[GRASS-user] Problem with Nviz : first post

Fri Jun 9 14:27:56 EDT 2006

I hope you find GRASS useful. I think it is an excellent research tool and
prefer it over others available. It's closest real competitor, in terms of
approach and function, IMHO is Idrisi. ArcGIS has a somewhat different
orientation, thought both GRASS and ArcGIS can be applied to the same kinds
of problems of course.

A couple of tips. First, think raster--especially if you are used to ArcGIS,
MapInfo, or many other GIS packages. What these programs do with vectors,
GRASS often does with rasters, and often in an easier, more straightforward
manner. So if you are looking in the docs for how to achieve a particular
solution, look at raster first. That said, the GRASS vector modules are
pretty solid, expecially points and networking (interpolation is quite
good), and DBMS connectivity is excellent (though there aren't many tools
for database management in GRASS).

Second, GRASS is not a cartographic package. If you want high-quality
output, either use ps.map (a nice GUI for it is now available on the GRASS
WIKI) or save  your display to a graphics file and use a dedicated graphics
program to do things. Again, this is improving rather rapidly.

Michael
__________________________________________
Michael Barton, Professor of Anthropology
School of Human Evolution & Social Change
Center for Social Dynamics and Complexity
Arizona State University

phone: 480-965-6213
fax: 480-965-7671
www: http://www.public.asu.edu/~cmbarton

> From: Darrel Maddy <Darrel.Maddy at newcastle.ac.uk>
> Date: Fri, 9 Jun 2006 19:06:03 +0100
> To: Michael Barton <michael.barton at asu.edu>, <grassuser at grass.itc.it>
> Conversation: [GRASS-user] Problem with Nviz : first post
> Subject: RE: [GRASS-user] Problem with Nviz : first post
> 
> Dear Michael,
> 
> Many thanks for your response. I decided (with some trepidation) to attempt an
> install of the 6.1cvs. Well after a few scares with missing libraries (I did
> not find the install files very helpfull in listing exactly what was
> required!) I eventually got a make file and was able to install. The good news
> is that NVIZ now works! Now at least I can concentrate on working out how to
> use the programme and how ti import my ArcView based data.
> 
> Incidently I also managed to get Linux talking to my printer again although I
> cannot get colour output from GRASS6.1  - oh well one step at a time! At least
> I will be able to sleep tonight.
> 
> Thanks for the advice - I did not really want to start again with a different
> distribution of Linux and now I realise that CVS snapshots are not too
> difficult to deal with. All those years of messing about with Fortran77/Turbo
> Pascal/C/C++ compilers may be of use afterall!
> 
> Best wishes
> 
> Darrel
> 
> 
> Prof Darrel Maddy
> Chair of Quaternary Science
> University of Newcastle
> +44 191 2226440
> Skype VOIP: ProfMaddy
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Michael Barton [mailto:michael.barton at asu.edu]
> Sent: Fri 09/06/2006 17:29
> To: Darrel Maddy; grassuser at grass.itc.it
> Subject: Re: [GRASS-user] Problem with Nviz : first post
>  
> We also have GRASS working fine with Fedora Core 4. We haven't yet upgraded
> to 5. Given that Fedora is the open/cutting edge/kind of experimental
> version of Red Hat, I've been reluctant to upgrade right away until others
> with more time and experience have had a chance to work out the bugs.
> 
> If you want stable, I'd recommend Red Hat, FC4, Debian or others. Being on
> the cutting edge can be fun and frustrating.
> 
> For different reasons, I also strongly recommend using 6.1 cvs version of
> GRASS. Many things have been upgraded and fixed between 6.0 and 6.1. GRASS
> tends to be very conservative in releasing stable versions. 6.1 may be more
> reliable on current systems than 6.0 for this reason. It certainly works
> better in most respects.
