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Supported Data Formats

All editions of Map Suite come with support for the most popular GIS file formats baked right in; these are the natively-supported formats. In general, a natively-supported format will enjoy better performance and API friendliness than those that are supposed through extensions.

Vector Formats

Vector data allows you to style and display your data exactly how you want it. If the data format you are looking for is not listed below, you can easily integrate your own custom data format.

Format Support Type Map Suite Version
ShapeFile((All versions of Map Suite support ShapeFile DBFs in the standard dBASE III format. Additionally, since Map Suite 8.0, DBFs in Visual FoxPro format are also supported.)) Read/write 1.0
MapInfo TAB Read/write 5.0
ThinkGeo TinyGeo Read/write 6.0
ESRI File Geodatabase Read/write 7.0
Microsoft SQL Server Spatial 2008 and newer Read/write 3.0
Oracle Spatial Read/write 3.0
PostgreSQL PostGIS((Requires that you reference the free Postgre extension which is included with Map Suite.)) Read/write 3.0
S-57 Maritime Charts Read 8.0
GPX (GPs eXchange format) Read 8.0
CAD (.dwg and .dfx) Read 8.0
KML (Keyhole Markup Language) Read 8.0 (refresh)
ESRI Grid (.grd) Read 5.0
Tobin TDRBM II (.bas) Read 8.0
SQLite Read/write 8.0 (refresh)
MBTiles Read 14.1

Raster Formats

Raster data is typically aerial imagery, satellite imagery and topo maps. However you can use almost any image as a raster layer and add it to the map. For example you may have a jpeg that represents a floor plan of a building that you would like to display on a map.

Format Support Type Map Suite Version
Mr. Sid Read 3.0
ECW Read 3.0
JPEG2000 Read 3.0
GeoTIFF Read 3.0
BMP Read 3.0
PNG Read 3.0
GIF Read 3.0
JPG Read 3.0
TIFF Read 3.0
ESRI Grid (.grd) Read 5.0
MBTiles Read 14.1

Web Based Datasets

Web based map data comes in a variety of forms. Several of the providers below are tile based web services that allow you to easily integrate rich basemaps into your application. Other technologies such as WMS and WFS provide a common way for web applications to consume maps and feature information over the web. Finally the NOAA web data layers allow you to integrate near real time weather information into your application using Map Suite.

Format/Provider Map Suite Version Description
ThinkGeo Cloud Online 10.0 ThinkGeo Cloud provides the following Services: Maps Vector Tiles, Maps Raster Tiles, Maps WMS, Elevation, Geocoding, Reverse Geocoding, Routing, Maps Query and Projection etc.
WMS (Web Map Service) 6.0 WMS is a open standard set by the OGC to consume maps over the web.
WFS (Web Feature Service) 6.0 WFS is a open standard set by the OGC.
OGC Api Features (WFS 3.0) 14.0 Latest OGC Standard for web-based features.
Google Maps 3.0 Google Maps Use of Google Maps within a Map Suite developer SDK requires a Google Maps API For Business license and is subject to Google's licensing terms. For more information, please visit: https://developers.google.com/maps/licensing
Bing Maps 3.0 Bing Maps Use of Bing Maps within a Map Suite developer SDK requires a Bing Maps license and is subject to Microsoft's licensing terms. For more information, please visit: http://www.microsoft.com/maps/Licensing/licensing.aspx
NOAA Radar 8.0 NEXRAD Radar updated every 15 minutes covering most of the United States.
NOAA Weather Watches & Warnings 8.0 Current weather watches and warnings covering the United States.
NOAA Weather Stations 8.0 Current temperatures and other weather information from NOAA weather stations around the United States.

Additional Formats using the ThinkGeo GDAL Library

ThinkGeo also provides easy access to data formats supported by the GDAL library. You can view more details on the library here. A listing of supported data formats is below.

Note: Because the ThinkGeo GDAL extension is based on a third-party open-source library, you may experience unexpected issues beyond ThinkGeo's control when using a GDAL-supported data format.

