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Tools & Formats

Software

  • ArcGIS

    • heavyweight - the "microsoft"
    • expensive, fast, stable
    • industry standard, used by government, university, etc.

  • Quantum GIS

    • newcomer
    • easiest, free, open source GIS
    • great complement to ArcGIS

  • Grass GIS

    • old school
    • cmd line based, GUI available
    • free and open source

  • Others: Erdas Imagine, Mapinfo, Mapwindow, GvSig, Envi, Youdig, Saga, OpenJump.

  • some CAD software work with GIS data atoo

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_geographic_information_systems_software

  • backup software: e.g. CrashPlan

Formats

  • Shapefile

    • specific ESRI format
    • standard format used by most
    • comprised of 3-7 files
    • rely on old dBase IV data tables
    • slow, large, limiting, but useful for interchange

  • The GeoPackage open format is a SQLite container for GIS data (layers) in a single file. Unlike the ESRI Shapefile format, a single GeoPackage file can contain various data (both vector and raster) in different coordinate reference systems, as well as tables without spatial information

  • SpatiaLite database format, like GeoPackage, is also an extension of the SQLite library