Export Formats

NetCDF format: climate + ocean + gridded geo — OSM analytics export to .nc

NetCDF from Unidata/UCAR 1989: NetCDF-3 vs NetCDF-4 on HDF5, CF-Conventions, CMIP6+ERA5+MODIS, OSM analytics export.

2026-05-06 · 17 min
scientificnetcdfclimategridded

MIF/MID (MapInfo Interchange) format: ASCII exchange since 1990 — OSM export for legacy GIS

MIF/MID from MapInfo Corp 1990: ASCII 2-file pair, REGION/PLINE/ARC geometry, GDAL MITAB, legacy GIS archives.

2026-05-05 · 11 min
gismapinfolegacyascii

MVT: Mapbox Vector Tile — Vector Tile Standard for Web Maps

MVT (Mapbox Vector Tile) since 2014: open spec for protobuf-encoded binary vector tiles. Tippecanoe, PMTiles, MBTiles and rendering via MapLibre.

2026-05-05 · 8 min
mvtvector-tilemapboxpbf

MBTiles — SQLite Tile Container for Offline Map Apps (Mapbox)

MBTiles is a Mapbox SQLite tile container for vector and raster tiles: the offline-map standard for OSMAnd, Maps.me, Locus, MapTiler since 2011.

2026-05-04 · 10 min
MBTilesMapboxSQLiteoffline maps

Maps.me / Organic Maps MWM — Mobile Vector Format Post-Mail.ru: History and OSM Build

Maps.me and Organic Maps MWM container: binary vector format for Android/iOS, 2022 fork after Daegu acquisition, OSM-to-MWM build via generate_mwm pipeline.

2026-05-03 · 9 min
Maps.meOrganic MapsMWMmobile

Locus Map — Asamm Software Android Navigator: sqlitedb Format, Themes and OSM Offline Maps

Locus Map by Asamm Software: SQLite-based `.sqlitedb` tile container, mapsforge themes, POI databases. OSM offline maps for hiking on Android.

2026-05-03 · 8 min
Locus MapAndroidoffline mapssqlitedb

LAS / LAZ: ASPRS Format for LiDAR Point Cloud Storage

LAS — the ASPRS industry standard for LiDAR point clouds (1.0–1.4). LAZ provides lossless compression. PDAL, lastools, ground/building/vegetation classification.

2026-05-01 · 10 min
laslazlidarpoint-cloud

Lanelet2 — HD Maps for Autonomous Vehicles from KIT and Autoware

Lanelet2 is an HD map format from KIT and Autoware based on OSM XML: lane-level topology, 3D geometry, traffic rules; used in Apollo, Autoware, NVIDIA DriveSim, BSD license.

2026-04-29 · 11 min
Lanelet2KITAutowareautonomous driving

LandXML format: civil engineering exchange since 1999 — OSM road export to alignment XML

LandXML from Autodesk+Bentley+Trimble consortium 1999: Alignment/Surface/Parcel XML, AutoCAD Civil 3D, OSM road export.

2026-04-28 · 13 min
civilaeclandxmlalignment

KOMPAS (ASCON) format: Russian CAD standard ESKD — OSM export for import substitution

KOMPAS-3D and KOMPAS-Graph by ASCON: ESKD standards, .frw/.m3d/.a3d, SolidWorks/AutoCAD substitution, OSM pipeline.

2026-04-27 · 11 min
cadkompasasconrussian

KMZ — Zipped KML with Resources: What It Is, How to Create and Unpack

Deep guide to KMZ: ZIP wrapper over KML with embedded images and models, OGC standard, usage in Google Earth and mobile navigators.

2026-04-26 · 9 min
KMZKMLGoogle EarthZIP

JPEG — Complete Guide: 30 Years of History, How to Open, How to Make a JPG OSM Map

Deep guide to JPEG (JPG): what's inside ISO/IEC 10918-1, the JPEG Committee's history since 1986, which programs open it, pros and cons. How to get a compact JPG map from any OpenStreetMap area in 30 seconds.

2026-04-25 · 12 min
JPEGJPGrasterphotography