Importing other datasets

In real-life scenarios, you will not have to create all the data from scratch; some of the data will be available for you in different formats such as shape files, images, Excel sheets, and CAD files. That's why it is important to discuss how to import different kinds of formats to your geodatabase. In this section, we will discuss importing shape files, CAD files, and coverage classes that represent the boundary of Belize.

The client has asked us to import their legacy data, which is available in shape files, CAD files, and coverage feature classes in the geodatabase as well. We will start by importing the shape file as a geodatabase feature class. All the files are available in 8648OT_02_Files, which can be downloaded from the book's supporting files at www.packtpub.com. Copy the entire folder to your local drive before you carry on with the exercises.

Importing shape files

The shape files are in Esri's native file format, which was created a long...