dggrid4py - a Python library to run highlevel functions of DGGRID

GNU AFFERO GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE

DGGRID is a free software program for creating and manipulating Discrete Global Grids created and maintained by Kevin Sahr. DGGRID version 8.44 was released 2. April 2026 (version 9.03b on 5. October 2026).

• DGGRID on GitHub

• DGGRID User Manual (readthedocs)

Contents

Find the source repository on GitHub !

• Usage
  • Installation
    • Quickstart with pixi (recommended)
      • Developing dggrid4py with pixi
    • Installation with pip
  • Portable DGGRID binary
  • Basic Usage
  • IGEO7 Usage
  • TODO
• IGEO7
  • Overview: A Hierarchically Indexed Hexagonal Equal-Area Discrete Global Grid System
  • Orientation and ellipsoid: which IGEO7 you get
  • Recommended: the wrappers in dggrid4py.igeo7_ext
  • Explicit configuration with DGGRIDv8
  • Parents, children and neighbours
  • Migrating from Z7_STRING and DGGRIDv7
  • API Reference
  • Publication
• API

Related work:

Originally inspired by dggridR, Richard Barnes’ R interface to DGGRID. However, dggridR is directly linked via Rcpp to DGGRID and calls native C/C++ functions.

After some unsuccessful trials with ctypes, cython, CFFI, pybind11 or cppyy (rather due to lack of experience) I found am2222/pydggrid (on PyPI) which made apparently some initial scaffolding for the transform operation with pybind11 including some sophisticated conda packaging for Windows. This might be worth following up. Interestingly, its todos include “Adding GDAL export Geometry Support” and “Support GridGeneration using DGGRID” which this dggrid4py module supports with integration of GeoPandas.

Bundling for different operating systems

Having to compile DGGRID for Windows can be a bit challenging. We are working on an updated conda package. Currently DGGRID v8.44 is available on conda-forge, and portable binaries without GDAL can be downloaded with dggrid4py (see Usage):

greater context DGGS in Earth Sciences and GIS

Some reading to be excited about: discourse.pangeo.io

Check out the Usage section for further information, including how to Installation the project.

Note

This project is under active development.