v.clip(1)

💖 v.clip — the GRASS GIS bestie that crops your vectors 💖

okay so this is v.clip(1) from the GRASS GIS User's Manual, and it's genuinely one of my faves — it's the "gimme just the part that overlaps" tool. let's go 🦋

✨ NAME ✨

v.clip — extracts features of input map which overlay features of clip map.

🎀 KEYWORDS 🎀

vector, clip, area

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

v.clip
v.clip --help
v.clip [-dr] input=name clip=name output=name  [--overwrite]  [--help]
[--verbose]  [--quiet]  [--ui]

💅 Flags:

• -d — Do not dissolve clip map
• -r — Clip by region
• --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 vector map to be clipped. Or data source for direct OGR access
• clip=name [required] — Name of clip vector map. Or data source for direct OGR access
• output=name [required] — Name for output vector map

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🌈 DESCRIPTION 🌈

so the v.clip module is literally the "cut it to shape" module 💖 it lets you pull out those features of your input vector map that overlay features of your clip map, and then it stores all of that in a shiny new vector map. main character energy for real.

In default, boundaries of clip map are dissolved before clipping. alternatively, you can tick flag -d to retain the boundaries of the clip map. and flag -b facilitates clipping by the current computational region. 👑

you can clip vector maps made of points, lines, areas, or any combo of these. however — and listen bestie, this matters — the current version does not fully support clipping of mixed geometry containing points 😭 in that case, the output map will only store clipped lines and/or areas.

⚠️ fr fr, if your map is a mix with points in it, those points are not coming to the party. output = lines and/or areas only.

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📝 NOTES 📝

v.clip is a front-end to v.overlay, as well as v.select. clipping of areas and/or lines can be achieved using v.overlay. clipping of points can be performed with v.select. iykyk 🧚

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✨ EXAMPLES ✨

🌟 Basic use

clip railroads by counties Wake and Johnston in North Carolina (North Carolina data set). 🚂

v.extract input=boundary_county where="NAME=’WAKE’ OR NAME=’JOHNSTON’" output=county_WAKE_JOHNSTON
v.clip input=railroads clip=county_WAKE_JOHNSTON output=railroads_WAKE_JOHNSTON

Figure: v.clip example - basic use

🦋 Retain boundaries of clip map

v.clip -d input=railroads clip=county_WAKE_JOHNSTON output=railroads_WAKE_JOHNSTON

🩺 Clip by current computational region

clip hospitals by the computational region adjusted to counties Wake and Johnston in North Carolina (North Carolina data set). 🏥 it is not obligatory to enter the name of the clip map. in case it is stated, the clip map will be omitted.

v.extract input=boundary_county where="NAME=’WAKE’ OR NAME=’JOHNSTON’" output=county_WAKE_JOHNSTON
v.clip -r input=hospitals output=hospitals_clip

Figure: v.clip example - clip by computational region

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👀 SEE ALSO 👀

v.overlay, v.select, v.dissolve, v.in.region

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💜 AUTHOR 💜

Zofie Cimburova, GeoForAll Lab, Czech Technical University in Prague, Czech Republic

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🔥 SOURCE CODE 🔥

Available at: v.clip source code (history)

Accessed: Saturday Jan 17 05:41:52 2026

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© 2003-2025 GRASS Development Team, GRASS GIS 8.4.2 Reference Manual

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okay that's the whole page bestie, ily, go clip something iconic 💅✨

GRASS 8.4.2 — v.clip(1) — that's a wrap, mwah 🫶