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Is there a way to get Z value/height/altitude from 3D multipoint shapefile in QGIS? All I found is way through SpatiaLite or PostGIS as explained here:

http://faunaliagis.wordpress.com/2013/08/14/transfer-3d-shapefiles-z-values-to-the-table-of-attributes/

But conversion multipoint to point using Vector/Geometry tools/Multipart to singlepart drops the Z value. I opened DB manager, select DB and run SQL command in SQL window:

update tablename set columnname = st_z(st_pointn(geom,1)

In my case:

update lidar_pts set z= st_z(st_pointn(GEOMETRY,1))

First there was missing ")" at the end, second: no such column: geom. So I changed it to "GEOMETRY" which end up running but all z values become Null.

Is there a better/other way in QGIS 2? Or at least is there a way to convert multipoint to point directly in SpatiaLite so it will keep z geometry?

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  • Also I have above 3M points in this file and have a lot of files... GDAL?
    – Miro
    Commented Jul 30, 2014 at 2:39
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    For the multipoint to point part, try ogr2ogr with parameters -nlt POINT25D -explodecollections gdal.org/ogr2ogr.html.
    – user30184
    Commented Jul 30, 2014 at 4:52
  • @user30184 thank you, I can see there also -zfield field_name which could work for me, going to try that
    – Miro
    Commented Jul 30, 2014 at 6:12
  • The -zfield works the other way around - fill z geometry from column. So thanks to "-nlt POINT25D -explodecollections -lco SHPT=POINTZ" I am able to convert 3D multipoint to 3D point. But running that SQL returns null to z column.
    – Miro
    Commented Jul 30, 2014 at 23:21

4 Answers 4

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From my understanding the current version of QGIS does not have 3D capabilities. You would have do, as you stated, 3D work in PostGIS or Spatialite. There may be a method to do the 3D functions you are inquiring about in Grass, which has a QGIS plugin.

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    Thank you, I decided to learn a bit more about GRASS and now I use GRASS GIS for all 3D processing - getting Z values from 3D / 2.5 D objects and saving to ascii x,y,z etc.
    – Miro
    Commented May 21, 2015 at 8:15
  • Glad you found a way, and it is working for you
    – Ryan Garnett
    Commented Aug 6, 2015 at 14:17
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The upcoming QGIS 2.14 will have the necessary 3D-capabilities. I have tried it with 2.13 (Dev-version) and it works well: Article using z-values with QGIS 2.14

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Please try to change the second part of the SQL-Statement: e.g. update lidar_pts set z= st_z(GEOMETRY) It worked fine for me with mulitpart-points - documented here http://isticktoit.net/?p=1117

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  • Thank you, will try later. Meanwhile I decided to use GRASS to get Z value from 3D data. That is pretty helpful especially because I need here and there also import DXF files with 3D objects / meshes / lines / points.
    – Miro
    Commented May 21, 2015 at 8:18
  • In 2.13 (2.14) you also have to use GRASS for generating the 3D-FeatureClass (SHP) - but now you can work with the z-values within the table/field-calculator of QGIS.
    – Flo Xi
    Commented Feb 29, 2016 at 15:57
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Try : How to create a 3D shapefile from a raster?

Use libraries as shapely or fiona (included in QGis python), extracted z value, you can add for example to attribute table.

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  • Could you please explain how a solution with raster input would apply to a question about a shapefile input?
    – whuber
    Commented Aug 6, 2015 at 12:41
  • gis.stackexchange.com/a/57138/28647 - In this answer is your problem.
    – Marcel GJS
    Commented Aug 10, 2015 at 5:58

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