Using SHP files

The SHP (Shapefile) format, developed by Esri, has become one of the most widely used standards for exchanging geospatial information. Its broad adoption by public administrations, mapping agencies and GIS systems makes it a very valuable data source. That is why it is especially useful to have tools that load and integrate this information directly into the drawing, making it easier to view and use geographic data —such as parcels, infrastructure or administrative boundaries— within the CAD environment.

In addition, the SHP format works with vector geometry and associated attributes, so you can query additional information about each entity and use this data for analysis, land management or technical documentation.

Import SHP

You can download various sets of Shapefile (SHP) files from the Cadastre Virtual Office of the Spanish Cadastre and import them directly into the drawing with DWGExplorer. To do so, click the Importar SHP (Import SHP) button.

In this example, we load the street centerlines file for the municipality of Benicàssim. After selecting the file, the program displays the following dialog box:

Import Shapefile dialog box with the information for the EJES.SHP file (entity type, number of entities, UTM zone and fields) and the target layer name

Before clicking Import, you can change the layer name. The dialog box also shows relevant information about the selected file, such as the number of entities, the geometry type and other useful details.

Once the street centerlines are imported, the program automatically performs a zoom extents and shows all the imported elements in the drawing, as you can see in the image:

Street centerlines of Benicàssim imported into the drawing

If we then import the parcels:

Import Shapefile dialog box with the information for the PARCELA.SHP file and the target layers for polygons and holes

The result of the import is:

Benicàssim parcels imported in green alongside the street centerlines in red

If we zoom in and turn on the WMS layers loaded earlier, we get the following result:

Close-up of the imported parcels and centerlines overlaid on the Cadastre WMS map

Imported entity information

SHP files also contain alphanumeric information associated with their entities. DWGExplorer keeps this information during the import, so you can query it later for specific elements, such as a street centerline or a parcel.

For example, if we select a newly imported parcel, the system shows the list of entities in the drawing and highlights the information for the selected entity:

Shapefile/GML data query window with a parcel selected in the table and its attributes at the bottom

This information includes data such as the area, the cadastral reference and other attributes available in the SHP file.

Query imported entities

You can also query imported entities from the window itself. With the window open, select one or more entities in the list to zoom to them automatically in the drawing and leave them selected.

For example, if we use the filter at the top and set the VIA (street) field equal to the code 1100, the system returns 16 entities, as shown in the image:

Data query filtered by the VIA field equal to 1100, with 16 entities in the list

Clicking the Zoom + Select button gives the following result in the active drawing:

Filtered entities selected and framed in the drawing after clicking Zoom + Select