Supported Formats

1. Vector file formats that can be opened directly

The native format of the Map Engine is the Demis map layer format (*.mpl). This format has been optimized for fast drawing of vectors, including thematic mapping of data (and time dependant data). Tiling is also supported in the Map Engine. A tiled set of mpl files can be organized in the map layer tile (*.mpt) format. Besides the proprietary MPL format, the ESRI Shapefile format (*.shp) can also be opened directly. Shape files however can't be used directly for thematic mapping. In that case you need to import the Shape file first.

ArcView Shapefile format (*.shp)
Demis map engine layer format (*.mpl)
Demis map engine tile format (*.mpt)

2. Vector file formats that can be imported

The following GIS vector file formats are also supported, by importing the point, line or polygon vectors to the MPL format:

ArcView Shape files (*.shp)
Map Info interchange format (*.mif)
Atlas GIS (*.bna)
AutoCAD ASCII (*.dxf)
MOSS files (*.mos)

3. Supported grid data formats

Binary raster format (*.bil, *.dem)
Multi-band raster data (*.bil, *.bip, *.bsq)
ASCII grid data format (*.asc)
Incremental grid time dependant data format (*.inc)
Esri ArcView Float format (*.flt)
Erdas Image file format (*.lan)
Erdas Image file format (*.gis)
NIMA/NGA DTED terrain data (*.dt1, *.dt2)
Tiled grid data (*.grt)

4. Supported geo-referenced bitmap (raster image ) formats

ErMapper compressed imagery format v2.0 (*.ecw)
JPEG2000 compressed image format (*.jp2)
MrSID compressed image format (*.sid)
Graphics Interchange Format (*.gif)
Windows Bitmap format (*.bmp)
Standard JPEG format (*.jpg)


5. Tiled data

For large datasets it is important to be able to split a huge dataset into small tiles, so as to keep performance at a high level. The process of tiling is supported for vector (mpl), grid data and raster images. In the Demis mapengine tile formats common layer properties are stored, as well as a relative path to the list of files to be included in the tile. To prepare such a tile, usually an ASCII format list file is made first (*.lst). After opening the list file in programs such as Mapper or Netter, the list can be saved as MPT, GRT or IMT files, depending on the content of the LST file.

Tiled Vector data in MPL format (*.mpt)
Tiled grid data (*.grt)
Tiled Image data (*.imt)
List of files to include as tiled layer (*.lst)