SHPTRANS - Shapefile Transformer

File Release Notes and Changelog

Release Name: 1.1.4

Notes:
Available files:

* shptrans-1.1.4-setup.exe
 Contains a setup wizard executable. This is the
 recommended download for most users.  If you
 are using ArcView 3.x, this will install a wizard
 as well.

* shptrans-1.1.4-cmd.zip
 Contains the command line version of shptrans,
 plus the documentation.  If you are not using
 ArcView 3.x, and you prefer not to use an
 install wizard, this will work for you.

* shptrans-1.1.4-src.zip
 Contains the source code for the command line
 version of shptrans, and the project file used to
 build the ArcView Extension.  The command line
 program currently compiles on Win32 only, but it
 much of it is portable.  It should be fairly easy
 to get it going on Intel x86 for Linux or Solaris,
 and slightly less easy (but still possible) on other
 architectures such as Sparc or PowerPC.  If you
 do that, please contribute the changes so others
 can benefit.


Changes:
It was possible for a corrupt shapefile (one with infinite 
coordinates) to send shptrans into an infinite loop.  This is
now mitigated somewhat, although the bad file is still not
reported.

There was a rounding error in the handling of imperial units.
The error was on the order of one in 200 million, so for most
practical purposes, it probabably wasn't significant.  This is
now corrected.

A few new units of measurement are now supported, including
US Survey Feet (us_ft).

There is a new option, -precise ("Extra Precision" in the
ArcView wizard).  Reverse projections (i.e. where the
'from' is not lat/long), and reverse gridshifts (where the 'from'
is not NAD83) use an iterative method in which the amount of
error reduces with each iteration until it reaches a predefined
tolerance.  The default error tolerance is significantly lower
than is needed for typical GIS uses.  The -precise option sets
an even lower tolerance, and may yield better results for
higher precision datasets or where the data will be projected
back and forth many times.  Usually you will not notice the
difference, except that -precise runs a little slower.

ArcGIS 9 has been released, so now the ArcGIS 9 pedata
directory is added to the list of places that shptrans looks
for gridshift files.

The Nova Scotia high precision gridshift file is now available,
and is named NS778301.GSB instead of the anticipated
name, NS7783V2.GSB.  When searching for an ATS77
gridshift file, SHPTRANS now accepts either name.