Exporting

Manifold projects are databases that can be full of many different types of data: tables, vector drawings, raster images and other raster data, text data like SQL queries or scripts, and much more. Those individual items in a project are called components.

Use File - Save or File - Save to save an entire project in Manifold .map format. Saving a project is the best way to save everything in a highly reliable, extremely fast format. We can also save a project by choosing File - Export Project to save the project in Manifold compressed, archival .mxb format.

Use File - Export to export an individual component to popular industry standard formats. For example, we can export a drawing in our project into an ESRI shapefile in .shp file format, or we can export an image to GeoTIFF file format for use by other programs.

The File - Export command will be enabled when the focus is on a component window, such as a table or drawing, that can be exported. Alternatively, we can right-click onto a component in the Project pane and choose Export from the context menu.

To export a component to a file:

If the component is open and has the focus in a window or a layer, in the main menu choose File - export. Or, right-click on the component in the Project pane and choose Export.
In the Export dialog, navigate to the desired destination folder.
Choose the desired format from the list in the Save as type box. The list will automatically adapt to the component being exported.
Specify a different File name if the default name is not desired.
Press the Save button.

In most cases Manifold will automatically append the three letter file extension for the format type selected. Some formats, such as KML/KMZ, will vary the form of the export depending on whether or not we have specified a three letter extension to the file name.

To export data from within a linked data source:

Open the data source in the Project pane, by clicking the + box next to the cylinder icon that indicates a data source.
Navigate within the data source hierarchy to the component desired.
Right-click the desired component and choose Export.
In the Export dialog, navigate to the desired destination folder.
Choose the desired format from the list in the Save as type box. The list will automatically adapt to the component being exported.
Specify a different File name if the default name is not desired.
Press the Save button.

"Exporting" data into a linked data source is done with Copy and Paste:

To export data into a linked data source:

Right-click the desired component and choose Copy. We can also click on the component to highlight it and then press the Copy icon in the Project pane toolbar, or press Ctrl-C.
Open the data source in the Project pane, usually by clicking the + box next to the cylinder icon that indicates a data source.
Navigate within the data source hierarchy to the folder or subfolders desired.
Press the Paste icon in the Project pane toolbar, or press Ctrl-V.

Exporting Coordinate Systems / Projections

Almost all non-GIS formats are totally spatially unaware: they are completely unable to save coordinate system / projection information. Older GIS formats often have significant limitations on which coordinate system / projection parameters can be saved. The terms coordinate system and projection are used as synonyms in Manifold. Manifold tries to export as much coordinate system information as possible in four ways:

When exporting to spatially-aware formats, Manifold will write full coordinate system information as part of the export into the format.

When formats have options for a spatially-aware form, such as the option to use GeoTIFF when writing a TIFF file, Manifold will export using the spatially-aware form.

When accepted industry practice uses accompanying .prj accessory files, also called sidecar files, to provide coordinate system information the main file format cannot represent, Manifold will write those .prj files in addition to the exported file format. For example, Manifold will automatically write an accompanying .prj file containing the coordinate system in use when exporting to various ESRI file formats.

Just in case, when exporting to non-spatial formats or to formats where coordinate system ambiguities may arise, Manifold will write a .mapmeta accessory file in addition to the exported file format. The .mapmeta file contains full coordinate system information for the exported component, using a special Manifold format that captures all coordinate system parameters.

Manifold .mapmeta files facilitate later re-use of exported files in Manifold. They can be an extremely useful safety measure, for example, if we export a georeferenced image to a spatially brain-dead format like .jpg, and then we discover that we had not saved the original project, yet we need to get our image back in georeferenced form. If Manifold sees a like-named .mapmeta file in the same folder as the .jpg file, when the system imports the image from the .jpg file it will automatically acquire coordinate system information from the accompanying .mapmeta file and apply that coordinate system to the imported image.

Limitations

Manifold .map format is an exceptionally rich format, designed to provide full facilities, such as a wide range of data types, extensive coordinate system definitions, and both linear and curvilinear objects, for storing a very wide range of data of interest in GIS. Other formats have limitations compared to Manifold .map or .mxb, so inevitably some translation, transformation, abridgment or other debasement of data will occur. Features, and, often, data content may be lost. For example, exporting a table into .csv format will lose indexes and data, such as binary geometry data, that .csv cannot represent. A CAD format like AutoCAD DXF has no ability to save attributes. Exporting a drawing to virtually any format will lose formatting based on style properties.

