The Spatial Data File (SDF) is a single-user geodatabase

file format A file format is a Computer standard, standard way that information is encoded for storage in a computer file. It specifies how bits are used to encode information in a digital storage medium. File formats may be either proprietary format, pr ...

developed by

Autodesk Autodesk, Inc. is an American multinational software corporation that makes software products and services for the architecture, engineering, construction, manufacturing, media, education, and entertainment industries. Autodesk is headquartered ...

. The file format is the native spatial data storage format for Autodesk GIS programs

MapGuide MapGuide Open Source is a web-based map-making platform that enables users to quickly develop and deploy web mapping applications and geospatial web services. The application was introduced as open-source by Autodesk in November 2005, and the code ...

and AutoCAD Map 3D. SDF format version SDF3 (based on SQLite3) uses a single file. Prior versions of the format required a ''spatial index file'' (SIF), with an optional ''key index file'' (KIF) to speed access to the file. The SDF file format can be created and manipulated using an OSGeo FDO Provider for SDF, which is

open-source software Open-source software (OSS) is computer software that is released under a license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to use, study, change, and distribute the software and its source code to anyone and for any purpose. Ope ...

. Beyond Autodesk's products, products that can read/write the format include FME from Safe Software, Fdo2Fdo, and the FdoToolbox. The SDF format design uses low-level storage components of SQLite using a flat binary serialization ( binary large objects). However, the relational aspects are not present, thus the format cannot be opened with any software designed specifically for SQLite. The format supports multiple feature classes per file and multiple geometry properties per feature class. Each geometry property is indexed using an R-tree. It is optimized for fast spatial reading of large datasets in scenarios involving a single writer and multiple readers.

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External links

SDF Loader
provided by Autodesk to convert from Shapefiles and other formats
Spatial Manager DesktopSpatial Manager for AutoCAD
an
Spatial Manager for BricsCAD
can read and write SDF files and other formats Autodesk GIS file formats