Tech Tip: Importing ESRI .SHP Format Files

Manifold's ESRI shapefile importer uses Microsoft ODBC and DAO facilities as part of the import process. There is a generic problem with ODBC that may arise when using the Manifold converter.

Shapefiles come with DBFs containing object attributes. We open and read those DBFs from within Microsoft DAO, so in order to import ESRI attributes you must have a Microsoft driver for DBF files installed on your system.

There are three options:

1. Don't import attribute data
2. Use a DBF driver installed with 3rd party software (i.e. install Microsoft Office)
3. Use the Microsoft driver, which may be downloaded from our FTP site:
    - download msxbse35.dll and regsvr32.exe files from our FTP site's support directory.
    - copy both files to your Windows\System[32] directory.
    - execute: "regsvr32 msxbse35.dll" and restart your system.

The third option is preferrable. The reason we don't distribute the DBF driver is that some people use non-Microsoft drivers and don't want to replace them with msxbse35.    See the folllowing Question and Answer from our Support FAQ:

When importing/exporting ESRI shapefiles, I get an cannot load msxbse35.dll error code = 1157 message.  ESRI shapefiles involve DBF format, a charming relic from the ancient days of personal computing. Manifold uses your Windows system's DBF drivers to read and write shapefiles.  msxbse35.dll is a Microsoft XBase driver serving DBase/FoxPro data sources (DBFs,etc.) that is normally found in the Windows\System\ directory (in '95) or in Winnt\System32\ directory (in NT).    Error 1157 means that the msxbse35.dll file cannot be found by the system.  This may be because it is not on the system or because it has not been registered properly.   Fix this by placing a copy of msxbse35.dll in the System (or System32 for NT) directory.  If you do not have msxbse35.dll, you may fetch it from our FTP site's support directory.   After copying this file to the System (or System32) directory, register it with "regsvr32 msxbse35.dll" from the command line.   If you do not have the regsvr32.exe program, you may fetch that as well from our FTP site's  support directory.  Both files are freely redistributable for use by Windows users.

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