Most formats are not as broadly applicable as Manifold .map, so we usually can only save a specific type of component to a given format. For example, we can export images to image-only formats like .jpg or .bmp format, but we cannot export a drawing or a table into .jpg format. Depending on the type of component we export, Manifold will show us a list of formats to which that type of component may be exported.

Saving or Exporting

Manifold users have a variety of options to save or to export data from their projects:

Save entire project - Use File - Save or File - Save as to save the entire project using native Manifold .map format. Results in hyper-fast .map project files that open instantly and which can be nested within multiple levels of linked, data sources with no loss of performance.

Export entire project to an archive - Use File - Export Project to save the entire project into a Manifold .mxb archival, compressed format. Takes longer to create and then longer to open, but usually much smaller than a .map file. A great format for archival storage and for sharing project files across Internet.

Automatic update of linked data source - When a data source is linked into a project and it is read/write, any changes made within that data source are automatically saved and updated within that data source, automatically when they are made in the case of most databases and when the project is saved in case of some cached data sources. There is no need to "export" in such cases because all changes are live and are saved within the external data source as they happen.

Copy / Paste between Manifold sessions - To copy one or more components from one Manifold project into another, we can simply open both projects in two different Manifold sessions and then copy and paste between them. We can copy an entire folder hierarchy of components from one project and paste it into another project.

Copy / Paste into linked data sources - To "export" data from a Manifold project into a database like Oracle or PostgreSQL, we simply link the database into our project as a data source. We can then Copy the table or other component in the Project and then Paste it into the data source. We can also copy and paste between different data sources. For example, if we want to copy a table from an Oracle database and put it into a PostgreSQL database, we link both databases into our project and then we copy the table from the Oracle data source and paste it into the PostgreSQL data source.

Export to a file - If the component to be exported is open in a window, we click on the window to ensure the focus is on that window or layer and then we choose File - Export. We can export directly from the Project pane by right-clicking on the component and choosing Export. This works for exporting from data sources as well. Navigate into the data source hierarchy to the item desired, right-click on the item to be exported and choose Export.

Available Formats

To export a component, when we choose Export the dialog will automatically configure the list of available export formats based on the type of component to be exported. Following are lists of typical file types to which we can export. In general, although Manifold can import data from a seemingly endless range of formats only the most popular export formats are supported.

Tables - Where all data within Manifold is stored in one form or another. Opening a table window shows a table in classic row and column presentation.

CSV	Comma separate values format. Manifold always sets off text within double quote " characters.
DBF	dBase II format, also used within shapefiles.
GDB, ESRI File Geodatabase	ESRI File Geodatabase. File geodatabases are ESRI's recommended geodatabase format. Manifold can either export into or link read/write in place GDB vector databases. Exporting a table that contains a geometry column will also create a drawing in the GDB in addition to the table.
GPKG and SQLITE	OGC SQLite / SpatiaLite / GeoPackage. Manifold can either export into or link read/write in place GPKG databases. GPKG is an open source spatial format that utilizes SQLite / Spatialite files to store spatial data, either rasters or vectors. To export a table to SQLite, we simply export it as a GPKG file.
HTML .htm, .html	Export as a <table> within HTML files. Requires installation of Microsoft's 64-bit Access Database Engine.
JSON and JSONL	Generic JSON and JSONL text files, written in JavaScript Object Notation (JSON).
LAS Files (.las, .laz)	LAS uncompressed format or LAZ compressed format LiDAR files. The table must have the fields required by the LAS standard. See the LAS, LAZ LiDAR topic.
LBL LAS	Log ASCII Standard format. This is not the same LAS format as used for LiDAR data.
MDB .mdb	Microsoft Access .mdb format. Requires installation of Microsoft's 64-bit Access Database Engine.
MML, Manifold	Manifold Markup Language, a generic storage format utilized within Manifold for development.
XLS .xls, XLSX .xlsx	Microsoft Excel. Microsoft XLSX files appeared in Microsoft Office 2007 and later. Requires installation of Microsoft's 64-bit Access Database Engine.

Drawings - A visual display of vector data stored within tables using a variety of geometry types.

