SHP boundary import from elsewhere

ESRI Shapefile (SHP) is the most widely-used vector GIS file format. Many agricultural databases (national farm registries, Cargill, Syngenta, your own Excel-exports) issue field boundaries as SHP.

DroneField’s built-in PROJ library converts any coordinate reference system (CRS) to WGS84 — including EOV for Hungarian data.

What you need to know

An “SHP file” is really 4–6 files together:

File	Purpose
.shp	The geometry (polygons, lines, points)
.shx	Index for .shp
.dbf	Attribute table (name, area, category, etc.)
.prj	Coordinate reference system — critical
.cpg	Character encoding (Windows-1250, UTF-8, etc.)
.sbn/.sbx	Spatial index (optional)

Always include the .prj file — it tells DroneField the CRS of the SHP.

Import flow

1. On the map, open the Boundary toolbar (click the Field boundaries layer in the sidebar).
2. Click Import.
3. Pick ESRI Shapefile.
4. A file picker opens. Select the .shp file (the others are read automatically).
5. If the .prj is present, DroneField auto-detects the CRS (e.g. “HD72 / EOV (EPSG:23700)”).
6. If there’s no .prj, a list appears — pick the CRS manually.
7. Confirmation: the coordinates are converted to WGS84 via PROJ during import.
8. Click Import. Every polygon appears on the map.

Common source CRS systems

Source	CRS	EPSG code
MePAR (FÖMI, Hungary)	HD72 / EOV	EPSG:23700
OpenStreetMap export	WGS84	EPSG:4326
Google Earth KML → SHP	WGS84	EPSG:4326
EU LPIS (other member states)	UTM 33N / 34N	EPSG:32633 / 32634
Old military 1:25 000 (Hungary)	HD72 / Stereo 70	EPSG:23700
DJI Pilot Mission Planner export	WGS84	EPSG:4326

DroneField handles them all — automatically.

EOV → WGS84 — the most common case

The Hungarian HD72 / EOV (Egységes Országos Vetület) is the CRS of most official Hungarian shapefiles.

Example:

• Input (EOV): (650 000, 235 000) — near Budapest
• Output (WGS84): (47.5°N, 19.05°E)

DroneField uses PROJ 9.4 — error is < 1 cm, well below typical drone GSD.

What the .dbf attribute file contains

DroneField automatically uses these fields:

• Name / Name / TABLA / NAME — boundary name
• TÍPUS / TYPE — if “obstacle” or “exclusion”, the polygon becomes an obstacle / no-spray zone
• Area / AREA — informational only (DroneField recomputes)

Other attributes (soil class, partner ID) are not imported, but the .dbf is left untouched — viewable in QGIS.

Obstacles and no-spray zones

If the SHP contains both the field boundary AND its obstacles (in one file), an attribute field can distinguish them:

Field      boundary    47.62 ha
Tree-1     obstacle    0.01 ha
Wire       exclusion   0.03 ha

DroneField separates them by type and imports each with the right classification.

If no such field exists, every polygon imports as “Field boundary” — you can change types later (right-click on the layer → Change type).

Character encoding

Hungarian accented characters (Á, É, Ő, Ű) can be tricky. DroneField tries in this order:

1. UTF-8 (modern, recommended)
2. Windows-1250 (older Hungarian SHPs)
3. ISO-8859-2

If characters appear mangled ("T�rnok" instead of "Tárnok"), fix the .cpg file or convert the SHP to UTF-8 in QGIS.

What NOT to do

• Don’t ZIP the SHP before import — the picker doesn’t unpack. Extract first.
• Don’t separate .shp from .prj — they must live in the same folder.
• Don’t overwrite an actively used SHP — the imported boundary lives in the project now; the source file no longer drives it.

Exporting also works

To export to SHP (e.g. to the partner’s GIS system), use the Boundary toolbar’s Export → ESRI Shapefile option. DroneField exports in WGS84; the partner converts to their system if needed.