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Geological Map of Canada (CD-ROM)
Map D1860A

Files, Directories, and Formats

Overview

The directory structure of this CD-ROM has been designed to facilitate simple and logical access to the data.

This CD-ROM conforms to the ISO-9660 system-independent standard. An ISO-9660-formatted CD-ROM works identically on a PC, Macintosh, or Unix workstation. The directory and file structure of the CD-ROM can be viewed as if it were a conventional hard disk. Although the file structure is system independent, the user must still deal with differences in the way different operating systems format files, in particular text files. Text files are provided in PC and Unix compatible formats.

Compact discs are a cost effective way of distributing large quantities of data but do have some limitations. Data transfer rates of CD-ROMs are comparable to hard disks but access times are much slower. The slow access time can have negative implications for applications that require concurrent querying of several files. The speed of access to the data coverages can be greatly improved by copying them to the hard disk.

A summary of all files and directories on this CD-ROM appears at the end of this section.

The 'Root' Directory

The top-level \ ('root') directory of the CD-ROM contains the following files:

Contents of 'Root' directory
Filename Language Format Description
README.TXT English PC ANSI text General introduction to the CD-ROM
LISEZMOI.TXT French PC ANSI text French version of README.TXT
LICENCE.TXT English and French PC ANSI text Licence and copyright information
CITATION.TXT English and French PC ANSI text recommended citation
<Microsoft Windows only>
INTRO.EXE English and French Microsoft Windows (any version) Applet to introduce the Geological Map of Canada CD-ROM. This application can be run directly by users of Microsoft Windows. It provides a platform from which to view the README.TXT/LISEZMOI.TXT and WINTOUR.HLP files.
WINTOUR.HLP
(WINTOUR.GID)		 English and French Microsoft Windows (any version) Introduction to the Geological Map of Canada Data Files This file explains the filenames and directory structure, and provides an opportunity to choose any of the .SHP files which have been configured for display by SurView. The SurView application for Microsoft Windows is launched to display each selected file.
AUTORUN.INF <system> Microsoft Windows 95/NT 4 'AutoPlay' configuration file for Microsoft Windows. This file directs Windows to automatically run the INTRO.EXE application when the CD-ROM is inserted into the drive.

Directory Structure

The \CANADA directory of this CD-ROM contains the following primary subdirectories:

Primary Subdirectories
Category Directory Subdirectories Description
Documentation \CANADA\DOC \ENGLISH
\FRANCAIS
\HTML		 English PC and Unix text files
French PC and Unix text files
bilingual HTML files and images
Data \CANADA \COVERS
\E00
\SHP
\SHPGEO
complete Arc/Info 7 workspaces
Arc/Info *.E00 interchange files
Arc/Info *.SHP 'shape' files
Arc/Info *.SHP 'shape' files (geographic)
Software \CANADA \SURVIEW
\UTIL		 viewing application for Microsoft Windows
ANSI - DOS conversion utility for .DBF files

A. Documentation

The \CANADA\DOC directory contains three subdirectories: \ENGLISH, \FRANCAIS, and \HTML, each of which contains a complete copy of all of the documentation for the CD-ROM.

Each English or French document is provided in three formats, identified by the filename extension:

The SurView-specific documentation (SURVIEW1.WRI, SURVIEW2.WRI) is provided only in Microsoft Windows .WRI format, since SurView is a Microsoft Windows application.

In addition, the *.HTM files are accompanied by a selection of *.GIF image files.

Documentation files in \CANADA\DOC\...
...\ENGLISH
(English)
(.TXT, .UNX)		 ...\FRANCAIS
(French)
(.TXT, .UNX)		 ...\HTML
(E=English,F=French)
(.HTM)		 Description
INTRO INTRO INTRO_<E F> Introduction (start here)
ABOUT AUSUJET ABOUT_<E F> About the Geology of Canada
LIC LIC LIC_<E F> Disclaimer and licence
FILES FICHIERS FILE_<E F> Overview of files, directories and formats
DATABASE BASE DB_<E F> Internal GIS database structure
GNOTES GNOTES GNOTES_<E F> Explanatory notes and references that appear on the
printed legend that accompanies printed Map 1860A
REF REF REF_<E F> References
CREDITS MENTIONS CREDIT_<E F> Credits and acknowledgments
SURVIEW1.WRI SURVIEW1.WRI Installation and use of SurView (general). (.WRI format only)
SURVIEW2.WRI SURVIEW2.WRI Use of SurView with specific reference to the Geological Map of Canada digital data files on this CD-ROM. (.WRI format only)
EX_<E F>
  EXUN_<E F>
  EXER_<E F>
  EXPE_<E F>
  EXRC_<E F>
  EXRS_<E F>
  EXRA_<E F>
  EXRSD_<E F>		 examples of theme maps
   - unit code
   - age at the era level
   - age at the period level
   - rock category
   - rock category, subdivided
   - rock category, broken down by era or subera
   - rock category, subdivided (detail)

B. Data

Each of the primary data directories (\COVERS, \E00, \SHP, and \SHPGEO) contains ten subdirectories: one for each of the eight compilation blocks (by author) and two for all of Canada.

