idea Measure the orthometric height in Field Maps in ArcGIS Field Maps Ideas

Measure the orthometric height in Field Maps

Hegik — Tue, 08 Jun 2021 13:43:08 GMT

What the Field-Maps App is doing:

Right now our measurement crews connect their GNSS-antenna to their iPad (iPad Pro 11”, 2nd generation running iOs 14.3) and add points to our web-feature-layer. The height, which the app is saving is known as “Height Above Ellipsoid”. Germany (and other European countries) use another height called the “Normalhöhennull” (orthometric height). The Field-Maps app can display the “Normalhöhennull” but it will only save the (for us useless) “HAE”.

What is the problem:

If we want to measure the height of the GNSS-antenna, we always need to open the app of the antenna manufacturer, copy the (orthometric) height, and then we paste it into a field of the feature layer we specifically created for this purpose. This adds human error to the process, which is unfortunate. Another workaround would be post processing the data, but that would need a person who does that, and would probably add calculation error, so we would like to have it shown correctly in the first place.

How this will help us:

In the past few months we’ve invested in a lot of hardware (e.g. GNSS-Antennas, iPads, etc.) with the goal to simplify the process of our measurements, but with the wrong height it is more of an obstacle than a relief to use it. At the moment the data that the measuring crews are gathering, needs to be fixed by an ArcGIS Pro operator before it can be further processed and analysed by our CAD or laboratory staff. This adds big delays to our workflow.

Why this is important:

We as a German authority must work with our official German standards especially when we are measuring things. The “Normalhöhennull” is the standard for every German authority, office, department and university. I would say, that every time someone is measuring the height somewhere in Germany, it will most certainly need to be the “Normalhöhennull” because it is the national standard since 1992. Because of that not only our authority has this problem, but everyone who wants to measure the height in Germany using Field Maps.

Re: Measure the orthometric height in Field Maps

Ewout_de_Graaff — Tue, 18 May 2021 13:07:13 GMT

Same problem for us in the Netherlands. We use NAP (New Amserdams Peil) here. This is comparable to "Normalhöhennull" in Germany. Now we are actually forced to work with other software to make accurate height measurements and working with an accurate GNSS antenna in combination with Field Maps has no added value for us.

Re: Measure the orthometric height in Field Maps

Hegik — Tue, 01 Jun 2021 12:47:03 GMT

Here is a list of people having the same struggle and their workarounds.

Is it possible to collect accurate Z coordinate va... - Esri Community

Orthometric Heights (MSL) and GNSS Configuration o... - Esri Community

Solved: Cordinate systems and transformations with collect... - Esri Community

I really think there should not be the need for a workaround, because the GNSS antennas already pass the orthometric height to the Field Maps / Collector App

Re: Measure the orthometric height in Field Maps - Status changed to: In Product Plan

DougMorgenthaler — Sat, 24 Jul 2021 13:52:04 GMT

Re: Measure the orthometric height in Field Maps

data_dog — Tue, 08 Mar 2022 15:35:24 GMT

@DougMorgenthaler I see this was changed to in product plan, have there been any updates on this? I am trying to use an EOS Arrow Gold receiver to collect orthometric heights. Field Maps is reading the ortho height in the GPS receiver monitor but not recording them to the attribute tables. Seems pretty weird that it would be able to read it and interpret it but not record it?

Re: Measure the orthometric height in Field Maps

KyleLandon — Tue, 08 Mar 2022 18:58:07 GMT

@data_dog EOS has a work around for getting those ortho values saved as the z-geometry value.

Eos Tools Pro: How to Configure Orthometric Heights - Eos (eos-gnss.com).

ArcGIS Collector (v18.1.0): How to Record Survey-Grade Orthometric Heights - Eos (eos-gnss.com)

But yes, I wish would do more to get this built in. Note that the arcade expression for the display of z geometry wasn't working in the web viewers, but worked fine in field apps.

Bad Elf and it's Flex unit does this too now, if your looking at cheaper alternatives to the EOS Arrow Gold.

