Map content files (.nmc) allow you to collaborate and share your work with others; a map content file is capable of storing any derived MapItem type. To access the contents of an existing map content file, you can call the Load method specifying the path to the file. Once the file has been loaded, the contents can be accessed using the Items property; simply a collection of MapItems. In order to modify the file, add or remove items from the Items collection and call the Save method. There is also a static Save method that allows you to quickly create a map content file using a collection of MapItems and a path to the saved file.

The layer classes are a subset of MapItems that reference geographic data; therefore a layer may store connection credentials for the data, e.g. file location, username, password. If you are collaborating with colleagues you may wish to store authentication credentials in the map content file, or use relative paths so that the layer is not reliant on an absolute path. It is possible to specify both these options using the overloaded Save method—if authentication credentials are stored in the file, the password is encrypted.