Hi Bob, There is no doubt that TAB is a better format than SHP, but SHP isn't that bad. Based on your description below, it seems like you are not using the spatial index files (SBN+SBX) of the SHP format. If you use them, arcview can actually redraw at a pretty decent speed without reading the whole SHX or SHP file.
SBN+SBX files are closed format as opposed to the SHP+SHX files. Kind regards Uffe Kousgaard www.routeware.dk From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > With the native SHP,SHX file format the data is NOT rearranged so that > objects adjacent on the ground are adjacent in the file. Every single > MBR in the SHX file has to be compared with the Screen MBR. If it is on > the screen then the full object contained in the SHP file will again be > stored randomly ( stored in order added ) and disk access will be > relatively slow compared to MapInfo as the heads will be jumping around > rather than reading contiguously. So the whole SHX file needs to be > read, if there are 4 million objects every MBR has to be read, and then > the 200 on the screen will need to be read in full randomly ( rather > than contiguously ) from the SHP file. --------------------------------------------------------------------- List hosting provided by Directions Magazine | www.directionsmag.com | To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Message number: 10290
