Convert KMZ to Shapefile
A KMZ is a zipped KML, usually saved straight out of Google Earth. Upload it as it is — GeoVerto unpacks the archive itself, reads the KML inside and writes a complete Shapefile. No manual unzipping, no renaming.
A single .kmz file, no sidecar files.
What is inside a KMZ — and what comes through
Besides the KML document, a KMZ often carries icons, photos and image overlays (GroundOverlay), sometimes 3D models. The conversion takes the geometry and its attributes; everything that belongs to presentation stays behind. That is a property of Shapefile, not a shortcoming of the converter — the format describes where things are, not what they look like.
The archive is checked before extraction: paths that try to escape the archive and oversized payloads are rejected instead of processed.
Folders become flat layers
Google Earth lets you nest placemarks in folders; Shapefile knows layers, not trees. The folder structure is flattened, and with mixed geometry types the result splits into one shapefile set per type inside the download ZIP. If the folder names carry the actual information ("as built" vs. "planned"), write them into an attribute before exporting from Google Earth — as an attribute they survive and remain filterable.
Ten characters per field name
Shapefile attribute tables are dBASE files with a hard ten-character limit on field names. description arrives as descriptio. Values stay intact — only names shorten. Umlauts and other non-ASCII text in the data are written in UTF-8 with the matching .cpg sidecar, so they survive in any modern GIS.
Related conversions
- Convert KML to Shapefile — for the unzipped variant
- Convert Shapefile to KMZ — the other direction
- KMZ to GeoJSON (German)