The Geospatial Data Abstraction Library (GDAL) is a versatile open source library for translating raster and vector geospatial data. GDAL is able to convert, transform, and re-project a wide variety of raster and vector formats. GDAL is written in ANSI C and C++ with bindings to CSharp, Java, Perl, and Python.

Tekmap Consulting has developed a number of programs that use GDAL including:

• mb_nav_ogr - A program that extracts multibeam navigation and saves it to any GDAL/OGR supported vector format.
• Several programs written in Python that use the PySeidon suite of tools for saving tidal model data to GDAL supported raster and vector files.
• Several custom GRASS modules for importing and exporting raster and vector data.

Download and Support

GDAL is freely available for download with as the full source or as pre-compiled binaries. 

Supported raster formats can be found here. Supported vector formats can be found here.

API documentation and turtorial can be found on the GDAL site. Additional information can be found on the GDAL Wiki.