No new content – just a consolidated listing of the posts in this series.
Description of basic shapefile viewing, and modifying views using attribute data.
Opening, querying, editing, and otherwise modifying shapefile attribute tables.
Creating shapefile layers, adding shapes, modifying shapes, and adding attributes.
Advanced shapefile manipulation, including merging, erasing, clipping, selection by mask, and buffering.
Using MapWindow to re-project shapefiles into different coordinate systems and datums.
Note: See this series of posts for info on converting shapefiles to KML format.
I haven’t really found a good way to transform KML files to shapefile format, and certainly not one that preserves most of the attribute information or data associated with the shapes in the KML file. But I’ve come up with a mildly painful, multi-step hack that will allow you to convert the point, path and polygon shapes to shapefile format, and which allows you to keep at least the object name associated with points and paths.
Continue reading ‘Converting Google Earth KML Files To Shapefile Format’
This is the final installment in my screencast series on MapWindow GIS. In addition to an easy-to-use shapefile editor, MapWindow has some advanced tools for combining, manipulating, and selecting from shapefile layers that aren’t all that common in freeware GIS software.
Continue reading ‘Intro To MapWindow IV – Advanced Vector Tools’
Not too long ago, I posted about a free US Census TIGER to shapefile converter that works with older TIGER files, with the TIGER 2006 1st edition, and will be updated to work with the 2006 2nd edition TIGER files. Just found out that it won’t have to be updated to deal with future versions. Upcoming editions of TIGER will be issued in:
- Shapefile format
- TIGER/GML
- WebTIGER, a Web Feature Service (WFS)
- Web Mapserver (WMS), delivering data in raster graphic and SVG format
See the Census web page on “The Future Of TIGER/Line” for more info. No more paying $399 for TIGER data and the data converters.
Third in the MapWindow screencast series is a quick runthrough of MapWindow’s shapefile editing capabilities. I think it’s one of the easiest to use of all the freeware GIS programs I’ve seen.
Continue reading ‘Intro To MapWindow GIS III – Shapefile Editing’
In 1999, the United States Geological Survey published a two-volume atlas of distribution and climatic data for the trees and woody shrubs of North America. The two-volume set costs $63, but the entire contents, including digital versions of the climate and distribution data, is available online for all you treehuggers out there.
Continue reading ‘Digital Atlas Of North American Woody Plants’
Just a recap of a multi-part series on exporting and importing GIS data to and from GPS units, so that I can have a single posting to list in the “Special Series” sidebar section. If you’ve read it before, there’s nothing new.
Description of how to use DNRGarmin to export shapefile data from Garmin GPS units.
Covers shapefile data import from non-Garmin GPS units.
How to import point, line and polygon shapefile data into a GPS unit.
Brief description of capabilities of demo version of OziExplorer.
Second in my series of screencasts on MapWindow GIS is a brief look at MapWindow’s shapefile attribute data handling. It has some nice extra features that you might not find in other freeware GIS programs.
Continue reading ‘Intro To MapWindow GIS II – Shapefile Attribute Tables’
