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I have a shapefile containing three types of polylines, how can I color each type with different colors ?

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What software do you prefer to use? – SaultDon Apr 11 '12 at 22:35
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Shapefiles only store data—but not style. – Mike Toews Apr 12 '12 at 0:11
Do you also have access to arcmap? – Kirk Kuykendall Apr 12 '12 at 13:39
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Mahdi, welcome to our site! I suspect your question has collected some downvotes and no really specific replies because people may feel that more information is needed within the question itself. Consider editing it to say a little more about the shapefile (especially how the "types" of polylines are distinguished) and about the context of the application you are creating. – whuber♦ Apr 12 '12 at 13:56

closed as not a real question by iant♦, whuber♦ Aug 15 '12 at 13:19

It's difficult to tell what is being asked here. This question is ambiguous, vague, incomplete, overly broad, or rhetorical and cannot be reasonably answered in its current form. For help clarifying this question so that it can be reopened, see the FAQ.

1 Answer

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Whichever software you use, you should be able to display the line colours differently based on an attribute of the line itself. e.g. Road = black, river = blue etc.

In Mapinfo this is done using thematic mapping, in Arc you edit the symbology.

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how can I change the line attributes using ARcGISEngine + C#,there is no line attributes in shapefiles, thanks in advance – Mahdi Apr 12 '12 at 12:16
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In a shapefile, the attributes are stored in the .dbf file. If there isn't an attribute for the three types of lines you want to color, you can always create a new field and give each record one of three values (1,2,3; red,blue,yellow; high,medium,low; etc), then display the lines differently based on that attribute. – neuhausr Apr 12 '12 at 14:14

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