Compilation blocks

Primary data subdirectories
Subdirectory Compiler Description
...\APP J.O. Wheeler Appalachian Orogen and St-Lawrence Lowlands
...\ARC A.V. Okulitch Arctic Coastal Plain, Arctic Platform, and Innuitian Orogen
...\ATL W.R. Roest Offshore geology of Atlantic Ocean, Labrador Sea, Baffin Bay, and Arctic Ocean
...\CHU P.F. Hoffman Northern part of the Canadian Shield (Churchill Province, Nain Province, etc.)
...\COR J.O. Wheeler Cordilleran Orogen and Interior Plains
...\GRE A. Davidson Southeastern part of the Canadian Shield (Grenville Province)
...\HUD B.V. Sanford Hudson Bay Lowlands
...\SUP K.D. Card Southern part of the Canadian Shield (Superior Province, Southern Province)
All of Canada
...\CAN all geological information combined to produce a full geological map of Canada
...\BAS topographical data for all of Canada

Note: for the \SHP and \SHPGEO subdirectories, a smaller selection of topographical data appears in the \CAN subdirectory, instead of in \BAS.

Data types
The following codes indicate the type of data contained in each file:

Data types
Data type Description
ROX geological polygons
FLT geological linework (e.g. faults)
SYM geological symbols
RIV rivers
LAK lakes
BND political boundaries

The 'Compilation block' name is concatenated with the 'Data type' code to create filenames. For example,

Sample filenames
Filename Description
\CANADA\SHP\SUP\ROXSUP.SHP an Arc/Info 'shape' file containing the geology (ROX) for the SUP block
\CANADA\SHP\COR\RIVCOR.E00 an Arc/Info interchange file containing rivers (RIV) for the COR block

C. Software

There is no Unix software on this CD-ROM. However, the \CANADA\COVERS\UTIL directory contains a sample Arc/Info AML script, lineset, markerset, textset, and shadesets for drawing the Geological Map of Canada by 'unit code'. For further information, read the \CANADA\COVERS\UTIL\README.UNX file.

SurView
The \CANADA\SURVIEW directory contains the SurView application for Microsoft Windows (any version). SurView was developed at the Geological Survey of Canada as a viewing application for geophysical, geochemical and geological data. It is not a complete GIS package, but it does allow the user to view, zoom/pan, query, change colours and print on any Microsoft Windows platform.

The SurView files are:

Filename Description
\CANADA\SURVIEW\SURVIEW.EXE Microsoft Windows executable
\CANADA\SURVIEW\SURVIEW.HLP
(SURVIEW.GID, SURVIEW.FTS)		 Microsoft Windows help file for SurView
\CANADA\SURVIEW\SYSTEM\CTL3DV2.DLL '3D effects' module for Microsoft Windows (not required for Windows 95 or Windows NT 4)
\CANADA\DOC\ENGLISH\SURVIEW1.WRI Installation and use of SurView (general)
\CANADA\DOC\ENGLISH\SURVIEW2.WRI Use of SurView with specific reference to the Geological Map of Canada digital data files on this CD-ROM

SurView can be run directly from the CD-ROM. For full instructions on the installation and use of SurView, read the SURVIEW1.WRI and SURVIEW2.WRI documentation in \CANADA\DOC\ENGLISH.

AnsiConv
The \CANADA\UTIL directory contains the ANSICONV.EXE utility for Microsoft Windows (developed at the Geological Survey of Canada) for converting .DBF files between ANSI (Windows, Unix) and DOS character sets to allow the files to be used with most spreadsheets and database applications.

This utility is only required if you intend to use a spreadsheet or database application to modify the .DBF files provided on this CD-ROM. For further information, read the \CANADA\UTIL\README.TXT file.

File formats

Arc/Info

Each of the ten subdirectories in the \CANADA\COVERS directory contains a complete Arc/Info 7 workspace. All Arc/Info coverages are single precision. It should be possible to access all of the coverages directly from the CD-ROM.

