Welcome to Fractal Forums

Hi everybody,

I am doing a research on the efficiency of the application of fractal analysis methods to road networks. In order to verify my methodology, I need to apply it a few well-known (ie with known fractal dimension) fractals within GIS environment. Does any of you know of existing GIS shapefiles for known fractals (preferably Greek Cross and/or Sierpinski Triangle, etc.)?

Thank you.

the "shape file" depends on your gis software
i use the NASA/USGS program ISIS3 and it uses "plate" files
a 32bit floating point image in "simple-cylindrical" map projection with values in meters for the radians
--- an example , asteroid "Lutetia" ( 8bit jpg of 32 bit float)--
(http://t.imgbox.com/zdhb5lHS.jpg) (http://imgbox.com/zdhb5lHS)

the NAIF toolkit also used this format as of version 64
but in the new version ( 65), is moving to a binary  ( 3d )"cubemap" format that is somewhat like a 3d mesh point cloud


for a "sierpinsk" image
gmic can make a square that is 2048 on a side
(http://t.imgbox.com/rXyPEyf6.jpg) (http://imgbox.com/rXyPEyf6)

Hi John,

Thank you for your reply. Unfortunately, I am not familiar with the softwares you have mentioned. I use ArcGIS 10.2. I need the fractal shapefile be an already-projected one (ie in Projected Coordinate System) and not in Geographic Coordinate System, otherwise its shape will change after projection. Any other thoughts?

arcGIS can use IDL  and also use GDAL
 import a 32 bit image as a DEM and add the mapping info in arcGIS or using GDAL

it would be using a "plate" shape file


"Projected Coordinate System"
there are many ,many,many for that
ranging form some custom dtm's for a city to the USGS standard for the usa
or other ones for what ever country  

If i had to guess one of the many versions of a equalarea rectangular projection if NOT near the north or south pole


Unless by "shapefile" you MEAN a polygon GML file
then gdal can export to that

One of the many the ArcGIS forums might be a bit of a better place to get help


i do not do much work on the Earth datasets and arcgis is rather expensive and dose not do what i need .

i use the above isis3 and GRASS with FWtools-3 ( a python wrapper for the GDAL tools)


as to a already mapped image

try this
Export a DEM of the area you are working on as a RAW image
switch it for a image of a "sierpinsk"
and import that RAW back into ArcGIS as that DEM

every gis program has a way to do that built in to it

that way you can work on something outside the program and import it back in

That is a good idea. I will go for it. Thanks.