Importing data

Everything on a map starts as a dataset: a table of features, or an image. Studio → Datasets holds them all, in folders and views — see Your data.

#Importing a file

In Studio → Datasets, Import a file opens the import: give the dataset a Name, choose the File, choose where its layers go (below), and Import. The import runs in the background — its progress and log are in Jobs — and the dataset is Ready when it has finished.

#Where the new layers go

Under Add to apps, tick each app the new layers should appear in and choose a folder of its layer tree: the top of the tree, one of its folders (folders inside folders are listed by their path, for example Plans / 2026), or New folder… — give it a name and choose the folder it goes Inside. If that folder already has a folder of the same name, the layers go into it rather than into a second one.

When the import has finished, each layer is added at the top of the chosen folder, drawn with the dataset's default style, as a new version of the app: it shows in the app's History under your name, and Restore brings back the version before it (see Building apps in Studio). A file that becomes several datasets (a drawing's lines, areas and text, a GeoPackage's layers) adds all of them together.

• Only the apps you may change are listed. Your access is checked again when the layers are added: an app you can no longer change is left as it was.
• An app open only to listed people keeps to them — the new layers are seen by exactly the people who open the app.
• If a layer cannot be added to an app (for example because its folder was deleted in the meantime), the import is still complete: the dataset is in Studio → Datasets, and Jobs says which app it could not be added to. Add it from the app's layers, or with Add to app….
• Tick no app to import the data only.

#Formats

Kind	Formats
Vector	GeoJSON, GeoPackage, Shapefile (zipped), File Geodatabase (zipped), KML / KMZ, GML, FlatGeobuf, SpatiaLite, CSV, DXF and DWG (CAD drawings, AutoCAD R13 to 2018)
Imagery	GeoTIFF, JPEG 2000, ERDAS Imagine, MrSID (.sid) on request; PNG or JPG only zipped together with their world file and .prj
Terrain	GeoTIFF, SRTM .hgt, USGS .dem, .asc, .xyz, and .bil / .flt with their .hdr (zipped)

• One dataset per zip. A zip with several shapefiles is refused — upload them one at a time.
• A file with several layers (a GeoPackage, a geodatabase, a DXF) is imported as one dataset per layer, unless you name one in Layer.
• CSV: point coordinates are found in columns named like x / lon / longitude / easting and y / lat / latitude / northing, or geometry in a column named wkt / geom / geometry.
• Images and terrain are turned into cloud-optimised GeoTIFF, so they draw fast at any zoom.
• ECW images cannot be read: export them as GeoTIFF or JPEG 2000.
• A file can be up to 512 MB, and an image or terrain model (GeoTIFF, JPEG 2000 and the like) up to 8 GB — an orthophoto processed elsewhere goes in this way; for larger files, contact Cartema support.

#Coordinate systems

Cartema reads the coordinate system from the file, or from the .prj that comes with it. Some files carry none — CAD drawings, CSV, images with only a world file. For those, choose the Coordinate system on the import form (for example a UTM zone or a national grid), or zip the file together with its .prj. A file whose coordinates are not in degrees and whose system is not given is refused, with a message saying so.

#CAD drawings (DXF, DWG)

A drawing is shown as a plan. It comes in as up to four datasets — lines, areas (hatches, filled shapes, and every closed polyline, which also stays among the lines), text and points — each styled as drawn: the CAD layers with their colours, switchable one by one in the legend; line weights and line types (dashed, centre, hidden); texts at their drawn height, which scale with the map, turned and anchored as written; blocks exploded into their parts. Each dataset's fields carry the CAD layer (cad_layer), the entity's colour and width, and for text its height in metres; the style editor can change any of it like any other style.

A drawing needs its coordinate system: a .prj beside it in a zip, or chosen on the upload form. A DWG is converted to DXF first (AutoCAD R13 to 2018). To replace a drawing, import it again and swap the layers in the app; a delivery does not apply to drawings.

#A dataset's page

In Your data, choose a dataset and Fields and settings to open its page.

Field settings for a layer of features:

Column	What it sets
Label	The name users read, in any language
Show	Shown when a feature is identified, and in the table
Search	Searched by the Search tool (text fields)
Rules	Required, Length, Default, Allowed values — enforced when data is edited

On layers made in Cartema you can also Add field and Remove field here; a delivered layer's columns belong to its deliveries.

Value on click for an image or terrain model: whether a click on the map reads the value under it (turn it off for photographs), what the value is called (for example Altitude) and its units (m).

Load into this layer, at the top of a layer's page, adds the features of a file to it — or replaces them — once you have matched the file's fields to the layer's; the rows that could not be loaded are listed. It reads shapefiles, KML, GeoJSON, GeoPackage, CSV and Excel (points from two columns), DXF and DWG — see Loading a file into a layer.

New layer, at the top of Studio → Datasets, makes an empty layer to draw in or to load a file into — see Layers and editing.

#Replacing data: deliveries

When new versions of your data arrive — a new cadastre, an updated survey — Datasets → Deliveries → New delivery replaces the data under existing datasets while keeping their names, field labels, styles and apps. Cartema matches each file to the dataset it replaces and shows what will happen: Clean replacements, Warnings (for example a field that disappeared and is used by a style), Blocked changes, and New layers. Accept what is right and Apply. A delivery can be reverted for 14 days.

Deliveries replace the tables of delivered layers. Layers made in Cartema, and editable copies, are never touched by a delivery.