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Articles about map export formats, tools and OpenStreetMap data use cases.

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The JEF Format: A City Map for a Janome Embroidery Machine

What Janome JEF is: header, threads, stitches and hoop. How a map becomes a running stitch: a 200×200 mm hoop, 4 stitches per mm and a stitch length limit.

2026-10-17 · 3 min
JEFJanomeembroiderypyembroidery

The Color-Relief File: What Is Inside the Hypsometric Raster

How the hypsometric file is built: a height-to-colour ramp, gdaldem color-relief, transparent voids, multiply-blended shading and GeoTIFF, PNG or JPEG output.

2026-10-17 · 3 min
color-reliefhypsometricGDALGeoTIFF

ROS Occupancy Grid: A City Map a Mobile Robot Can Navigate

A ROS occupancy grid: an image plus YAML, resolution and origin, three cell states, occupied and free thresholds, and a sanity check before navigation.

2026-10-16 · 4 min
ROSoccupancy gridroboticsnav2

Heightmap PNG-16 and R16: Real Terrain for Unreal Engine

What the heightmap archive holds: a square 16-bit PNG, raw R16, georeferencing and a passport with min, max and side length. How to turn that into a Z scale.

2026-10-16 · 4 min
heightmapPNG-16R16Unreal Engine

The MP Polish Format: A Text Source File for Garmin Maps

What the MP format is: IMG ID, POLYLINE, POLYGON and POI sections, object types, detail levels, label codepages and the road from a text file to a compiled img.

2026-10-15 · 4 min
GarminMPPolish formatcGPSmapper

Elevation as Numbers: XYZ, CSV and ASCII Grid for Your Area

An elevation matrix as text: what the XYZ, CSV or ASCII Grid archive holds, the step and precision, why there is a README and why large frames get coarser.

2026-10-15 · 3 min
XYZCSVASCII Gridelevation

Vector MBTiles vs Raster MBTiles: Which One Your Project Needs

One SQLite container, two different maps: how MVT tiles differ from PNG tiles in size, styling, labels, Retina support and the clients that open them.

2026-10-14 · 4 min
MBTilesMVTPMTilesvector

A Single-File HTML Map: Leaflet, Inline GeoJSON and Layers

Inside the HTML map: Leaflet from a CDN, GeoJSON data inline, a layer switcher and attribute popups. What it needs to open and where its limits are.

2026-10-14 · 3 min
HTMLLeafletGeoJSONinteractive map

Elevation Model as GeoTIFF: One Height File for Your Exact Area

Inside the elevation GeoTIFF: one Float32 band in metres, declared NoData, compression, your chosen CRS and honest warnings about coarse grids and voids.

2026-10-13 · 3 min
DEMGeoTIFFelevationCopernicus

QGIS Project QGZ vs QGS: What Is Inside and How to Build It

Inside QGIS project files: the XML of QGS, the ZIP with QGD in QGZ, relative layer paths, styles, layouts and a project built from a GeoPackage.

2026-10-13 · 5 min
QGISQGZQGSproject

The DWF Format: A Map Sheet for Review and AutoCAD Underlays

Inside DWF 6: the version prefix, the ZIP package, the W2D stream, an A3 sheet and layers. How our map file is built, where to open it, how it differs from DWG.

2026-10-12 · 4 min
DWFAutodeskePlotW2D

Mapping OSM Export Layers onto Your CAD Layer Standard

How to move an export onto your own CAD layer standard in one pass: list the layers, write a mapping table, run the layer translator and prove nothing was lost.

2026-10-12 · 4 min
dxfdwglayersAutoCAD