> 
> Michael
> __________________________________________
> Michael Barton, Professor of Anthropology
> School of Human Evolution & Social Change
> Center for Social Dynamics & Complexity
> Arizona State University
> 
> phone: 480-965-6213
> fax: 480-965-7671
> www: http://www.public.asu.edu/~cmbarton
> 
> 
> 
>> From: Prof Darrel Maddy <darrel.maddy at ncl.ac.uk>
>> Date: Fri, 9 Jun 2006 12:19:39 +0100
>> To: <grassuser at grass.itc.it>
>> Subject: RE: [GRASS-user] Problem with Nviz : first post
>> 
>> OK, I'm just about ready to call time on this Linux experiment! I was
>> supposed to be evaluating this for possible deployment in a postgraduate GIS
>> suite. I have been using PC's for over 25 years (i.e. I am old enough to
>> have operated things via command line and done some machine code
>> programming!) and therefore I am not computer illiterate (at least compared
>> to our postgrads). I am not trying to upset those of you who like this sort
>> of challenge but this Linux thing frankly is not for general use. Few things
>> actually work - how can I recommend this when, for example, it talks to my
>> printers one minute and then decides they don't exist the next! The list of
>> "it nearly works" items seems endless.
>> 
>> This also seems to apply to GRASS. Does anyone know how to get Grass60
>> working on Fedora Core 5? I tried a reinstall and a clean installation of
>> just the tcl/tk8.4 libraries to no avail (segmentation fault in nviz -
>> assuming these libraries are the problem - how would I know?). I also tried
>> to download the 8.3 libraries as suggested by Hamish BUT then when I install
>> the grass-bin libraries the "clever" installer software decides it needs
>> tcl8.4 and downloads it anyway!
>> 
>> At present I am unlikely to recommend either Linux or GRASS for deployment.
>> It's a great idea but things need to be far more robust. I would however
>> VERY much like to see GRASS actually working. I am certain it has many
>> advantages over commercially available packages but it must be robust enough
>> to actually trust. I would be more than happy to admit that I have got this
>> wrong!
>> 
>> Yours in frustration.
>> 
>> Darrel
>> 
>> Prof Darrel Maddy
>> Chair of Quaternary Science
>> University of Newcastle, UK
>> http://www.ncl.ac.uk/geps/staff/profile/darrel.maddy
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Hamish [mailto:hamish_nospam at yahoo.com]
>> Sent: Wednesday, June 07, 2006 11:51 AM
>> To: Darrel Maddy
>> Subject: Re: [GRASS-user] Problem with Nviz : first post
>> 
>>> Apologies if this has been covered elsewhere. Please also note that I
>>> am new to Linux and GRASS (less than 4 days!!) - so it is safe to
>>> assume that I know nothing!.
>>> 
>>> I have managed to get GRASS6 up and running on fedora core 5 (after
>>> some "fun" installing tcl/tk libraries). When I enter Nviz and try to
>>> display the elevation.dem from the Spearfish60 sample dataset the
>>> visualisation appears for about 10 seconds and then disappears - no
>>> error messages are reported to help sort the problem. The control
>>> window is empty.
>>> 
>>> I may have confused the software with my tcl/tk installation antics -
>>> I now have both tcl/tk 8.4 and 8.5 libaries in my /usr/lib directory
>>> but only the 8.4 library is reported when I test the installation in
>>> the command window. I do not know how to uninstall 8.5 (I could not
>>> get GRASS to work with the 8.5 libraries). Is this the source of my
>>> problem or am I completely missing the point?
>>> 
>>> Any help with what to try next would be greatly appreciated.
>>> 
>>> Many thanks
>> 
>> 
>> others using FC5 have reported similar problems recently.
>> 
>> TclTk 8.4 [threaded] only works with the latest versions of GRASS
>> 6.1-cvs. For GRASS 6.0 use tcltk 8.3 or a distribution that uses an
>> untreaded version 8.4. (using 8.3 is easier) :)
>> 
>> 
>> Hamish 
>> 
>> 
>> 
> 
> 