Timeline for Identifying Coordinate System of Shapefile when Unknown?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
7 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Feb 24, 2019 at 2:44 | comment | added | If you do not know- just GIS | I prefer read the coordinate values, I can usually tell if they are decimal degrees, meters or feet (harder t distinguish) and then move to the best system. Start with WGS 84 if it appears decimal, UTM if meters, State plane if feet. I once had one that nobody could fix (for gravitational anomalies). It was USA state plane with a linear unit of......kilometers. I could tell from the fact it was close I had the system right but the state was tiny, ahh kilometers was the linear unit. | |
| Dec 1, 2016 at 23:24 | history | edited | PolyGeo♦ | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Aug 31, 2011 at 12:36 | comment | added | Sean | Note that you shouldn't be projecting the data. You should be defining the projection. Projecting the data changes the coordinates. Defining the projection just assigns a projection to that data and tells that software what projection the data is already in. These are two different tools in ArcMap, "Define Projection" is the one you want to use. | |
| Jun 14, 2011 at 15:56 | vote | accept | com | ||
| Oct 28, 2015 at 17:38 | |||||
| Mar 28, 2011 at 20:50 | comment | added | Brandon Copeland | You could simplify step 2 a little by just changing the dataframe (ArcMap) projection, and letting the known layer reproject on the fly. | |
| Mar 28, 2011 at 20:16 | comment | added | Brad Nesom | this is my method also. I utilize two different software to "prove" it. You might also peruse this question for some basic direction on projections. gis.stackexchange.com/questions/2769/… | |
| Mar 28, 2011 at 20:06 | history | answered | brenth | CC BY-SA 2.5 |