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GEOVIA Surpac

Arcinfo plugin

Overview

This plugin supports data formats used by ESRI's software package ArcInfo.

Supported File Types

The file types supported by this plugin are described in the table below.

FILE TYPE EXTENSION DATA TYPE
Shape File ".shp", ".shx", ".dbf" String data

Method

The following paragraphs describe the method used for reading and saving files using the ArcInfo plugin.

Reading

The ArcInfo plugin requires the ".shp" file to be specified with the corresponding ".shx" and ".dbf" files contained in the same directory. The plugin supports Point, MultiPoint, Polyline and Polygon data types defined in shape files. All of these types are read from an ArcInfo file as String data.

Point files are loaded into a single string matching string ID 1, with all points being placed in a single segment. MultiPoint files are loaded into a single string matching string ID 1, using segments to define each group of points. All attributes associated with points are placed in description fields (D1, D2 etc).

Arcs and Polygon data is loaded in as multiple strings, where the string ID corresponds to the order in which they are defined in the file. Each segment in the string identifies an arc or polygon. All attributes for arcs and polygons are placed in the description fields of the first point, in the first segment of each string.

Saving

The ArcInfo plugin creates a specified ".shp" file and the corresponding ".shx" and ".dbf" files in the same directory. Only String data will be saved to an ArcInfo shape file. No 3D Object data will be saved.

Each point is a string that is displayed with spot height styles is output as a Point. Individual point attributes are stored in a record of the database table. Strings that are displayed with a polygon style then are output as a Polygon. Each segment of the string is output as an individual Polygon. Individual polygon attributes are stored in a record of the database table. If a string is not a Polygon or Point then it is output as a Polyline. Individual polyline attributes are stored in a record of the database table.

When saving with the Arcinfo plugin, several files are generated, due to the way in which Arcinfo stores data. Within each shape file, a user can work with either Point, MultiPoint, Polyline or Polygon data. From Surpac, each type of data must be saved into a different shape file.

The naming convention used by Surpac to denote the different types of data is as follows:

  • the _x suffix indicates Point data is contained in the shapefile.
  • the _l suffix indicates Polyline data is contained in the shapefile.
  • the _p suffix indicates Polygon data is contained in the shapefile.
  • the _m suffix indicates Multipoint data is contained in the shapefile.

Before the Arcinfo plugin generates any output files it moves any existing *_x.shp, *_x.shx, *_x.dbf, *_l.shp, *_l.shx, *_l.dbf, *_p.shp, *_p.shx, *_p.dbf, *_m.shp, *_m.shx and *_m.dbf files with the same prefix to *.old. This is done to ensure consistency between Arcinfo file sets. For example if the plugin only generates *_x files then any *_l or *_p files that previously existed could be mistaken as output from the most recent save operation. All *.old backup files are removed if the save operation completes successfully.

Configuration

There is no specific configuration for the ArcInfo plugin.

The ArcInfo plugin has an associated default styles file named "arcinfo.ssi/mst", which resides in SSI_STYLES. This file can be reconfigured using Surpac's style editing tools.

Messages

No messages are output specifically by the ArcInfo plugin.

Limitations

  • Although ArcInfo requires that all polygon features do not self-intersect this is not tested during shapefile creation.

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