#Raster data format windows

WMF is a vector file format for Microsoft Windows Operation Systems. IDRISI 32’s vector export format (ASCII). The Digital Chart of the World (DCW) is published in this form. It is well documented and can easily be used internally or as a transfer format It contains geometry and attribute information, but no visualisation information. VPF is a binary format made by the US Defense Mapping Agency. TIGER has its own visualisation information. The most important attributes include road names and address information. It contains complete geographic coordinates and is line-based. TIGER is an ASCII transfer format made by the US Census Bureau to save road maps. TIGER, Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing Files It is approved in the World Wide Web Consortium. XML-standard for presentation of vector on the Internet. Nearly all other GIS programs can import this format. Associated to the Shape file (*.shp), there is a file to handle attributes (*.dbf) and an index file (*.shx). Shape is ArcView’s internal format for vector data. The first of these standards is Topological Vector Profile (TVP), used to save some types of vector data. To simplify it, many standards have been developed as “co-projects” to SDTS. These advantages nevertheless increase complexity. In principle, all geographical objects can be saved as SDTS, including coordinates, complex attributes and visualisation information. SDTS is a transfer format developed in the USA and is designed for handling all types of geographical data. The format handles three types of information: geometry attributes and visualisation. MIF/MID is MapInfo’s standard format, but most other GIS programs can also read it. But it is not possible to convert and exchange attribute data. Is a format, which can handle point, line and polygon data, as well as text and symbols. KF85, Kommunförbundets transfereringsformat (ISOK) XML-standard for exchanging and saving geographical vector data. It is a common format for GIS data found on the Internet. It is mainly used to exchange files between different versions of ARC/INFO, but can also be read by many other GIS programs. E00, ARC/INFO interchange fileĮ00 is a transfer format available both as ASCII and binary form. Nearly all programs can successfully import this format because of high standards.

There are many ways for saving attribute data in DXF format and to link DXF objects to external attributes (see DWG above). It contains visualisation information and is supported by nearly all graphic programs. DXF, Autodesk Drawing eXchange FormatĭXF is a common transfer format for vector data. Because of the lack of standards for linking attributes, problems may occur while converting this format between systems. A common standard method uses Extended Entity Data (EED) to link attributes, but other methods are possible. There are many possibilities for saving attribute data in DWG files. AutoCAD can convert DWG files to DXF files without loosing graphic information. DWG, Autodesk Drawing FilesĭWG is an intern format for AutoCAD. This format is mainly used by the USGS and other American agencies, which have used it for publication of many digital maps. DLG does not contain any visualisation information (display). It contains very precise coordinate information and sophisticated information about object classification, but no other attributes. DLG, Digital Line GraphsĭLG is used by the US Geological Survey (USGS) for handling vector information from printed paper maps. DGN files contain detailed visualisation information (display). This format is well documented and standardised, which makes it possible to use it an import/export format. DGN, MicroStation Design Files:ĭGN is an intern format for MicroStation, a CAD program (CAD means “Computer-Aided Design”). Simple ASCII format which can handle point and line data. It should be noted that this list is far from being complete! Vector Formats These functions are usually well documented and standardised.īelow is a list of some GIS file formats, in alphabethic order. Nevertheless, most GIS programs support other formats by having functions to import and export datasets. These file formats were created to optimise the efficiency of the program itself, and were not designed to be used in other external programs. Nearly all GIS programs have their own file format.

If you want to use GIS data that was saved in a particular format not supported by your GIS program, you must either find a way to transform the data or simply use another GIS program.

#Raster data format software

It is important to consider the file format of GIS data because software programs rarely support all file types. There are numerous formats available for both raster and vector data. Raster and vector data are stored in different formats. File formats define in which way the geographical features are stored.