Features, or geospatial objects, represent fundamental map objects and are the cornerstone of each XFM-driven implementation, making defining features a key functionality of OpenCities Geospatial Administrator.

XFM features have geometrical and alphanumerical characteristics, where the geometrical part is represented by DGN elements. Unlike MicroStation where placing graphical elements is unrestricted, in XFM the geometric characteristics of a feature are defined in the schema and enforced in OpenCities Map. The benefit of these restrictions is improved interoperability with other geospatial platforms like ArcGIS and Oracle Spatial.

Features can be created for different plot scales, copied, moved, or deleted.

An XFM feature is defined by executing the steps described below.