MiraMon Vector

Added in version 3.9.

Driver short name

MiraMonVector

Driver built-in by default

This driver is built-in by default

This driver is capable of translating (reading and writing) structured vectors of point, arc (linestrings), and polygon types from MiraMon vector format.

In MiraMon the concepts of OGRMultiPoints and OGRMultiLineStrings are not supported, but the driver translates a multipoint into N points and a multistring into N arcs. When reading a MiraMon file of type .pol, the corresponding layer will be reported as of type wkbPolygon, but depending on the number of parts of each geometry, the actual type of the geometry for each feature can be either OGRPolygon or OGRMultiPolygon.

The reading driver verifies if multipart polygons adhere to the specification (that is to say, the vertices of outer rings should be oriented clockwise on the X/Y plane, and those of inner rings counterclockwise). Otherwise, the driver corrects the orientation (in the original format this specification is not the case as polygon files are based on topological arc files, where the order of the vertices may be relevant).

Measures (M coordinate) are not supported. Symbolization is neither read nor generated by this driver.

A look-up-table of MiraMon and EPSG Spatial Reference Systems allows matching identifiers in both systems.

If a layer contains an old .rel format file (used some decades ago), a warning message will appear explaining how to convert it into a modern .rel 4 file.

Driver capabilities

Supports Create()

This driver supports the GDALDriver::Create() operation

Supports Georeferencing

This driver supports georeferencing

Supports VirtualIO

This driver supports virtual I/O operations (/vsimem/, etc.)

Overview of MiraMon format

The MiraMon format is a binary format for vector layer data, linked to one or more database tables, with or without topology and with rich metadata. More information about the structured MiraMon vector format is available on the public specification.

It is important to keep in mind that a MiraMon vector layer is composed by several files as follows:

To operate with a point layer, you must provide the name with the extension .pnt (the T.dbf and T.rel files must accompany the .pnt).

To operate with a linestring layer, you must provide the name with the extension .arc (the A.dbf and A.rel, .nod, N.dbf, and N.rel files must accompany the .arc).

To operate with a polygon layer, you must provide the name with the extension .pol (the P.dbf, P.rel, A.dbf and A.rel, .nod, N.dbf, and N.rel files must accompany the .pol).

By providing only the main file name, the driver will automatically use the other sidecar files to obtain the necessary information. In the creation of MiraMon layers, you only need to provide the name of the main file (with or without extension), and the driver will create the rest of the files.

The following outlines the information contained within each sidecar file:

Preliminary note: FileName is, in the following explanations, the first part of the name of the layer file.

  • Point layers: These layers contain point type features which are described by a single coordinate (x,y) or (x, y, z). Each layer is composed by 3 files:

    • FileName.pnt file: Contains the geographic database with the coordinates that define the point vector features.

    • FileNameT.dbf file (note the 'T' before the '.'): Contains the main table of the database in dBASE (DBF) format, or in extended DBF format, if necessary. It contains the information (usually alphanumeric, but also file or web links, etc) of every feature. The Feature Identifier (FID) field is a field called ID_GRAFIC and relates every geographical feature to one or more records in the main table.

    • FileNameT.rel file (note the 'T' before the '.'): Contains the layer metadata, the relational structure of the database (links between the main table and other tables [thesauruses, etc] if needed, and the cardinality of the link) and the default symbolization description. In the GDAL environment only some aspects are documented: the spatial reference system, the language of the metadata (English), the extension and a description of the fields.

  • Arc layers: These layers contain linestring type features which are lines described by a series of segments, each one defined by coordinates (x, y) or (x, y, z). Both extreme vertices of each linestring are called nodes. Each layer is composed by 6 files:

    • FileName.arc file: Contains the geographic database with the coordinates that define the linestring (arc) vector features.

    • FileNameA.dbf file (note the 'A' before the '.'): Contains the main table of the database in dBASE (DBF) format, or in extended DBF format, if necessary. It contains the information (usually alphanumeric, but also file or web links, etc) of every feature. The Feature Identifier (FID) field is a field called ID_GRAFIC and relates every geographical feature to one or more records in the main table.

    • FileNameA.rel file (note the 'A' before the '.'): Contains the layer metadata, the relational structure of the database (links between the main table and other tables [thesauruses, etc] if needed, and the cardinality of the link) and the default symbolization description. In the GDAL environment only some aspects are documented: the spatial reference system, the language of the metadata (English), the extension and a description of the fields.

