (5.x: more than 1 million lines of C; 6.x 500k SLOC)
is completely available. GRASS
provides a sophisticated GIS library which can be used for own developments.
A GRASS Programmer's Manual is available
for download.
[see also: GRASS Development]
Supported platforms
- GRASS is written in ANSI-C and is POSIX compliant : C-API
- A preliminary C++ interface is available
- Architectures: Intel x86, Motorola PPC, SGI MIPS, Sun SPARC, Alpha AXP, HP
PA-RISC, CRAY, others.
- Operating systems: GNU/Linux (Intel, PowerPC, Sun, ...) Solaris (SPARC, i86),
SGI IRIX, HP UX, Mac OS X (Darwin), IBM AIX, BSD-Unix variants, FreeBSD,
CRAY Unicos, iPAQ/Linux handhelds and other UNIX compliant platforms
(32/64bit), additionally MS-Windows native or Cygnus.
Source code and selected
binaries can be downloaded.
Import/Export: Data formats supported by GRASS
- 2D raster data,
- 3D raster data (voxels),
- topological vector data (2D and 3D)
In detail:
RASTER: The GDAL library (r.in.gdal) is used, see the GDAL project format list for full capabilities. Examples include:
-
Raster: ASCII, ARC/GRID, E00, GIF, GMT, TIF,
PNG, ERDAS LAN, Vis5D, SURFER (.grd) ...
- Images: CEOS (SAR, SRTM, LANDSAT7 etc.), ERDAS LAN, HDF, LANDSAT TM/MSS, NHAP aerial photos, SAR, SPOT, ... can be read
VECTOR:
The OGR library (v.in.ogr) is used, see the OGR project format list. Examples include:
-
Vector: ASCII, ARC/INFO ungenerate, ARC/INFO
E00, ArcView SHAPE (with topology correction), BIL, DLG (U.S.), DXF, DXF3D,
GMT, GPS-ASCII, USGS-DEM, IDRISI, MOSS, MapInfo MIF, TIGER, VRML, ...
-
Sites (vector point data lists): XYZ ASCII, CSV, dBase, ...
Data Management capabilities of GRASS
- Spatial analysis
- Map generation
- Data visualization (2D, 2.5D
and 3D)
|
-
Data generation through modelling (list of
simulation models)
-
Link to DBMS (PostgreSQL, mySQL, SQLite, ODBC, ...)
|