Installation

Vyperdatum requires GDAL, which is most reliably installed from the conda-forge channel. A conda environment is created first, then GDAL and Vyperdatum are installed into it.

conda create -n vd python=3.11
conda activate vd
conda install -c conda-forge proj=9.6 gdal python-pdal
pip install vyperdatum

Downloading the NOAA grids and proj.db

NOAA’s datum grid files and the updated proj.db are not bundled with the package and are downloaded separately. The archive is published on Zenodo:

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18893503

Once the archive has been downloaded and extracted, a persistent environment variable named VYPER_GRIDS is set to the directory that holds the downloaded grids and proj.db. The grids directory and proj.db are validated at import time; if VYPER_GRIDS is unset, points at a missing directory, or is missing required files, an informative error is raised. The Environment and PROJ configuration page documents the environment variables that Vyperdatum reads and sets.

Verifying the installation

After VYPER_GRIDS has been set, the package import itself acts as a validation step. A successful import confirms that the grids directory and proj.db were found and that the NOAA authority is present in the PROJ database.

import vyperdatum
print(vyperdatum.__version__)