Parse GIS data

I received some data from the local GIS office but instead of shapefiles, I received a .mdb database.

Since I didn't have the shapefile to use with Meerkat, I thought I would try to parse it manually....

Opening in Access, I saved it as a text file, but the actual polylines/points come in a binary format. I did a quick google search but I was not able to find a solution that didn't use proprietary software such as ArcMap gis.

Any ideas how to parse the binary data into the actual points or shapes?

Here is what a sample entry looks like:

</SHAPE>
<SHAPE_Length>184.578137500953</SHAPE_Length>
<SHAPE_Area>1946.7596636799</SHAPE_Area>
</BuildingElevation_poly_2011>
<BuildingElevation_poly_2011>
<OBJECTID>195937</OBJECTID>
<ELEVATION>222.2</ELEVATION>
<TYPE>Residential</TYPE>
<SHAPE>DwAAAIj3hLuIq2ZBAMdm9pqoWkHAyMJWkKtmQTA2PRelqFpBAQAAAAsAAAAAAAAA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</SHAPE>

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Nathan Lowe on March 20, 2014 at 1:44pm

Open it in MSAccess and you can probably get something useful out of it. Pardon simplicity if you've already done that!

Permalink Reply by Gui Talarico on March 20, 2014 at 2:21pm

Thanks Nathan.

I tried this earlier, and these were the only options I had:

I tried txt and xml, but both of them have the shape as a binary... I wonder what the trick is to convert the binary chuck to points/shapes. Google tells me Arcmap can do it, but I currently don't have access to it.

Permalink Reply by Gui Talarico on March 27, 2014 at 12:51pm

Solved it by opening on a trial version of arccatalog GIS and exporting it as a shapefile.

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