KML 2 SHP Manual

1. Download and unzip file named “AS14988.zip”;

2. Copy file named “kml2shpv2_2.avx” to ArcView 3.x extensions
folder, normally C:\ESRI\AV_GIS30\ARCVIEW\EXT32;
3. Open a new ArcView 3.x project (or any existing *.apr ArcView 3.x
project);
4. Open Extensions window by clicking menu FILE ->
EXTENSIONS…
5. Load extension named “KML to SHAPEFILE converter” by
checking right-hand box as shown below:
6. Open a view DOC GUI (e.g.: View1);
7. Note that a new button was added to button bar, with a “K” icon;
8. Click this button to open a new window named “Choose KML file to
convert to Shape File”
9. Note that folder C:\ is ordered in a peculiar way, normally showing
the contents of folder C:\ESRI\…

New button with a “K” icon

10. To reorder the contents of folder C:\, YOU MUST DOUBLE-CLICK
on the folder C:\ icon, as shown below:

Double-click here

11. After double-clicking over the folder C:\ icon, folders will be reordered,
as shown in this window:
12. Roll down the folder list until you find the folder where your KML file
is:
(You are encouraged to create a folder under C:\ to keep your KML files, like C:\KML Files)

13. Now double-click over the folder C:\KML Files to open this folder:

Double-click
here
14. When you double-click over C:\ KML Files, you will get this, supposing
that you created a KML file on Google Earth, named “cam5.kml”:

15. Then, select the file named “cam5.kml” and press OK

16. Now you are asked to give a name to the shapefile that will result from
the KML file conversion (or you can accept the proposed name):

17. When you click OK, the KML file will be converted to a 3D shapefile,
named “3D_shp12.shp” (or any other name you have chosen), and, next,
you will be asked if you want to open this shapefile on the current View of
the ArcView 3.x project:
18. Next again, the extension asks the user for a shapefile conversion from
3D to 2D – the reason for this will be explained on the last page of this
manual.

19. If you press YES, a conversion from a 3D Shapefile to a 2D Shapefile

will take place, and steps 16. and 17. will be repeated, but now for the 2D
Shapefile.

20. Please note that a new View, named “Geographic coordinate View”,
was created automatically, to store the converted KML files, which are
shapefiles in the WGS84 Geographic Coordinate System –
Latitude/Longitude, Decimal Degrees.

Please remember: on ArcView 3.x, do not open, on the

same View, shapefiles in Lat/Long coordinates (decimal
degrees), along with projected ones (X/Y, meters, feet,
etc).
And now a word about saving KML files:

Consider the following sketch made over Google Earth, which

represents the various parts of a marble factory, including the
buildings (represented by polygons), the fence around the plant
(represented by a polyline) and the water outtake for the firemen in
case of hazardous fire (represented by points), and note that this
sketch is arranged as follows:

• Plant1 (comprising the overall sketch) – mixed feature

• Water1 (the first water source for fire fighting) – point feature
• Water2 (the second water source for fire fighting) – point feature
• Fences (around the plant) – polyline feature
• Build1 (main building) – polygon feature
• Build2 (offices) – polygon feature
• Store1 (raw materials store) – polygon feature
• Store2 (also raw materials store) – polygon feature
• Workers (workers facilities – kitchen, resting, WC’s, etc) – polygon
feature
If you save “Plant1.kml” you will obtain a mixed-feature KML file,
containing, in the same KML file, the 3 types of features: points,
polylines (or lines) and polygons, altogether.

This ArcView extension cannot manage such a multi-feature KML

file.

To avoid this, you must save each feature-type KML file at a time,
and will obtain the following 8 KML files:

• Water1.kml
• Water2.kml
• Fences.kml
• Build1.kml
• Build2.kml
• Store1.kml
• Store2.kml
• Workers.kml

Of course that this is for explanation purposes, and you could have
arranged the KML files another way, creating a sub-folder for each
feature type, like this:

• Plant1
• WaterPoints (containing both feature points)

• Water1
• Water2

• Buildings (containing all polygon features on the same folder)

• Build1
• Build2
• Store1
• Store2
• Workers

• Fences (containing the only existing polyline feature)

 This Google Earth sketch looks like next picture, and, in this case, you
only need to convert 3 KML files (instead of 8 KML files as above)1:

• Waterpoints.kml which you may convert to Waterpoints.shp

• Fences.kml which you may convert to Fences.shp
• Buildings.kml which you may convert to Buildings.shp

1
To save any folder or sub-folder on Google Earth, simply select that folder and right-click the mouse, choosing Save As...
On the ArcView 3.x this will look like:

And the corresponding Attribute Tables are as follows:

If you take a closer look to these attribute tables (see next picture),
you will find that the name you have entered on the “Google Earth –
New” window, now appears on the column “Name” of the attribute
tables, as shown:
Converting 3D shapefiles to 2D ones:
For some reason, not clearly explained at online ArcView 3.x HELP,
the 3D converted files, which are three-dimensional shapefiles (i.e.,
they are of the type PointZ, PolylineZ and PolygonZ), as you can see
on the Shape column of the above Attribute tables, are not editable.
To make these shapefiles editable, in ArcView 3.x environment, you
need to convert them to 2D shapefiles.
From version 2.0 on, this extension asks the user if she/he would like
to perform a 3D to 2D conversion, and if the user clicks YES, such a
conversion will be performed. For point shapefiles (and only for point
feature shapefiles), a new field will be added to the attribute table, to
store the Z information registered on the KML file.

