[GIS] How to add feature class from ESRI personal geodatabase (.mdb) in QGIS

esri-geodatabaseqgis

How do you add a feature class in a ESRI personal gdb in qgis. I understand this can be done through the option add vector layer and select geodatabase. But what after that ? It doesn't allow me to browse through .

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The personal geodatabase is a proprietary format so it always was hard to read with software other than ESRI. Things changed recently and the new version of the GDAL/OGR library (the one that QGIS -as many other software- uses to handle vector and raster data) has support (don't know yet how good) for the personal geodatabases. This new version (1.9) is already out, now you have to wait a little to have QGIS compiled against this GDAL/OGR version. As soon as GDAL/OGR 1.9 will show in the osgeo4w installer I'm almost sure that the QGIS available in the same installer will works with that GDAL version under the hood.

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[GIS] Problem reprojecting data from personal geodatabase using QGIS

This is a problem I have seen many times with shapefiles coming off arc*: they are missing the .prj file. If this file is missing, then the GIS Desktop programs cannot determine the vecto projection. In QGIS if you don't change the behaviour in "options -> CRS", the program will give the wgs84 CRS to everything is loaded and that is missing an explicit CRS. If this happens you then have to manually give the layer its own CRS, or as I said, change how QGIS behave in this situations. To correct the problem at the source you can for example re-save the vector ("save as...") and choosing the right CRS or you can use the tool "define vector projection" in the vector menu. For rasters you can do the same with different tools in the "raster" menu.

[GIS] import esri Personal Geodatabase (.mdb) to PostGIS

Here is how to solve the "data source name not found" issue. ODBC reads the data source name (DSN) from a plain-text file in your home directory called ~/.odbc.ini . Each .mdb file needs a unique DSN written into this file. You may be able to auto-generate it using GUI apps, but the ODBC developer recommends just using your favorite text editor to edit the file.

I have seen and used typically five descriptors for each .mdb:

[nickname_for_odbc_connection]
Description = Whatever description you choose
Driver = {FULLPATH}/libmdbodbc.so
Database = {FULLPATH}/yourfile.mdb
Servername = localhost

Adapt the above five lines to your particular circumstances, and paste them into the ~/.obdc.ini file, and that constitutes a DSN for that file. This seems to solve the "driver not specified" error.

You will need to locate the driver you will use, in order to fill out that {FULLPATH}. Mine was not installed where others show it on their web postings from a few years ago, so the install-pattern of mdbtools may have changed; thus, seek it anew on your own system.

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