<HTML><BODY DEFANGED_STYLE="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><BR><DIV><DIV>On Feb 9, 2006, at 1:59 PM, Moritz Lennert wrote:</DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">GRASS doesn't need the geometry since it is stored in the GRASS format, so</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">why should it keep this column. What is it you want to do exactly: import</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">a postgis map into GRASS, or view a postgis map with GRASS ? See</FONT></P> <P DEFANGED_STYLE="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" DEFANGED_STYLE="font: 12.0px Helvetica">v.external it it is the latter.</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><BR></P> <P DEFANGED_STYLE="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" DEFANGED_STYLE="font: 12.0px Helvetica">As for indexing, this obviously first of all depends on the database</FONT></P> <P DEFANGED_STYLE="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">backend that you use for GRASS maps (e.g. the dbf backend wouldn't support</FONT></P> <P DEFANGED_STYLE="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">indexing). You seem to use postgresql as backend, so indexing would be</FONT></P> <P DEFANGED_STYLE="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">possible. However, most of the indexes are on the geometry column, so they</FONT></P> <P DEFANGED_STYLE="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">would not be needed for a map in GRASS format. Why do you want these</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" DEFANGED_STYLE="font: 12.0px Helvetica">indexes ?</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><BR></P> <P DEFANGED_STYLE="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><BR></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" DEFANGED_STYLE="font: 12.0px Helvetica">Moritz</FONT></P> </BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Thanks for the reply Moritz. This all started out as a "can I speed this querry up" exercise. Perhaps the fundamental issue is my not completely understanding how GRASS makes use of the postgis extension to postgresql. You are correct in that I am using psotgresql for database management. I have an attribute table of little over a million lines of data in a postgres table that is associated with a grass vector. The table contains point data based on simple xy utm coordinates. </DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>This allows me to run a query like: </DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>d.vect vector_name size=2 color=blue where="species='WP' AND diam>40" </DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>I would guess that it takes d.vect about a minute to draw the results of this query. I have never been able to quite figure out how GRASS works with the postgis extension. All I was trying to do was speed things up a bit, so I added the postgis geometry and spatial indexing to the posgresql table. When I discovered that GRASS then didn't behave as I expected (g.copy, g.rename), I thought that there were three possible explanations: 1. a bug, 2. I didn't have postgis configured properly, 3. (most likely) user error, or user not understanding how something was supposed to work.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Any enlightenment in that last area is much appreciated.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Kirk</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV></BODY></HTML>