Problem merging 47 shapefiles to create 1 shapefile

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03-06-2012 06:46 AM
NatalieKoncki
New Contributor
Hello,

I am trying to merge all of the U.S. fish and wildlife wetlands shapefiles for all of the states in the continental U.S. (http://www.fws.gov/wetlands/Data/DataDownload.html) My goal is to create one shapefile file and then to overlay my point file to extract what types of wetlands are at each point.

I've tried to merge all of the files together and I get the green check that they merged correctly but when I try to open the file or export the file it says that:

One or more layers failed to draw:

US_wet_NAD1983:   There was a problem drawing the shapefile. Drawing aborted.

I also get an error message that says "The parameter is (or has an element that is) the wrong kind of geometry."

Even though the program says it merges correctly it still won't let me export the shapefile either.

How can I fix this problem?

Any suggestions or help would be gladly appreciated.

Thank you,
Natalie
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2 Replies
ChrisFrost
New Contributor
It appears that the individual state shapefiles are quite large. The merged shapefile may be reaching the maximum file size of 2 GB.  If you have ArcGIS 10, try the file geodatabases.
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NatalieKoncki
New Contributor
Yes that does seem to be the problem.

Thanks.
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