DDF, SDTS	US government SDTS (Spatial Data Transfer Standard) files ending in DDF extension. Rarely used in modern times. SDTS format stores rasters or vectors. See the Example: Import DDF SDTS DEM Raster File and Example: Import DDF SDTS DLG Vector File topics.
DXF, AutoCAD	AutoCAD DXF. DXF is a CAD format that loses attribute information and coordinate system data. Manifold will write an accompanying .mapmeta file that saves coordinate system info in a Manifold format that can be used by Manifold if importing from that .dxf file. .prj and .mapmeta files are written.
E00, ESRI	ESRI .e00 is a complex legacy format used with ESRI's ArcINFO GIS product. It is capable of storing different types of data, including images and surfaces ("grids"), but is most often used for drawings. Exporting areas creates an ensemble of point, line and area drawings within the .e00. .prj and .mapmeta files are written.
GDB, ESRI File Geodatabase	ESRI File Geodatabase. File geodatabases are ESRI's recommended geodatabase format. Manifold can either export into or link read/write in place GDB vector databases.
GeoJSON	Text files providing spatial data using GeoJSON, a "geographic" format using text written in JavaScript Object Notation (JSON).
GPKG	The OGC GeoPackage format for storing vector and raster spatial data within an SQLite database container within a single .gpkg file. As an interchange format, clearly superior to ubiquitous, but obsolete, shapefiles. A good choice for software that can read GPKG.
KML, KMZ Google	Google Earth KML and KMZ. Creates a drawing, table and labels component in the KML. Specifying no three letter extension to the file name or specifying a file name that ends in .kml will create a .kml file. Specifying a file name that ends in .kmz will automatically create a .kmz, the compressed form which uses zip compression to create a single .kmz file that contains the .kml file.
MFD, Manifold	Export to Manifold 4.50 legacy format.
MIF, MID MapInfo	Pitney Bowes / MapInfo mid/mif, an interchange format for vectors. .prj and .mapmeta files are written.
MML, Manifold	Manifold Markup Language, a generic storage format utilized within Manifold for development.
SHP, Shapefiles	ESRI shapefiles. Yes, this is a vice, but a very popular vice. We all do it, so may as well learn to do it well. .prj and .mapmeta files are written.

Images - A visual display of raster data stored within tables as tiles using a variety of different data types and channel combinations. All rasters are called images in Manifold even those which are terrain elevation or other non-photographic data.

BIL, ESRI Band Interleaved by Line	ESRI Band Interleaved by Line (BIL) format. BIL is an ESRI format used for raster data. .prj and .mapmeta files are written.
BMP	Windows bitmap. .prj and .mapmeta files are written.
DDF, SDTS	US government SDTS (Spatial Data Transfer Standard) files ending in DDF extension. SDTS format stores rasters or vectors. See the Example: Import DDF SDTS DEM Raster File and Example: Import DDF SDTS DLG Vector File topics.
E00, ESRI	ESRI .e00 is a complex legacy format used with ESRI's ArcINFO GIS product. It is capable of storing different types of data, including images and surfaces ("grids"). Although .e00 is most often used for drawings, the format is useful for single-channel terrain elevation data. Single-channel images only. .prj and .mapmeta files are written.
ECW	ERMapper / ERDAS / Hexagon .ecw Wavelet compressed or JPEG2000 compressed format. ECW is an ERMapper, ERDAS format. A high performance, more modern technology for raster compression using wavelet algorithms. Manifold can link or import ECW and can export to ECW as well. For export, Manifold can export ECWs of any size. .prj and .mapmeta files are written.
EMF, WMF	Windows Extended Meta File
FLT	ESRI ArcINFO Floating-Point Grid. Single-channel images only. Useful for single-channel terrain elevation data. .prj and .mapmeta files are written.
GIF	A well-known image format. .prj and .mapmeta files are written.
GPKG	OGC GeoPackage. Manifold can either import or link read/write in place GPKG databases. GPKG is an open source spatial format that utilizes SQLite / Spatialite files to store spatial data, either rasters or vectors.
GRD, ESRI .ASC, .GRD	ESRI ArcINFO ASCII Grid. Single-channel images only. A good choice for single-channel terrain elevation data. .prj and .mapmeta files are written.
GRD, Surfer .GRD	Golden Software Surfer Grid Format. Single-channel images only. Useful for single-channel terrain elevation data. .prj and .mapmeta files are written.
HEIF, HEIC .heic	High Efficiency Image File Format (HEIF) files storing images and sequences of images. Manifold works with HEIF as implemented using Microsoft modules, reading and writing files with an .heic extension. HEIF capability requires downloading and installing optional, free packages from Microsoft. .prj and .mapmeta files are written.
IMG	ERDAS .img format. Manifold autodetects and configures the right dataport. When linking ERDAS IMG file ensembles that include intermediate levels in the RRD file, Manifold will automatically use those intermediate levels to provide very fast display. A .mapmeta file is written.
JP2, J2K, JPEG 2000	JPEG 2000 format using wavelet compression encoding. .prj and .mapmeta files are written.
JPG, JPEG, JPE	A well-known image format using .jpg, .jpeg, or .jpe extension. .prj and .mapmeta files are written.
KML, KMZ Google	Google Earth KML and KMZ. Specifying no three letter extension to the file name or specifying a file name that ends in .kml will create a .jpg image file plus the controlling .kml file. Specifying a file name that ends in .kmz will automatically create a .kmz, the compressed form which uses zip compression to create a single .kmz file that contains the image in .jpg format as well as the controlling .kml file.
MML, Manifold	Manifold Markup Language, a generic storage format utilized within Manifold for development.
PNG .png	Portable Network Graphics (pronounced "Ping"), a well-known image format. .prj and .mapmeta files are written.
RWB	Raw binary. Creates a raw binary data file with no three letter extension and in addition creates a .rwb accessory file for use by Manifold. The .rwb file is a text file in human-readable JSON format that capture a description of the raw file created. See the RAW, RWB, RWT, BIN topic as well as the discussion in the Tools - Scan Raw Binary / Text File topic.
RWT	Raw text. Creates a raw text data file with no three letter extension and in addition creates a .rwt accessory file for use by Manifold. The .rwt file is a text file in human-readable JSON format that capture a description of the raw file created. See the RAW, RWB, RWT, BIN topic as well as the discussion in the Tools - Scan Raw Binary / Text File topic.
TGA	Targa Truevision .tga files. .prj and .mapmeta files are written.
TIF, TIFF, GeoTIFF	A well-known image format, also called TIFF. Manifold automatically writes projection information when exporting to TIFF to create GeoTIFF files. Can handle multi-channel images, and also a great choice for single-channel terrain elevation data. A .mapmeta file is written.
WEBP	Google .webp image format. .prj and .mapmeta files are written.
XYZ	XYZ ASCII text raster format. Single-channel images only. A .mapmeta file is written.

