Recommendations to others considering GRASS:
Subscribe to the mailing list and become part of the community.
The learning curve can be steep, however, this is mostly true of all sophisticated software. This is commonly said about GRASS, but in all fairness it seems to come from people (myself included) who already knew commercial GIS. Other similar commercial software would require at least the same amount of time invested from a point of knowing nothing about GIS.
QGIS is a great companion to GRASS GIS. The QGIS community has incorporated GRASS functions as a toolbox. Very cool integration.
Take the time to read the manuals and understand how regions are setup to work with raster data. It's what a large majority of raster analysis questions relate to on the mailing list. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
What problems is GRASS solving and how is that benefiting you?
Environmental modeling. Using LiDAR point cloud data, creating high-definition DEMs for terrain analysis and hydrologic analysis. Delineated hundreds of drainage areas and many drainage networks. Applied Strahler ordering to drainage network. Developed innovative approach to map stream banks using LiDAR, DEMs and slope analysis. Modeled water tables in the wet and dry season using LiDAR based DEMs and soil data (depth to water). Created altered DEMs by filling ditches to show restoration of hydrologic flow. Filter LiDAR point clouds to bare earth as input build DEMs. Volumetric cut/fill analysis to guide post land form design. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
