Dear listers,

Thanks to everybody for your responses to my question regarding the SBN,
SBX files. Please find enclosed a SUM mary of the responses.

Just about everybody told me that these are spatial index files.

Special thanks to Jimmy Wilson and Gerry McCarroll who went further and
pointed out they were spatial bin files.

I have now been able to identify that there are eight bytes for each
record in the SHP file. The eight bytes are a 4 byte long integer which
gives the position of the record in the SHP file and then two 2 byte
shorts that give a minX and maxX for the object.

The 8 bytes per record are grouped in vertical bands and are stored left
to right.

It needs a lot more work yet, but thanks to everybody for getting me
started.

I will do another sum when I have exact details of the eight bytes and
their order. Obviously I would be pleased to hear from anyone who has
done or is doing similar work.

Regards


Bob Young
www.mapsbydesign.co.uk

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Bob Young