# writers.ogr

The OGR Writer will create files of various vector formats as supported by the OGR library. PDAL points are generally stored as points in the output format, though PDAL will create multipoint objects instead of point objects if the ‘multicount’ argument is set to a value greater than 1. Points can be written with a single additional value in addition to location if ‘measure_dim’ specifies a valid PDAL dimension and the output format supports measure point types.

By default, the OGR writer will create ESRI shapefiles. The particular OGR driver can be specified with the ‘ogrdriver’ option.

## Example

    {
      "pipeline":[
        "inputfile.las",
        {
          "type": "writers.ogr",
          "filename" "outfile.geojson",
          "measure_dim": "Compression"
        }
      ]
    }

## Options

filename

  Output file to write. The writer will accept a filename containing a single placeholder character (#). If input to the writer consists of multiple PointViews, each will be written to a separate file, where the placeholder will be replaced with an incrementing integer. If no placeholder is found, all PointViews provided to the writer are aggregated into a single file for output. Multiple PointViews are usually the result of multiple input files, or using filters.splitter, filters.chipper or filters.divider.

  The driver will use the OGR GEOjson driver if the output filename extension is ‘geojson’, and the ESRI shapefile driver if the output filename extension is ‘shp’. If neither extension is recognized, the filename is taken to represent a directory in which ESRI shapefiles are written. The driver can be explicitly specified by using the ‘ogrdriver’ option.

multicount
  If 1, point objects will be written. If greater than 1, specifies the number of points to group into a multipoint object. Not all OGR drivers support multipoint objects. [Default: 1]
measure_dim

  If specified, points will be written with an extra data field, the dimension of which is specified by this option. Not all output formats support measure data. [Default: None]

  Note

  The measure_dim option is only supported if PDAL is built with GDAL version 2.1 or later.

ogrdriver
  The OGR driver to use for output. This option overrides any inference made about output drivers from ‘filename’.