Due to ever-increasing usage of the binary and ASCII-based grid files in desktop mapping environments, MapInfo Pro Advanced allows importing a number of commonly used raster formats. Most of such raster formats represent the elevation of a land surface, commonly referred to as Digital Terrain Models (DTMs) or Digital Elevation Models (DEMs).
The Import ASCII utility supports ASCII X,Y,Z delimited text files.
An ASCII grid file is a simple text-based format containing header information and followed by rows of delimited cell values along with corresponding X and Y coordinate values. Due to its simple and relatively compact nature, you should consider writing your data in this format when you want to import your own grid data into MapInfo Pro Advanced. When this format is selected, the Import ASCII dialog box will let you select the ASCII delimited text file to convert it into a continuous raster.
| Line | Description |
|---|---|
| 1 | Commented. The first line contains the path of the file that was used to export the data from. Also contains the date and time stamp of creation of the ASCII file. |
| 2 | Name of the product. |
| 3 | Version number of the file. |
| 4 | Coordinate system of the exported raster. |
| 5 and 6 | Number of rows and columns of the source raster. |
| 7 and 8 | Size of each cell in the source raster. |
| 9 and 10 | Source grid origin in X and Y directions. |
| 11 | Specifies whether the XY coordinates refer to the center of a cell or lower left corner. |
| 12 | Specifies whether the XY coordinates refer to the center of the grid or top left corner. |
| 13 | Specifies whether X and Y coordinates are to be written in the text file. 1 if yes. |
| 14 | The value written for the null cells. Defaults to -9999.0 if you do not specify any value. |
| 15 | Specifies the delimiter to use. |
| 16 | The number of fields in the source raster. |
| 17 | Field and band information. For multi-fields and bands, refer to Multi-field and Band Support for more details. |
| 18 | Field value information of the source raster. |
| 19 onwards | Cell values and their corresponding X and Y coordinates. |