Labels - Text annotations automatically created from the fields of a drawing's table. In most cases labels layers are exported by creating a drawing and a table as well as the labels.

DXF, AutoCAD	AutoCAD DXF. DXF is a CAD format that loses attribute information and coordinate system data. Manifold will write an accompanying .mapmeta file that saves coordinate system info in a Manifold format that can be used by Manifold if importing from that .dxf file. Exporting labels to DXF writes a text height tag to make exported files readable in various versions of AutoCAD.
GDB, ESRI File Geodatabase	ESRI File Geodatabase. Manifold can either export into or link read/write in place GDB vector databases.
GPKG	OGC GeoPackage. Manifold can either export into or link read/write in place GPKG databases. GPKG is an open source spatial format that utilizes SQLite / Spatialite files to store spatial data, either rasters or vectors. See the GPKG topic.
KML	Google Earth KML and KMZ. Specifying no three letter extension to the file name or specifying a file name that ends in .kml will create a .kml file. Specifying a file name that ends in .kmz will automatically create a .kmz, the compressed form which uses zip compression to create a single .kmz file that contains the .kml file.
MML	Manifold Markup Language, a generic storage format utilized within Manifold for development.

Layouts - Layouts are compositions on virtual sheets of paper, allowing us to create documents showing maps or other components as PDF documents or hard copy printed sheets.

MML	Manifold Markup Language, a generic storage format utilized within Manifold for development.

Important: Exporting a layout does not export the components which appear in the frames of the layout. For example, if a layout has frames that show an image, a drawing and in addition a text frame, and we export the layout to an .mml file, importing that layout into a new, blank project will show only the text frame within the layout. The other frames will be in the layout, but they will refer to components that do not exist in the project and thus will be empty. If we add those missing components to the project, the frames will populate with their contents.

Maps - Consist of a stack of layers where each layer is a drawing, image or labels component.

DXF	AutoCAD DXF. DXF is a CAD format that loses coordinate system data. The accompanying .mapmeta file saves coordinate system info for Manifold if importing from that .dxf file. Raster layers in the map will be ignored and not exported.
GDB	ESRI File Geodatabase. Manifold can either export into or link read/write in place GDB vector databases. Raster layers will not be saved into the GDB. See the GDB, ESRI File Geodatabase topic.
GPKG	OGC GeoPackage. Manifold can either export into or link read/write in place GPKG databases. GPKG is an open source spatial format that utilizes SQLite / Spatialite files to store spatial data, either rasters or vectors. See the GPKG topic.
KML	Google Earth KML and KMZ. Specifying no three letter extension to the file name or specifying a file name that ends in .kml will create a .kml file. Specifying a file name that ends in .kmz will automatically create a .kmz, the compressed form which uses zip compression to create a single .kmz file that contains the .kml file.
MML	Manifold Markup Language, a generic storage format utilized within Manifold for development.

