KML to ArcMap Converter

November 25th, 2005 · 16 Comments · ArcGIS Desktop, Google Earth

I wrote a quick and dirty XSLT-hack to convert a KML-file to a very basic CSV-structure, which I could later import as X/Y coordinates to ArcGIS.

OK, its not really a KML to ArcGIS converter, but it will allow any ArcGIS Desktop user to import KML point files into ArcMap as a CSV file. It really hasn’t been developed yet, but there are plans to enhance the converter to support GML and lines and polygons. There has been a huge focus on ArcGIS to KML, but not much on the reverse.

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16 responses so far ↓

1 tteal // Jan 11, 2006 at 9:38 am

im looking for a hack/tool that can convert kml file to xls/xlm and vis versa. Ive been looking for quite a while now but have yet to find anything that dose what it says. would you be able to help me in any way?

Thnx

thomas
2 Dhiraj Sakumalla // Mar 29, 2006 at 9:58 am

Hi, I am a Research Assistant at Temple University. I wrote the similar thing as a small application in VB.NET. But for some reason it does not read the kml document if the tag in the begining is present. And also how can we interpret lines and polygons from a kml file and pull it into ArcGis. Thank for taking time to read this. Hope to hear a reply soon. Thank you.
3 Paul // May 22, 2006 at 8:46 pm

Very interested in any developments you make in this. I would like to see this used to place cooridnates into a CAD program like Microstation
4 Murali // Jun 23, 2006 at 2:50 am

need kml to shp converter
5 Richard // Mar 1, 2007 at 12:25 pm

How about we start a campaign to convince ESRI that KML needs to be a readable format in ArcMap? And without paying more!
6 Dave // Mar 23, 2007 at 2:44 pm

The link you provided no longer works. Is there a new link?
7 James Fee // Mar 23, 2007 at 3:03 pm

Try this, looks the the URL changed…

http://spanring.eu/blog/2005/11/25/kml2csv/
8 Dane Springmeyer // Mar 25, 2007 at 9:40 am

The kml to shp issue has been tackled by Valery35 on is available as a low-cost ArcGIS extension at http://xbbster.googlepages.com/kmler
9 Mr. Parkay // Mar 26, 2007 at 3:53 pm

Hey Guys, here is a good way convert .kml files to .shp files without paying anything. Maybe I’m slow, because it took me about 10 hours to figure this out!

Step 1: Download the Free Version of GPS Track Maker Here: http://www.gpstm.com/
Step 2: Load the Google Earth .kml file into GPS Track Maker then save the file in the OziExplorer .plt format.
Step 3: Download the Free Trial/Freeware version of Oziexplorer here: http://www.oziexplorer.com/
Step 3: Load the .plt file into OziExplorer to then Export it to .shp format. Now you can use it in Arcview!
10 mfd // Mar 27, 2007 at 3:36 pm

Here’s another way to do it:

1. Open up Manifold
2. File -> Import -> Drawing -> KML File Type
3. Right-click on the imported drawing, and then click Export.
4. Select the .SHP extension and Manifold will export the KML to a shapefile that you can use in ArcGIS

pretty easy, and only $245! If you buy a $100 runtime, I can write you a script to do it automatically.
11 Ng // Jul 21, 2007 at 1:54 am

when i tried open KML into trackmaker it says invalid file, how to open kml into trackmaker
12 wahyu // Sep 13, 2007 at 9:00 pm

I need this
13 Ishiba Ranoli Oñajosle // Jan 13, 2008 at 8:35 pm

Hi fellas! I just put kml2shp in Google and found this amazing-free-simple-basic application! Take a look!

http://www.zonums.com/kml2shp.html
14 mrblizzard // Jan 28, 2008 at 6:19 am

works perfectly, thanks a lot
15 Cdp // Mar 7, 2008 at 11:41 am

Hi there,
The kml2shp didn´t recognize any of kml´s i have…
some guy posted on ersi site a small script (http://arcscripts.esri.com/details.asp?dbid=14569 ), but i could´t load it to arcgis 9.2 sp1
16 evospearhawk // Sep 11, 2008 at 1:57 pm

i was trying to load the arcscript in arcmap but i wasnt able to find the extension folder where all the arcmap extension are kept. could anybody help me point to the arcmap extension folder…thanks