[Freegis-list] ArcInfo to Free conversion

[Markus Neteler]

Hi,

On Mon, Jan 08, 2001 at 04:16:58PM -0600, lbottorff at harveycounty.com wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> We just got a bill for our ESRI ArcInfo "Maintenance Contract": $7400. I have
> permission to investigate alternatives. We currently are using ArcInfo 8 and
> have developed many megabytes of land parcel maps on their software. My basic
> question is, can we use something like GRASS? 
... why not :-)

> Can we take the work we've done and convert it to GRASS? 
Yes, GRASS accepts ESRI formats (e00, ARCGRID, ungenerate, SHAPE).

> Is GRASS "vector topology" based? 
Yes. However, in GRASS 5.0 it's limited to 2D vectors. Currently GRASS 5.1
is started with a heavily improved vector format. I hope it's available
in (late?) spring.

> Could be tie in, say, Postgres for data manipulation? 
Yes, it should as GRASS offers a PostgreSQL and ODBC interface.

> We cannot start over from scratch. We must be able to convert what we
> have. 
Sure.

> If all of this were possible, what sort of client tools would be
> available for users (all Windows) to interact with our maps? We're a small
> rural county (Kreis) in Kansas USA and would like to avoid this yearly
> ESRI tax.
Currently a Windows Port is on the way, the analytical modules are already
running, the graphical output roughly since one week. But more time is
required to get it stable.
You could run GRASS from a LINUX/UNIX-server with X-servers on Windows.
Maybe other solutions are there.

Hope this helps,

 Markus Neteler