[GRASS-user] Importing a SDTS/DLG files?

[James McManus]

Tom Russo wrote:
>> James McManus wrote:
>> ..
>>     
>>> When I issue the "g.region vect=BHroads" or "v.info BHroads" I get the
>>>
>>> following error message:
>>>
>>> ERROR: Cannot open old vector BHroads at PERMANENT on level 2
>>>
>>>       
>
> SDTS files contain several tables with no geometry (OGR calls them "Layers")
> that probably confuse v.in.ogr, and also contain point, line, and polygon
> features.  My guess is that v.in.ogr doesn't quite grok which things it needs
> to ignore.
>
> When I do an ogrinfo on an SDTS road file I see:
>   
>> ogrinfo TR01CATD.DDF 
>>     
> ERROR 4: SDTS Driver doesn't support update.
> Had to open data source read-only.
> INFO: Open of `TR01CATD.DDF'
>       using driver `SDTS' successful.
> 1: ARDF (None)
> 2: ARDM (None)
> 3: AHDR (None)
> 4: NP01 (Point)
> 5: NA01 (Point)
> 6: NO01 (Point)
> 7: LE01 (Line String)
> 8: PC01 (Polygon)
>
> I bet if you were to use a "layer=NO01,LE01,PC01" option to v.in.ogr your
> woes would go away.  In fact, when I try to import the very same SDTS file
> above, it worked fine and gave line, point, and polygon features; the vector
> map displays Just Fine.
>
>   
>>>>> I would like to try using v.in.dlg. It does not appear to be
>>>>> included in grass-6.2.0. Has this routine been discontinued in
>>>>> grass-6.2.0? 
>>>>>           
>> yes, as (theoretically) there is an OGR solution. You can always install
>> GRASS 5.4.0 along side GRASS 6, import it, then run v.convert in GRASS 6
>> to get the thing loaded.
>>     
>
> There is no longer an equivalent of v.in.dlg in grass 6, as that module read 
> in the old style "DLG-Optional" format from the USGS.  OGR does not support 
> the DLG-O format and not SDTS, so at this point the DLG-Optional format is 
> unusable in GRASS, and if you have DLG-O files you have to convert them to 
> shapefiles with another tool (I use Global Mapper).  IIRC, v.in.dlg never 
> understood SDTS format DLGs from USGS --- in old grass 5.0 you used v.in.sdts 
> for that (a tool that did understand the various tables in an SDTS file, but 
> due to the poor attribute support in grass5 had to do some crazy things to try 
> to accommodate the complex attribute system).
>
>   
Defining all layers worked! It looks like it fixed the other problems I 
was having. It looks like the problem was with me. Live and learn.

Thanks!
Jim