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Using MIKE SHE with ArcGIS

MIKE SHE has been designed to work smoothly with ArcGIS files. In most cases, distributed data can be linked directly to shape files created by ArcGIS or any other application. The type of shape file depends on the type of data. Distributed data, such as initial water levels can be input as point and line themes, whereas spatial data that is referenced to a time series, such as precipitation, can be added as a polygon theme. In this case, each polygon can be assigned a time series of values.

In the reverse direction, all gridded data in the MIKE SHE Setup Editor can be easily saved as a point theme shape file from the pop-menu when you right click on a colour shaded map. This includes both interpolated data in the Setup tab and pre-processed data in the Pre-processed tab.

1. Converting ArcGIS ASCII Grids to dfs

ArcGIS grids cannot be added directly in the MIKE SHE Setup Editor, but they can be converted to the dfs2 file format using the MIKE Zero Toolbox.

  1. Select New from the top menu,
  2. then select the MIKE Zero Toolbox and
  3. then choose GIS in the list.
  4. finally, chose the Grid2Mike tool to convert your ArcGIS grid files to the dfs2 file format.

2. Converting dfs files to ASCII Grids and shape files

The MIKE Zero Toolbox also contains tools for converting dfs2 files to ArcGIS shape files (Mike2Shp) and Grid files (Mike2Grd). These tools can be useful if you have manipulated your grid files in the MIKE Zero Grid Editor, since it does not directly support shape file export.

Alternatively, you can right click on any map view in the MIKE SHE Setup Editor and then use the right mouse function to export to a shape file.

If you want to convert a dfs3 file to a shape file or a grid file, then you will need to extract a dfs2 file from the dfs3 first using the 2D Grid from 3D file tool that is found under the Extraction item in the MIKE Zero Toolbox.