To import a GIS database into EA-PSM, user should firstly have a file geodatabase (.gdb) or a personal database (.mdb) to open. Both of these databases have different ways to import them.
Importing a geodatabase (.gdb): this can be accomplished by navigating the main EA-PSM window and choosing the drop-down menu File →Import→File geodatabase. Furthermore, the user will be prompted to open the database from an initialization file or connect the attributes by hand. To simplify, using the latter method is an easy way to create an initialization file which can later be used to import the database repeatedly. Instructions on how to use the attribute connection interface is discussed in the next part of this section.
Importing a personal database (.mdb): this can be accomplished by navigating the main EA-PSM window and choosing the drop-down menu File →Import→Database. The user will be prompted to open an initialization file and the database will be opened.
In the “Import gdb from manager” window user should associate the PSM elements with the geodatabase layers and their respective parameters. This is a very crucial step, because these parameters will be used in the calculations.
Furthermore, there is a scale field in which user may redefine the scale ratio if the imported scheme in the EA-PSM environment is too small or big. Clicking the button “Import” will start the conversion of geodatabase elements to the EA-PSM elements based on what was chosen in the parameter-associating table.
NOTE: Once the database importing has finished, it is advised to save the scheme as an EA-PSM .json for easier repeated use.
