Overview of adding shapefiles

ArcPad uses vector data in shapefile format, as does ArcView, ArcEditor, ArcInfo, ArcIMS, and other ESRI software programs. A shapefile (.shp) is a vector file format for storing the location, shape, and attributes of geographic features. Shapefiles can support point, line, and polygon features. Attributes are held in a dBASE® (.dbf) format file.

Tip

Prepare your shapefiles: Use ArcGIS Desktop to prepare your data for ArcPad. With these desktop tools, you can create subsets of your shapefiles and export ArcGIS Desktop stylesheets. ArcPad also supports spatial and attribute indexes of shapefiles. Create attribute indexes in ArcPad via the Attributes tab in the LayerProperties dialog box. Create a spatial index for large shapefiles in ArcGIS Desktop to improve performance in ArcPad. For more information on indexing, see section, ‘Querying your Data’, and the ArcGIS Desktop Help.

Note

For more information on creating shapefiles in ArcPad, refer to the topic, Creating new shapefiles