Opening External Files

Function Description

SuperMap iDesktopX supports directly opening external vector files, image files, and vector folders, with each file opened as a read-only datasource. After opening, a datasource with the same name as the file will be added to the workspace, and the file will be a dataset within that datasource. This approach reduces the operational cost of using third-party data, simplifies workflows, and makes data management more efficient.

The 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、*.EGC、*.tpk、*.nc、*.grb、*.GRIB2、*.HDF、*.adf、*.pix、*.txt
Vector Folder *.gdb
Spreadsheet *.xlsx

Function Entry

  • File tab->Open button->File
  • Start tab->Datasource group->Select File->Open File Datasource
  • Workspace Manager panel->Datasource node context menu->Open File Datasource
  • Also supports opening directly by dragging and dropping files.

Operation Steps

Opening Vector File

  1. In the workspace datasource node context menu, select Open File Datasource....
  2. In the popped-up Open File Datasource dialog box, select the vector file to open.
  3. 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.
    Notes:

    To repeatedly open files, use the Recently Used section in the Catalog Manager panel to retain previously set parameters without popping up the dialog box; using Open File Datasource or dragging from a folder will not retain parameters and requires reconfiguration.

  4. Click the OK button to open the vector file into the workspace. Except for GeoPackage and GDB files, other vector files are opened as read-only datasources and do not support geometric feature editing, attribute editing, etc.

Supports using opened vector files as source data for analysis tools or exporting analysis results directly to common external file formats. Specific support details are 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 √ × × ×

Supports direct editing of FileGDB and Geopackage; details on supported functions for directly opened FileGDB, Geopackage, and ShapeFile are explained below:

Function Module Function Name FileGDB Geopackage ShapeFile Remarks
Data Management New Dataset √ √ × For FileGDB and Geopackage when creating a new dataset, if dataset bounds are not set, the default data coordinates must be greater than -int[32] (i.e., -2147483647), otherwise creation fails. If dataset bounds are set during creation, this restriction does not apply.
Delete Dataset √ √ ×  
Copy Dataset √ √ ×  
Rename Dataset √ √ ×  
Set Dataset Description Information √ √ ×  
Data Processing Feature Editing √ √ × For FileGDB and Geopackage, if the attribute dataset contains only the SmId field, new objects cannot be added.
Set Coordinate System √ √ ×  
Project √ √ ×  
New Field √ √ ×  
Delete Field √ √ ×  
Field Attribute Modification
(Field Name, Type, Default Value, etc.)		 × × ×  
Field Index √ √ √ Can use existing field indexes from the file but does not support creating new ones.
Spatial Index R-tree Index × √ √ For Geopackage and ShapeFile data, can use existing spatial indexes from the file but does not support creating new ones.
Mapsheet Index × × ×  
Dynamic Index × × ×  
Q-tree Index √ × × For FileGDB data, can use existing spatial indexes from the file but does not support creating new spatial indexes.
GeoHash Index × × ×  

Opening Image Files

  1. In the workspace datasource node context menu, select Open File Datasource....
  2. In the popped-up Open File Datasource dialog box, select the image files to open.
  3. Click the Open button to open the image files as read-only datasources in the workspace. Single-band 16-bit and 32-bit floating-point image files become raster datasets after direct opening.

Opening Vector Folder

  1. In the workspace datasource node context menu, select Open Folder Datasource....
  2. In the popped-up Open Folder Datasource dialog box, select the folder type to open; currently, only FileGDB 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 folder as a datasource in the workspace. Supports geometric feature editing, attribute editing, etc., for datasets within this datasource.

Opening Spreadsheet

Supports directly opening Excel files for read-only viewing as attribute tables. Specific steps are as follows:

  1. In the Workspace Manager, right-click the datasource node and select Open File Datasource...
  2. In the popped-up dialog box, select the Excel file to browse, then click Open to display the Excel Browse Parameter Settings dialog box. Excel browsing supports viewing the first 1000 records or all data. Checking "First Row as Header" sets the first row of the Excel sheet as field names.
  3. After clicking OK, the Excel file is converted to a tabular dataset; double-click to open and browse. 

Related Topics

Open Datasource

New Datasource