Exporting maps from ArcView (via IDRISI) to RAMAS GIS

(by Karen Root, Applied Biomathematics)

1. In ArcView, add the theme that you are interested in to the view.
2. In the view, make this theme active, and from the Theme pull-down menu, select "Convert to Shapefile…".
3. Select a name for the new shapefile and click OK to save it in the specified location.
4. In IDRISI, change the working folder to the folder where you have saved the shape file:
   • If you have Idrisi for Windows: select ENVIRON from the Environment (pull-down) menu, and change "Path of working data directory". Click "OK".
   • If you have Idrisi32: select Data paths from the File menu, and change "Main working folder". Click "OK".
5. Open the "SHAPEIDR: Shapefile/Idrisi Conversion" dialog:
   • If you have Idrisi for Windows: Select "Import/Export" from the File pull-down menu. This will open the "Idrisi Import/Export Utility" window. Select "Software-specific formats" from the Import pull-down menu. This will open another menu. Select SHAPEIDR.
   • If you have Idrisi32: Select "Import" from the File pull-down menu. This will another menu; select "Software-specific formats". This will open another menu; select "ESRI Formats". This will another menu; select SHAPEIDR.
6. Select "Shapefile to Idrisi". For "Input Shapefile", specify the name of the shape file you have saved. For "Output Idrisi vector file" specify a filename. Select the appropriate choices for "Reference system", "Reference units" and "Unit distance" (or, leave then at the default settings of "plane" "meters" and "1", respectively). See the help file of Idrisi for SHAPEIDR for more information. Click "OK".
7. After the conversion is done, return to the Idrisi main window. Use POLYRAS in the "Raster/Vector Conversion" menu (under the Reformat pull-down menu) to convert the vector file to raster file. See the help file of Idrisi for POLYRAS for more information.
8. In RAMAS GIS, start the "Spatial data" program (if it is not already running).
9. Select "Input maps" under the Model menu.
10. Add a map (see RAMAS GIS help for more information), and give it a name. For "File", enter the name of the raster file you have created in Idrisi. For "Format", specify IDRISI or Idrisi32, depending on the version of Idrisi you used. Click "View".