Spatial Module Conversion Utility

The Spatial Module utility has two conversion utilities: FMTMakr2.exe and SpatialImport.exe.

• FMTMakr2.exe is located on the Spectrum™ Technology Platform server in <SpectrumInstallLocation>\modules\lim\lib
• SpatialImport.exe is located on the Spectrum Spatial section of the Welcome Page, under the Utilities tab. Download and unzip the utility; you then have the option to choose the 32-bit or 64-bit version for Windows.

You may need to use one or both utilities to convert your data, depending on the format.

Converting .TXT and .CSV Files

Converting .TXT and .CSV files into the Centrus .FMT format is a two-step process:

First, create a format file (.FMT) for your .TXT or .CSV file using the Data Formatter utility (FMTMAKR2.exe). This utility can be found on the Spectrum™ Technology Platform server in:

<SpectrumInstallLocation>\modules\lim\lib

Second, use the SpatialImport.exe utility to import the data into a format usable by Spectrum™ Technology Platform. Follow the instructions in Converting .SHP, TAB, .MIF, and .DBF Files to convert the .TXT or .CSV file. Note that in order for SpatialImport.exe to work with .TXT or .CSV files, the .FMT file created by the Data Formatter utility must be present in the same directory as the .TXT or .CSV file.

Converting .SHP, TAB, .MIF, and .DBF Files

If you are importing an ESRI shapefile (.SHP), a TAB file (.TAB), a MapInfo Interchange Format file (.MIF), or a DBF file (.DBF) for use with the Spatial Module, open a command prompt and type the following:

SpatialImport [-u] InputFile OutputFile [PolygonNameField]

Where:

• -u creates an unbuffered file. An unbuffered file will not allow you to specify buffers to use when matching. For more information on buffers, see the documentation on the component you are using. Using this option will create a much smaller .GSB file. Optional.
• InputFile is your user-defined file (.TAB, .SHP, .DBF, or .MIF with an associated .MID file).
• OutputFile is the name of the .GSB file to create.

• PolygonNameField is an optional parameter that specifies the field in the input file to use as the polygon name. This is the field that is used to populate the Polygon.Name output field returned by Spectrum™ Technology Platform. For example, if the fields in the user-defined file are LON, LAT, Congressman, URL, and PartyAffiliation, and you are using PointInPolygon, when PointInPolygon returns data for a match, it would return the Congressman, URL, and PartyAffiliation as attributes. If you were to specify Congressman in the PolygonNameField parameter, the value in the Congressman field will also be returned in the Polygon.Name output field.

Converting .MDB Files

If you are importing a Microsoft Access (.MDB) file for use with the Spatial Module, type the following:

SpatialImport dbfile.mdb:tablename

Where:

• dbfile.mdb is the Access database that contains your user-defined spatial data.

• tablename is the table in the access database that contains your user-defined spatial data.