[mapserver-users] Shapefiles - different formats?

[Ed McNierney]

Janet et al. -

Janet seems to have found the problem.  It appears that ArcGIS 8.1
*requires* a .prj file (which describes the shapefile's projection, not
an ArcView project), which (all else being equal) is a pretty good
thing.  ArcView 3.2 does not require .prj files.

PRJ files are simple text files that probably look familiar to PROJ
users - here's the contents of a simple one.

proj=utm
zone=15
units=m
ellps=GRS80

	- Ed

Ed McNierney
Chief Mapmaker
TopoZone.com
ed at topozone.com
(978) 251-4242


-----Original Message-----
From: imap at chesapeake.net [mailto:imap at chesapeake.net]
Sent: Friday, October 05, 2001 12:54 PM
To: mapserver-users at lists.gis.umn.edu
Cc: Janet Ciavarelli; Ed McNierney
Subject: Re: [mapserver-users] Shapefiles - different formats?



ArcView will read the 3 files just fine.  You have to create
or Open a New Project, then Add Layer, then browse to the
dir where your shapefiles are, then pick one.

A somewhat related comment, There are actually a other 
files that sometimes accompany a shapefile. 

.shp, .shx, .dbf  (main 3 files)
.sbn, .ixs, .mxs  (???  mystery files)
.prj, .apr        (project files I think)

I think the .ixs and .mxs are geocoding indexes 
and .sbn??? who knows.   I'd really like to know
the layout of these other files.  I am not sure
if they come from ArcInfo, or what?  I see a few
3rd party companies create these files within their
ArcView Format, but it may be a proprietary aspect
of Arc???  If anyone has info, please reply an email.

Anyway, The .apr(.prj?) are in ascii and is a long
list of name/value pairs, so a script should be able
to generate/manipulate OK.

Regards,

Chris Stuber (mapsurfer)
Silicon Mapping Solutions, Inc
(410)257-3187




Janet Ciavarelli wrote:
> 
> Hi Ed,
>    I see what the difference is now. I went into ArcCatalog and
created an empty shapefile, and I looked in explorer. It creates 4
files! Not just the 3 files that it used to use (.shp, .shx, .dbf).
> 
> I've attached all the four files. So that explains why ArcView 3.2 can
open the file though. Cause it finds the 3 files and just ignores the
4th. But ArcMap 8 wants all 4 files. The 4th file is a .prj file. I will
have to find out what's in it and get my script to create that as well.
Also, maybe that utility you advised me to grab will create it. I will
check when I get time which my be a long time from now.
> 
> Thanx for your help. Janet.
> 
> >>> "Ed McNierney" <ed at topozone.com> 10/04/01 05:49pm >>>
> Janet -
> 
> Can you create an empty point shapefile in 8.1 and send that to me,
too?
> I don't have 8.1, but I can take a look at the shapefile to see if
> there's anything different.
> 
>         - Ed
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Janet Ciavarelli [mailto:Jciavarelli at city.kamloops.bc.ca]
> Sent: Thursday, October 04, 2001 4:11 PM
> To: Ed McNierney
> Subject: RE: [mapserver-users] Shapefiles - different formats?
> 
> Yes, same symptom even with records added.
> 
> >>> "Ed McNierney" <ed at topozone.com> 10/04/01 01:10pm >>>
> Janet -
> 
> Do you get the same symptom when you add records to the shapefile?
> 
>         - Ed
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Janet Ciavarelli [mailto:Jciavarelli at city.kamloops.bc.ca]
> Sent: Thursday, October 04, 2001 4:03 PM
> To: Ed McNierney
> Subject: RE: [mapserver-users] Shapefiles - different formats?
> 
> Hi Ed,
>    Here's a copy of the shapefile. BTW, it is an empty one but it
should
> be successfully able to open empty shapefiles as well. We've tried it
> with both empty and un-empty ones and get the same results: it opens
> find in AV 3.2 but errors out in AV 8.1
> 
> Janet.
> 
> Janet Ciavarelli
> GIS Programmer/Analyst
> City of Kamloops, BC
> (250) 828-3393
> jciavarelli at city.kamloops.bc.ca
> 
> >>> "Ed McNierney" <ed at topozone.com> 10/04/01 12:38pm >>>
> Janet -
> 
> I certainly expect 8.1 reads 3.2 shapefiles (at least, in general).
> Perhaps it's more likely that you're creating a slightly out-of-spec
> shapefile that's being tolerated by 3.2, but 8.1 is being fussier
about.
> 
> There's a tool called shpfix in the GDAL distribution that might
> possibly help clean up the file.  If you'd like to email me the
> shapefile I'll take a look at it.
> 
>         - Ed
> 
> Ed McNierney
> Chief Mapmaker
> TopoZone.com
> ed at topozone.com
> (978) 251-4242
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Janet Ciavarelli [mailto:Jciavarelli at city.kamloops.bc.ca]
> Sent: Thursday, October 04, 2001 2:17 PM
> To: mapserver-users at lists.gis.umn.edu; teb at mallit.fr.umn.edu
> Subject: [mapserver-users] Shapefiles - different formats?
> 
> Sort of off topic, but thought I'd ask anyways in case anyone knows. I
> have written a perl/mapscript to create a shapefile. I can view the
> shapefile in ESRI  ArcView 3.2 fine. But when I try to view it in ESRI
> ArcView 8.1, I get an error. Is anyone out there aware of any
> differences between shapefile formats between different products?
> 
> Janet.
> 
> 
> 
> Janet Ciavarelli
> GIS Programmer/Analyst
> City of Kamloops, BC
> (250) 828-3393
> jciavarelli at city.kamloops.bc.ca
> 
>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------
>                      Name: shapev8.dbf
>    shapev8.dbf       Type: unspecified type (application/octet-stream)
>                  Encoding: base64
>               Description: dBase 3 database
> 
>    shapev8.prjName: shapev8.prj
>               Type: Plain Text (text/plain)
> 
>                   Name: shapev8.shp
>    shapev8.shp    Type: ESRI Shapefile
(application/x-unknown-content-type-shpfile)
>               Encoding: base64
> 
>                   Name: shapev8.shx
>    shapev8.shx    Type: unspecified type (application/octet-stream)
>               Encoding: base64