Importing ESRI .shp files

I am working on increasing the import options in our MPSuperShape product. I have the ESRI (ArcInfo) 'Shape' (.shp) format pretty much done, and I am looking for a wider range of test data.

Do you have any .shp files that you would like importing info MapPoint 2006? (Europe or North America) If so, I would like to use them as test data, and in return I will send you the resulting MapPoint maps. Turnaround will probably be hours/days, and this offer is only open for a few weeks. Send me an email through the forums or use the contact information in my signature.

There are some caveats, mostly due to the SHP file flexibility compared to MapPoint's drawing abilities:

- All coordinates must use the WGS84 geoid with decimal degrees; positive for the Northern and Eastern hemispheres (ie. the same as MapPoint).

- All holes are imported as separate shapes

- All 'M' and Z data is ignored.
(unlike SpatialDataImport, shapes with this data will be drawn, just the extra data is ignored)

- Point names and data fields are not imported
(MapPoint does not allow data fields to be created dynamically)

- All shapes are created with the current color settings (ie. they'll all be the same)
(SpatialDataImport cycles through an arbitrary set of colours)

- The SHX (index) and DBF (data) files are not required.


I will be making the same offer for MapInfo (MIF) files soon.


Richard

This offer has now been expanded to include MapInfo .mif files.

As with the ESRI Shape files, the extra data file(s) are not required. The new import functionality for MPSuperShape is considerable more flexible than SpatialDataImport. It can also use many of the attributes (as allowed by MapPoint's colors/etc).

At the moment, all coordinates must use WGS84 decimal degrees, NE positive (west=negative longitude); but the MIF format has more scope than SHP for support different coordinate systems and geoids. If you have a MIF file using a different coordinate system, let me know and I shall see what I can do.

Richard