[GRASS-dev] Re: What to call 3D

Can anybody please say what is the official name for GRASS 3d
raster data, which should be used in the raster intro? So far I
have found the following:

$ cd /usr/local/grass-6.3.svn/docs/html$

$ grep -r -i "3d raster" . | wc -l
89
$ grep -r -i voxel . | wc -l
50
$grep -r -i g3d . | wc -l
46
$ grep -r -i GRID3D . | wc -l
17
$ grep -r -i "3d cell" . | wc -l
6

"3d cell" (which r3.info uses in it's output too BTW) seems kindoff
strange - 3d rasters are supposed to be only FP data type, whereas
in 2D raster GRASS lingo "CELL" designates the integer data type.

we have used "3D raster is called GRID3D" (similarly as 2D integer
raster is called CELL) in the GRASSbook,
but we have used voxel in few places too (I am not sure whether that
was good).
g3d is historical and 3d cell sounds confusing - it could get
mixed up with CELL.

Helena

In the element list actually used by GRASS ($GISBASE/etc/element_list), it is "officially" listed as ...

grid3:rast3d:raster3D:raster3D files

Although "grid3d" is the "main_elemant" name, some combination of "raster" and "3D" (including rast3d and raster3D) seems the most common variant used as alias, description, and menu item. I'd suggest "3D raster" as a text version to standardize on. It's the most clearly understandable (IMHO).

Michael