How do you turn a shapefile of pipelines or zones into something you can import?

Convert the geometry to WKT, the text format the Sites and Assets import expects for lines and polygons. Shapefiles can go straight into custom tables, but assets need the WKT step first, done with QGIS and a spreadsheet.

Video: mWater Converting Shapefiles on YouTube

Why this matters

This is the step that stops most GIS imports. Point data loads happily as latitude and longitude, so people reasonably assume a pipe network will too, then find the importer will not accept a shapefile for an asset. Knowing that lines and polygons need WKT, and that the conversion is a short QGIS job, turns a blocked import into a ten minute task.

How to do it

  1. Decide whether you need WKT: points can go in as latitude and longitude, lines and polygons cannot.
  2. Open the shapefile in QGIS.
  3. Export the geometry as WKT alongside the attributes you want to keep.
  4. Assemble the result in a spreadsheet matching the asset import template.
  5. Import into Sites and Assets, then check the shapes on the map.

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