Queries - Written in SQL, queries manipulate data and projects, for example, creating new tables and other components, performing calculations, altering the structure of databases and tables, and extracting, editing and analyzing subsets of data.

MML	Manifold Markup Language, a generic storage format utilized within Manifold for development.
SQL	A plain text file that contains SQL queries. The .sql extension identifies it as such for databases and other applications which can utilize SQL within queries. Manifold exports to .sql using UTF-8 Unicode text encoding. Manifold will import .sql files as queries.
TXT	Well-known, plain text format. Manifold exports to .txt using UTF-8 Unicode encoding. Manifold will import .txt files as comments.

Scripts - Manifold includes built-in support for scripting in eleven different languages with six to eight always available and the remainder easy to install. Scripts provide custom capabilities and can automate virtually anything. For formats other than MML, exporting a script will export text to whatever is the format selected. It makes sense to choose a format that matches the scripting language we use, but nothing stops us from exporting text for a C# script into a file with a .vb extension. On import of a .vb file, Manifold, like most programming environments, will assign a type (language) of VB.NET to that script. Exporting to MML will also export the script's properties to allow Manifold on import to automatically know the type (language) of the script.

CS	C# scripts.
FS	F# scripts.
JS	JavaScript, JScript, JScript.NET.
MML	Manifold Markup Language, a generic storage format utilized within Manifold for development. On import, automatically assigns script type based on whatever was exported.
PL	PerlScript.
PY	PythonScript, IronPython. Manifold imports .py as IronPython type.
RB	IronRuby
TXT	Well-known, plain text format. Manifold exports to .txt using UTF-8 Unicode text encoding. Manifold will import .txt files as comments.
VB	VB.NET
VBS	VBScript

Comments - Text saved and displayed in a comments window provides a simple but convenient way to save notes about a project or to save text as a scratchpad.

MML	Manifold Markup Language, a generic storage format utilized within Manifold for development.
TXT	Well-known, plain text format. Manifold exports to .txt using UTF-8 Unicode text encoding. Manifold will import .txt files as comments.

Exporting an Entire Data Source into a MAP File

If we have linked a data source into a Manifold project and we would like to export all of the data from within that data source into a standalone .map file, that is easy to do:

To export all data within a data source into a Manifold project:

Open the data source in the Project pane, by clicking the + box next to the cylinder icon that indicates a data source. That connects to the data source
Right-click the data source and choose Export.
In the Export dialog, specify a File name if the default name is not desired.
Choose the desired format, either MAP or MXB from the list in the Save as type box.
Press the Export button.

The entire contents of the data source will be saved as a .map or .mxb project file.

For example, suppose we have linked an ESRI geodatabase into our project as a data source. We expand the data source to see the hierarchies within. Expanding the data source also is a command to Manifold to connect to the data source. Right-click onto the data source, choose Export, specify MAP as the type, provide a name for the new .map file and press Export.

Manifold will automatically reach into the data source to harvest everything it contains and to save the contents as the equivalent Manifold .map project file, just as if we first copied and pasted everything out of the data source and into the root level of our project and then deleted the data source, saving the project as a standalone .map project.

Using Export is a great way in one step to convert data older or fragile formats such as shapefiles, Access .mdb files, ESRI geodatabases and similar into hyper-fast and modern .map projects. It is also a great way to convert the contents of server-based DBMS installations, such as running on PostgreSQL, SQL Server, DB2 or Oracle, into Manifold standalone projects for portability and use away from the server.

Use common sense when exporting data sources into project files. For example, attempting to export a web server data source such as a Bing or Google street map image server is a command to export petabytes of data into a .map project file.

Conversions on the Fly

Most formats do not have the many capabilities of Manifold components. For example, ESRI shapefiles using SHP format have significant limitations on the names of attribute fields and DBF format has similar limitations on column names in tables. Therefore, when exporting a drawing to SHP or a table to DBF Manifold will automatically make some simplifications on the fly.

For example, if we have a table that has a column named Highest Z-value (meter) when a drawing with that attribute is exported to SHP or a table with that column is exported to DBF the name will be truncated to HighestZva.

Notes

Style applied - Exporting an image to BMP, ECW, JPEG, JPEG2K, PNG or TGA will export rendered pixel values according to the formatting set in the Style pane. Exporting an image to TIFF always exports the actual pixel values without Style formatting applied.