I'm a computer scientist, and not really familiar with all the terms related to GIS, please forgive me.
I have been given an ArcMap project that consists, what I believe are raster layers, aligned tiff images that represent a park. To that project I have added several shape files (which I've read I'm supposed to put into a geodatabase, but that's another story).
When I export the ArcMap into an ArcPad project using "Get data for ArcPad", I export my shapefiles for background editing (AFX) and export all the tiffs as jpegs. I ensure it's a prebundled CAB for the device, and that I only wish to export the current extent.
Now, when I open that map in ArcPad 10 Desktop (or on a Trimble unit) ArcPad becomes unresponsive and crashes.
The exported project is only a few megabytes in total, nothing outlandish.
What am I doing incorrectly that ArcPad is crashing?
Best Answer
I'm not positive, but I think that your problem may be related to the fact that you're not using the geodatabase structure. With the advent of the Geodatabase, shapefiles have been relegated to being a "dumb" file in that they have limitations that feature classes (read: shapefile equivalent within a geodatabase) do not.
ArcPad, I believe, looks for the geodatabase structure to convert data from the desktop to mobile application. An .AXF is essentially the mobile version of a Geodatabase. By checking a shapefile out of a normal directory as opposed to a .gdb, ArcPad's data manager may not know what to do with the AXF to convert it back into desktop format.
I propose you create a very simple .gdb, add your shapefile to the new .gdb (where it will henceforth been shown as a 'feature class', and try the check-out process again. Rather than explain the whole process I suggest that you do some really light googling to quickly find out how -- post back if you need help.
As a CS, learning the proprietary formats of ESRI may well be a waste of time, but it's essential if you're going to be working with ArcPad in the future.
I spent a considerable amount of time developing an ArcPad application for field data collection only to find out it wasn't a robust enough system to achieve my desired outcome.