The Orbit Vector File (*.ovf) is Orbit's native vector file storage format.
An OVF stores object geometry and attribute information.
An Orbit Vector File has extended data structure capabilities compared to an Esri Shapefile
Each vector resource has the same building blocks, but conditions and interpretation may differ.
A Shapefile must have exactly one model, exactly one attribute set, at least one attribute and exactly one set of attribute values. Also GPX, KML and KMZ resource do have a strict dataset structure.
If the dataset structure doesn't match one of the resource structure conditions an error will occur at export or save dataset.
A shapefile has the attribute names length limited to ten characters, a longer name will be trimmed. As a result, if creating or exporting a shapefile in Orbit, attribute names will be trimmed to ten characters. Any rules associated with that attribute will be affected.
The OVF is optimized for fast editing of vector data in Orbit. The format is platform independent and its structure capabilities reduce the number of files and simplify data management.
For example a single dataset (road markings) having objects (areas, lines and points) that belong to each other but that do have a different geometry.
The resource can be accompanied by an Orbit Legend File and Orbit Resource Descriptor.