[GRASS-user] help with vector handling needed

[Wolfgang Zillig]

Hi all,

I've downloaded an e00 file with the outline from Laos. Import worked 
finally an I get it displayed as it should be. But now I wanted to 
export the map to an dxf file so that I can add some labels and fill the 
outline with a color. But when I import the dxf to corel draw it is 
composed of line segments (72 pieces) and I can't group them so that a 
filling of the area is possible. I think one problem is that the 
direction of the lines is not always in the same direction. So here my 
questions:
- how can I alter the vector file in  grass so that I get a closed outline?
- is there an other resource of country boundaries which is more easily 
usable?
- what software would you reccomend to draw simple maps  (boundary 
outline, different locations marked by symbols and some text needs to be 
added as well)?
- is there a GUI-viewer/editor for the database files available (at the 
moment I use the standard dbf files)?

thanks for any help
Wolfgang