When I used Notepad++ to open ArcSDE connection file(.sde) encoding ANSI, it's just messy code!
Is there any application available to open it ?
Or anyone can give a sde file example encoding utf-8 to me?
Best Answer
It's not a text file so changing encoding wouldn't change the thing. If you need to get some data from it you should work with it from ArcGIS environment, open properties tab for this connection and find what you're looking for.
You can create a connection file to an SDE Workgroup database with the following steps:
In ArcCatalog, create a new database server connection by expanding Database Servers and launching the Add Database Server wizard. Type the name of the database server and the instance (in your case VirtualXP-64180\SQLEXPRESS and click OK)
Double click on the connection and once connected right click on the database name (in your case MySDEDB), then click Save Connection
Expand Database Connections in ArcCatalog, and you should see a new connection called Connection to VirtualXP-64180. Right click on the connection and click Properties. The connection name will contain the full path to your .sde connection. In my case, the path was: C:\Users\sasa\AppData\Roaming\ESRI\Desktop10.0\ArcCatalog\Connection to sasa_sqlexpress.sde
You can copy the .sde connection to wherever desired and use it as a connection file.
I was working with SDE connection files today. You can search C: for .sde files, or in Win 7 you can find them in C:\%userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\ESRI\Desktop10.0\ArcCatalog\
But the layer definition will store connection info in the mxd as well. See this forum post.
In any case, like the others say, it sounds like you should change the sde password. Then the mxd layers will not connect, but you can right-click on each and Repair Data Source, or use a script like the one cited in the above forum post.
Best Answer
It's not a text file so changing encoding wouldn't change the thing. If you need to get some data from it you should work with it from ArcGIS environment, open properties tab for this connection and find what you're looking for.