Data Interoperability extension and importing mapinfo files in ArcGIS

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08-12-2010 08:30 AM
AnastasiyaGancheva
New Contributor
Hi,
in ArcGIS 9x I was using ArcView 8x conversion tools to convert Mapinfo files into shapefiles. It seems that this tool is missing in ArcGIS 10. Is the Data Interoperability extension the only way to convert Mapinfo files and is it available in the ArcView package?

thank you in advance for your cooperation
Anastasiya
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18 Replies
NicoTripcevich
New Contributor II
I have the same question. I see v10 of this extension for sale here as part# 98131
http://store.esri.com/esri/showdetl.cfm?SID=2&Product_ID=632&Category_ID=121

but it's not listed as a possible download at customers.esri.com

Thanks
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BruceHarold
Esri Regular Contributor
Hi

The 8.x tools are not shipped in ArcGIS 10, so the mif2shape.exe wrapper to do this conversion is not in 10.  The Data Interoperability extension is the correct ArcGIS product for conversion of 3rd party formats, although you may find other products capable of converting MIF data.

Regards
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ChristopherLott
New Contributor
Please advise what DVD or feature or whatever we must request to gain access to this feature.  I was just given a Mapinfo file and would like to work with it.  I guess as a workaround I'll have to go back to the company and ask for a different format, but that sure doesn't make us look very capable.
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NelsonDe_Miranda
Occasional Contributor III
Hey Chris,

If you currently own ArcGIS 10, it should be on the Desktop Installation Disk. Underneath the option to install ArcGIS Desktop, you should see an option to install the Data Interop. Extention. Keep in mind, you will need a key to activate the extention.

Cheers,

Nelson
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KariIdland
New Contributor
Thank you for your very helful post! I'm fairly new to ArcGIS and was very frustrated this morning trying to get this extension to work.
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KarlKeough1
New Contributor II
I have just activated the trial version of Data Interoperability Extension and have tried to view / import MapInfo .tab and .mif files. Neither seems to work. ArcGIS appears to read the mif file as some sort of raster. Any idea what might be going on?

Thanks,

Karl Keough
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TylerBragg
New Contributor II
Mapinfo files do not play well with others.  Our organization uses both MapInfo and ArcGIS, and we always do our conversions in MapInfo to "translate" them to shapefile.  I've never found anything in ArcGIS 10 that will convert them.  If you don't have MapInfo...then I guess this is not an option.  You'll probably have to go to some third party converters, or have the originator of the data convert it to shapefile.  They should probably be doing this anyway if they are distributing the data, given the wide range of ArcGIS users (and the wide range of GIS software that reads shapefiles) compared to the much smaller range of MapInfo users.  This would be the most effective and problem-free way of doing it.
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BruceHarold
Esri Regular Contributor
Karl

Please make sure you have enabled the Data Interoperability extension, then browse in the Catalog tree to your TAB or MIF files.  They will appear as a feature dataset icon; open it up and you will see a list of possible data in the files.  Some or most of the options will have no features, but at least one will.

MIF data being recognized as a raster data type is a known issue in Catalog.

Regards
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GraziZ
by
New Contributor
Hi!

I'm starting using the ArcGis 9 and I'm trying to import a MIF file to Arcgis by "ArcView 8X Tools", but when I try to open the MIF file, one message appears: "Invalid entry. Space are not permitted in the path name." What should I do to the import the MIF file?

Thank you!

Grazi
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