Free Geography Tools

GeoConverter: GeoConverter is an online front-end for ogr2ogr which lets you convert a limited number of vector file formats to each other. Free registration is required; while the registration page is currently in German the registration page is now available in English. Formats supported are:

• Comma Separated Value (.csv/(.csvt))
• GPX (.gpx)
• Geographic Markup Language (.gml)
• INTERLIS 1-Transfer Format (.itf/.ili)
• INTERLIS 2-XML Transfer Format (.xml/.ili)
• Keyhole Markup Language (.kml) (write-only)
• MapInfo File (.mif/.mid)
• Shapefile (.shp/.dbf/.shx)

You can convert to/from any of these formats except for KML, which is write-only currently. Formats with multiple files (e.g. shapefiles with .shp, .shx and .dbf files) require that all files to be upload are zipped up into a single file (100 MB max). I suspect the conversion system is Unix-based, which is usually happier with files that have no spaces in their filenames. Also worth remembering that certain formats like GPX and KML require the coordinates to be lat/long WGS84, so you’ll have to make sure your source data is in that coordinate system. I converted a fairly complex polygon shapefile into a KML file successfully, with the attributes written into the KML polygon properties, but there’s no ability to modify display based on attribute properties, as with shp2kml or Shape2Earth.

Thanks to Professor Stefan Keller, one of the creators of this utility, for the tip.

D2M Converter: A new online utility from Data2Map, currently in beta; free registration required. Converts from any of these formats:

• Access
• Excel
• MS SQL
• ASCII
• MapInfo (.mif)
• ESRI shapefile (.shp)

to either Microsoft MapPoint (.ptm) or Google Earth (KML).

A few notes:

• You have to create a “Conversion Definition” label, or bring up an saved one, for every conversion
• For data formats like shapefile or MapInfo with multiple files, you have to upload every datafile (e.g. shp, shx, dbf for shapefiles).
• 10 MB / 10,000 record limit.
• You need to select one of the attributes with a unique value for each record as the “ID”.
• You can clip out data by geographical bounds, and also to a limited degree by attribute values.
• There are limited abilities to use filters assign colors/pushpin images based on point attributes, and they’re working to add more capabilities. But for now, line/polygon KML files have one color for all shapes.

The service is still in beta, so it may have some quirks, but Data2Map has been very responsive to any issues I’ve encountered.