What is a Shapefile?

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(Newswire.net — August 11, 2020) — In a shapefile, the geographic features are presented using lines, polygons, and points. The shapes, in conjunction with data attributes linked to each shape, form the representation of geographic data. A shapefile comes in a collection of filename extensions such as .shx, .shp, and .dbf. However, the actual shapefile is in the filename .shp, but this file alone is inadequate for distribution since there are other supporting files required.

The shapefile’s workspace comes with storage for additional attributes, known as the dBase table. On the tab named Joins & Relates, you can join the dBase table’s attributes to the features in the shapefile. Usee tools located in ArcCatalog to create a shapefile from a table with the information of spatial locations like street addresses.

Edit with Shapefiles

You can easily edit your shapefiles using ArcGis for Desktop with the three license levels; Basic, Standard, and Advanced. For advanced editing features like topology, you might need to import your shapefiles into a geodatabase that acts as a feature class.

Importing Shapefiles to Geodatabase

Despite the feature type, you can easily convert shapefiles to geometry types through the geodatabase. Dissimilar to coverage, feature types of shapefiles are more like the geometry types found in the geodatabase; hence conversion is straightforward.

Salvaging a Corrupt Shapefile

Common reasons of a corrupt shapefile include a PC crash while editing and when modifying an attribute table with software like Excel. For a corrupt shapefile, try the steps below to help salvage the file.

  • Repair the corrupt shapefile using the Geometry tool. Problems with data in your file are reported in the tool that suggests repairing a corrupt geometry.

  • Try to copy your shapefile data to a geodatabase. Later, attempt recopying it to a blank shapefile.

  • Look for any illegal field date within the attribute table. Ensure that your field names are not more than ten characters and they begin with a letter. Also, field names should not have any spaces or special characters apart from an underscore.

  • Open your shapefile in a different computer or a different software application such as ArcView GIS 3.x.

Converting kmz to shp

You can easily convert your kmz to shp files online by the click of a button. All you need is a free conversion website; select the files you want to convert or drag and drop to the upload area. Next, click convert, and you will have your Shp-converted files within minutes, ready for download.

File Size Limitation

Conversion file size limitation varies from site to site. Some sites limit each component file of a shapefile to 2GB. This means that both .dbf and .shp files should not exceed 2GB. However, some files accept a file size of up to 10 GB. Tip: for batch conversion, go for sites that allow large file sizes to make the conversion convenient and time-efficient.

From small to batch conversions, try our kmz to shp converter today.