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New and improved transformation tool BETA on NGS site

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(@geeoddmike)
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The National Geodetic Survey (NGS) is pleased to announce the Beta
release of a new and improved transformation tool in the NGS geodetic
toolkit. This redesigned version supports the transformation between
geodetic coordinates and State Plane Coordinates (SPC), Universal
Transverse Mercator (UTM) coordinates, Cartesian coordinates (XYZ),
and U.S. National Grid (USNG) coordinates as a one-stop solution. It
features transformation of single or multiple points, Web services,
and software downloads. NGS encourages users to try the Beta Version
and provide feedback (to Krishna.Tadepalli@noaa.gov) so the final
version may be improved prior to release as on official NGS product.

The update was in the development stage for several months, and it
provides surveyors and geodesists with a more efficient and
streamlined way of accessing frequently used NGS tools in the geodetic
toolkit. The new interface allows one-page easy access to
transformations that were previously available only on separate pages.

The Beta version is accessible at: http://beta.ngs.noaa.gov/gtkweb/
For more information, contact: Krishna.Tadepalli@noaa.gov
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Posted : 04/06/2015 5:00 pm
(@shawn-billings)
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That sounds really great. Thanks for the heads up.

 
Posted : 05/06/2015 3:34 am
(@shawn-billings)
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It would be great if HTDP was also integrated into the interface to support transformation across NAD83 realizations as well as ITRF/IGS. For example enter ITRF latitude, longitude and ellipsoid height and get a state plane coordinate with orthometric height. Or enter state plane from NAD83(NSRS2007) epoch 2002 and output state plane from NAD83(2012) epoch 2010.

 
Posted : 05/06/2015 3:53 am
(@ashton)
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I just tried it. It didn't seem to update the decimal degrees when I entered the D-M-S format, and gave nonsensical results. Maybe the results corresponded to the decimal degrees input; I didn't check. I sent feedback to the NGS.

 
Posted : 05/06/2015 5:22 am
(@kent-mcmillan)
Posts: 11419
 

> The National Geodetic Survey (NGS) is pleased to announce the Beta
> release of a new and improved transformation tool in the NGS geodetic
> toolkit.

The first things that struck me would be easy to fix since they are merely format issues.

In the conversion from Lat-Long to Projected Coordinates,

- Don't use exponential notation for coordinates

- Group coordinates by unit, i.e. Northing(m), Easting(m), Northing(ift), Easting(ift), Northing(usft), Easting(usft)

 
Posted : 05/06/2015 5:57 am
(@drusmith)
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Shawn,

Thanks for the feedback. This new tool is just a taste of things to come. There is a lot of work going on behind the scenes at NGS to improve our toolkit. This one was "easy" in that the mathematical formulae for projections are fixed. Adding additional tools will happen, but will take some work. NADCON, GEOCON, VERTCON, HTDP, every GEOID model and VDatum were all created by different people using different techniques over many decades. Before simply absorbing them into this tool we need to do some housecleaning and checking to make them "flow together" more logically and consistently. Once that is done, the new toolkit should be expanded to incorporate them. Meanwhile, please run what is there through its paces and let us know how we can improve it!

Dru Smith
Chief Geodesist, NOAA's National Geodetic Survey

 
Posted : 05/06/2015 6:02 am
(@shawn-billings)
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Thank you for the reply, Dr. Smith. I can completely understand the incremental approach to integrating all of these varied products into one interface. The efforts are much appreciated.

 
Posted : 05/06/2015 7:02 am
(@ashton)
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It turns out to make D-M-S entry work, one must enter at least three digits after the decimal point for the seconds field; the digits can be 0.

 
Posted : 05/06/2015 8:23 am