8 replies to this topic

[Charles Syrett]

I use Arc only rarely, mainly to open its data collection and export shapefiles. Recently I've noticed something odd. When I export from a .lyr file called "City Limits", only some of the objects (cities) are exported. When I open it in Global Mapper, Manifold, or even Arc, some of the objects are missing. Is there something extra that I'm supposed to do, to ensure that all objects are exported, and not just some seemingly random selection of objects?

Charles Syrett
Map Graphics
http://www.mapgraphics.com

[BioGeoMan]

Does what you can see when viewing the exported file depend upon the scale you are viewing it in?

[Charles Syrett]

Does what you can see when viewing the exported file depend upon the scale you are viewing it in?

No it doesn't. Manifold and Global don't do things that way anyway. Another thing: so far, I've only noticed this peculiarity in the Cities data. Other lyr exports to shape (Parks, etc) seem to be fine. I hope it isn't a problem with that particular data set -- it looks like a dandy compilation of city limits!

Charles Syrett
Map Graphics
http://www.mapgraphics.com

[Matthew Hampton]

Do you have anything selected when you export?

If you have any objects selected when you export - only those selected objects with be exported.

You could try and either select everything (or deselect everything) before export.

[dsl]

Check to make sure you don't have a definition query set up under the lyr's properties. Otherwise, go to the source of the layers geometry data and export that way if it isn't already a shapefile.

Cheers,
David

[Charles Syrett]

I've tried all these things. None of them make any difference. Alas, alas. I can see the cities on the display, so there's data there, "under the hood". Just can't get at it. Anybody have any other ideas?

Charles Syrett
Map Graphics
http://www.mapgraphics.com

[Jimbo]

Okay here's the problem when you bring in a lyr file what many of us do not know is that the file can not function by itself. When you bring in the lyr file it's similar as if we created a theme. A theme file in Manifold is connected to a drawing & can never function by itself because it contains information on say what colours to use, size of your shapes, width of the lines etc. The key to "City Limits.lyr" is that it's connected to the cities.sdc database. I also want to mention that the City Limits.lyr has been taken from more about five polygon features. If you want to read on sdc files just goto help & type in the form sdc & you should be able to find the information there.

I have tested a work around but it involved importing sdc data into a geodatabase. The data that was missing in the initial extraction from sdc to shapefiles was successfully located. I then tested an extraction from the geodatabase to shapefile format & the same features that were missing were successfully extracted.

[Charles Syrett]

James' method works!

Charles Syrett
Map Graphics
http://www.mapgraphics.com

[oldtoby]

James' method works!

Charles Syrett
Map Graphics
http://www.mapgraphics.com

(under the category better late than never)


I definitely have seen this when trying to export city limits to shapefile, using the layer on the ArcGIS 9.3 data disks. I noticed the 9.2 disks didnt have this problem, so I always figured it was some error with the data when they went from 9.2 to 9.3