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| Subject: | Re: [gislist] Newbie needs advice on GIS data formats |
| Date: |
10/29/2005 08:55:02 AM |
| From: |
Bill Thoen |
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Probably the best format you could use for these point-oriented data is a
simple comma delimited text file. This can be read by all GIS software as
well as all database and spreadsheet software. In short, everyone could use
this format. And since you don't yet know what GIS you're going to use it
seems premature to pick a fixed data format yet.
However, if you want a GIS format, the MapInfo Interchange Format (MIF) is
documented here: http://www.directionsmag.com/mapinfo-l/mif/AppJ.pdf. The
other (more popular) data format is ESRI Shape and the URLs for its
documentation have just been posted in this list recently. Perhaps someone
who knows where the gislist archives are can supply that one to you too.
- Bill Thoen
On Sat, Oct 29, 2005 at 03:42:55PM +1000, Bill Fulton wrote:
> Dear GIS wizards
>
> Our small volunteer group researches whale behaviour. We cruise along with a
> group of whales, recording every now and then, on a Pocket PC, the position
> of the whales (lat/long), position of influencing factors like commercial
> whalewatch boat, and environmental conditions like water depth, temperature
> and weather, and whale behaviour. All this is put into a data file (in an
> XML format actually, but that's neither here nor there).
>
> What would be nice would be if I wrote a data conversion program to convert
> this data to some standard- format GIS file. Then the new file could be fed
> into a GIS program to draw maps of coastline or seabed, with superimposed
> whale and boat tracks, maybe showing points of interest like where
> whale/vessel interactions occurred.
>
> We can't afford to buy a proper commercial GIS program unfortunately, but a
> shareware GIS program would be within our budget.
>
> I need some advice on what would be a good choice of GIS data format.
> Obviously to be able to write the data conversion program, I will need to be
> able to find out the exact details of the internal format of the GIS data
> file -- a specification of the format would be fairly essential. It also
> would be good if the chosen GIS format is not the most devilishly
> complicated one, so the programming task will be simpler. Finally, of
> course, it needs to be a GIS format that a good GIS shareware program will
> support.
>
> So -- would appreciate any advice on a good choice of GIS file format,
> where to find information on what the exact internal file format is, and
> advice on good shareware GIS programs. I have Googled an awful lot but did
> not have much joy. Thanks so much.
>
> -- Bill (Sydney Australia)
>
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