Transforming from WGS84 Datum to a local Datum:

As stated by Google Earth, the only geographic coordinate system
used is based on DATUM WGS84.
Of course that shapefiles converted from KML files, using this
extension, are on Geographic Coordinate System WGS84, with
longitudes and latitudes in Decimal Degrees, no matter they are 3D or
2D.
If you need to project the converted KML file to a Projected
Coordinate System not based on the WGS84 DATUM, you need to do,
first of all, a DATUM transformation (also called a “DATUM shift”),
from the WGS84 DATUM to your local DATUM coordinate system.
For this DATUM transformation, which is the critical step in
coordinate system’s conversion, the user may use this extension’s own
Datum transformation tool, based on an earlier extension by Ianko
Tchoukanski, still available on ArcScripts ESRI site.
The Datum transformation tool follows a message dialog box asking
the user for a Datum conversion from WGS84 Datum to a local
Datum:
 If the user clicks YES, a new dialog box is launched:

On the left side the user can find a list of Geographic Coordinate
Transformations. Each record is a combination of a Datum name and
its transformation variant, according the EPSG Geodetic Parameter
Data Set, Version 6.18, released 12/Nov/2008 2 :

European Datum 1950 (1)

Datum name Transformation variant

This list box shows only those DATUM/Transformation variants that

have an area of use compatible with the active theme geographic
extension, according the Are of Use form of the EPSG dataset.
On the right side you get the Area of Use for the selected Datum
Name/Transformation variant combination, and the Ellipsoid name
used in conjunction with the selected Datum; on the lower side you
get the transformation parameters for the selected transformation
variant, in meters. All codes are according to EPSG. Let’s remind
that this extension only use the Geocentric Translations
transformation method, and the formula used to achieve this
transformation is Standard Molodensky.

Tip: to select a Datum name, just click any name on the list, and then
key in the first letter of the datum name you are looking for.

2
Download the EPSG Geodetic Parameter Data Set at: http://www.epsg.org/Geodetic.html
 REMEMBER: this tool transforms only in one direction – from
WGS84 Datum to a local Datum 3. Let us remind again that KML files
are always in WGS84 Datum, geographic coordinates
(Latitude/Longitude, degrees).

When the user clicks OK, a new dialog box appears:

On the dialog box title you can see that the tool is transforming a
shapefile named “2d_shp22.shp” from WGS84 Datum to European
Datum (1) local Datum (using transformation variant number 1), and
is proposing, for the new transformed shapefile, the name
“2d_shp22_trf.shp”. It will be very useful to use this dialog box to
make a small change in the transformed shapefile: in place of “_trf”
you can write “_Eur_Dt_1” and therefore always remember the
Datum of the new shapefile (2d_shp22_Eur_Dt_1.shp).

The “Log” dialog box

Note that between the “OK” and the “Exit” buttons there is a “Log”
button, which opens the following dialog box:

3
For bi-direction transformations download extension “datum_transform_v10.avx” at:
http://arcscripts.esri.com/details.asp?dbid=15967; if you need to unproject a projected theme, download Projector_EPSG extension at:
http://arcscripts.esri.com/details.asp?dbid=16218
 This dialog box contains all the information for the selected
Datum/Transformation variant combination, and the Copy & Close
button allow you to copy this information to the clipboard, so that it
can be pasted onto any text processor (Notepad, Wordpad, WORD,
etc.).

From Version 2.1 on, the extension writes a projection file for the 3D
and 2D shapefiles directly converted from KML files, of the type
[name of shapefile].prj with the following parameters4:

GEOGCS["GCS_WGS_1984",
DATUM["D_WGS_1984",
SPHEROID["WGS_1984",6378137,298.257223563]],
PRIMEM["Greenwich",0],
UNIT["Degree",0.017453292519943295]]

This projection file will permit the new 8.x/9.x ESRI family
georeference a converted shapefile easier.

4
For now, the projection file is only for the WGS84 shapefiles; maybe, at a later time, the extension will be able to write the
projections files for the transformed shapes, also.
Projecting a geographic coordinate FTheme:
From version 2.3 on, this extension is able to perform a Map
Projection for a geographic coordinate shapefile.

Clicking “Yes” on this message box, the following window will show
up:
 Now the user may select the most appropriate5 Coordinate Reference
System for the map projection; in this example there is only one
choice, but on other cases there may be several different map
projections for the same geographic coordinate shapefile.
Note that, in some cases, there are no available Map Projections for a
specific Datum AND a specific location; if this happens, try to use
another destination Datum for the Datum transformation.
Clicking OK on the above window, will start the projection of the
transformed geographic shapefile, attaching the suffix “_prj” to the
geographic shapefile name, as in the following example:
Geographic coordinate shapefile: “2d_shp22_trf.shp”

Projected shapefile: “2d_shp22_trf_prj.shp”

The extension opens a new View for each Coordinate Reference

System (CRS), identified as follows:

CRS Datum Map Projection Ellipsoid name Prime Meridian

Coordinate
Operation
Method

If the user performs several map projections for the same CRS, the
resulting shapes will be shown at the same Projected View.

5
According the Are of Use form of the EPSG dataset.