Description
This article is from the Geographic
Information Systems FAQ, by Lisa Nyman lnyman@census.gov with
numerous contributions by others.
6.7: How can I convert ARC files to some other graphics formats? (Geographic Information Systems)
Summary From: Fred J. Calef III <mapduxbury@UMBSKY.CC.UMB.EDU>
POSTSCRIPT: It seems the postscript file Arc/INFO makes is not a
true Encapsulated Postscript File. It seems to be a little more
than a plain postscript file but not quite an EPS file. Here are
some solutions.
1) Use the unix2dos command on unix systems to add control-returns
to the file which dos needs to read the file properly (Arc/INFO's
postscript file being an ASCII file)
2) FTP the file using the ASCII option because the postscript file
is in ASCII format
3) Use the Ghost Script utility (available via FTP) to read the file,
then output it in EPS format.
****As a special note, GhostScript can be FTPed from prep.ai.mit.edu
in directory /pub/gnu.
4) Use a program that reads pure ASCII postscript files (such as Word on
the Macintosh)
ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR: This file format is similiar to postscript, but with
some differences (whatever they are). I received some specific responses
to correcting this format.
1) Edit the file and add these lines after the line containing %%EndProlog
(said to be line 8):
%%BeginSetup
%%EndSetup
This supposedly makes it readable with Corel Draw.
2) Make sure you close the file by issuing another DISPLAY command or
QUITting out of Arcplot. This puts the bounding box around the file.
3) You can run an awk program in the unix environment to fix the file. Here
is the command line:
nawk -f fix_ai.awk bad_ai_file > good_ai_file
Here is the awk program:
# Program to convert Arc/Info Illustrator output so Corel Draw
# can handle it.
{
print;
}
/EndProlog/ {
print "%%BeginSetup"
print "%%EndSetup"
}
This should allow you to read the file in Corel Draw.
TIFF: I have found one way to succesfully bring a TIFF file into the pc
DOS environment.
1) FTP the TIFF file using the binary option. Then use Corel Draw (I used
v3.0) to read the file with the PhotoPaint module. This successfully reads
the file,but all of the areas using black are valued as white! On the screen
there should be a pallette tool displaying all of the colors used in the
image. Double click on the white block on the palette to bring up another
tool that allows you to adjust the color to any in the spectrum. Move the
red, green, and blue sliders to the opposite end of the slider spectrum. You
can then press the preview button to see if this gives you the correct color
scheme of the image. Then you can press the OK button to transform the image
to the setting you changed it to. You should have the proper color balance
now. Save the image to keep this change.
(I've tried other programs to read the original Arc/INFO TIFF file, but came
up with a black screen)
Computer Graphics Metafile (CGM): The only response I received about this
format was that they could not successfully use the Arc/INFO generated file.
OTHER WAYS TO CAPTURE IMAGES IN ARC/INFO:Here are some other ways to capture
images in Arc/INFO.
1) IN the UNIX environment, use the SNAPSHOT Utility (available via FTP) to
capture the image off of the screen, then use HIJACK to convert it into
another file format. The resolution is not suppose to be that great.
2) Import your coverages into ARCVIEW, make the image to be captured and use
it to make a WINDOWS BITMAP image.
3) Output to an HPGL file, then use the Wordperfect utility GRAPHCONV.EXE to
convert it to a .wpg file. Review the options of this utility (This solution
came from a recent summary on putting postscript files into Wordperfect).
These are the suggestions, but I have not personally verified them (except
the TIFF suggestion which is my own).There has been alot of talk about these
problems and I hope these possible solutions work out. Maybe ESRI can or has
addressed these problems in 7.0...one can only hope...
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