A while back, I posted on the Shape Checker utility, a program that can supposedly fix damaged shapefiles. I say “supposedly” only because I haven’t been able to check it out myself, fortunately never having had that problem, but Simon Jackson in the comments says he’s used it several times successfully. I’ve found another similar tool, the Shapefile Repair Tool. It claims it will:
- Read and validate SHP and DBF files.
- Retain null shapes.
- Fix misnumbered and out of sequence SHP records.
- Correct invalid shape types.
- Correct a DBF record count mismatch is by either padding the DBF file or truncating extraneous records.
- Write a new shapefile, and a log file to document the changes.
Two caveats on my end. First off, it requires .Net 1.1 to install and run, and Microsoft in its infinite wisdom decided that Windows Vista would not support .Net 1.1. applications. So you’ll have to install it on a Windows XP system, or do without. Second, while I can vouch for the fact that it installs successfully on a Windows XP system …
…I still don’t have a bad shapefile to test it with! If you try it, and it works for you, please let me know in the comments. Thanks!
thankfully have’nt had to resort to the tool for awhile now, but it has saved me in the past. Just have a check of your “repaired” shp to ensure theres the correct # of features.
I do have a shapefile that this utility will not fix. It has over 2 million points in it, so it is rather large and may be the problem?
Could be that your shapefile is too large, or could be something else – don’t know. Sorry.