topic Re: Global Mapper Export Attribute Precision in ArcGIS Pro Questions

Global Mapper Export Attribute Precision

Chris_RRCTX — Mon, 14 Jul 2025 15:18:18 GMT

Hello, I have a GM user attempting to export a shapefile and send it to our agency. When we open the shapefile in ArcPro, the numerical (float) attributes loose their precision, causing our system to misinterpret the attribute. I used GM to export the file on my own, and it shows the precision correctly in GM, so I'm at a loss as to what could be causing this.

I also don't know if this is an issue caused by Arc or GM, so I'm unsure which community to go to for assistance, ESRI is our primary product so y'all win the prize of first crack at the issue.

I've attached screenshots of the GM export screen showing the correct precision settings, and the field view in ArcPro of the exported shapefile showing the precision of '0'. Any thoughts or ideas?

Re: Global Mapper Export Attribute Precision

CodyPatterson — Mon, 14 Jul 2025 15:36:00 GMT

Hey @Chris_RRCTX

It may be the case that the precision isn't supported in the file GDB that the export is landing in, this is from the fine print in this geoprocessing note:

https://pro.arcgis.com/en/pro-app/latest/tool-reference/data-management/add-field.htm

Is it possible to export as a GDB or similar from the GM program?

Cody

Re: Global Mapper Export Attribute Precision

Chris_RRCTX — Tue, 15 Jul 2025 12:53:31 GMT

I've been just exporting the shapefile on its own, not into a GDB, so I tried that this morning. I used GM to export the shapefile into a GDB, then I used ArcPro to navigate to that GDB and Arc doesn't even see the shapefile, just to make sure I wasn't going crazy I went back to GM and used it to navigate to that same GDB and it opened the file just fine. I'm gonna keep looking into this but color me perplexed