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Importing ESRI geodatabase zip file

  • 1.  Importing ESRI geodatabase zip file

    Posted 08-24-2021 07:37
    Hello all,
    I've downloaded a 62MB zip file of MasterMap data, called FGDB.zip, sent by download link from Defra.  However, I'm unable to do anything with it so far.  They have told me 'The Format is FGDB so if you unzip it it should contain a .gdb file that can be opened in most GIS Software and  FME should recognise it as well'.
    I'm unable to unzip this in Windows Explorer (error is the folder is empty - although at 62MB I don't think this is correct), and, maybe because I don't have an ESRI licence, I can't use either FME or the Universal Translator to translate it if I try importing the zip file itself:
    'Failed to obtain any schemas from reader 'FILEGDB' from 1 datasets. This may be due to invalid datasets or format accessibility issues due to licensing, dependencies, or module loading'.
    Before I get back to them, could anyone give instructions for importing such a database, in case I'm doing something wrong?  I'm using MapInfo v19.
    Many thanks,
    Jane

    ------------------------------
    Jane Mason
    Biological Records Officer (GIS), Suffolk Biodiversity Information Service, UK
    ------------------------------


  • 2.  RE: Importing ESRI geodatabase zip file

    Posted 08-24-2021 07:48
    Hi Jane

    I thought I would try the Open Universal Data option to open directly (rather than translate).
    The MapInfo Help system says:
    To access your Personal Geodatabase data, you must have an ArcGIS desktop application, such as ArcView, ArcEditor, ArcInfo version 8 or greater or the ArcGIS engine. If these applications are not present, the Formats Gallery dialog box will display the Personal Geodatabase format, but it will be grayed out and unavailable.
    I thought that had changed but this could well be the issue!!

    ------------------------------
    John Ievers
    CDR Group
    Hope Valley, United Kingdom
    ------------------------------



  • 3.  RE: Importing ESRI geodatabase zip file

    Posted 08-24-2021 08:01
    Hi John, and many thanks for your reply.
    I thought that might be the case, as I think I've had this before - the format is greyed out.  Doesn't make sense - in order to use MapInfo to import another format you need the licence for the other software...
    I'll try other routes, though they may have to send me a DVD instead.

    Thanks again!
    Jane

    ------------------------------
    Jane Mason
    Biological Records Officer (GIS), Suffolk Biodiversity Information Service, UK
    ------------------------------



  • 4.  RE: Importing ESRI geodatabase zip file

    Posted 08-24-2021 09:07
    i.e. it is not an open format..
    Shape files would have sufficed surely.

    ------------------------------
    John Ievers
    CDR Group
    Hope Valley, United Kingdom
    ------------------------------



  • 5.  RE: Importing ESRI geodatabase zip file

    Posted 08-24-2021 09:26

    Yes, though I think the dataset's too big, probably.

     






  • 6.  RE: Importing ESRI geodatabase zip file

    Posted 08-24-2021 13:38
    In which case - a Geopackage would be ideal for everyone!

    ------------------------------
    John Ievers
    CDR Group
    Hope Valley, United Kingdom
    ------------------------------



  • 7.  RE: Importing ESRI geodatabase zip file

    Posted 08-31-2021 12:06

    Hello Jane,

     

    I don't know if you resolved your problem in converting an Esri File Geodatabase to MapInfo TAB, but your query below did inspire me to have a go at creating a MapInfo TAB Extended version of the whole current OS MasterMap Topo data (2nd August release). While I appreciate that this Ordnance Survey large scale product may only be of interest to those in the UK (specifically Great Britain), there's some interesting general experience to be had from handling large tables in Pro.

     

    I used FME, plus some MapBasic for styling, for the work and it took a few days on a single PC to build the data set. Here's what is looks like in Pro for an area just north of Hampton Court Palace:

     

    Diagram  Description automatically generated

     

    It looks pretty good although I wish Pro could support custom fills! I was quite pleased I could get the native annotation (CartographicText layer) placed, size and orientated correctly in TAB.

     

    While Topo is about ~46GB in its native compressed GML format, my conversion to TAB Extended blew this out to 925GB! The reason for this seems to be the handling of variable length strings fields – in this case those handing change history (reasons and dates). These were implemented as max'ed out char(255) fields and, even then, they would be insufficient for records with longer version history. Unfortunately, I believe both TAB and TAB Extended are both fixed length in their storage of strings, which means a lot of waste when they're not used. I think in future, I'll cut these down to a more manageable size but intentionally limit the history to the last 3, perhaps 5, entries.

