ESRI Shapefile .SHP Export Options Dialog

The Export Options dialog, SHP Options page allows you to specify options which determine how information in the file is exported.

Attributes

All attributes for all polyline, polygon, and symbol objects are automatically exported to all .SHP files. For contour maps, the Z value is exported as the "ZLEVEL" attribute for all polylines in the contour map.

Specify the SHP file export options in the Export Options dialog.

SHP Options Page

Note that an ESRI Shapefile (.SHP) file may contain either line objects, area objects, or point objects, but not a combination of different object types.

Write Objects as Lines

All objects can be written as line objects if the Write Areas as Lines and Write Points as Lines options are both selected, or either of the aforementioned controls may be selected individually to write only the corresponding objects as lines. Alternatively, areas and/or points can be written to separate files by selecting the Write Areas to Separate File and/or Write Points to Separate File controls, in which case valid file name(s) must be typed into the adjacent edit control(s).

Render Text

By default, text is not output. Selecting the Render Text control will instead cause text to be rendered as lines and/or areas as appropriate. If this box is not checked, text will not be output as the .SHP format does not support text.

Render Marker Symbols

By default, marker symbols in the drawing are output as points. Selecting the Render Marker Symbols control will instead cause marker symbols to be rendered as lines and/or areas as appropriate.

Attribute Translation

By default, the “Western European (Windows)” code page (1252) will be used to translate 16-bit Unicode attribute text to 8-bit ANSI text stored in the companion .DBF file. This can be changed by selecting a different code page from the drop down list. This code page will be stored in a companion .CPG file and also in the .DBF file header. If characters from multiple languages are present, consider selecting “UTF-8 - [65001]”.

Defaults

The Defaults button sets all options to default conditions.

Scaling Page

Scaling information can be set on the Scaling page.

Spatial References

The spatial reference information can be set on the Spatial References page. By default, if the map is in a defined coordinate system, the ESRI .PRJ file is automatiocally created for this ESRI file type.