ESRI Shape (*.shp)

Exports an ESRI ArcView Shapefile.

The ESRI Shapefile is the non-topological based file format for the ESRI AcrView / ArcGIS suite of products. It is an openly specified file format and is regularly used as a common data transfer format as many systems are capable of reading the format. Each file can only store a single type of geometry e.g. Points, LineString or Polygons items. Most features are stored as simple features, i.e. true curves are not stored.

Shapefiles consist of multiple file components, the three core ones being the .shp, .dbf and .shx. The table below gives a brief description of the most common components.

.shp

Contains the geometry information.

.dbf

Contains attribute information dbf column names are limited in length to 10 characters and each table can only contain 255 columns.

.shx

Geometry index information.

.prj

Coordinate reference system information.

Note: This is stored in ESRI WKT not standard WKT. However, when a recognised prj is present SIS will attempt to read the file as cursor not memory based.

.sbn .sbx

These are spatial Index files.

.shp .xml

Contains metadata information.

 

Select the geometry types to export, with the option of 3D shapes for each: Point, PolyLine, Polygon and MultiPoint item.

Click Next.

The ESRI Shape Exporter dialog also allows the customisation of the column width in the .dbf file:

This can have significant file size benefits if the columns are reduced below the standard settings where applicable.

Click Finish.

Arguments to Export API Method

• clsExport$
  
• • AArcInfoShapeExporter
    
• params$
  
  
  • [index=nOverlay,][type=nType]
    
    index - The position in the overlays list of the overlay to export. The default value is 0.
    
    type - The type of Shape file to create. The default value is 0.
    

    0	Point
    1	PolyLine
    2	Polygon
    3	MultiPoint
    10	PointZ
    11	PolyLineZ
    12	PolygonZ
    13	MultiPointZ

Note: An accompanying .PRJ file is created if the current Coordinate Reference System is identifiable as an EPSG Code, and there is a ESRI WKT for that code.

Compatibility:

• Cadcorp SIS Map Modeller
• Cadcorp SIS Map Editor
• Cadcorp SIS Map Manager
• Cadcorp SIS ActiveX Modeller
• Cadcorp SIS ActiveX Manager
• Cadcorp SIS ActiveX Viewer
• Cadcorp GeognoSIS

See full list of Export Formats

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