[GRASSLIST:5796] Re: Geometry/topology/Mapserver

[Markus Neteler]

On Mon, Mar 17, 2003 at 12:22:30PM +0100, pradeep anakkathil wrote:
> Hi All,
> 
> A mixed bag of questions! 
> 
> (1) A plain question: in GRASS 5.0, where is the vector geometry and
> topological structure stored? Vector line info is stored in dig files, but similarly
> where is the geometry information.

in
directory 	function 
-------------------------
dig binary 	arc file
dig_ascii 	ascii arc file
dig_att 	vector category attribute file
dig_cats	vector category labels 
dig_plus 	vector index/pointer file
reg		digitizer registration points

You find this and more details in
 http://grass.itc.it/gdp/online.html
 -> GRASS 5 Programmer's Manual
 
> (2) Why cant MapServer see PostGRASS/PostGIS polygons, but can only see
> lines, boundaries and points?

[answered by Radim]
 
> (3) Cannot MapServer access GRASS vector and site data? If not why is it so?

Because the libgrass library
http://grass.itc.it/related_projects.html
 -> libgrass

was not completed for vector and site data support. You may update it
to 5.1 or pay Frank Warmerdam to do that. In 5.1 sites are managed as
vector sites, the 5.0 sites format no longer exists (but can of course
be converted).
 
> (4) What exactly is meant by saying that GRASS 5.0 does not have 2.5 and 3D
> vector support?

It means that GRASS 5.0 supports only 2D vectors (which are flat on the
ground).
 
Hope this answers the questions,

Markus Neteler