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shapefile A shapefile is a popular geospatial vector data format for use in Geographic Information System (GIS) software. We have several examples of these in use for qtVlm. See https://starpath.com/qtVlm/#shape It is not a single file, but a collection of at least three mandatory files—(.shp), (.shx), and (.dbf)—that store the geometry (points, lines, or polygons), the spatial index, and the attributes of geographic features, respectively. These files must be kept together in the same folder, with the same base file name, for the shapefile to work correctly.  Components of a shapefile: (.shp) (Shape format): This is a binary file that stores the actual geometry of the features, such as their coordinates for points, lines, or polygons. (.shx) (Shape index format): This file stores an index of the feature geometry, which links each feature to its corresponding record in the attribute table. (.dbf) (dBASE table): This file contains the attribute data for each feature, with one record per feature. For example, if a shapefile contains property parcels, the (.dbf) file might contain the parcel ID or owner's name.

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