Extract text from SBN files
To convert your SBN file to another format, you need ArcGIS Pro or other GIS software.
To convert other file formats to the "Shapefile Index" file type, you need software like ArcGIS Pro or a similar tool.
An .sbn file is primarily a Spatial Binary Network file, a proprietary index format generated by ESRI ArcGIS. It serves as an optional helper component within the ESRI Shapefile ecosystem (alongside SHP, SHX, and DBF files) to accelerate spatial queries on large datasets. While crucial for performance in desktop GIS environments, the format presents significant challenges: it is a closed binary format that cannot be human-read or edited directly, and it is useless without its accompanying shapefile components. Users often encounter .sbn files when transferring map data but find them incompatible with web mapping libraries (like Leaflet or OpenLayers) or non-ESRI software that does not require spatial indexing.
To make this data usable for web applications or archiving, the best practice is to convert the complete Shapefile dataset. For web display, convert to GeoJSON or TopoJSON. For Google Earth visualization, use KML. For spreadsheet analysis of the underlying attributes, convert to CSV.
*Note: A small percentage of .sbn files are signed firmware binaries for Cisco IP phones. These are system files used to update hardware and are not meant for standard document conversion.*
Convert.Guru analyzes your SBN file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted SBX, CPG, PRJ, DBF, SHP, SHX, SNB, ZIP, XML, JPG, MAP, PDF and CRDOWNLOAD files.
If you want to convert SBN file to SHP, KML, KMZ, GPX, GEOJSON, TOPOJSON, TIF, TIFF, ECW, SID, IMG or DEM, you can use ArcGIS Pro or similar software from the "Spatial Indexing" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert LAZ, KMZ, DTM, CSV, DEM, PRJ, LAS, GPX, DSM, SHP, DBF or KML files to SBN, try ArcGIS Pro or another comparable tool in the "Spatial Indexing" category.
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our SBN converter.