  • Raster Support

    • AAIGrid -- Arc/Info ASCII Grid
    • ACE2 -- ACE2
    • ADRG -- ADRG/ARC Digitized Raster Graphics (.gen/.thf)
    • AIG -- Arc/Info Binary Grid
    • AIRSAR -- AIRSAR Polarimetric Format
    • ARG -- Azavea Raster Grid
    • BAG -- Bathymetry Attributed Grid
    • BASISU -- Basis Universal
    • BLX -- Magellan BLX Topo File Format
    • BMP -- Microsoft Windows Device Independent Bitmap
    • BSB -- Maptech/NOAA BSB Nautical Chart Format
    • BT -- VTP .bt Binary Terrain Format
    • BYN - Natural Resources Canada's Geoid file format (.byn)
    • CAD -- AutoCAD DWG raster layer
    • CALS -- CALS Type 1
    • CEOS -- CEOS Image
    • COASP -- DRDC COASP SAR Processor Raster
    • COG -- Cloud Optimized GeoTIFF generator
    • COSAR -- TerraSAR-X Complex SAR Data Product
    • CPG -- Convair PolGASP data
    • CTable2 -- CTable2 Datum Grid Shift
    • CTG -- USGS LULC Composite Theme Grid
    • DAAS (Airbus DS Intelligence Data As A Service driver)
    • DDS -- DirectDraw Surface
    • DERIVED -- Derived subdatasets driver
    • DIMAP -- Spot DIMAP
    • DIPEx -- ELAS DIPEx
    • DOQ1 -- First Generation USGS DOQ
    • DOQ2 -- New Labelled USGS DOQ
    • DTED -- Military Elevation Data
    • ECRGTOC -- ECRG Table Of Contents (TOC.xml)
    • ECW -- Enhanced Compressed Wavelets (.ecw)
    • EEDAI - Google Earth Engine Data API Image
    • EHdr -- ESRI .hdr Labelled
    • EIR -- Erdas Imagine Raw
    • ELAS - Earth Resources Laboratory Applications Software
    • ENVI -- ENVI .hdr Labelled Raster
    • ESAT -- Envisat Image Product
    • ESRIC -- Esri Compact Cache
    • ERS -- ERMapper .ERS
    • EXR -- Extended Dynamic Range Image File Format
    • FAST -- EOSAT FAST Format
    • FIT -- FIT
    • FITS -- Flexible Image Transport System
    • GenBin -- Generic Binary (.hdr labelled)
    • Oracle Spatial GeoRaster
    • GFF -- Sandia National Laboratories GSAT File Format
    • GIF -- Graphics Interchange Format
    • GPKG -- GeoPackage raster
    • GRASS Raster Format
    • GRASSASCIIGrid -- GRASS ASCII Grid
    • GRIB -- WMO General Regularly-distributed Information in Binary form
    • GS7BG -- Golden Software Surfer 7 Binary Grid File Format
    • GSAG -- Golden Software ASCII Grid File Format
    • GSBG -- Golden Software Binary Grid File Format
    • GSC -- GSC Geogrid
    • GTA - Generic Tagged Arrays
    • GTiff -- GeoTIFF File Format
    • GXF -- Grid eXchange File
    • HDF4 -- Hierarchical Data Format Release 4 (HDF4)
    • HDF5 -- Hierarchical Data Format Release 5 (HDF5)
    • HEIF / HEIC -- ISO/IEC 23008-12:2017 High Efficiency Image File Format
    • HF2 -- HF2/HFZ heightfield raster
    • HFA -- Erdas Imagine .img
    • RST -- Idrisi Raster Format
    • ILWIS -- Raster Map
    • IRIS -- Vaisala's weather radar software format
    • ISCE -- ISCE
    • ISG -- International Service for the Geoid
    • ISIS2 -- USGS Astrogeology ISIS Cube (Version 2)
    • ISIS3 -- USGS Astrogeology ISIS Cube (Version 3)
    • JDEM -- Japanese DEM (.mem)
    • JP2ECW -- ERDAS JPEG2000 (.jp2)
    • JP2KAK -- JPEG-2000 (based on Kakadu)
    • JP2Lura -- JPEG2000 driver based on Lurawave library
    • JP2MrSID -- JPEG2000 via MrSID SDK
