FAQ & Troubleshooting

Installation issues (GDAL)

• Symptom: Errors importing GDAL or installing wheels.
• Tips:
• Prefer conda-forge: conda install -c conda-forge gdal pyramids
• Ensure Python version matches available GDAL builds.

File not found or unsupported format

• Check the path. Windows users: escape backslashes in Python strings or use raw strings, e.g., r"C:\\path\\file.tif".
• Verify the file extension is supported (GeoTIFF/ASC/NetCDF for rasters; GeoJSON/Shapefile/GPKG for vectors).

Different raster sizes in a datacube

• Ensure all rasters share the same extent, resolution, and CRS before stacking.
• Align inputs using the reference raster and resample if needed.

Writing outputs fails

• Confirm write permissions in the destination folder.
• For ASCII export, ensure no_data_value and cell_size are valid (see API docs for _io.to_ascii).

CRS or transform confusion

• Use the meta and transform attributes on Dataset to inspect georeferencing.
• Reproject or align datasets prior to arithmetic operations.

Performance tips

• Work with windows/tiles for large rasters.
• Use compressed GeoTIFFs when appropriate and keep I/O on local SSD.