Dear Neel:
I have the way to bring Arc Info files into GRASS
while maintaining your attributes. ( Remember - GRASS
itself can only hold one category name - if you'd
like more attributes, you have to attach a database.)
If you just have one category name to attach like
a contour file will just have one elevation per line
then you can do it this way...
Say have a contour coverage called elev...
1. use the UNGENERATE command in ARC
Arc: UNGENERATE line elev
2. To transfer the attributes, you must convert them to an
ascii file. One way to do this is to print the
attribute you want (in this case the attribute is called
"elevation") along with the -id# out to a file
from INFO. In INFO...
ENTER COMMAND> SEL ELEV.PAT
ENTER COMMAND> OUTPUT ELEV.TXT
ENTER COMMAND> PRINT ELEV-ID,ELEVATION
3. You should now have a .lin file in your workspace
and a .txt file in your info directory (unless you
specified a path in the OUTPUT command above).
Move both these files to the GRASS mapset/arc directory.
If you don't have a directory called "arc" in your mapset,
just create one.
4. Start GRASS and use v.in.arc to bring in the file.
v.in.arc type=line lines_in=elev.lin text_in=elev.txt
vector_out=grasselev idcol=1 catcol=2
v.support grasselev
NOTE! The v.in.arc command may get confused if your .txt
file has special characters in the category name.
Remove commas from numeric fields. If labels like
"Fleet Street" come in as "Fleet" try adding an
underscore for the space. I know it's inconvenient,
but at least then your label will stay together.
Good Luck!
Stephanie 
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Stephanie L. Miller - Physical Scientist
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Fort Worth
CESWF-PL-RE
819 Taylor Street
P.O. Box 17300
Fort Worth, Texas 76102-0300
email: stephan@alla.pl.swf.usace.army.mil
phone: (817)334-2095
fax: (817)885-7539
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All comments are my own and do
not represent official poilcy.
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