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5. ArcGIS Supported Data Types

ArcGIS Supported Data Types

A fundamental goal of ArcGIS™ is the ability to work with all your file-based data and DBMS data as well as with ArcIMS™ services. ArcGIS 8.1 lets you work with an extensive array of data sources. These are listed in the tables below.

To become more familiar with ArcGIS, see the book, What is ArcGIS?, provided with your ArcGIS software.

Data types supported in ArcGIS ArcView®, ArcEditor™, and ArcInfo™)

• Shapefiles
• Geodatabases
• ArcInfo™ coverages
• ArcIMS Feature Services
• ArcIMS Map Services
• Geography Network connections
• PC ARC/INFO coverages
• SDE layers
• TIN
• DXF
• DWG
• DGN
• VPF
• Rasters
  • ESRI® GRID
  • ESRI SDE Raster
  • ESRI Raster Catalogs (Image Catalogs)
  • ERDAS Imagine (.IMG)
  • ERDAS 7.5 Lan (.LAN)
  • ERDAS 7.5 GIS (.GIS)
  • ERDAS Raw (.RAW)
  • ESRI Band Interleaved by Line (.BIL)
  • ESRI Band Interleaved by Pixel (.BIP)
  • ESRI Band Sequential (.BSQ)
  • ESRI GRID Stack File (.STK)
  • Windows Bitmap (.BMP)
  • Controlled Image Base, CIB (.CIB)
  • Compressed ARC Digitized Raster Graphics, CADRG (.CRG)
  • DTED Level 1 and 2 (.DT1)
  • ER Mapper (.ERS)
  • Graphic Interchange Format, GIF (.GIF)
  • ADRG Image (.IMG)
  • ADRG Overview (.OVR)
  • ADRG Legend (.LGG)
  • JPEG File Interchange Format, JIFF (.JPG)
  • National Image Transfer Format, NITF 2.0 and 2.1 (.NTF)
  • Portable Network Graphics (.PNG)
  • LizardTech MrSID (.SID)
  • Tagged Image File Format, TIFF (.TIF)
• Text files (.TXT)
• OLE DB tables
• PMF
• StreetMap Europe SDC

Additional data types supported via importers in ArcInfo

Direct conversion of the following formats into a native ArcInfo format:

• ADS
• DFAD
• DIME
• DLG
• ETAK
• GIRAS
• IGDS
• IGES
• MOSS
• S-57
• SDTS (Point, Raster, and Vector)
• SLF
• TIGER (through v2000)
• Sun Raster

Additional data types supported via importers in ArcView and ArcEditor

Direct conversion of the following formats into native ArcView and ArcEditor formats:

• AGF
• MIF
• SDTS (Point and Raster)

For information on additional ArcInfo formats, please see ArcDoc™. Windows NT users of ArcInfo can access ArcDoc from the ArcGIS Programs list on the Start menu (Start>Programs>ArcGIS>ArcInfo Workstation>ArcDoc).

UNIX users can install ArcDoc from the ArcDoc CD or run ArcDoc directly from the CD; see the ArcDoc installation guide for more information.  

This article was updated: 10/10/2017