topic Re: I think I broke the whole thing! Please help! in Data Management Questions

I think I broke the whole thing! Please help!

BrendaCarter — Tue, 07 Apr 2015 22:13:07 GMT

I downloaded some files from the Species Richness program. They are supposed to be grid files and the directions say to use Spatial Analyst to convert them to grid. Yes, I have spatial analyst. Yes, it is activated however; I am not finding what I am supposed to use. I am sure someone knows what to use. Help!The files that were downloaded were the entire richness file for the county:

dblbnd.adf

hdr.adf

log

metadata.xml

prj.adf

sta.adf

vat.adf

w001001.adf

w001001x.adf

Please point me in the right direction... or give me another alternative. I am on ArcGIS 10.2.

Thanks,

Re: I think I broke the whole thing! Please help!

OwenEarley — Tue, 07 Apr 2015 22:31:00 GMT

These files are already in ArcInfo grid format so you shouldn't need to convert them: 30616 - What is the file structure of an Arc/INFO Grid?

The Grid format relies on a directory structure where a workspace contains one or more grid directories. The workspace should also contain an info directory. I am guessing that something has gone wrong with the directory structure as Arcmap should be able to load the grid format.

I would suggest looking at the original download to see if the entire workspace is there or contacting the data provider to get the workspace - as the Info subdirectory contains several files which maintain certain information about the grid.

This ArcGIS Help 10.1 page has more information on the format.

GRID directory
----------------
There are a number of files that can be stored in a GRID's subdirectory. Not all of them are necessary for the GRID to display. They can be stored in one of three storage types, INFO format, ASCII format and binary format.
dblbnd.adf
- The boundary file contains the minimum and maximum x,y coordinates for a grid
- INFO format
hdr.adf
- The header file contains information about the GRID's cell resolution, type (integer or floating point), compression, and tile information.
- binary format
log
- The log file contains a history about the creation of and alterations to a GRID.
- ASCII format
prj.adf
- The projection file stores the known map projection information of the GRID. It is optional.
- ASCII format
sta.adf
- The statistics (minimum, maximum, mean, and standard deviation) of the cell values.
- INFO format
vat.adf
- The value attribute table (VAT) stores the the attribute data associated with the zones of the grid. The vat.adf can only exist for integer GRIDs.
- INFO format
w001001.adf
- Stores the value of each cell in the first (base) tile of the GRID.
- If the GRID is floating point, the values are single precision.
- binary format
w001001x.adf
- Stores the index for the blocks in the tile.
- binary format

Re: I think I broke the whole thing! Please help!

SepheFox — Tue, 07 Apr 2015 22:32:20 GMT

Hi Brenda, not to worry. I'm sure nothing is beyond repair--you can always download the data again. I opened your attached zip, but it only contained the file hdr.adf. Where exactly did you go to download the data, and what county is it for? In the meantime, you might read up on the grid format here:

ArcGIS Desktop Help 9.2 - About the ESRI grid format

Re: I think I broke the whole thing! Please help!

SepheFox — Tue, 07 Apr 2015 22:33:18 GMT

Ooops! Sorry Owen, it looks like we posted at the same time!

Re: I think I broke the whole thing! Please help!

BrendaCarter — Tue, 07 Apr 2015 22:46:35 GMT

Thank you so much! I will definitely try this and see what happens. I am on the east coast and will try it first thing in the AM. Hopefully I was just a bit anxious about this process and went a little to far into the files. I did notice that there is an info file downloaded as well. No corruption of the files, just an eager old school user doing new school things.

Re: I think I broke the whole thing! Please help!

BrendaCarter — Tue, 07 Apr 2015 22:48:45 GMT

Hi there... thank you so much for your quick response. I am on the east coast and was just a bit to eager. I will try the suggestions I received first thing tomorrow morning! I think I fried my brain worrying today. Please know that each of you are much appreciated!