Prepare with gdal_retile

Introduction to gdal_retily.py

Attention: These examples were executed on a Linux, box, if you have a Microsoft platform, you must change your path names. Additionally, the executable is gdal_retile.bat instead of gdal_retile.py.

The following examples assume we have a big image called big.tif.

• First simple example:

   gdal_retile.py -targetDir /tmp/test  big.tif
  
  Result: In the directory ``/tmp/test`` are many georeferenced tiles,  pixelsize 256x256, which will mosaic to the original image.
  

• Example of specific size:

  gdal_retile.py -ps 512 512 -targetDir /tmp/test big.tif
  

  Result: The tiles are 512 pixel x 512 pixel

• Sometimes you need to specify the coordinate system:

  gdal_retile.py -s_srs EPSG:4326 -ps 512 512 -targetDir /tmp/test  big.tif
  

• Now, we build additional pyramids:

  gdal_retile.py -levels 3 -ps 512 512 -targetDir /tmp/test big.tif
  

  Result: There are 3 additional subdirectories /tmp/test/1, /tmp/test/2, /tmp/test/3 containing the tiles for 3 pyramid levels.

• If we have already a set of tiles (*.tif) and need only the tiled pyramids:

  gdal_retile.py -levels 3 -pyramidOnly -ps 512 512 -targetDir /tmp/test *.tif
  

• If we have already a set of tiles (*.tif or *.png) and need to retile and to build pyramids:

  gdal_retile.py -levels 3  -ps 512 512 -targetDir /tmp/test *.tif
  

• There some more switches (e.g. image format ), please consult the man page.

Common problems:

• If you have many tiles , the *.tif pattern could result in a “command line buffer exceeded” error. This is not a problem of the utility.

  In this situation you have to create a file listing all the TIF files with absolute path names (Lets call it tilelist.txt) and then change the above command to:

  gdal_retile.py -levels 3  -ps 512 512 -targetDir /tmp/test --optfile tilelist.txt
  

Exporting the georeferencing information

Now we can decide how to prepare the georeferencing information:

• Exporting the georeferencing information into a csv file:

  gdal_retile.py -levels 3  -ps 512 512 -csv index.csv -targetDir /tmp/test --optfile tilelist.txt
  

  This produces a csv file for for each image level.

  • The csv has 5 columns: filename, minx, maxx, miny, maxy.

  • Each record describes the georeferencing information for a tile.

• Exporting the georeferencing information into a shape file:

  gdal_retile.py -levels 3  -ps 512 512 -tileIndex index.shp -tileIndexField LOCATION -targetDir /tmp/test --optfile tilelist.txt
  

  This produces shape files named index.shp with a geometry attribute LOCATION. Use http://www.gdal.org/ogr/ogrinfo.html to check the content.

• Exporting the georeferencing information into world files:

  gdal_retile.py -levels 3  -ps 512 512 -co "WORLDFILE=YES" -targetDir /tmp/test --optfile tilelist.txt