The Esri converter
A free, public tool at orbgis.se/converter that converts Esri file formats to open formats — no account needed, and every conversion comes with an honest report of what survived.
What it does#
Upload a File Geodatabase (a zipped .gdb folder), a zipped shapefile, Esri JSON, an ArcInfo grid or coverage, or an uncompressed E00 export — the converter reads it and shows you what’s inside: layers, feature counts, fields, coordinate systems, field domains and relationship classes. Then pick a target: GeoPackage (recommended), GeoJSON, GeoJSON Sequence, FlatGeobuf, CSV with WKT geometry, shapefile, GeoTIFF or Cloud Optimized GeoTIFF.
The conversion report#
Format conversion is rarely lossless, and pretending otherwise is how data quietly breaks. Every result zip includes report.json: per-layer feature counts, geometry handling (curves are linearized where the target has no arc support), field renames (shapefile’s 10-character limit, with a mapping table), coordinate systems, GDAL warnings, and anything that could not be carried — File Geodatabase relationship classes, for example, are documented in the report rather than silently dropped. Formats the tool cannot convert honestly are declined with an explanation and a suggested path.
Privacy and limits#
- Runs on OrbGIS’s own servers in Sweden — uploads never leave the EU.
- No account, no email, no cookies. Uploads are deleted the moment a conversion finishes; results are deleted within an hour, and a Delete everything now button wipes immediately.
- Free within fair-use caps: files up to 1 GB, 3 conversions per hour and 10 per day.
The converter is a standalone public tool — it is not connected to your OrbGIS organization or its data. To bring converted data into OrbGIS, download the result and upload it to your portal.