    • FileName.nod file: Contains the geographic database with information about the linestring needed to define each node. It is necessary in the MiraMon vector format but not read by the GDAL MiraMon vector driver because nodes contain topological information that is not transferred to other formats.

    • FileNameN.dbf file (note the 'N' before the '.'): Contains the main table of the database in dBASE (DBF) format, or in extended DBF if necessary. This table contains information about the relationships between arcs and nodes, and other attributes of the nodes, if needed. It is necessary in the MiraMon vector format but not read by the GDAL MiraMon vector driver because nodes contain topological information that is not transferred to other formats.

    • FileNameN.rel file (note the 'N' before the '.'): Contains the layer metadata, the relational structure of the database (links between the main table and other tables [thesauruses, etc] if needed, and the cardinality of the link) and the default symbolization description. It is necessary in the MiraMon vector format but not read by the GDAL MiraMon vector driver because nodes contain topological information that is not transferred to other formats.

  • Polygon layers: These layers contain polygon or multipolygon type features. In MiraMon vector format a polygon is a closed shape described by one or more arcs. A polygon can have holes inside it. A polygon can also be linked to other polygons; in this case, it is termed a group (multipolygon). Each layer is composed by 9 files:

    • FileName.pol file: Contains the geographic database with information about the linestring vector features needed to define the polygon (or multipolygon) vector features.

    • FileNameP.dbf file (note the 'P' before the '.'): Contains the main table of the database in dBASE (DBF) format, or in extended DBF format, if necessary. It contains the information (usually alphanumeric, but also file or web links, etc) of every feature. The Feature Identifier (FID) field is a field called ID_GRAFIC and relates every geographical feature to one or more records in the main table.

    • FileNameP.rel file (note the 'P' before the '.'): Contains the layer metadata, the relational structure of the database (links between the main table and other tables [thesauruses, etc] if needed, and the cardinality of the link) and the default symbolization description. In the GDAL environment only some aspects are documented: the spatial reference system, the language of the metadata (English), the extension and a description of the fields.

    • FileName.arc file: Contains the geographic database with the coordinates that define the arc vector features. The polygons within the polygon file reference the arcs in this file by their index.

    • FileNameA.dbf file (note the 'A' before the '.'): Contains the main table of the database in dBASE (DBF) format, or in extended DBF if necessary. This table contains information about the relationship between arcs and polygons, not the main features information. It is necessary in MiraMon but not read directly by the GDAL MiraMon vector driver because it is redundant to the information on the linestring part.

    • FileNameA.rel file (note the 'A' before the '.'): Contains additional data about the data, the relations of the database and the symbolization description. It is necessary in MiraMon but not read directly by the GDAL MiraMon vector driver.

    • FileName.nod file: Contains the geographic database with information about the linestring needed to define each node. It is necessary in the MiraMon vector format but not read by the GDAL MiraMon vector driver because nodes contain topological information that is not transferred to other formats.

    • FileNameN.dbf file (note the 'N' before the '.'): Contains the main table of the database in dBASE (DBF) format, or in extended DBF if necessary. This table contains information about the relationships between arcs and nodes, and other attributes of the nodes, if needed. It is necessary in the MiraMon vector format but not read by the GDAL MiraMon vector driver because nodes contain topological information that is not transferred to other formats.

    • FileNameN.rel file (note the 'N' before the '.'): Contains additional data about the data, the relations of the database and the symbolization description. It is necessary in MiraMon but not read directly by the GDAL MiraMon vector driver.

Encoding

When reading MiraMon files the code page setting in the header of the .dbf file is read and used to translate string fields to UTF-8 (regardless of whether they are in ANSI, OEM or UTF-8).

When writing MiraMon files the codepage of .dbf files can be ANSI or UTF8 depending on the layer creation option DBFEncoding.

Creation Issues

MiraMon can only store one kind of geometry per layer (points, arcs or polygons). Mixing different kinds of layers (including raster and geoservices as WMS or WMTS) is possible through MiraMon maps (.mmm). During creation the driver generates the necessary files to accommodate each of the three possible types of geometries. For instance, if a layer or a dataset contains points and arcs, a set of point files and a set of arc files will be created.

Consequently, during creation the MiraMon vector driver output can be a folder or a set of files with the appropriate extension (.pnt, etc):

  • If the output is a folder, it will contain all the translated layers with the original name in the origin dataset.

    • In this case a .mmm file will be created referencing all layers in the origin dataset to make an easy open of the dataset using the MiraMon software.

    • In this case, please specify the MiraMon file output format name using the -f option (-f MiraMonVector).

