Carlson GIS import SHP help please

I had never tried it before, so i downloaded a SHP from MassGIS and ran through the import process.

My import screen did not have the option "Use attribute to re-assign elevation", the dialog i read stated: "Use attribute to assign elevation". I checked the box, dropped down to an ELEV_FT attribute and it assigned the correct elevation to each polyline.

did you select the attribute elevation? how about that other one - elev_u_d?

i used import options Geometry with GIS data, if that helps.

do you have other GIS software? someone pointed me towards Tatuk the other day and it seems slick. perhaps you can use that to see the attribute table. or arc reader. (i've had arc map for a while, so i have not used the freebies for that while).

also, did you try it in a spankin' new drawing? you can always block that to where you are going. (just in case there is a setting you changed inadvertently in your current drawing).

Andy Nold R O C K S (Ladd Nelson too)

I just spent a very nice 1/2 hour on the phone with Andy Nold.

It seems that I need to know something more about the "metadata".

I need to know where the data came from:

Indiana SPC East US Survey Feet

-or-

UTM NAD 83 Meters

-or-

whatever?

So I have an email out to my client / friend...

...stay tuned.

Also, Ladd Nelson called me from a corn field in Iowa wanting to help too.

I will be making a tip jar donation to W & A as soon as I can...

And thanks to J. Thaddeus Eldredge too

I might try that software you mentioned...

No, please....

I'm just your friendly, neighborhood rockstar survey god. The little people in my life tell me I'm humble, too. But we'll see how it turns out on Monday. Just need to know what the metadata is on the shp file. I'm thinking it is pretty much beer thirty in the central time zone. Y'all have a good weekend.

And thanks to J. Thaddeus Eldredge too

Just Thadd and no thanks necessary. I guess I bypassed the metadata as I specified the systems/units when I downloaded the data.
I was very interested to see if it would work, so thank you for getting me to learn something new.

Hmm.. Surveyors and GIS. Can it be? Dog and Cats living together? Oh my.

Not to pick on you but the metadata is the very first thing to look at and understand. It often tells the accuracy, method of capture, and also the most basic things like the coordinate systems.

No worries though. I'm heading out to the porch to entertain the crowds stuck at my light in front of the house with the guitar and a bit of Kendell-Jackson.

Deral

Brad,
Did the 'set' of files contain a name.PRJ (projection) file? Open it up in a text editor...it should have the datum, projection, and unit information.

DDSM
(Global Mapper and ESRI automatically reads these files)

Thanks bro, really. That's why I posted here, so I can learn...

I hope you had a nice time last night...

PRJ file ~ nifty

DDSM, cool, here is what was in the PRJ file:

PROJCS
["WGS_1984_UTM_Zone_16N",GEOGCS
["GCS_WGS_1984",DATUM
["D_WGS_1984",SPHEROID
[WGS_1984,6378137.0,298.257223563]]
,PRIMEM[Greenwich,0.0],UNIT
[Degree,0.0174532925199433]],
PROJECTION[Transverse_Mercator],
PARAMETER[False_Easting,500000.0],
PARAMETER[False_Northing,0.0],
PARAMETER[Central_Meridian,-87.0],
PARAMETER[Scale_Factor,0.9996],
PARAMETER[Latitude_Of_Origin,0.0],
UNIT[Meter,1.0]]

WGS83 UTM...

Oh boy!

That could be interesting...

WGS83 UTM...

I played a bit with the Carlson GIS module a few months ago; importing a couple of shape files into a drawing. From this exercise, what I understand is that if you want to successfully import your GIS data, first step is to set-up the geodetic parameters of your CAD drawing to match the ones of the GIS file being imported. I am just mentioning this as I haven't read about it in the above thread.

On a side note, Arcview also offers a free GIS desktop viewer; handy tool.

WGS83 UTM...

Thank you Georges. That makes sense. I will try that when I get a chance.

WGS83 UTM...

Yeah 83, ...84,... Whatever it takes, right? 😛

WGS83 UTM...

OOPS

PRJ file ~ nifty

Here is what I did:

Settings -- Drawing Setup and established the parameters as specified in the PRJ file (pertinent details bolded):

> DDSM, cool, here is what was in the PRJ file:
>
> PROJCS
> ["WGS_1984_UTM_Zone_16N",GEOGCS
> ["GCS_WGS_1984",DATUM
> ["D_WGS_1984",SPHEROID
> [WGS_1984,6378137.0,298.257223563]]
> ,PRIMEM[Greenwich,0.0],UNIT
> [Degree,0.0174532925199433]],
> PROJECTION[Transverse_Mercator],
> PARAMETER[False_Easting,500000.0],
> PARAMETER[False_Northing,0.0],
> PARAMETER[Central_Meridian,-87.0],
> PARAMETER[Scale_Factor,0.9996],
> PARAMETER[Latitude_Of_Origin,0.0],
> UNIT["Meter",1.0]]

Once established, I issued the GIS -- Import ESRI SHP File command with the settings below:

From what I can see, the Elevation field within the shape file contains what are probably elevations in Feet (despite what the PRJ file claims). As a matter of reference, the contour elevation around the Pisgah Lake using this process was placed at 686 and roughly validated with the elevations reported by Google Earth.

I did some further validation through the use of the Carlson GIS - ArcGIS Services routine as previously mentioned in the [msg=126517]Snag it and Google earth tips[/msg] thread. The results were very nice:

Closer inspection validation:

A nice little data set.

--
Ladd Nelson

PRJ file ~ nifty

Great Job Ladd,
Thanks for sharing!

Cheers,
Ralph

PRJ file ~ nifty

Right on brother!

Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

Time for me to make a trip to the tip jar (as soon as cash flow permits).