ImportArcViewShape()

Summary

Imports features from an Esri (ArcView) Shapefile into a geographic file.

Syntax

ImportArcViewShape(string filename, string new_db_name, array options)

Argument	Contents
filename	The path and file name of the file to import
new_db_name	The path and file name of the new geographic file

Option	Type	Contents
Label	String	A descriptive label for the geographic file
Layer Name	String	The name of the layer in the geographic file
Median Split	Boolean	If "True" special handling insures that entities which cross the 180 degree longitude line are imported properly; if "False" (the default), no special handling is invoked
NAD Conversion	3 strings	Input datum, output datum, and conversion file (if needed); the input and output datums should be different
Node Layer Name	String	The desired name for the endpoint layer (only when importing a line layer)
Optimize	Boolean	Whether to optimize the geographic file automatically after the import (defaults to "True")
Overlap	String	Describes what to do with areas that overlap; takes one of the following values:"Ignore" - Leave overlaps as-is and simply create a non-topological database, possibly containing overlapping areas"Merge" (the default) - Where two areas overlap, merge the intersection into one of them; which one is arbitrarily decided"New" - Create a new area where the two areas overlap
Projection	String, array	The projection name and the array of options
Topology	Boolean	For area layers, a value of "True" (the default) indicates that the resulting geographic file should have true area topology, which involves substantial complex processing. A value of "False" means that boundary edges can be duplicated, so that larger files can be imported. This option does not apply to point and line layers
Transform	Array	Array indicating the transformation to apply to coordinates in the file. This can have three forms:1. An array of two or more four-element arrays containing local and world coordinates for control points, for example, {{real localX1, real localY1, real longitude1, real latitude1}, ...}2. An array of four elements - {real X_multiplier, real Y_multiplier, real X_offset, real Y_offset}3. Center and Extent transform {c1_x, c1_y, width_1, c2_x, c2_y, width_2}where center is shifted from (c1_x,c1_y) to (c2_x,c2_y), and vector of length width_1 out of c_1 becomes a vector of length width_2 out of c_2.

Notes

The type of features in the file is identified automatically and the correct feature types are added to the geographic file.
For multi-point & multi-line features, Maptitude assigns new, unique IDs to all features in the new file, and automatically generates a column of data containing the original multi-point or multi-line feature ID, along with any attribute data.
For more details on the NAD Conversion option, see Datum Conversions.
For more details on the Projection option, see Using Projections and Coordinate Systems.

Example

ImportArcViewShape("c:\\mysample.shp", "c:\\mystreets.dbd", {

{"Label", "Street Centerline File"},

{"Layer Name", "Centerline"},

{"Optimize", "True"},

{"Projection", "utm", {"zone=12", "units=m"}},

{"NAD Conversion", "NAD27", "NAD83",}

})

Error Codes

Error Type	Meaning
Error	The file is not a valid Shapefile, or one of the parameters is invalid
Escape	The conversion was interrupted by the user
NotFound	There is no file with the specified name