r.out.xyz.py - GRASS manual

NAME

r.out.xyz.py - 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.py

r.out.xyz.py --help

r.out.xyz.py [-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
NOTES
EXAMPLES
TODO
SEE ALSO
AUTHOR

DESCRIPTION

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

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 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?

AUTHOR

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

SOURCE CODE

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

Latest change: Thursday Nov 06 22:27:54 2025 in commit: 298b38614712934179355ea767403d6bfea8f5f9