File Geodatabase

File Geodatabase (FGDB) is a proprietary Esri database format, favoured for more complex uses of GIS datasets in Esri software. This format is often used because it allows for much larger file formats and can provide better performance than Shapefiles. FGDB also accurately represents the data, without introducing quality issues (such as limits to attribute names in Shapefiles).

Supported data types

Koordinates supports the import and export of vector and table FGDBs, and you can export point clouds to FGDB as points. We don’t support raster or grid FGDBs, or relational FGDBs.

Feature classes

Vector FGDBs can contain multiple feature classes. As defined by Esri, a feature class is a collection of features “each having the same spatial representation, such as points, lines, or polygons, and a common set of attribute columns.” When FGDBs are imported into Koordinates, each feature class is treated as an individual vector data layer.

Notes on FGDB exports

• Exports of multiple layers in FGDB are provided in separate FGDB files.
• Metadata is inserted into FGDBs, which allows users to query metadata from within their software application. We also provide an .xml metadata file with each database.

FGDB imports

The Koordinates platform uses the EPSG projection database. While FGDB imports can use Esri projections, note that this projection will need to map to an EPSG number within Koordinates.