[GRASSLIST:9218] newbie questions DEM v.in.org

[Travis Kirstine GIS Tech]

Hi
I have some basic questions about importing, viewing data.  I've been a ESRI
user for a few years and would really like to start converting much of my
work to Grass especially surface analysis.  Right now I'm trying to import
shapefiles (contours with elevations stored in 'contour' field in the
shapefile's dbf) to use to create raster surfaces.  First I import the
shapefile with v.in.org and select -z 'Create 3d output'.  Then try to
convert the contours to a surface using v.surf.rst but I get an error
because is unable to locate the z values in the attribute table.  How do I
view attributes associated with a vector file?

Travis Kirstine
First Base Solutions Limited
140 Renfrew Dr, Suite 100
Markham ON
L3R 6B3
Phone 905.477.3600
Fax 905.477.3882
tkirstine at jdbarnes.com