Turning images into a Shapefile?

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03-03-2015 09:13 AM
AlbanXhema
New Contributor II

So I have a soil map that is currently just an image in my GIS and I want to turn it into a shapefile so that I can manipulate the colors and control each soil category differently. Currently I have just been drawing them in freehand, but this creates a difference between the contours in the soil map and my GIS. It also takes a lot of time. Is there anyway I could at least make sure that the shapefiles I'm making line up exactly with the lines of the contours in the soil map? Again, the soil map is just an image and I need to create a digitized version of it.

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12 Replies
LisaTurner
Occasional Contributor II

Hey Alban,

Not sure if this will help or not, but thought I would share the link. What is ArcScan?—Help | ArcGIS for Desktop

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AlbanXhema
New Contributor II

When I go to use editor to select the .jpeg I want to edit, nothing is showing up. Is there anyway to convert a .jpeg to a raster?

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LisaTurner
Occasional Contributor II

Hey Alban,

I believe a jpeg is a raster already. Have you tried opening base maps, or other maps with your jepg to see if the jpeg is located spatially where you think it is?

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AlbanXhema
New Contributor II

Hello Lisa,

Thank you for your help so far, I'm very appreciative. The jpeg is georeferenced in the GIS and lines up with everything, just when I open the editor it doesn't come up as an option that I can select. Do you think it might just be something with the editor misreading it? The jpeg is showing up in the table of contents and is part of the GIS, it's just not showing up when I start editing. 

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DarrenWiens2
MVP Honored Contributor

You can't "edit" rasters, but you can turn that raster into an editable vector polygon or polyline feature class using ArcScan or raster classification/raster to polygon operation.

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AlbanXhema
New Contributor II

Right, my problem when I go to turn the raster into a vector through ArcScan is that it doesn't come up as a selectable option

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LisaTurner
Occasional Contributor II

Hey Alban,

I've never used ArcScan, but I was reading more and found this ArcGIS Desktop It's also possible it is easier to draw it in freehand. Good luck in either method you choose.

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DarrenWiens2
MVP Honored Contributor

Have you symbolized your raster as a bi-level image?

ArcScan can vectorize any raster format supported by ArcGIS so long as it is represented as a bi-level image. This requires that you symbolize raster layers with two unique colors. You can use either the ArcMap Unique Values or Classified rendering options to separate the raster into two colors.

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AlbanXhema
New Contributor II

No, it's still in RGB. Thank you, I was wondering how to turn it into a bi-level image, I forgot that was necessary.

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