Table of Contents

Supported Map Formats

Dinamica EGO delegates reading and writing most map formats to the GDAL library. This allows Dinamica EGO to handle several previously unsupported file formats.

Map Formats Supported for Reading

Thanks to GDAL, Dinamica EGO can read maps in the file formats listed below1).

Only the most common file formats are listed on the Open Map dialog file filters. However, it is possible to open any of the formats below choosing “All files” in the dialog.
  • AIRSAR Polarimetric - AirSAR
  • ASCII Gridded - XYZ
  • Arc/Info ASCII Grid - AAIGrid
  • Arc/Info Binary Grid - AIG
  • BIGGIF
  • BSB Nautical Chart Format - BSB
  • CEOS
  • Convair PolGASP data - CPG
  • DRDC COASP SAR Processor Raster - COASP
  • Daylon Leveller Heightfield - Leveller
  • ELAS DIPEx - DIPEx
  • ELAS DIPEx - ELAS
  • ENVI Labelled Raster - ENVI
  • EOSAT FAST Format - FAST
  • ERMapper - ERS
  • ESRI Labelled - EHdr
  • EUMETSAT Archive native - MSGN
  • EarthWatch/DigitalGlobe - TIL
  • Envisat Image Product - ESAT
  • Erdas 7.x - LAN
  • Erdas Imagine Raw - EIR
  • Erdas Imagine - HFA
  • FARSITE v.4 LCP Format - LCP
  • First Generation USGS DOQ - DOQ1
  • Fuji BAS Scanner Image - FujiBAS
  • GDAL Virtual - VRT
  • GSC Geogrid - GSC
  • GSat File Format - GFF
  • Generic Binary - GenBin
  • Geospatial PDF - PDF
  • Golden Software ASCII Grid - GSAG
  • Golden Software Binary Grid - GSBG
  • Golden Software Surfer 7 Binary Grid - GS7BG
  • Graphics Interchange Format - GIF
  • Grid eXchange File - GXF
  • HF2/HFZ heightfield raster - HF2
  • ILWIS Raster Map - ILWIS
  • Idrisi Raster - RST
  • Image Display and Analysis - IDA
  • In Memory Raster - MEM
  • JAXA PALSAR Product Reader - JAXAPALSAR
  • JPEG JFIF - JPEG
  • JPEG2000 - JP2OpenJPEG
  • Japanese DEM - JDEM
  • KMLSUPEROVERLAY
  • Magellan Topo - BLX
  • Microsoft Windows Device Independent Bitmap - BMP
  • Military Elevation Data - DTED
  • NADCON Datum Grid Shift - LOSLAS
  • NASA Planetary Data System - PDS
  • NITF
  • NLAPS Data Format - NDF
  • NOAA Polar Orbiter Level 1b Data Set - L1B
  • NOAA vertical datum shift - GTX
  • NTv2 Datum Grid Shift - NTv2
  • Netpbm - PNM
  • New Labelled USGS DOQ - DOQ2
  • Northwood/VerticalMapper Classified Grid Format - NWT_GRC
  • Northwood/VerticalMapper Numeric Grid Format - NWT_GRD
  • OGC Web Coverage Service - WCS
  • OGC Web Map Service - WMS
  • OZI OZF2/OZFX3 - OZI
  • PCI Geomatics Database File - PCIDSK
  • PCI Labelled - PAux
  • PCRaster
  • Portable Network Graphics - PNG
  • PostGIS Raster - PostGISRaster
  • R Object Data Store - R
  • RadarSat2 XML - RS2
  • Raster Matrix Format - RMF
  • Raster Product Format/RPF - ADRG
  • Raster Product Format/RPF - RPFTOC
  • SAGA GIS Binary format - SAGA
  • SAR_CEOS
  • SGI Image Format - SGI
  • SRTM HGT Format - SRTMHGT
  • Spot DIMAP - DIMAP
  • Standard Raster Product - SRP
  • Swedish Grid RIK - RIK
  • TIFF / BigTIFF / GeoTIFF - GTiff
  • TerraSAR-X Complex SAR Data Product - COSAR
  • TerraSAR-X Product - TSX
  • Terragen Heightfield - Terragen
  • USGS ASCII DEM / CDED - USGSDEM
  • USGS Astrogeology ISIS cube (Version 2) - ISIS2
  • USGS Astrogeology ISIS cube (Version 3) - ISIS3
  • USGS SDTS DEM - SDTS
  • VTP Binary Terrain Format - BT
  • Vexcel MFF - MFF
  • Vexcel MFF2 - MFF2
  • WMO GRIB1/GRIB2 - GRIB
  • X11 Pixmap - XPM

Map Formats Supported for Writing

Thanks to GDAL, Dinamica EGO can write maps in the file formats listed below2).

Dinamica EGO uses the file extension to decide the map format used to write the file. However, some formats do not either impose or suggest an extension to represent the supported formats. To workaround this limitation, Dinamica EGO invents a corresponding extension using the file format description. On the list of formats below, file formats marked with a star (*) have extensions invented by Dinamica.