    • JP2OpenJPEG -- JPEG2000 driver based on OpenJPEG library
    • JPEG -- JPEG JFIF File Format
    • JPEGXL -- JPEG-XL File Format
    • JPIPKAK - JPIP Streaming
    • KEA
    • KMLSuperoverlay -- KMLSuperoverlay
    • KRO -- KOLOR Raw format
    • KTX2
    • LAN -- Erdas 7.x .LAN and .GIS
    • L1B -- NOAA Polar Orbiter Level 1b Data Set (AVHRR)
    • LCP -- FARSITE v.4 LCP Format
    • Leveller -- Daylon Leveller Heightfield
    • LOSLAS -- NADCON .los/.las Datum Grid Shift
    • MAP -- OziExplorer .MAP
    • MRF -- Meta Raster Format
    • MBTiles
    • MEM -- In Memory Raster
    • MFF -- Vexcel MFF Raster
    • MFF2 -- Vexcel MFF2 Image
    • MrSID -- Multi-resolution Seamless Image Database
    • MSG -- Meteosat Second Generation
    • MSGN -- Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) Native Archive Format (.nat)
    • NDF -- NLAPS Data Format
    • NetCDF: Network Common Data Form
    • NGSGEOID - NOAA NGS Geoid Height Grids
    • NGW -- NextGIS Web
    • NITF -- National Imagery Transmission Format
    • NOAA_B -- NOAA GEOCON/NADCON5 .b format
    • NSIDCbin -- National Snow and Ice Data Centre Sea Ice Concentrations
    • NTv2 -- NTv2 Datum Grid Shift
    • NWT_GRD/NWT_GRC -- Northwood/Vertical Mapper File Format
    • OGCAPI -- OGC API Tiles / Maps / Coverage
    • ESRI File Geodatabase raster (OpenFileGDB)
    • OZI -- OZF2/OZFX3 raster
    • JAXA PALSAR Processed Products
    • PAux -- PCI .aux Labelled Raw Format
    • PCIDSK -- PCI Geomatics Database File
    • PCRaster -- PCRaster raster file format
    • PDF -- Geospatial PDF
    • PDS -- Planetary Data System v3
    • PDS4 -- NASA Planetary Data System (Version 4)
    • PLMosaic (Planet Labs Mosaics API)
    • PNG -- Portable Network Graphics
    • PNM -- Netpbm (.pgm, .ppm)
    • PostGISRaster -- PostGIS Raster driver
    • PHOTOMOD Raster File
    • Rasterlite - Rasters in SQLite DB
    • RasterLite2 - Rasters in SQLite DB
    • R -- R Object Data Store
    • RDB - RIEGL Database
    • RIK -- Swedish Grid Maps
    • RMF -- Raster Matrix Format
    • ROI_PAC -- ROI_PAC
    • RPFTOC -- Raster Product Format/RPF (a.toc)
    • RRASTER -- R Raster
    • RS2 -- RadarSat 2 XML Product
    • SAFE -- Sentinel-1 SAFE XML Product
    • SAR_CEOS -- CEOS SAR Image
    • SAGA -- SAGA GIS Binary Grid File Format
    • SDTS -- USGS SDTS DEM
    • SENTINEL2 -- Sentinel-2 Products
    • SGI -- SGI Image Format
    • SIGDEM -- Scaled Integer Gridded DEM
    • SNODAS -- Snow Data Assimilation System
    • SRP -- Standard Product Format (ASRP/USRP) (.gen)
    • SRTMHGT -- SRTM HGT Format
    • STACIT - Spatio-Temporal Asset Catalog Items
    • STACTA - Spatio-Temporal Asset Catalog Tiled Assets
    • Terragen -- Terragen™ Terrain File
    • TGA -- TARGA Image File Format
    • TIL -- EarthWatch/DigitalGlobe .TIL
    • TileDB - TileDB raster
    • TSX -- TerraSAR-X Product
    • USGSDEM -- USGS ASCII DEM (and CDED)
    • VICAR -- VICAR
    • VRT -- GDAL Virtual Format
    • WCS -- OGC Web Coverage Service
    • WEBP - WEBP
    • WMS -- Web Map Services
    • WMTS -- OGC Web Map Tile Service
    • XPM -- X11 Pixmap
    • XYZ -- ASCII Gridded XYZ
    • Zarr
    • ZMap -- ZMap Plus Grid

