Comma-separated values (CSV)

One of the drawing file importers implemented by Digi3D 2011 is the comma-separated values importer (or CSV files), these files have the extension .csv or .txt files. Comma-separated value files are characterized by being text files (can be ASCII, UTF-8, UTF-16, UNICODE), but text, that have values separated by some special character, which does not have to be a comma. In the example of the video at the end of this entry, the file (although I do not say it in the video) is a file UTF-8, and the separator is the tab. These files are composed of as many lines as records, and each of the lines has the same number of values. The CSV file importer will allow us to quickly visualize the content of these files by showing the field that the user wants in coordinates that are extracted from the file itself, which means that these files must have at least one field to extract the coordinate X and another for the coordinate Y. The coordinate Z is less important if what we are viewing is toponymy. If the coordinates of the file are geographical, there must be at least one field for latitude and another for longitude. If the CSV file does not have a header, we will have to create one, because it is essential for Digi3D 2011 to show us a window in the drawing files pane that allows us to select the field to be displayed in the drawing window. In the video below you can see how to create a CSV file, upload it in Digi3D 2011 and then how to download a file from the site Geonames with information about all the cities and towns of Spain. From this site we can download also another file with all the postal codes of Spain or any country in the world.