Data Preparation for Importing Custom Areas into ENVISION - US

ENVISION5 allows users to import custom areas in two ways:

1. ENVISION5 allows users to import a list of geographic codes to create custom areas.

2. ENVISION5 allows users to import spatial files of existing polygons to create custom areas.

1. To import a list of geographic codes into ENVISION5:

• The file needs to have at least one column containing the data, with at least one row containing the code for the specified geography.

  • For example, if you were importing a list of Counties, you would need to have a field that contains the specific code for that geography, rather than the name. For more information about geographic codes, please see the Reference Document entitled: Standard Geography Codes and Names - US in the Help/Support section.

• CSV is the suggested file format.
• The first row immediately after the header row must contain data.
• All special characters must be removed from the header row and file name.
  
  • "Special characters" can include characters such as: !@#$%^&*()+:?"/. Generally, the dash - and underscore _ are OK.

• An example of a typical file may look like this:

2. To import spatial files of existing polygons into ENVISION5:

• The polygons must be from MapInfo (.TAB), Esri (.SHP), or Alteryx (.YXDB).
• Both Esri Shape files and MapInfo Tab files have additional components that must be present.

• The associated files are as follows: