[gdal-dev] Reading/Converting .GDB files ?

[Jason Roberts]

Felix,

That sounds like it is in ArcGIS "file geodatabase" format. As far as I
know, OGR cannot read that format. OGR can read ArcGIS "personal
geodatabase" format with the PGEO driver. If you know someone with ArcGIS,
ask them to convert the file geodatabase to a personal geodatabase and then
you can use the PGEO driver. (Or just ask them to extract the data to
shapefiles, if that is easier.)

Personal geodatabases are actually just Microsoft Access databases with a
certain schema. File geodatabases are a proprietary binary format. ESRI
introduced file geodatabases in ArcGIS 9.2, perhaps to address a 2GB size
limitation of personal geodatabases imposed by Microsoft Access. Although
the two formats have similar names, it is not a simple matter to modify the
PGEO driver to read file geodatabases. An entirely new driver must be
developed. I read previously that the OGR team would not consider this until
ESRI provides documentation or an API. I can't find the exact email message
but this one gives you the idea:
http://wiki.postgis.org/pipermail/postgis-users/2008-February/018593.html

If anyone has an update on that, please let us know...

Best regards,

Jason


-----Original Message-----
From: gdal-dev-bounces at lists.osgeo.org
[mailto:gdal-dev-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] On Behalf Of Felix Schalck
Sent: Friday, September 18, 2009 8:38 AM
To: gdal-dev
Subject: [gdal-dev] Reading/Converting .GDB files ?

Hello,

I was looking for high quality river data to complete my topographic
map, when somebody at the grass mailing list pointed me towards this
site:

http://desert.jrc.ec.europa.eu/action/php/index.php?action=view&id=23

The data is said to be of "ArcGis geodatabase" format. I downloaded
the files and it definitely looks like sort of a
database, with each entry split among 4 differents files:

<entry>.freelist
<entry>.gdbindexes
<entry>.gdbtable
<entry>.gdbtablx.
Plus one "gdb" file in the root directory of the db.

Unfortunately, ogrinfo doesn't seem to recognise any of the different
files (but maybe I don't have the right driver compiled into (although
PGEO is shown supported by ogrinfo -f). Has anyone here a clue on how
to open this db, and convert it to something I could work with (like
shapefile, for an instance) ? I got no answer so far from the grass
mailing list, nor from the author of the CCM data.

Thanks for your help,

Felix
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