No ESRI Shapefiles, all default to AutoCAD shapefile when created??

[LindleyHarmon]

Whenever I create a new shapefile through ArcMap or ArcCatalog, I can see the shapefile in ArcCatalog, but when looking in windows explorer, all of my .shp files have been converted to the AutoCAD shape source or AutoCAD compiled shape files and there are no esri shape files to be found. I am trying to update my service area for 811 and need the file to be a ESRI shapefile and not AutoCAD. Any suggestions? Thanks!

[TimHopper · Accepted solution]

If the shapefiles can be viewed in ArcCatalog or ArcMap than they haven't been "converted".  Are you running into some sort of problem with them, such as an error or inability to work with them in ArcGIS?

If you aren't, no worries then, their file extensions have simply been associated with AutoCAD instead, no harm there. (This would happen if you had worked with similar files previously in AutoCAD)

If the .shp and .shx file extensions are associated with AutoCAD then their icons will show the AutoCAD icon and the 'Type' will show AutoCAD file types.  However, this doesn't mean that they're actually a valid AutoCAD Shape Source or Compiled Shape (Which are completely different than ArcGIS shapefiles).

I have AutoCAD 2010 installed and my icons (and file types) look exactly like yours do.  ArcGIS Desktop doesn't set program associations to the files that make-up a shapefile.

File associations can be altered via:

Control Panel > Programs > Default Programs > Set Associations

[DanielLunsford1]

Hi Tim,

Can you elaborate on how to make those .shps associate with ArcGIS?  I apparently need to do this in order to use iTree Canopy- it insists on .shps and it seems that the 'AutoCAD Compiled Shape' association thing makes i Tree canopy think the .shp is an invalid file format.

So here's my question: what aspect of ArcGIS do I need to navigate to? I know my ArcGIS is installed under my Program Files (x86), but there's a million different parts of ArcGIS there. What an I looking for, exactly, to associate the .shps to?

[TimHopper]

Daniel,

Well, the file that you're searching for is:

C:\Program Files (x86)\ArcGIS\Desktop10.0\Bin\ArcMap.exe

I'm interested to hear if the file association resolves your problem.  I haven't worked with iTreeCanopy, but perhaps there's something going on there which might be a problem, rather than the file association.