TransDEM Forum

I always get this error when I try to import a .shp file to but the blue line down on the DEM map.

What is the source of this file? Did you download it in shp format yourself (where from?) or did you use a tool (which?) to convert to shp?

I got this file directly from mrscsi. He has used it successfully. See this thread:
http://forums.auran.com/trainz/showthre ... 937&page=3

But wouldn't this be "railroad_USGS_2005.shp", not "tgr29167lkB.shp"? As I illustrated later in the Auran forum thread "railroad_USGS_2005.shp" opened without problems for me too.

I've tried several shp files. Here's another screen shot.

Right. Just did a few tests myself.

Did you open the shp file from the directory where you unpacked the zip packages?

One peculiarity with the Shape format is that is does not consist of a single file. It's a whole bunch of files. TransDEM only uses a minimum, but this minimum is two files, not one. While we only see the .shp file, TransDEM also requires the .shx file. If the .shx file is not present in the directory where the .shp file is found, TransDEM will throw this error.

So usually you will leave the unpacked Shape file directories untouched, do not copy any of its files but open the .shp file from that directory.

I got it working correctly now. Thanks. Yes it must have been how I was extracting the file.