r.plane(1)

NAME
r.plane - Creates raster plane map given dip (inclination), aspect (azimuth) and one point.

KEYWORDS
raster, elevation

SYNOPSIS
r.plane
r.plane --help
r.plane output=name dip=float azimuth=float easting=float northing=float elevation=float [type=string] [--overwrite] [--help] [--verbose] [--quiet] [--ui]

  Flags:

--overwrite
    Allow output files to overwrite existing files

--help
    Print usage summary

--verbose
    Verbose module output

--quiet
    Quiet module output

--ui
    Force launching GUI dialog

  Parameters:

output=name [required]
    Name for output raster map

dip=float [required]
    Dip of plane in degrees
    Options: -90-90
    Default: 0.0

azimuth=float [required]
    Azimuth of the plane in degrees
    Options: 0-360
    Default: 0.0

easting=float [required]
    Easting coordinate of a point on the plane

northing=float [required]
    Northing coordinate of a point on the plane

elevation=float [required]
    Elevation coordinate of a point on the plane

type=string
    Type of raster map to be created
    Storage type for resultant raster map
    Options: CELL, FCELL, DCELL
    Default: FCELL
    CELL: Integer
    FCELL: Single precision floating point
    DCELL: Double precision floating point

DESCRIPTION
r.plane creates a tilted plane raster map given user-specified parameters for inclination, azimuth, and the geographic location of a point on the plane.
The angle orientations of the azimuth parameter increase counter-clockwise, i.e., 0 degree = N, 45 degree = NW, 90 degree = W etc.

Increasing values of the dip parameter progressively lower (or dip) the northern half of the plane, and incline the southern half, assuming the azimuth parameter is held constant at 0 degrees.

NOTES
g.region -c provides the easting and northing coordinates for the center of the current region.

CELL (integer) maps take less disk space than FCELLs (floating point), which in turn take up less space than DCELLs (double precision floating point).

EXAMPLE
A tilted plane in the North Carolina sample dataset region:

# set computational region
g.region raster=elev_lid792_1m -p
# get center coordinates as an example
g.region -c
# get terrain height at point
r.what map=elev_lid792_1m coordinates=638650.0,220375.0
# shows elevation: 116.7734
# generate tilted plane
r.plane myplane30 dip=30 az=75 east=638650.0 north=220375.0 \
        elev=116.7734 type=FCELL

Figure: Tilted plane shown in NVIZ along with elevation map

AUTHORS
Stefan Jäger (1994), University of Heidelberg during a stay at USGS
Updated to GRASS 5.7 by Michael Barton, Arizona State University
Full rewrite for GRASS 7 by Glynn Clements

SOURCE CODE

Available at: r.plane source code (history)

Latest change: Wednesday Jun 10 02:11:14 2026 in commit: 3cf1c707c2e346f96cd3078d4fa26a25d9e9d22c

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