English / SpanishTools and Techniques for Handling Archived .e00 Files
Many GIS data clearinghouses provide at least some data as ArcInfo Interchange format in zipped files so it is handy to know how to extract and import data supplied in this manner. For GIS users who may not be familiar with ArcInfo Interchange files (also known as .e00 files), this format was developed to move coverages, INFO data files, text files such as ARC Macro Language (AML) files, and other ArcInfo files between machines not connected by a file sharing network. Interchange files contain all coverage information and appropriate INFO data file information in a fixed-length ASCII format.
Even longtime users who are familiar with .e00 files might not know that it does not require an ArcInfo license or an installation of ArcInfo Workstation to import data in this format. Although two tools in ArcToolbox available at the ArcInfo license level—Import From Interchange File tool and Export to Interchange File tool—can be used to interact with .e00 files, ArcGIS Desktop users at any license level can import .e00 files using ArcCatalog and the process described in this tip.
Typically, .e00 files are posted as zipped files that can be extracted using WinZip. Care must be taken when unzipping and saving these files. A default setting in WinZip can corrupt the archive files as they are being extracted. To avoid this problem, do the following before opening the archive:
For .e00 archives with the .tar.gz extension, two additional steps are necessary to avoid corruption problems:
Specific naming conventions must be observed when handling these files. Do not name .e00 files or the coverages or other files generated from .e00 files with names that are more than 13 characters long, contain spaces, or contain special characters such as #, @, or %. These files cannot reside in a folder that has a name longer than 13 characters, or containing spaces or special characters, and all folders in the directory path must adhere to these naming conventions as well.
A utility to import an ArcInfo Interchange file is available in ArcCatalog at all license levels.