Shapefiles for DAWS

Mike Deason · Post by **Mike Deason** » Fri Dec 12, 2003 10:32 pm

I'm creating subsets of some of the AWIPS shapefiles for use in DAWS since some of them are rather large and each user may find they only want them for a particular region. The first set, NWS CWA's, are online at:

http://www.centralnebraskaweather.net/daws/shapefiles/

I'm also open to any requests for shapefiles. Keep in mind, however, the more complex the requests are, the longer it'll take the shapefiles.

Regards,

Mike

Mike Deason · Post by **Mike Deason** » Fri Dec 19, 2003 5:06 pm

Added some new shapefiles today:

http://www.centralnebraskaweather.net/daws/shapefiles/

Regards,

Mike

rik wessels · Post by **rik wessels** » Fri Dec 19, 2003 6:56 pm

Are these files available for the whole world??
These shape - files are "maps " right ?

Totally ignorant about this , I remember downloading shore-lines maps for stormtrakker-beta , I'm only presuming this is the same datatype .

Mike Deason · Post by **Mike Deason** » Fri Dec 19, 2003 11:57 pm

Are these files available for the whole world??

Short, ambiguous answer: Maybe. Read on...

These shape - files are "maps " right ?

Short answer, yes they are. Shapefiles are the most common vector format used in the realm of Geographic Information Systems (GIS). There are actually three files you'll generally need to use a shapefile: The actual shapefile (.SHP), the index file (.SHX) and a features database (.DBF). Shapefiles are a proprietery format of ESRI, Inc. (http://www.esri.com) but can be read by most any decent GIS application and programs such as DAWS and NEXRAD3.

It's possible to easily convert most any other vector data like DXF's and USGS DLG's (and even some raster images) to the shapefile format. That's why my answer to your first question was vague. I'm pretty sure that most political boundaries and such for the world are probably out there for free on the internet in shapefile format. And again, if you might be interested in converting some vector data, I'd be more than willing to try and help. Like I said in my original post, the time it'll take me to work on it would depend on the complexity.

Totally ignorant about this , I remember downloading shore-lines maps for stormtrakker-beta , I'm only presuming this is the same datatype .

Not sure, but seeing as that is a Mike Bryson authored app (I believe), it may have had the ability to import shapefiles.

Regards,

Mike
_________________

rik wessels · Post by **rik wessels** » Sat Dec 20, 2003 12:35 am

Yes, stormtrakker is a Mike-app

I tried this after seeing nexrad 3 by him.

In fact I remember importing gshhs - files into nexrad , which I purchased . Would this be the files you mentioned above ??
I remember this was a big download though as it covered the entire region covered by Nexrad ( basically continental U.S.A. ) . Would this be the case for the shape-files as well ? Or are gshhs-files and shape-files the same thing ? I'm sure this is now becoming a bit off topic though