# 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

    [
        "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.

where

  An expression that limits points passed to a writer. Points that don’t pass the expression skip the stage but are available to subsequent stages in a pipeline. [Default: no filtering]

where_merge

  A strategy for merging points skipped by a ‘where’ option when running in standard mode. If `true`, the skipped points are added to the first point view returned by the skipped filter. If `false`, skipped points are placed in their own point view. If `auto`, skipped points are merged into the returned point view provided that only one point view is returned and it has the same point count as it did when the writer was run. [Default: `auto`]