Supported Elevation Formats
| Format | Extensions | Import | Export | Uses GDAL | Notes |
| Adobe Illustrator | ai | Y | Simple paths only | ||
| ArcInfo ASCII grid | asc | Y | Y | Y | Non-GDAL legacy export also available |
| ArcInfo binary grid | adf | Y | Y | ||
| ASCII point cloud | asc, xyz | Y | |||
| Binary Terrain | bt | Y | Y | Y | |
| BLX topography | blx | Y | Y | Y | Untested |
| Carrera MSH | msh | Y1,2 | Y | ||
| CDED 50K | Y | Y | Y | ||
| DirectDraw surface | dds | Y | RGB encoded normal map | ||
| DTED | dte, dt* | Y | Y | Y | Levels 0, 1, and 2 |
| DXF mesh | dxf | Y | Y | 3DFACE entities only, export can be plain or optimized | |
| DXF contours | dxf | Y | Polylines used to create convex hull heightfield | ||
| ESRI shapefile | shp | Y | Polylines used to create convex hull heightfield | ||
| Generic Binary | bil | Y | Y | Untested | |
| GeoTIFF | tif, tiff | Y1 | Y | Y | Export is 32-bit |
| GIF | gif | Y | Y | Y | |
| GTOPO30 | Y1 | 16-bit only | |||
| HGT | hgt | Y | |||
| Japanese DEM | mem | Y | Y | ||
| MicroDEM | dem | Y1 | Older MicroDEM only | ||
| MicroGDS Things | thf | Y1,2 | Elevations are along Z axis | ||
| NTF | Y1,2 | ||||
| OGC Web Coverage Service | xml | Y | Y | ||
| PNG | png | Y | Y | Y | POV-Ray HF interpretation when multichannel color |
| Portable graymap | pgm | Y | Y | ||
| Raw binary | raw | Y | Y | ||
| Rayshade | hf | Y | Y | ||
| Rhino/OpenNURBS | Y | Texture is also exported | |||
| Second Life | raw | Y | Y | Elevation channels only. Export requires existing SL file | |
| Simple Terrain Model | stm | Y | Y | ||
| SRTM | hgt | Y | Y | Y | Files must observe HGT limits (resolution, extents, etc.) |
| SRTM30 | Y1 | 16-bit only | |||
| Stereo lithography | stl | Y | Y | ||
| Surfer GRD | grd | Y | Y | ||
| Targa | tga | Y | Y | POV-Ray HF interpretation | |
| Terragen | ter, terrain | Y | Y | Y | Can also import using ""File, Open"" |
| UKOS DTM (DXF) | dxf | Y | Point cloud | ||
| USGS DEM | dem | Y | Y | Y | |
| USGS SDTS | ddf | Y | Y | ||
| Vistapro | Y1,2 | ||||
| Visual Nature Studio | elev | Y | Y | Legacy datums/projections unsupported | |
| Wavefront | obj | Y | Plain or optimized | ||
| Windows bitmap | bmp | Y | Y | Y | POV-Ray HF interpretation |
| World Construction Set | elev | Y | Y | Legacy datums/projections unsupported | |
| Xpand Rally | height | Y | Y |
1. Not all format variants or features may work.
2. Algorithm based on reverse engineering instead of format specs.