  • Vector Support

    • AmigoCloud
    • (Geo)Arrow IPC File Format / Stream
    • Arc/Info Binary Coverage
    • Arc/Info E00 (ASCII) Coverage
    • CAD -- AutoCAD DWG
    • Carto
    • Comma Separated Value (.csv)
    • CSW - OGC CSW (Catalog Service for the Web)
    • AutoCAD DWG
    • AutoCAD DXF
    • Google Earth Engine Data API
    • EDIGEO
    • Elasticsearch: Geographically Encoded Objects for Elasticsearch
    • ESRIJSON / FeatureService driver
    • ESRI File Geodatabase (FileGDB)
    • FlatGeobuf
    • GeoConcept text export
    • GeoJSON
    • GeoJSONSeq: sequence of GeoJSON features
    • GeoRSS : Geographically Encoded Objects for RSS feeds
    • GML - Geography Markup Language
    • GMLAS - Geography Markup Language (GML) driven by application schemas
    • GMT ASCII Vectors (.gmt)
    • GPKG -- GeoPackage vector
    • GPSBabel
    • GPX - GPS Exchange Format
    • GRASS Vector Format
    • GTFS - General Transit Feed Specification
    • SAP HANA
    • IDB
    • Idrisi Vector (.VCT)
    • "INTERLIS 1" and "INTERLIS 2" drivers
    • JML: OpenJUMP JML format
    • KML - Keyhole Markup Language
    • LIBKML Driver (.kml .kmz)
    • Dutch Kadaster LV BAG 2.0 Extract
    • MapML
    • Memory
    • MapInfo TAB and MIF/MID
    • MongoDBv3
    • MSSQLSpatial - Microsoft SQL Server Spatial Database
    • MVT: Mapbox Vector Tiles
    • MySQL
    • NAS - ALKIS
    • NetCDF: Network Common Data Form - Vector
    • NGW -- NextGIS Web
    • UK .NTF
    • OGC API - Features
    • Oracle Spatial
    • ODBC RDBMS
    • ODS - Open Document Spreadsheet
    • OGDI Vectors
    • ESRI File Geodatabase vector (OpenFileGDB)
    • OSM - OpenStreetMap XML and PBF
    • (Geo)Parquet
    • PDF -- Geospatial PDF
    • PDS - Planetary Data Systems TABLE
    • PostgreSQL SQL Dump
    • ESRI Personal GeoDatabase
    • PostgreSQL / PostGIS
    • PLScenes (Planet Labs Scenes/Catalog API)
    • IHO S-57 (ENC)
    • SDTS
    • Selafin files
    • ESRI Shapefile / DBF
    • Norwegian SOSI Standard
    • SQLite / Spatialite RDBMS
    • SVG - Scalable Vector Graphics
    • Storage and eXchange Format - SXF
    • U.S. Census TIGER/Line
    • TileDB -- TileDB vector
    • TopoJSON driver
    • VDV - VDV-451/VDV-452/INTREST Data Format
    • VFK - Czech Cadastral Exchange Data Format
    • VRT -- Virtual Format
    • WAsP - WAsP .map format
    • WFS - OGC WFS service
    • XLS - MS Excel format
    • XLSX - MS Office Open XML spreadsheet