U.S.G.S. Planetary GIS Web Server - PIGWAD

Importing Tables into ArcView 3.x

• Create a table in Excel (or some other worksheet program) or import a table into Excel (lots of data is available on the Web)
• Save the data from Excel : as either a comma delimited file (.csv) or a dbase file (.dbf)  *ArcView will only recognize files in these two formats…do not attempt to use other formats, they will not work…
• Open ArcView and activate the table menu
• Add a table (the previously create .csv or .dbf file)
  • If the longitude system used in the table is not "–180 to180" or "0 to 360" positive East, the longitude will have to be corrected. For example, if you are bringing in Mars Longitudes in positive West you must do the following
    • If your table if not in a .dbf format then export your table to a .dbf file.
      • File: Export filename.dbf
        • .dbf format is dBASE
      • If table was exported, re-import the file as a table (same way as above)
    • Table: Start Editing (the .dbf file)
    • Activate the longitude column in the table
    • Query Builder: [long field] >180
    • Calculate: [long field] - 360
    • Switch selected set
    • Calculate: [long field] * -1 (or [long field].negate)
    • Table: Stop Editing
• Add .dbf table as Event Theme to view
  • View -> Add Event Theme
• Check the theme to be sure it is correctly placed
• Convert the Event Theme to a shapefile
  • Theme -> Convert to Shapefile

NOTE: WHEN NAMING THE NEW SHAPEFILE, THE NAME MUST BE DIFFERENT FROM THE NAME OF THE .dbf FILE – IF NOT, BOTH THE .dbf TABLE, THE EVENT THEME AND YOUR SHAPEFILE WILL SELF DESTRUCT AND YOU WILL HAVE TO START OVER (your .dbf file will be GONE!!!!)

• Add new shapefile to view and delete old Event Theme