  • If the output is a file with extension all the translated layers in the origin dataset will be created with the specified name. Use this option only when you know that there is only one layer with one feature type in the origin dataset.

The attributes of the MiraMon feature are stored in an associated .dbf. If a classical DBF IV table could not be used (too many fields or records, large text fields, etc) a file type called extended DBF is used. This is an improvement of dBASE IV DBF files. The specification of this format can be found in this file.

Note that extended .dbf files cannot be opened with Excel or other typical programs. If the complete MiraMon Professional software is not installed on the computer, the free and standalone MiraD application can be downloaded from this page to open them.

Connection string

The MiraMon driver accepts three types of sources of data:

When translating from a MiraMon vector format, the MiraMon vector driver input needs a file with one of the described extensions:

  • .pnt for points.

  • .arc for linestrings.

  • .pol for polygons (or multipolygons).

The extension .nod is not valid for translation. Take in consideration all auxiliary files described above.

Field sizes

The driver will automatically extend string and integer fields to dynamically accommodate the length of the data to be inserted.

Size Issues

Geometry: The MiraMon vector format explicitly uses 32-bit offsets in the 1.1 version and 64-bit offsets in the 2.0 version. It is better to produce 1.1 version files if 2.0 version is not really necessary than always use 2.0 version. Version 1.x files are smaller.

Attributes: The dbf format does not have any offsets in it, so it can be arbitrarily large.

Open options

The following open options are available.

  • Height=[First/Lowest/Highest]: Sets which of the possible heights for each vertex is read: the first, the lowest or the highest one. It only applies to MiraMon multi-height layers, where the same X,Y vertex can have more than one Z.

  • MultiRecordIndex=[1/2/.../Last/JSON]: In case of fields of type List, if the output driver cannot support them, user can select which one wants to keep: MultiRecordIndex=1 for first, MultiRecordIndex=2 for second, etc and MultiRecordIndex=last for the last element of the list. MultiRecordIndex=JSON option converts the list in a single value in JSON format. If not specified, all elements of the list will be translated by default as a OGR list field type.

  • OpenLanguage=[ENG/CAT/SPA]: Defaults to ENG. If the layer to be opened is multilingual (in fact, the .rel file), this parameter sets the language to be read.

Dataset creation options

None

Layer creation options

  • Version=[V1.1/V2.0/last_version]: Defaults to V1.1. Version of the file. Version 1.1 is limited to an unsigned 32-bit integer for FID, for internal offsets and for the number of entities the layer can handle. It is the default option. Version 2.0 is the 64-bit version. It is practically unlimited (unsigned 64-bit integer for FID and internal offsets). last_version selects to the last existing version ever.

  • DBFEncoding=[UTF8/ANSI]: Defaults to ANSI. Encoding of the .dbf files. The MiraMon vector driver can write .dbf files in UTF-8 or ANSI charsets.

    As at the moment of this release, UTF-8 tables are not editable in the MiraD application, so it is recommended to use ANSI instead, if there are no coding problems.

  • CreationLanguage=[ENG/CAT/SPA]: Defaults to ENG. Sets the language used in the metadata file (.rel) for the descriptors of the .dbf fields.

Examples

  • A translation from an Example_1.dxf file with one layer but some different geometric types in the layer, will result 'file1.dxf' into a new MiraMon set of layers in the 'output_folder'.

    ogr2ogr output_folder Example_1.dxf -f MiraMonVector -lco Version=V1.1

  • A translation from a Example_2.dxf file with one polygon type layer 'file1.dxf' into a new MiraMon layer 'territories.pol' (with UTF-8 encoding at the .dbf files) is performed like this:

    ogr2ogr territories.pol Example_2.dxf -lco DBFEncoding=UTF8 (no needed to include **-f MiraMonVector** because the output layer is not a directory)

  • A translation from a MiraMon layer of arcs, 'rivers.arc', into a new .gml file (taking only the first element of the multirecords in the attributes table) is performed like this:

    ogr2ogr rivers.gml rivers.arc -oo MultiRecordIndex=1

  • A translation from a MiraMon layer 'tracks.arc' into a new .gml file taking the first height of every point is performed like this:

    ogr2ogr tracks.gml tracks.arc -oo Height=First

  • A translation from a MiraMon layer 'tracks.arc' into a new .gml file taking the last height of every point and documenting the attribute descriptors in Catalan (if the layer is multilingual and it has this language available) is performed like this:

    ogr2ogr tracks.gml tracks.arc -oo Height=First -oo Language=CAT

See Also