There are nine workspaces of geological data (one for each compilation block and one for all of Canada). Topographic bases for all compilation blocks are located in the \CANADA\COVERS\BAS subdirectory.

Interchange file formats

Two interchange file formats are used to ensure compatibility of the data with a wide range of GIS systems:

Interchange format
Filename extension Description
.E00 Arc/Info 'Export' (PC ANSI text)
.SHP Arc/Info 'Shape' (binary)

Each of the \SHP, \SHPGEO, and \E00 subdirectories contains a set of directories and files which correspond to the Arc/Info coverages.

A. *.E00 (\CANADA\E00\...)
These are Arc/Info interchange format files in PC ANSI format. In order to use these files on Unix systems, first they must be converted to Unix text format with the Unix 'dos2unix -ascii' command (see your Unix documentation). You must use the '-ascii' option.

All .E00 files contain single precision equivalents of the Arc/Info single precision coverages. All versions of Arc/Info on all platforms should be able to import these .E00 files. They were exported from Arc/Info using the 'none' option (not compressed). Several other GIS packages can also import these files: consult the documentation for the GIS package that you are using.

Each of the eight compilation block subdirectories contains both geological and topographical data.

B. *.SHP (\CANADA\SHP\...)
Arc/Info *.SHP 'shape' files were created by exporting each coverage using the Arc/Info 7 'arcshape' command. Although the coverages from which the .SHP files were created are all single precision, .SHP files always contain double precision data (by definition), requiring twice as much disk space as necessary.

The .SHP files contain nontopological (whole polygon) representations of the Arc/Info coverages in (\CANADA\COVERS). Each coverage is represented by three files (.SHP, .SHX, .DBF) created by the 'arcshape' command. These shape files can be viewed directly from the CD-ROM (no import required) by both Arcview 2 and SurView.

Each of the eight compilation block subdirectories contains both geological and topographic data.

The \CANADA\SHP directory contains an additional \ZLUT directory containing .DBF lookup tables used by SurView for displaying the .SHP files. These .DBF files are referenced by the *.ASX files which encapsulate each set of .SHP/.SHX/.DBF files.

For more information on SurView, (including more information on .SHP files) please read the SurView documentation in \CANADA\DOC\ENGLISH. See the description of SURVIEW1.WRI and SURVIEW2.WRI above.

*.SHP (\CANADA\SHPGEO\...)
The \CANADA\SHP files contain co-ordinates for the Lambert Conformal Conic projection. Neither ArcView nor SurView can re-project these files to another projection. Therefore, the entire \CANADA\SHPGEO directory tree contains a duplicate of every file in the \CANADA\SHP directory tree, but containing geographic (longitude, latitude) co-ordinates instead of Lambert. All *.SHP, *.SHX, and *.DBF files in this directory tree have a 'G' suffix to indicate that the file contains geographic co-ordinates.

The geographic *.SHP files in \CANADA\SHPGEO can be viewed and re-projected as required by both ArcView and SurView. You can use these files instead of the Lambert files if you want to use the Geological Map of Canada as a background for other geophysical, geochemical, or geological data that is only available in a non-Lambert projection.

For example:

\CANADA\SHP\COR
(Lambert projection)		 \CANADA\SHPGEO\COR
(geographic)
ROXCOR.SHP ROXCORG.SHP
ROXCOR.SHX ROXCORG.SHX
ROXCOR.DBF ROXCORG.DBF
ROXCOR.ASX ROXCOR.ASX

