Overview of adding shapefiles

ArcPad can use vector data in shapefile format, as does ArcGIS and other Esri software programs. A shapefile (.shp) is a vector file format for storing the location, shape, and attributes of geographic features. Shapefiles can support point, line, and polygon features. Attributes are held in a dBASE (.dbf) format file.

Tip:

Prepare your shapefiles: Use ArcGIS Desktop to prepare your data for ArcPad. With these desktop tools, you can create subsets of your shapefiles and export ArcGIS Desktop stylesheets. ArcPad also supports spatial and attribute indexes of shapefiles. Create attribute indexes in ArcPad via the Attributes tab in the LayerProperties dialog box.

Note:

To learn more about creating shapefiles in ArcPad, see Creating new shapefiles.