Supported External Data Formats

Our software can utilize a variety of external data, such as:

AutoCAD and AutoCAD Civil 3D Drawing Files (*.dwg, *.dxf)
Bentley MicroStation Drawing Files (*.dgn)
AutoCAD Civil 3D and Bentley MicroStation Terrain Surfaces (via LandXML)†
3D Models (via SketchUp)
Elevation Data (numerous formats detailed below)
GIS Data (*.shp, *.gdb, *.mdb)
Survey Data (numerous formats detailed below)
Raster Imagery Data (numerous formats detailed below)

CivilGEO’s products also supports model data such as:

HEC-RAS Projects (*.prj)
HEC-HMS Projects (*.hms)

Elevation Data

Elevation data can come in a variety of different formats. The following elevation data file formats are supported:

ArcInfo ASCII Elevation Grids
ArcInfo Binary Elevation Grids
ArcInfo Contour Shapefiles
ArcInfo Elevation Point Shapefiles
ArcInfo GDB File Geodatabases
ArcInfo MDB Personal Geodatabases
AutoCAD Civil 3D Terrain Surfaces†
AutoCAD Contours
Bentley MicroStation Terrain Surfaces†
Bentley MicroStation Contours
GeoTIFF Elevation Grids
LandXML Terrain Models
USGS DEM Elevation Grids
USGS NED Elevation Grids – BIL Format
USGS NED Elevation Grids – Float Format
XYZ ASCII Point Terrain Data
LiDAR Point Clouds (*.las, *.laz)

GIS Data

GIS data consists of two components:

Spatial Data: This component contains coordinate information that describes the element. For example, this could be a manhole location.
Attribute Data: This component is used to store information about the element. For example, this could be the manhole invert and rim elevations.

The following GIS data file formats are supported:

ArcInfo Shapefiles
ArcInfo GDB File Geodatabases
ArcInfo MDB Personal Geodatabases

Survey Data

Survey data can be used to import alignments, cross-section geometries, terrain surfaces, and much more.

The following survey data formats are supported:

AutoCAD 3D Points
AutoCAD Civil 3D COGO Points
ENZ (Easting, Northing, Elevation) Point Files
ENZD (Easting, Northing, Elevation, Description) Point Files
NEZ (Northing, Easting, Elevation) Point Files
NEZ (Northing, Easting, Elevation, Description) Point Files
PENZ (Point, Easting, Northing, Elevation) Point Files
PENZD (Point, Easting, Northing, Elevation, Description) Point Files
PNEZ (Point, Northing, Elevation) Point Files
PNEZD (Point, Northing, Easting, Elevation, Description) Point Files
XYZ ASCII Point Files

Raster Imagery Data

In its simplest form, a raster imagery file consists of a matrix of cells (or pixels) organized into rows and columns (or a grid) where each cell contains a color value. Rasters can be digital aerial photographs, images from satellites, digital pictures, or even scanned maps.

The following raster imagery data file formats are supported: