GML to TXT Converter

GML to TXT Conversion Explained

Converting .GML (Geography Markup Language) to .TXT (Plain Text) changes structured, spatial XML data into flat, unformatted text. People convert GML to TXT to extract coordinate lists, read attribute data without specialized mapping software, or feed raw data into legacy systems.

When you convert GML to TXT, you gain simplicity and universal readability. However, you lose the hierarchical XML structure, spatial reference systems (SRS), and native geometry definitions. This conversion is often a bad idea if you need to maintain spatial relationships, topological rules, or complex multi-part polygons. Flattening nested spatial data into plain text destroys the machine-readable mapping context.

Typical Tasks and Users

• Data Analysts: Extracting X and Y coordinate pairs from a spatial dataset to run statistical analysis in non-GIS software.
• Surveyors: Exporting boundary points into a simple text file to upload into older GPS devices or total stations.
• Software Developers: Parsing attribute tables to extract specific text strings or numerical values for a database migration.
• Researchers: Stripping heavy XML tags to read the raw text values of a geographic dataset quickly.

Software & Tool Support

Because .GML is an XML-based format, you can open it in standard text editors, but extracting meaningful flat text usually requires spatial tools.

• GIS Software: QGIS can open .GML layers and export the attribute tables or geometry coordinates to delimited .TXT or CSV files.
• Command-Line Tools: GDAL/OGR is the industry standard. The ogr2ogr command can translate GML features into various text-based formats.
• Enterprise ETL: FME by Safe Software provides advanced visual pipelines to map GML hierarchies into flat text files.
• Programming Libraries: Python developers use GeoPandas or Shapely to parse GML and write the output to text.
• Text Editors: Notepad++ or VS Code can open .GML directly to view the raw XML code, though they do not convert the structure.

Pros and Cons of the Conversion

• Pros: .TXT files offer universal compatibility. Any operating system or device can open them. Stripping the verbose XML tags significantly reduces file size. Plain text is also easier to parse with basic scripts that do not have XML or spatial libraries.
• Cons: You completely lose spatial indexing and coordinate reference system (CRS) metadata. A .TXT file cannot render a map directly. Furthermore, representing nested attributes—such as a polygon with multiple internal holes—is extremely difficult in a flat text format.

Conversion Difficulties & Why Convert.Guru

The main technical problem in this conversion is flattening a hierarchy. .GML files are highly structured trees. A naive conversion simply removes the XML tags, leaving a useless, unreadable block of numbers and words.

A proper conversion pipeline must parse the XML tree, identify the geometries (points, lines, polygons), and flatten them into a readable format, such as Well-Known Text (WKT) or a delimited coordinate list. Handling multi-geometries and nested feature attributes requires complex schema mapping. If the GML file references an external schema (XSD), parsing the data becomes even more difficult.

Convert.Guru handles this parsing automatically. It reads the spatial schema, extracts the relevant coordinates and attributes, and formats them into clean, structured .TXT files. This provides an accurate extraction without requiring command-line knowledge or heavy GIS software installations.

GML vs. TXT: What is the better choice?

Which format should you choose?

Choose .GML for transferring spatial data between GIS applications, maintaining topology, and preserving coordinate reference systems. It is the correct format for official geographic data exchange.

Choose .TXT if you only need a raw list of coordinates, want to import basic data into a spreadsheet, or need to feed simple text strings into a non-spatial database.

If you need text-based spatial data but want to keep the geometry intact, you should avoid .TXT and convert your file to .GeoJSON or .CSV instead.

Conclusion

Converting .GML to .TXT makes sense when you need to extract raw coordinates and attributes from complex spatial files for use in non-GIS environments. The biggest limitation to watch for is the total loss of spatial context, coordinate reference systems, and XML hierarchy. Convert.Guru is a reliable choice for this exact conversion because it intelligently parses the geographic markup and extracts the underlying data into clean, usable plain text without the hassle of configuring spatial command-line tools.