Extract text from Shapefile index files (SHX)
To convert SHX index files to another format, you need ArcGIS or other GIS software.
To convert other file formats to the "Spatial Index Or Font" file type, you need software like ArcGIS or a similar tool.
The .SHX file extension represents two completely different, highly technical formats. In most cases (roughly 76%), it is a Shapefile Positional Index File developed by ESRI for geographic information systems (GIS) like ArcGIS. In this context, the .SHX file contains the geometric index of features stored in a main SHP file, allowing the software to quickly seek forward and backward through spatial data. Alternatively, a .SHX file can be an AutoCAD Compiled Shape File created by Autodesk AutoCAD. These files store compiled shape and font definitions used to render custom text and symbols in CAD drawings.
Users often face major issues with .SHX files because they are never meant to be standalone documents. An ESRI .SHX file is completely useless without its companion SHP and DBF files. If someone emails you a solitary .SHX file, you have received broken geographic data. Similarly, AutoCAD .SHX fonts are proprietary binaries. Opening a DWG file without the required .SHX font results in frustrating substitution errors, missing symbols, or unreadable text. These formats require expensive, specialized software like ArcGIS or AutoCAD, imposing steep learning curves and costly subscription fees just to read the data.
Because .SHX files act as structural indexes or compiled binary fonts rather than standard documents, converting them directly is highly complex. If you possess a complete ESRI Shapefile dataset, you must convert the entire collection to modern spatial formats like GeoJSON, KML, or CSV to make the mapping data usable on web platforms. For AutoCAD .SHX fonts, the ideal conversion path involves decompiling the binary back to editable SHP source files, or mapping them to standard TTF (TrueType) fonts to gain broader compatibility across standard operating systems.
Standard online converters fail to process .SHX files because they lack the specific spatial libraries or CAD decompilers needed to parse these proprietary binary structures. Because this is a closed format heavily tied to its parent application, often only the original software can properly read or export the data. If our analysis detects a supported underlying or embedded format, viewing or conversion may still be possible.
Convert.Guru analyzes your SHX file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted SHP, TTF, CPG, DBF, PRJ, OTF, ZIP, SBX, PDF, SBN, DWG, XML and SH3X files.
If you want to convert SHX file to DWG, TTF, SHP, KMZ, PDF, KML, DXF, DGN, RVT, RFA, SKP or 3DM, you can use ArcGIS or similar software from the "Spatial Indexing & CAD Fonts" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert SLDASM, DGN, PRT, IAM, X_B, CATPRODUCT, SLDPRT, RVT, ASM, DWG, CATPART or DXF files to SHX, try ArcGIS or another comparable tool in the "Spatial Indexing & CAD Fonts" 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 SHX converter.