Summary of all files and directories on the CD-ROM

Summary of files and directories
Directory No. of files Total size (bytes)
\ 10 982 375
       CANADA
             DOC
                   ENGLISH 20 238 536
                   FRANCAIS 20 275 816
                   HTML 56 631 588
             COVERS
                   APP 1 133
                         INFO 44 57 608
                         ROXAPP 14 4 253 377
                         FLTAPP 10 225 193
                         SYMAPP 11 20 514
                         LAKAPP 15 49 080
                         RIVAPP 7 229 706
                         BNDAPP 7 9 037
                   ARC 1 133
                         INFO 44 50 008
                         ROXARC 14 7 768 780
                         FLTARC 10 620 401
                         SYMARC 12 60 384
                         LAKARC 15 46 261
                         RIVARC 7 380 697
                         BNDARC 8 2 929
                   ATL 1 133
                         INFO 46 55 984
                         ROXATL 14 1 324 712
                         FLTATL 10 423 673
                         SYMATL 12 4 142
                         LAKATL 15 7 053
                         RIVATL 7 209 020
                         BNDATL 8 3 575
                   CHU 1 133
                         INFO 52 55 268
                         ROXCHU 14 10 088 710
                         FLTCHU 10 860 275
                         SYMCHU 12 33 987
                         RIVCHU 7 1 238 110
                         LAKCHU 15 487 936
                         BNDCHU 7 7 010
                   COR 1 133
                         INFO 44 46 968
                         SYMCOR 12 104 511
                         ROXCOR 14 14 773 163
                         LAKCOR 15 229 702
                         FLTCOR 10 1 338 570
                         RIVCOR 8 815 709
                         BNDCOR 9 44 508
                   GRE 1 133
                         INFO 46 48 408
                         FLTGRE 10 127 446
                         ROXGRE 14 2 012 803
                         SYMGRE 12 18 378
                         LAKGRE 15 101 564
                         RIVGRE 7 216 239
                         BNDGRE 10 6 473
                   HUD 1 133
                         INFO 44 52 668
                         LAKHUD 15 21 832
                         ROXHUD 14 1 593 403
                         FLTHUD 10 219 719
                         SYMHUD 10 4 835
                         RIVHUD 8 247 414
                         BNDHUD 11 36 621
                   SUP 1 133
                         INFO 51 64 800
                         BNDSUP 8 6 258
                         LAKSUP 16 321 706
                         SYMSUP 12 19 295
                         RIVSUP 10 655 920
                         FLTSUP 10 212 963
                         ROXSUP 14 4 207 904
                   CAN 1 6 010
                         INFO 27 40 572
                         FLTCAN 9 4 011 309
                         SYMCAN 9 243 100
                         ROXCAN 14 43 595 060
                   BAS 1 530
                         INFO 36 31 668
                         BAS1860A 17 5 042 403
                         BOR1860A 18 18 415
                         WAT1860A 15 2 786 138
                         BUF1860A 12 3 170 068
                         TXT1860A 7 483 973
                   UTIL 11 405 044
                         INFO 28 670 170
             E00
                   APP 6 8 088 540
                   ARC 6 12 088 371
                   ATL 6 3 059 350
                   CHU 6 16 877 864
                   COR 6 23 993 625
                   GRE 6 3 990 461
                   HUD 6 3 459 492
                   SUP 6 7 362 305
                   CAN 3 65 1796 878
                   BAS 5 25 952 045
             SHP 2 154
                   APP 32 6 682 239
                   ARC 36 8 776 365
                   ATL 30 2 293 435
                   CHU 32 12 196 976
                   COR 32 18 127 576
                   GRE 32 2 930 759
                   HUD 28 2 798 592
                   SUP 32 5 033 158
                   CAN 43 6 969 165
                   ZLUT 9 341 258
             SHPGEO 2 225
                   APP 32 6 681 755
                   ARC 36 8 775 937
                   ATL 30 2 292 952
                   CHU 32 12 196 492
                   COR 32 18 127 576
                   GRE 32 2 930 275
                   HUD 28 2 798 154
                   SUP 32 5 032 674
                   CAN 43 6 968 943
                   ZLUT 9 341 258
             SURVIEW 3 1 871 360
                   SYSTEM 1 21 648
             UTIL 3 77 730
Total 1 902 423 642 162

Distribution of file types
Filename
extension		 No. of files Total size (bytes) % of total
E00 56 170 701 068 40.23
ADF 556 115 653 043 26.89
SHP 106 78 455 008 18.53
DBF 140 54 189 398 12.60
EXE 3 2 034 464 0.47
DAT 220 1 127 414 0.26
SHX 106 593 496 0.14
TXT 39 584 468 0.14
HLP 2 535 005 0.12
GIF 22 316 540 0.07
HTM 32 314 697 0.07
FTS 1 308 736 0.07
DIR 11 256 880 0.06
NIT 219 248 400 0.06
<none> 70 246 219 0.06
UNX 24 204 741 0.05
SHD 2 148 596 0.03
WRI 4 148 096 0.03
BOB 26 146 978 0.03
TAT 1 136 808 0.03
MRK 1 57 280 0.01
ASX 186 53 177 0.01
LIN 1 32 568 0.01
DLL 1 21 648 0.01
FDL 50 14 520 0.00
TXX 10 4 376 0.00
AML 1 3 126 0.00
NDX 1 2 048 0.00
NSP 11 0 0.00
Total 1 902 423 642 162 100.00

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