Displaying 3D raster/vector in GRASS from command line?

Question

I am using GRASS 7.0 on ubuntu linux 12.04 x64. I am working through some GRASS tutorials and am able to get a 3d raster to show up when I use the GUI. However, I cannot get the command line interface for the 3d raster to work. When I type nviz ... or wxnviz I get nothing. The manual only seems to clicking on the dropdown box on the displayed 2d image (generated from the command line) in order to show the 3d display. However, when I generate a 2d raster from the command line and then click on the dropdown box in the image window to make it 3d, I just get a blank screen.

So the functionality works in the gui but not from the command line.

Is there a way to generate a 3d display from the command line?

Answer 1

Currently (February 2014), there is no possibility to display 3D rasters and 3D vectors in 3D (NVIZ) from system command line. (The GUI started by d.mon wx0 has the 3D switch but it doing nothing as you noted.)

However, you can use the Command console in the main GUI (g.gui) and there use just d.vect for any vectors and a special module d.rast3d for 3D rasters:

d.vect some_2d_or_3d_vector
d.rast3d some_3d_raster

To get something from 3D, you need to use mouse anyway. Note also that you cannot use g.gui and d.mon wx* together. But you can use most of the display commands (d.*) from Command console in the main GUI.

Alternative, hard-core way, is to use m.nviz.image module to render image into a file (but the number of parameters requires to prepare the command in GUI 3D/NVIZ mode using button in the Layer Manager 3D toolbar).

You request seems reasonable and the functionality already was there, so you may want to fill a ticket for this (you need OSGeo userid).