An Improved Algorithm for Transferring Vector to Raster Data
Daosheng Du · Geography and Geo-Information Science · 2004
The development of GIS is closely related to the optimization of spatial data structure. The efficient mutual conversion between vector and raster data is one of the key technologies in GIS.For the sake of the convenience for overlay analysis, the vector data are always transferred to raster data. These two fundamental data structures of GIS were analyzed and compared at the beginning of this paper. Various conventional approaches of converting vector data to raster data were summarized, and then the paper presented an improved boundary-tracing algorithm, which was based on BAF (Boundary Algebra Filling) and Positive-Negative algorithm for drawing graphs. The principle of this algorithm is simple, as the computation and comparison of distance between two points is not necessary. Therefore, it considerably improves the speed of the data conversion, and maintains the filling precision through a simple judgment of the angle as well.