v.type(1)

💅 v.type — the manual page, but make it make sense

okay bestie, welcome to v.type, straight out of the GRASS GIS User's Manual, section v.type(1). this one changes the type of vector features, and yes it's as iconic as it sounds. sit down, hydrate, let's go 🫶

KEYWORDS: vector, geometry, editing, area, line, point ✨

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

the vibe check of how you actually call it:

v.type
v.type --help
v.type input=name  [layer=string]  output=name from_type=string
to_type=string  [--overwrite]  [--help]  [--verbose]  [--quiet]  [--ui]

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🎀 Flags

• --overwrite — let the output files just bulldoze whatever's already there. no cap, it will overwrite existing files.
• --help — prints the usage summary. your little emergency cheat sheet 💖
• --verbose — verbose module output. she's chatty, she's telling you everything.
• --quiet — quiet module output. the opposite energy. shhh.
• --ui — force launches the GUI dialog, for when you want buttons and not vibes.

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🦋 Parameters

• input=name [required] — name of the input vector map. or, plot twist, the data source for direct OGR access. either way, required, no skipping 🚫
• layer=string — layer number or name ('-1' for all layers). a single vector map can be connected to multiple database tables, and this number decides which table gets used. when you're doing direct OGR access, this is the layer name instead. Default: -1
• output=name [required] — name for the output vector map. she's new, she's fresh, name her.
• from_type=string [required] — the feature type you're converting from.
  • Options: point, line, boundary, centroid, face, kernel
  • Default: line
• to_type=string [required] — the feature type you're converting to.
  • Options: point, line, boundary, centroid, face, kernel
  • Default: boundary

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

so what does v.type actually do? she changes the type of geometry primitives. that's it, that's the whole job, and she does it flawlessly 💅

here's the roster of vector object types defined in GRASS GIS:

• point: a point;
• line: a directed sequence of connected vertices with two endpoints called nodes;
• boundary: the border line describing an area;
• centroid: a point within a closed ring of boundaries;
• area: the topological composition of a closed ring of boundaries and a centroid;
• face: a 3D area;
• kernel: a 3D centroid in a volume (not yet implemented);
• volume: a 3D corpus, the topological composition of faces and kernel (not yet implemented).

⚠️ heads up: kernel and volume are not yet implemented. do not come for me when they don't work, they literally told us in advance 😭

lines and boundaries can be composed of multiple vertices. multi-vertex, main character energy, love that for them.

area topology also holds information about isles. these isles are located within that area and they do NOT touch the boundaries of the outer area. think of them as holes inside the area 🕳️, and an isle can consist of one or more areas. internally they're used to maintain correct topology for areas. quiet work, essential work 👑

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⭐ EXAMPLES ⭐

convert lines to area boundaries — the classic:

v.type input=map_l output=map_b from_type=line to_type=boundary

and listen, bestie, important plot point: in order to create areas, centroids must be added with v.centroids. v.type alone is not gonna do it for you 🫶

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🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

• v.centroids
• v.to.points

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👑 AUTHOR 👑

Radim Blazek, ITC-Irst, Trento, Italy

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🌈 SOURCE CODE 🌈

available at: v.type source code (history)

accessed: Saturday Jan 17 05:41:32 2026

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okay that's the whole page, you ate that 🎀 so the cute little sign-off: this is GRASS GIS 8.4.2 we're talking about, the reference manual is © 2003-2025 GRASS Development Team, and the footer stamp says GRASS 8.4.2 up top and v.type(1) down bottom. periodt. go convert something 💖✨