This free online converter will translate an AutoCAD file (in DXF format) to a shapefile or KML format. It can also convert from KML format to shapefile, or KML to DXF, or Shapefile to DXF. Choose the output format you desire and select your input file, then press Convert File. Free GIS Data Viewers. Shape Viewer is a free tool, which you can use to view Esri Shapefiles. There are a few online options to learn GIS for.
Introduction
Mapshaper is software for editing Shapefile, GeoJSON, TopoJSON, CSV and several other data formats, written in JavaScript.
The mapshaper command line program supports essential map making tasks like simplifying shapes, editing attribute data, clipping, erasing, dissolving, filtering and more.
The web UI supports interactive simplification, attribute data editing, and running cli commands in a built-in console. Visit the public website at www.mapshaper.org or use the web UI locally via the mapshaper-gui script.
See the project wiki for more documentation on how to use mapshaper.
To suggest improvements, add an issue.
To learn about recent updates, read the changelog.
Command line tool
The mapshaper command line program has been used successfully under Mac OS X, Linux and Windows.
The project wiki has an introduction to using the command line tool that includes many simple examples.
For a detailed reference, see the Command Reference.
Interactive web interface
The web UI works in recent desktop versions of Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Internet Explorer. Safari before v10.1 and IE before v10 are not supported.
The mapshaper distribution includes the script mapshaper-gui, which runs mapshaper's web interface locally. You can also visit mapshaper.org to use mapshaper online.
All processing is done in the browser, so your data stays private, even when using the public website.
Large file support
Web interface
Firefox is able to load Shapefiles and GeoJSON files larger than 1GB. Chrome has improved in recent versions, but is still prone to out-of-memory errors when importing files larger than several hundred megabytes.
Command line interface
When working with very large files, mapshaper may become unresponsive or crash with the message 'JavaScript heap out of memory.'
One option is to run mapshaper-xl (added in v0.4.63), which allocates more memory than the standard mapshaper program.
Another solution is to run Node directly with the --max-old-space-size option. The following example (Mac or Linux) allocates 8GB of memory:
Installation
Mapshaper requires Node.js.
With Node installed, you can install the latest release version of mapshaper using npm. Install with the '-g' flag to make the executable scripts available systemwide.
To install and run the latest development code from github:
Building and testing
Run the build script to build both the cli and web UI modules.
Run npm test in the project directory to run mapshaper's tests.
License
View Shapefiles Online
This software is licensed under MPL 2.0.
According to Mozilla's FAQ, 'The MPL's ‘file-level’ copyleft is designed to encourage contributors to share modifications they make to your code, while still allowing them to combine your code with code under other licenses (open or proprietary) with minimal restrictions.'
Acknowledgements
My colleagues at The New York Times, for countless suggestions, bug reports and general helpfulness.
Mark Harrower, for collaborating on the original 'MapShaper' program at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
I want to create and edit Shapefiles for my application, and I'm looking for a free shape (ESRI) file editor - free for creating and editing.
nmtoken5 Answers
There are lots of free GIS tools available. One of the imho best is QuantumGIS: http://www.qgis.org. It is available for win/mac and linux.
But maybe you prefer openjump a tool written in java, which has special strengths in editing, topology-checking: http://www.openjump.org/
Also take a look at: http://freegis.org/
underdark♦Also, if you do not mind some scripting in Python, there is Shapefile module for this.
Small example, create .shp with point features from coords in .xls:
del f, Path, wb,
If you just want to view shapefiles quickly, http://www.mapdoc.co.uk does quick shapefile reading in the browser (dont need to download anything or upload file). You need modern browser though
EverlyMap is A Free Shapefile Editor you might like. Does the whole job. Windows Desktop App. from http://www.everlymap.com