The geospatial XFM (XML based Feature Modeling) engine is a facility modeling tool for defining geospatial features (roads, water mains, electric networks, and others) using a simple forms based application, OpenCities Geospatial Administrator .

OpenCities Geospatial Administrator is used by application designers to define all aspects of a geospatial application. These aspects are:

• Features (including symbology, label, properties, annotation, and placement methods)
• Data sources associated with the application ( OpenCities Geospatial Administrator and file based)
• Topological relationships between features
• Domain lists
• User interface elements
• MicroStation workspace specific variables
• Source workspace folders for project specific documents such as cell libraries
• Macros
• VBAs
• Seed files.

An XFM application is comprised of a project description and corresponding source workspace files. OpenCities Geospatial Administrator creates a project description stored in an XML file. The project definition must then subsequently be exported to a MicroStation workspace to make the XFM application viable.

This workspace of an XFM application consists of typical workspace files (UCF, resource files, seed files) as well as a series of XML based documents that describe the project itself. These additional XML files are read by the XFM engine and are used to configure a user's working environment.