If you are using an AML to process your data, but some of your source data are shapefiles, you'll need to convert to coverages. Fortunately, this is pretty simple. Two arc-level commands to know about:
SHAPEARC
(there's also an ARCSHAPE to go the other way)
REGIONPOLY
You need it to convert polygons from shapefiles, since these create regions instead of
normal topological polygons. To learn more about regions, see the help system.
This one's simple. Say you're going from wells.shp to wells point coverage. Note that you don't need to specify the ".shp" part of wells.shp (the first parameter) in the shapearc command line::
shapearc wells wells
Also simple... in this example, a shapefile roads.shp is converted to a roads line coverage:
shapearc roads roads
In this example, a shapefile lu.shp is converted to a lu polygoncoverage.
shapearc lu lureg poly
clean lureg
regionpoly lureg lu poly tables