Moving the entire ArcView project into new system/machine/computer often gives us nightmare. Broken data link, extensions error, etc are the common things happen when moving a project. This post is one of the way how to make ArcView project (apr) portable.
1. Turn all rubish extensions off
An ArcView project often has many extensions in “on” mode. It is wise if we turn on only needed extensions.
- Click on File > Extensions
- Untick all extensions
- if we can not untick an extension means that extension is on use and we can not disable it. Just let it on.
- Save the project
2. Check data duplicate
On the next step we are going bulk data needed by apr into one folder. If we use two data from two different location while the name of two are same, it is better to change the name one of them. For example, we have two different data but the same name road.shp. Then we need to rename one of them into road2.shp for example (simply by theme > convert to shapefile).
If we are sure no name duplicate, just go to next step.
3. Bulk data into one empty folder
In this step we are going to use Project File Organizer extension.
- Download Project File Organizer . Extract it.
- Copy Project File Organizer.avx into C:\ESRI\AV_GIS30\ARCVIEW\EXT32 folder
- Create a new folder named DDE under C:\
- Copy avdlls.dll into DDE folder
- Activate the extension in ArcView under File > Extensions
- Close or minimize Views/Layouts/Tables until you have project interface in ArcView
- Save the project before proceed
- Create an empty folder anywhere. For example I create an empty folder and name it myproject under c:\. Therefore I have prepared the targeted folder in c:\myproject
- In ArcView click on menu File > Transfer Project File
- Choose c:\myproject and give for example name of myproject.apr
- You will have a message: “Project File Transfer Completed”
We have successfully bulk all data needed by project into one folder. Remember we just copy all data. The original one is still in the place.
3. Turn Project File Organizer extension off
- Open new project under c:\myproject (the location name depends on where you create the targeted folder)
- Turn all extensions off especially Project File Organizer by going to File > Extensions in ArcView
- Save the project
4. Separate data and apr file
I really suggest you to do this step to make our portable project is organized nicely.
- Create an empty folder under c:\myproject and named for example data. Therefore we have an empty folder on c:\myproject\data
- Move all file except myproject.apr from c:\myproject\ into folder c:\myproject\data
Now we have myproject.apr under c:\myproject and its data under c:\myproject\data.
5. Edit apr file
There are many tool to edit apr file. The most favorite one of mine is Notepad.
- Open myproject.apr with Notepad
- Find a string “path”. We can use Ctrl+F to raise Find Dialog
- For example, I got the string ‘/myproject/trees.shp’. That show that trees.shp has location in /myproject folder.
- Change the string ‘/myproject/‘ with ‘./data‘ (remember without quote). The easiest way to do using menu Replace in Notepad (Ctrl+H). Then Replace All.
- Save the apr file (edited by Notepad)
We can use / or \ in expressing the sub folder. For example c:\myproject\data is the same as c:/myproject/data
Remember: After do Step 5, we can open the apr to make sure that the project work. However, do not save it. If we save the project, the relatif path (using string ‘./data‘) will be replaced by absolute path using c:/myproject/data. If you unintendedly save the project after you done step 5, you need to repeat step 5.
6. Bulk the extensions
This step is not necessary. But it is wise if we copy extension needed to make our project work. Remember at step 1 and 3, if we can not turn an extension off means we need that extensions. So, please provide the user (next system/computer) needed extensions. Simply create a folder under c:\myproject\ for extensions and copy needed extensions there.
7. Burn to CD or copy to any where you like.
Copy the entire folder c:\myproject\ into external drive, anywhere in LAN or even burn it into CD. Step 5 will make sure our project can be opened when CD is mounted under any drive leter such as D:, E:, whatever.
Good Luck