Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Exercise 4-4 (Minor Project)
Making a Personal Geodatabase Feature Class Named
TextToFeature
1. Use ArcCatalog to make a folder named TextToFeature in
___IGIS-Arc_ YourInitials
In that folder, make a personal geodatabase named TextToFeature_DB.mdb. In that database, make a
feature dataset named TextToFeature_DS without specifying a coordinate system.
The plan here is to make an Esri feature class that corresponds to a drawing composed of lines and
coordinates. You will do this by the cumbersome method of typing the coordinates of each vertex of each
polygon into a text file. After doing this a couple of times, you will really appreciate more efficient methods
of data entry. The text file you make will become the input to the Create Features From Text File tool.
Virtually everything in this exercise will be named TextToFeature. It can be confusing. It can also be
illustrative of whether or not you know when you are dealing with a folder, a geodatabase, a geodataset,
a feature class, a map, or an ArcToolbox tool. Your Fast Facts File should contain references to the file
extensions for a personal geodatabase (mdb), file geodatabase (gdb), and map (mxd).
Specifications of your Input Text File for the
“Create Features from Text File” Tool
The symbolic format of a text file for the lines of the feature class is as follows.
<polyline>
<line_id> <part_number>
<vertex_id> <x> <y> <z> <m>
<vertex_id> <x> <y> <z> <m>
<vertex_id> <x> <y> <z> <m>
<line_id> <part_number>
<vertex_id> <x> <y> <z> <m>
<vertex_id> <x> <y> <z> <m>
<vertex_id> <x> <y> <z> <m>
(and so on)
END
The symbols < and > are used to enclose characters (letter and numbers) that will appear in the text
file. The text file you create will contain only letters and numbers; the text file will not contain the
symbols < and >.
The first text line should contain the word “polyline” to indicate the geometry type. The second text line
contains the number that identifies the first geometric line. On this text line is also a part number; if there
 
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