Essentially, yes. The .mxd does not store the actual geometry or attributes of a spatial data set, it just stores a path (or database connection info) to the data source.
So, the data that you are viewing in ArcMap may already be in a shapefile format. To determine the source of the layer that you are viewing, double-click or right-click > properties on the layer. On the 'general' tab, you should see the source for that data layer. If the data is local and it is not in a data format that you can use, you could likely use the gdal/ogr tools to convert it to shapefile (unless it is in the ESRI File Geodatabase proprietary data format). It could be that you are viewing a data source that is being served to you as a Web Map Service (WMS). In this case, the server is only exposing/sending pictures of the geometry data, so you would not be able to convert this easily to a vector format like shapefile. David. -----Original Message----- From: discuss-boun...@lists.osgeo.org [mailto:discuss-boun...@lists.osgeo.org] On Behalf Of maning sambale Sent: Monday, August 02, 2010 9:47 PM To: OSGeo Discussions Subject: Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] mxd to other format (i.e. shapefile) George, To get this right, mxd are actually just a styling file similar to Arcview's apr and avl? On Tue, Aug 3, 2010 at 10:25 AM, George Silva <georger.si...@gmail.com> wrote: > You must be confusing things here Maning, > > Mxd is the format that ArcGIS uses to store mapdocuments, while > shapefiles/database geometry data/coverages/rasters are displayed on that > map. If you only have the mxd you won't be able to convert anything to > shapefile. You need the original data. > > A Mxd is much like an HTML. It provides information on how content is > organized, but it's not content itself. > > George > > On Mon, Aug 2, 2010 at 11:21 PM, maning sambale <emmanuel.samb...@gmail.com> > wrote: >> >> No luck so far looking for a converter. >> >> Basically, I want to export geometry and attributes without the >> styling from an Arc's mxd format to shapefile. >> >> Any workaround here (other then looking for an ArcGIS installed machine)? >> -- >> cheers, >> maning >> ------------------------------------------------------ >> "Freedom is still the most radical idea of all" -N.Branden >> wiki: http://esambale.wikispaces.com/ >> blog: http://epsg4253.wordpress.com/ >> ------------------------------------------------------ >> _______________________________________________ >> Discuss mailing list >> Discuss@lists.osgeo.org >> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss > > > > -- > George R. C. Silva > > Desenvolvimento em GIS > http://blog.geoprocessamento.net > > _______________________________________________ > Discuss mailing list > Discuss@lists.osgeo.org > http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss > > -- cheers, maning ------------------------------------------------------ "Freedom is still the most radical idea of all" -N.Branden wiki: http://esambale.wikispaces.com/ blog: http://epsg4253.wordpress.com/ ------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
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