How to open .bil raster files?

nat

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Oct 29, 2015, 8:51:54 AM10/29/15

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Hello,

I have downloaded the Harmonised World Soil Database (available in http://webarchive.iiasa.ac.at/Research/LUC/External-World-soil-database/HTML/HWSD_Data.html?sb=4) which is given in raster format. The directory includes a raster file with the extension .bil and .hdr and .blw files, too.

However, when I try to open .bil file in Mapinfo, it returns the error "Raster engine was unable to recognize image file format"

Can anyone help with this?

Thank you.

N.

Richard Greenwood

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Oct 29, 2015, 10:07:05 PM10/29/15

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It's been a long time since I dealt with .bil files in MapInfo so my recollection may not be correct, but try opening the associated .hdr file instead of the .bil.

rich

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nat

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Oct 30, 2015, 4:15:27 AM10/30/15

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Hi, thanks for the reply. It returns the same error for the HDR file, too.

Jamie

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Oct 30, 2015, 6:05:15 AM10/30/15

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Have you tried opening it in another piece of software to check if the file is corrupt?

it seems global mapper opens them (free trial available)

nat

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Oct 30, 2015, 9:23:37 AM10/30/15

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Yes, I finally opened it with QGIS and it worked properly. So, MapInfo probably does not support all kinds of .bil files.

Jamie

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Oct 30, 2015, 9:30:14 AM10/30/15

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are you running a newish version of MapInfo (12.5.4 64bit / 15 32bit)

Richard Greenwood

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Oct 30, 2015, 9:30:46 AM10/30/15

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I've opened .bil files in MapInfo and I know there was some "trick" involved, but it's been 15+ years since I did it. I realize that's not much help. Converting the .bil to another format is probably a good idea if you're going to use it very much. (.bill files are large and slow) As mentioned, Global Mapper is a good option for converting, or if you're into Free and Open Source gdal_translate will do the trick very nicely.

Rich

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