Open External Files

Function Description

SuperMap iDesktopX supports directly opening external vector files, image files, and vector file folders. After opening, a data source with the same name as the file will be added to the workspace, and the file will be a dataset within that data source. This method can reduce the operational cost of using third-party data, simplify the workflow, and make data management more efficient.

Supported data formats are as follows:

Type Supported Formats
vector file *.shp、*.mif、*.tab、*.dwg、*.dxf、*.dgn、*.kml、*.kmz、*.wal、*.wan、*.wap、*.wat、*.csv、*.dbf、*.000、*.vct、*.json、*.geojson、*.gpkg、*.mdb、*.e00、*.gdb、*.meta
image files *.sit、*.bmp、*.jpg、*.jpeg、*.png、*.tif、*.tiff、*.img、*.sci、*.gif、*.xml、*.ecw、*.sid、*.bil、*.jp2、*.j2k、*.tpk、*.nc、*.grb、*.GRIB2、*.HDF、*.adf、*.pix、*.txt
vector file folders *.gdb
spreadsheet *.xlsx

Function Entrances

  • File tab->Open button->File
  • Start tab->Datasource group->select File->Open File Datasource
  • Workspace Manager panel->Datasource node context menu->Open File Datasource
  • Open directly by dragging and dropping files

Operation Steps

Opening Vector Files

SuperMap can read various vector data formats created by non-SuperMap platforms, including: *.shp, *.dbf, *.mif, *.tab, *.dwg, *.dxf, *.e00, *.wal, *.geojson, etc. Among them, some vector data support direct operations such as query and editing. For detailed instructions, please refer to Third-party Vector Data Direct Read/Write Guide.

The operation instructions for opening external vector files are as follows:

  1. In the workspace datasource node context menu, select Open File Datasource....
  2. In the pop-up Open File Datasource dialog box, select the vector file to be opened.
  3. Then the Open Vector File dialog box will pop up. Set the opening parameters as needed. Specific parameter descriptions can be viewed by clicking the links in the table below.
    Note:

    To reopen a file, opening it from the Recently used section in the Catalog Manager panel will retain the previously set parameters without popping up the dialog box; if using Open File Datasource or opening by dragging from a folder, the set parameters will not be retained and need to be reset.

  4. Click the OK button to open the vector file into the workspace. Except for GeoPackage and GDB files, other vector files can only be opened as read-only data sources. After opening, geometric feature editing, attribute editing, and other operations cannot be performed.

Supported operations include using the opened vector file as source data for analysis tools or directly exporting analysis results to common external file formats. The specific support is shown in the table below:

Format Direct Open Direct Edit Analysis Export
*.shp √ × √ √
*.gdb √ √ √ √
*.gpkg √ √ √ ×
*.geojson √ × √ ×
*.dwg, *.dxf, *.dgn √ × √ ×
*.mif, *.tab, *wor √ × √ ×
*.wal, *.wan, *.wap, *.wat √ × √ ×
*.kmz, *.kml √ × √ ×
*.000（S-57, S-101, CJ-57） √ × √ ×
*.mdb √ × √ ×
*.vct √ × √ ×
*.e00 √ × √ ×
*.csv √ × × ×

Opening Image Files

  1. In the workspace datasource node context menu, select Open File Datasource....
  2. In the pop-up Open File Datasource dialog box, select the image files to be opened.
  3. Click the Open button to open the image files into the workspace as read-only data sources. Among them, single-band 16-bit and 32-bit floating-point image files will be opened as raster datasets directly.

Opening Vector File Folders

  1. In the workspace datasource node context menu, select Open Folder Datasource....
  2. In the pop-up Open Folder Datasource dialog box, select the folder type to be opened. Currently, only FileGDB type is supported.
  3. In the folder input box, enter the FileGDB folder path and folder name.
  4. Click the OK button to open the vector file folder as a data source in the workspace. Geometric feature editing, attribute editing, and other operations are supported for datasets within this data source.

Opening Spreadsheets

Supports directly opening Excel files for read-only viewing in the form of attribute tables. The specific operation method is as follows:

  1. In the workspace manager, right-click the datasource node and select Open File Datasource... item.
  2. In the pop-up dialog box, select the Excel file to be browsed, and click the Open button to pop up the Excel Browse Parameter Settings dialog box. Browsing Excel supports two methods: browsing the first 1000 records or viewing all data. If "1st row as header" is checked, the first row of the Excel sheet will be set as the attribute table field.
  3. After clicking OK, the Excel file will be converted into a tabular dataset. Double-click to open it for browsing.

Related Topics

Open Datasource

New Datasource