t.rast.to.vect(1)

💖 t.rast.to.vect 💖

okay bestie, gather round, because t.rast.to.vect is the GRASS GIS manual page we're doing today and it's lowkey a glow-up machine: it takes a space time raster dataset and turns it into a space time vector dataset. iconic behavior honestly.

✨ KEYWORDS ✨

temporal, conversion, raster, vector, time

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

t.rast.to.vect
t.rast.to.vect --help
t.rast.to.vect [-ntszbv] input=name output=name  [where=sql_query]
type=string basename=string  [suffix=string]   [column=string]
[nprocs=integer]   [--overwrite]  [--help]  [--verbose]  [--quiet]
[--ui]

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🎀 FLAGS 🎀

• -n — register empty vector maps. like, yes bestie, even the empty ones get an invite to the party 💅
• -t — do not create attribute tables. no tables, no drama.
• -s — smooth the corners of area features. soft edges, soft life ✨
• -z — write raster values as the z coordinate. > heads up: the table is not created this way, and currently this is only supported for points. so points only, bestie, don't get carried away 😭
• -b — do not build vector topology. Name must be SQL compliant.
• -v — use raster values as categories instead of a unique sequence (this one's CELL only).
• --overwrite — allow output files to overwrite existing files. it will absolutely bulldoze what's there, so be sure 🫶
• --help — print usage summary.
• --verbose — verbose module output. it will yap (affectionately).
• --quiet — quiet module output. it will not yap.
• --ui — force launching GUI dialog. main character energy, graphical edition.

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🦋 PARAMETERS 🦋

• input=name [required] — name of the input space time raster dataset. the source material, the blueprint, the moment before.
• output=name [required] — name of the output space time vector dataset. the after picture 💖
• where=sql_query — WHERE conditions of an SQL statement, without the where keyword, used in the temporal GIS framework. Example: start_time > '2001-01-01 12:30:00'
• type=string [required] — output feature type. Options: point, line, area
• basename=string [required] — basename of the new generated output maps. A numerical suffix separated by an underscore will be attached to create a unique identifier.
• suffix=string — suffix to add at basename: set 'gran' for granularity, 'time' for the full time format, 'num' for numerical suffix with a specific number of digits (default %05). Default: gran
• column=string — name of attribute column to store value. Default: value
• nprocs=integer — number of r.to.vect processes to run in parallel; more than 1 process works only in conjunction with flag -t. Default: 1

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🌈 DESCRIPTION 🌈

t.rast.to.vect is designed to convert a space time raster dataset into a space time vector dataset. it's basically the front-end bestie of r.to.vect, and because of that it supports all parameters of that module. so every single raster map layer in a space time raster dataset gets passed along to r.to.vect, which converts them into vector map layers (using point, line or area as the conversion criteria). for the full tea on the raster-to-vector conversion options, go read the r.to.vect documentation, bestie. ☕

the new generated vector map layers get registered in the output space time vector dataset, and they use the exact same time stamps as their raster map layer origins. keeping the timeline consistent? we love to see it 🕐✨

this module also supports parallel processing of r.to.vect module instances, and you set how many run at once with the nprocs option. but — and this is the important part — that only works in conjunction with the -t flag, the one that avoids creating attribute tables. parallel creation of attribute tables is not supported. nope. not a thing. 🙈

the where option lets you select subsets of the input space time raster dataset, so you can be picky about which layers you're converting. very curated, very intentional.

and the -n flag can be used to force the registration of empty vector map layers. empty vector maps can happen when empty raster map layers should be converted into vector map layers. sometimes the vibe check comes back empty, and that's okay 💜

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👑 SEE ALSO 👑

r.to.vect, t.rast.db.select, t.info

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⭐ AUTHOR ⭐

Sören Gebbert, Geoinformatikbüro Dassau

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🍓 SOURCE CODE 🍓

Available at: t.rast.to.vect source code (history)

Accessed: Saturday Jan 17 05:41:54 2026

Main index | Temporal index | Topics index | Keywords index | Graphical index | Full index

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and that's the whole page, bestie!! this one came to you straight from the GRASS Development Team, © 2003-2025, and it's living in the GRASS GIS 8.4.2 Reference Manual. slay, periodt, go convert something 💖✨🎀