Grid from Contours

Purpose

The tool is meant for creating grids from contour polylines. In other words, it converts contours into raster representation.

Description

Grid is a geographic representation of the world as an array of cells arranged in rows and columns. Each Grid cell is referenced by its geographic X, Y location.

Contour and Grid representations of geographic data are inter-convertible. This tool allows building Grid of a certain cell size from contour layers.

Raster cell is a discretely uniform unit (square or rectangle) that represents a portion of the earth such as a square meter or square mile. Each pixel has a value that corresponds to the feature or characteristic at that site such as a soil type, census tract, or vegetation class.

Creating Grid from Contours includes two steps: triangulation and then interpolation. Prior to that Grid parameters are to be defined.

Usage

• Select the "Grid from Contours" tool from XTools Pro Raster Tools.

• Select the input layer containing contours, a polyline layer to be converted into a Grid.

• Specify output Grid dataset. Following formats are supported for storing new Grids: Esri GRID, ERDAS IMAGINE and TIFF.

• Select a numeric field with height source values.

• Specify Grid cell size in units of an input layer.
  Extent width and height as well as the calculated Grid width and height are represented at the same section.

• Specify a mask polygon layer if required. If a mask is selected then output Grid will be generated only within the mask area.

• Press Run to create a new Grid.

Notes:

• Output Grid isn't created if mask dataset doesn't cover any part of it.

• Output Grid won't be clipped by the mask polygon features with incorrect geometry.

• Output raster format, minimum default Grid size and mask buffer size can be customized (see XTools Pro Options).