     

    The drawing performance of these big TAB Extended layers was very good which means the spatial indexing works well, even with many millions of records. The largest table, TopographicLine, has almost 346 million rows and the whole data set is just over half a billion! Zoom to all... err, not recommended!

     

    I'd be interested to hear if anyone can beat my big fat, near-1TB, vector data set and whether they experienced any handling or performance difficulties along the way.

     

    Regards,

    Warren Vick

    Europa Technologies Ltd.

    www.europa.uk.com

     

     

     

     






  • 8.  RE: Importing ESRI geodatabase zip file

    Posted 08-31-2021 12:52
      |   view attached

    Post a nice big map images and get a tiny one. That's annoying!

     

    Trying an attachment, in case you're interested.

     

    Regards,

    Warren Vick

    Europa Technologies Ltd.

    www.europa.uk.com

     






  • 9.  RE: Importing ESRI geodatabase zip file

    Employee
    Posted 09-01-2021 08:47
    Edited by Peter Møller 09-01-2021 08:48
    Warren, when you insert an image in your post, you can change the size it will have.
    I always change that to actual size as I too dislike those tiny images you otherwise get inserted in the post.

    PS: Just looked at your post again and I can see the image is as big as it can be. The width of the page area limits the size

    ------------------------------
    Peter Horsbøll Møller
    Principal Presales Consultant | Distinguished Engineer
    Precisely | Trust in Data
    ------------------------------



  • 10.  RE: Importing ESRI geodatabase zip file

    Posted 09-01-2021 08:52

    Thanks, Peter.

     

    The image appeared larger in Outlook when I sent it but got shrunk somewhere along the line. Are you saying this happens only with default sizing and, if I make an manual adjustment before sending, the LI360 platform with honour it?

     

    I've seen a few people most screenshots and error messages which are too small to see, so it would be good to know how to get around this problem!

     

    Regards,

    Warren Vick

     






  • 11.  RE: Importing ESRI geodatabase zip file

    Employee
    Posted 09-01-2021 09:02
    I rarely post via Outlook.

    When you create a post through the website, you can when adding an image configure the size.
    The default size is 100px which explains the very tiny images you sometimes see.

    The image below, I just pasted using Ctrl+V. I think that stays at its normal size unless the site needs to resize it to make it fit.



    ------------------------------
    Peter Horsbøll Møller
    Principal Presales Consultant | Distinguished Engineer
    Precisely | Trust in Data
    ------------------------------



  • 12.  RE: Importing ESRI geodatabase zip file

    Employee
    Posted 09-01-2021 09:04
    It stayed at its normal size.

    If the website resizes the image, it will let you click on the inserted image to see the full image. See some of Andrei's screenshots below of MapInfo Pro

    ------------------------------
    Peter Horsbøll Møller
    Principal Presales Consultant | Distinguished Engineer
    Precisely | Trust in Data
    ------------------------------



  • 13.  RE: Importing ESRI geodatabase zip file

    Posted 09-02-2021 06:03
    Thanks for your reply, Warren.  That's some job - I'm impressed Extended TAB can be that big!  I thought my 3GB files were good....  I did resolve the problem, thanks (or rather Defra did by sending a different Geodatabase - there must have been a problem with the original).
    Thanks,
    Jane

    ------------------------------
    Jane Mason
    Biological Records Officer (GIS), Suffolk Biodiversity Information Service, UK
    ------------------------------



  • 14.  RE: Importing ESRI geodatabase zip file

    Posted 08-31-2021 16:24
    Jane,

    I tried to download Defra data in gdb format and was able successfully open it in MapInfo Pro. You Can use Open Universal Data for it:


    May be your dataset was not downloaded correctly.



    This a map with downloaded data:

    You don't need to have ESRI license to open it.

    Regards,
    Andrei

    ------------------------------
    Andrei Veselov
    Precisely
    Troy NY
    ------------------------------



  • 15.  RE: Importing ESRI geodatabase zip file

    Posted 09-02-2021 06:10
    Many thanks, Andrei.  Defra sent me a new Geodatabase and I was able to unzip it and open it as Universal Data, and I was able to open it in FME too, so all is well.  The must have been an error in the first data sent.

    ------------------------------
    Jane Mason
    Biological Records Officer (GIS), Suffolk Biodiversity Information Service, UK
    ------------------------------