New User: Converting to ShapeFiles?

Hi there,

please forgive the amateur question. I have been using MapPoint trial edition to open several boundary files I have that are in ptm format. I was wondering if there was a utility to convert these files or export them as shp files, or any other geographic file format I could use to import into other GIS systems?

Thank you for your time.

sT=-

There is actually. This is unsupported, but it's something Walt Cygan put together that exports mif/mid (which can easily be exported to shape files).

Spatial Data Importer Contest Submission - MP2K Magazine (http://www.mp2kmag.com/importersub01.asp)

Your success may vary, so if you need help let us know.

Eric

I forgot to mention, you can get the compiled dll from this newsletter:

Formatting coordinates with DmsFormat, linking to weather data, three new utilities - MP2K Update Archives - MP2K Magazine (http://www.mp2kmag.com/update/?id=5)

See:

http://www.mp2kmag.com/downloads/SpatialDataImport.zip
This is the Spatial Data Import DLL plus the modifications that originally appeared at Spatial Data Importer Contest Submission - MP2K Magazine (http://www.mp2kmag.com/importersub01.asp) and exports drawing objects to MapInfo mif/mid format. Now for the first time, a DLL has been compiled for non-programmers to download directly.

Thank you so much for the reply. I have been reading the instructions, but I'm affraid they are a bit vague. Should I be doing this modification in the MapPoint directory, MapInfo, VBA?

I'm affraid I don't have much VBA experinece if it's the latter. In any event, i don't mean to be a bother. Any insight at all is truly appreciated. Thanks.

Sorry yes. Just start with the compiled DLL I mentioned in the second post. In MapPoint add it as in Add-in under Tools | Add-ins.

The source code is there to modify if you need it but otherwise you can probably ignore the source code files and just use the DLL.

hope this helps,
Eric

I'm sorry, I didn't see your follow-up post. I successfully added the dll and ran the process. Thanks so much for the help! However, the macro gives the following error:

MIF Header Rows Written:

Error Reported in MapPoint.Application.NA.13' procedure -2147467261: Invalid pointer

I know this isnt supported, but any clues that may help? Thank you as always.

EDIT: Could it be because I am using MapPoint 2006?

MapPoint 2006 shouldn't be the problem..

Can you post your ptm as an attachment -- or part of your ptm with one shape that has the problem? You might need to zip it first.

I have had to tweak the "exporter" over the years though I haven't done it probably since 2006 - I think I could figure it out..

Eric

Thanks so so much for taking a look. No matter what, I owe you big time.
The files I'm using are quite large, 2 megs, even zipped and the attach feature will not allow it. I can't seem to find an option to do a selection set.

Perhaps what I want is not even possible in hind site.

I have One MapPoint file that has boundaries and Pushpins that I want to export into other software. Ideally I could just export the pushpin data to excel and geocode them to get in as point files and if I can get this add on working I guess it would export the boundaries. Maybe it will work after all.

In any event, I just wanted to give an overview. Sorry for all the blabbing. Please let me know if you think I'm going about this all wrong to begin with.