[Freegis-list] reading Arc/Info geo_dataset

[Frank Warmerdam]

Steffens, Ludger wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> does anybody ever read an Arc/Info database (cover, grid ie.) with tools other than coming from ESRI, preferable with in C/C++ ? Is there a port to Linux?
> I want to read some information from a grid with C/C++ like the Arc/Info describe-comand does. 
> Is there a library doing such things?

Ludger,

The GDAL library includes support for reading Arc/Info binary grids without
use of ESRI software.   GDAL also supports ESRI labelled BIL, and ESRI
ASCII grid files.

The OGR (part of GDAL) library can read Arc/Info binary vector coverages
as well as good read/write support for shapefiles.

I am not aware of any free tools for reading the new Arc8 "geodatabase"
.mdb files though on inspection it appears the geometry is just the same
format as geometries in a shapefile.

Best regards,
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