shapefile class declaration

[Frank Warmerdam]

On Tue, 22 Mar 2005 13:53:04 -0500, Jeff Portwine <jdport at veritime.com> wrote:
>
>
> Can anybody tell me what the different "types" of shapefiles would
> represent?   The documentation lists them but doesn't describe them.
>
> I'd guess that the MS_SHP_POLYGON would be a set of points that defines a
> closed shape while the MS_SHP_MULTIPOINT would be points defining lines
> (such as roads or rivers or whatever)....
> Would MS_SHP_ARC then be an ESRI type shapefile?    And what would
> MS_SHP_POINT be?  That sounds like a single point but why would you create a
> shapefile for a single point?

Jeff,

MS_SHP_POINT means each feature has a single associated point,
not that there is only a single point in the whole file.

MS_SHP_MULTIPOINT is when you have a set of points associated
with a feature, but not generally any lines drawn between them.  This
is rarely used.

MS_SHP_ARC is a normal polyline file for roads and such.

Best regards,
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