Only the most common file formats are listed on the Save Map dialog file filters. However, it is possible to write any of the formats below choosing “All files” in the dialog.
  • Arc/Info ASCII Grid - AAIGrid
  • Daylon Leveller Heightfield - Leveller
  • ELAS DIPEx - ELAS*
  • ENVI Labelled Raster - ENVI*
  • ERMapper - ERS*
  • ESRI Labelled - EHdr*
  • Erdas Imagine - HFA
  • GDAL Virtual - VRT
  • Golden Software Binary Grid - GSBG
  • ILWIS Raster Map - ILWIS
  • Idrisi Raster - RST
  • Image Display and Analysis - IDA*
  • In Memory Raster - MEM*
  • Microsoft Windows Device Independent Bitmap - BMP
  • NITF
  • NOAA vertical datum shift - GTX
  • NTv2 Datum Grid Shift - NTv2
  • Netpbm - PNM
  • PCI Geomatics Database File - PCIDSK
  • PCI Labelled - PAUX*
  • Raster Matrix Format - RMF
  • Raster Product Format/RPF - ADRG
  • SAGA GIS Binary format - SAGA
  • SGI Image Format - SGI
  • TIFF / BigTIFF / GeoTIFF - GTiff
  • Terragen Heightfield - Terragen
  • VTP Binary Terrain Format - BT
  • Vexcel MFF - MFF
  • Vexcel MFF2 - MFF2*

The support to Arc/Info ASCII Grid (.asc) in GDAL is read only. So, Dinamica EGO provides the writing capability itself. This format can read images using cell types “Signed 32 Bit Integer” and “IEEE 754 32 Bit Real”. All cell types can be written, but they are automatically converted back to one of those formats next time Dinamica EGO reads the image again.

The current ERMapper (.ers) support in GDAL ignores class names. To workaround this limitation, support to reading and writing this file format is provided by Dinamica EGO itself.

GDAL Limitations

The GDAL implementation (and some times the underlying file format) imposes limitations to the representation of projections, layer names, category names and their corresponding colors. Some of these limitations and their corresponding workarounds are listed in the table below:

Limitation Workaround
Some file formats do not support storing projections. Use a VRT file or an auxiliary PAM XML file to keep this information.
Several file formats do not support storing category names. Use a VRT file or an auxiliary PAM XML file to keep this information. The ERMapper file format has the best support to category names and colors.
Several file formats do not support storing category colors. Use a VRT file or an auxiliary PAM XML file to keep this information. The ERMapper file format has the best support to category names and colors.
Several file formats do not support the storage of layer names. Use a VRT file or an auxiliary PAM XML file to keep this information. The ERMapper file format also has support to layer names.
The categories must start from 0 and their definition must be contiguous. Unfortunately, the only way to workaround this limitation is defining dummy categories (Dinamica EGO does this when representing non-contiguous categories in a GDAL supported format) or using the ERMapper file format.
Some formats do not preserve category colors when a specified number of bits per sample is used. Unfortunately, the only way to workaround this limitation is using a different format or choosing a number of bits per sample that does not have this limitation for a given format. For example, Geotiff format only stores category colors when the cell type is 8 bits unsigned.
Categories represented by negative values are not supported. Unfortunately, there is no way to workaround this limitation, except by avoiding the use of negative categories.

The ERMapper file format is handled by Dinamica EGO itself and not delegated to the GDAL library. For that reason, the PAM XML file can not be used with this format.

Dinamica EGO Limitations

Dinamica EGO only retrieves and uses category names and colors from the first layer/band when reading a GDAL supported format. All the other layers/bands are supposed to use the same category names and colors.

Additional Notes

It is important to observe some additional details concerning how map reading behaves in the current Dinamica EGO version:

When the map projection is not found, the map projection is left undefined. Previous Dinamica EGO versions (Dinamica EGO 1.8) assume a LOCAL projection in these cases.

The behavior concerning the omission of cell resolution is also different in the current version. So, when the cell dimension is not defined, a one-meter resolution (or one degree, depending on the map projection used) is assumed. Previously, Dinamica would assume a 100 meter or a one degree resolution, depending on the map projection used.

It is only possible to load maps represented by 8, 16, 32 or 64 bits per cell. Other cell types are not supported.

And an additional note concerning map writing: some formats do not support natively all the informations about map projections, map registration, cell resolution, layer names, category names etc. To workaround this, the GDAL library automatically writes an additional PAM XML file containing all the informations that can not be stored in the map file itself. This PAM XML is automatically processed when the map is loaded again in Dinamica EGO.

Virtual Format

Dinamica supports a virtual file format called VRT defined by GDAL.

This format can be used to transform an image defining a different registration info, different class names and a different color table. It can also be use to create mosaics from several different images.

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More information about how GDAL handles each file format can be found consulting the GDAL format list in the GDAL website