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I was given some data sets to create maps in QGIS. Most of them were shape files, but some of them are in a format I am not sure about. For example it is a folder called "Rivers", containing AAT.dbf, abs, abs, arc, ARF, ARX, BND.dbf, CNT, CNX, LAB, MSK, NRF and other files. Are these ArcInfo files? I am attaching a screenshot.

Could somebody help me how to open them in QGIS?

enter image description here

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    I am fairly sure that these are PC ArcInfo files in a broken directory structure. I would say that they are mostly unusable. You can use GDAL to read Workstation ArcInfo data but I do not believe that PC ArcInfo is supported. I don't think that ESRI even has a way to parse this data anymore, and sorry but the DBF files are not really usable either.
    – Jeffrey Evans
    Commented Sep 20, 2016 at 11:36
  • Thank you Jan. I managed to import them in QGIS by adding as a vector layer. But from the layer "rivers" in the browser only lines and points (polygone centroids) are shown, not the polygones themselves. This is already better then nothing, but I still can't figure out how to show the polygons themselves.
    – Eva
    Commented Sep 20, 2016 at 11:45
  • Thank you Jeffrey! As posted some seconds ago, I also had the feeling there were some files missing. At least I can show the rivers as lines now (unfortunately not as the origininal polygons).
    – Eva
    Commented Sep 20, 2016 at 11:48

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I cannot help with opening them in QGIS but those files look like PC ARC/INFO coverage format.

http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/formats/fdd/fdd000284.shtml

The files may not contain polygons because I think it is a network coverage which has line and point topology instead of polygon topology. The AAT will have arc (line) attributes and the PAT will have point attributes.

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  • It seems that OGR should have support for it, then: gdal.org/drv_avcbin.html
    – Jan Šimbera
    Commented Sep 20, 2016 at 11:43
  • @JanŠimbera it's worth trying but PC ARC/INFO was quite different to ARC/INFO (later called ArcInfo Workstation).
    – PolyGeo ♦
    Commented Sep 20, 2016 at 11:47
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To open Arc/INFO Coverage in QGIS go to Add Vector Layer -> Select Directory -> Under Source Type Select Arc/Info Binary Coverage -> Then Browse to your data -> Select the directory that is not INFO.

Unfortunately I don't have Arc/INFO Coverage data, so I cannot test it.

QGIS: Adding an ArcINFO Coverage gives visual images on how to open such files.

Also, Arc/INFO Coverage can be raster or vector. If you go to Add Raster data in QGIS, you will see in the list of extensions that Arc/INFO data is listed, thus you may need to check whether the data you have is raster or not.

enter image description here

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Those ArcINFO files can be opened in QGIS as 'ahmadhanb' I have tested. But there could be little problem. Lot of information (like attribute table) could be lost during the process and creates more hassles like unnecessary lines. For eg. same data (of Nepal as yours) I opened in QGIS and ArcMap looks like this. ArcMap

QGIS

So I think, best way to open is find someone with ArcMap License and export as a shapefile from there.

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