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Importing GPS Coordinates from Excel into ArcMap

XiaodanNan

Dear All,

I am Nancy, new to ArcGIS, and I appreciated anyone's help here!

When I was trying to import Coordinates from Excel into ArcMap, I followed the step from the help menu, it really helped. When it was finished, it shows on the map window (which is shown below). However, then when I add my map (Download from Digimap), it only showed the coordinates, not showing the map. And then I tried add map first, it showed on the map window properly, and then add coordinates, unfortunately, the coordinates are not showing on the map.

Firstly, I checked the coordinates system. They are the same using British National Grid for projected coordinates system and for Geographic coordinate system, GCS_OSGB_1936 are selected as default.

Then, I added data, coordinates and map many times, it gave me same results. It seems that the coordinates could not show on my map.

Thanks for helping!

Nancy

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Accepted answers

OwenEarley

Under the hood all GPS units use WGS84 geographic coordinates. I am guessing that a coordinate system hasn't been applied to the data when it was imported so ArcMap can't reproject it to match your other map data. Following these steps should resolve the issue:

Open a blank map document in ArcMap then go to File > Add Data > Add XY Data

Click on the Edit button then browse to Geographic Coordinate Systems > World > WGS84. The Coordinate System should now show GCS_WGS_1984.

After the xy-event layer is added to the map you can export it to a feature class by right-clicking on it and selecting Data > Export Data.

Export all features using the same coordinate system as the source data. When prompted add the feature class to the map. If you check the layer properties you will notice that the data has the correct coordinate system assigned:

When you add this data to your other map data ArcMap should be able to reproject your GPS points on the fly to match the coordinate system of your map.

If there are alignment issues you may need to apply a datum transformation within ArcMap or when projecting the data to match your other data.

All comments

XiaodanNan

Hey Owen,

Thanks for your help! It works now, the locations show on my map.

The only thing I am confused here is that the two layers are in different geographic coordinates system, station locations layer is in GCS_WGS_1984, however, my map is in GCS_OSGB_1936, and it works fine, actually, I dont have to project the station location to match my map data.

Thanks again!

Nancy

XiaodanNan

Hey Darren,

Thanks for your advise here.

I found an example of adding data to ArcMap which is using XY data adding tool box, and it is shown blow.

However, I have no idea how they get XY value, it didnt seems like lat/long.

捕获1.JPG

OwenEarley

Open a blank map document in ArcMap then go to File > Add Data > Add XY Data

Click on the Edit button then browse to Geographic Coordinate Systems > World > WGS84. The Coordinate System should now show GCS_WGS_1984.

After the xy-event layer is added to the map you can export it to a feature class by right-clicking on it and selecting Data > Export Data.

When you add this data to your other map data ArcMap should be able to reproject your GPS points on the fly to match the coordinate system of your map.

If there are alignment issues you may need to apply a datum transformation within ArcMap or when projecting the data to match your other data.

DarrenWiens2

Those coordinates are lat/long, not British National Grid meters. I assume you want to use a geographic (unprojected) coordinate system (WGS84 or NAD83, probably) to import the points, then Project to British National Grid.

XiaodanNan

Hey Jake,

sorry for the late reply. I've enclosed the excel file I created. I guess that probably because this excel file is not in the correct format?

Thanks

Nancy

捕获.JPG

GabrielUpchurch1

As Jake mentioned, getting a look at an example of how the coordinates are stored in the table would be helpful. In addition to what has already been suggested by Chris, have you tried swapping the two fields you are specifying for the X and Y coordinates? This is a common mix up.

ChrisDonohue__GISP

There are a variety of things that can go awry when bringing in X,Y data. Some suggestions:

Data preparation / advice:

1. ArcMap sets the coordinate system based on the first layer added. It is usually best to add the known data before bringing in the unknown data (in your case, the GPS data).

2. Oftentimes what goes awry when bringing in GPS data is that the GPS data was collected in a different projection/coordinate system than your base data. It can be converted to the same coordinate system as your base data, but you will need to know precisely which system it was originally collected in so the correct conversion can be done.

3. Another aspect that comes into play is how data gets read into ArcGIS from Excel. Excel is not always read cleanly by ArcGIS, so it is best to do some cleanup of the Excel data beforehand. First, make sure the field names don't have spaces or restricted characters. Second, define the fields explicitly instead of leaving them as "General". For example, for attribute text, highlight the field, select Format Cells, and then select "Text". For numbers, select "Numbers" and make sure the "Decimal Places" is set appropriately.

Troubleshooting:

1. After checking the above, bring in your data again. First bring in the known layers, then the GPS data. If the GPS data is not showing up where expected, you need to troubleshoot it.

2. If it is only slightly off, the Datum may be incorrect. For example, here in California we have about a 80 meter shift in the data when it is mis-assigned from a NAD27 to NAD83 datum.

3. If the GPS data lands across the world from where you expect, there are is a major coordinate system issue.

If the GPS data is in a Geographic Coordinate System (GCS), there are several things to check:

- When bringing in the data, was the Geographic Coordinate System explicitly defined when bringing in the data when given the option to choose a coordinate system?

- In some parts of the world the Coordinates in GCS are negative. Did the negative sign get left out?

- If the GPS data is in Decimal Minutes (DM) or Degrees Minutes Seconds (DMS), it needs to be converted to Decimal Degrees (DD) before it can be brought into ArcMap.

If the GPS data was collected in a Projected Coordinate System (PCS), you will need to see that all the parameters in the coordinate system are exactly the same as expected by the specifications for the same in Arcmap. It could be that one of the settings was changed. For example, I've seen a California State Plane Zone 2 where the units were changed from the expected Feet to Meters, yet it still looked at first glance like it was the normal California State Plane Zone 2. Dig into the details to see that everything matches up.

Also, here's a link to an article on importing data which may help:

Importing x,y data into ArcGIS | Geographic Information Science information and support

Chris Donohue, GISP

jskinner

Hi Nancy,

Can you provide an example (i.e. a screen shot) of how the coordinates are stored in the excel file?

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