Re: Measure the orthometric height in Field Maps

data_dog — Tue, 08 Mar 2022 22:31:42 GMT

@KyleLandonthe EOS is through a university, I'm doing research so I just need it to work for now. I had been following both of those tutorials already actually two days ago when I started this process and got to the point of the arcade expression where it is glitched and does not work and will not let you save it. At this point I'm already configuring a QGIS server to just do it homebrew and skip all the AGOL stuff.

Re: Measure the orthometric height in Field Maps

Sietse_de_Haan — Mon, 12 Sep 2022 09:53:25 GMT

Same problem here. We would like to measure using NAP in THe Netherlands so we can measure depths. Otherwise the use of our GPS antennes is useless for what we want to achieve.

Re: Measure the orthometric height in Field Maps

Darius_MGISS — Thu, 06 Oct 2022 15:18:33 GMT

If anyone is having this issue capturing Field Maps height data in the UK we have a custom service that performs the vertical transformation in real time using the OSGM15 transformation, see our Z-Transform solution page here - https://mgiss.co.uk/z-transform/

Re: Measure the orthometric height in Field Maps

LaurenceLanglois1 — Thu, 18 May 2023 19:49:08 GMT

I have the same issue with the "GPS unit Leica gg04 plus."

The 'Leica Connect app' displays the correct elevation 237ft but in 'field Maps' it stores an altitude of 44.09.

This is a big pain. I bought this high-end GPS for ease of use, and elevation is important to me.

Larry

Re: Measure the orthometric height in Field Maps

BillFox — Tue, 30 May 2023 16:38:17 GMT

To help prioritize this real-time orthometric height issue, please contact your Esri Support and reference this Esri Enhancement to tell them to include you in their "Subscribed" list for this enhancement:

ENH-000140091

Provide the possibility to measure and save orthometric height values when saving points to a web feature layer using Field maps app and GNSS antenna.

"Under Consideration"

Re: Measure the orthometric height in Field Maps

Y_Chau — Sun, 02 Jul 2023 08:10:04 GMT

@LaurenceLanglois1 if you select the correct geoid in Leica Zeno Connect app then the MSL heights are transferred to feature Z. The GNSS metadata will always display HAE though. I did this test with Leica FLX100.

Sincerely

Re: Measure the orthometric height in Field Maps

Basbo — Fri, 25 Aug 2023 10:36:07 GMT

@Y_Chauthank you for your message. What do you mean that the heights are transferred to feature Z?

Is there any attribute showing this information? Or do I need to add POINT_Z with ArcGIS Pro to see this value?

Re: Measure the orthometric height in Field Maps

Y_Chau — Mon, 28 Aug 2023 05:22:01 GMT

@Basbo hello, Add XY Coordinates (Data Management)—ArcGIS Pro | Documentation

This tool will pull geoid heights from feature geometry and write them to POINT_Z field. Your layer SHOULD be Z enabled.

If you don't have one of the esri partner GNSS devices, then you will get ellipsoidal heights in both metadata and feature geometry. In this case you can do a vertical transformation from ellipsoidal to geoid, provided your geoid is available in the esri supported vertical CS files. You have to install a special CS package to do vertical transformations.

Re: Measure the orthometric height in Field Maps

LaurenceLanglois1 — Tue, 29 Aug 2023 15:03:51 GMT

My goal is to have this work without any extra steps. My Zeno Connectpp shows the altitude on the screen. I would think it would easily move that altitude info into a field in field maps. That is not the case.

Re: Measure the orthometric height in Field Maps

ZachEdwards_WDSGIS — Tue, 01 Oct 2024 01:23:49 GMT

Yes. I don't understand how orthometric heights are not standard in ESRI Field Maps. This post goes back to 2021 and yet here we still are in 2024. Let's get this implemented ESRI! Using Arcade is a nice workaround; however, it's still a bandaid. The same goes for the "colllected date." We shouldn't have to use Now() in an arcade expression to have the collector automatically collect today's date without input from the user. I realize that templates can be used for that too but it's still a workaround in my opinion.

Re: Measure the orthometric height in Field Maps

LaurenceLanglois1 — Tue, 01 Oct 2024 12:42:47 GMT

Also setting the 'base map' for 'Field maps' to use in the projection I want is very complicated. I can't figute it out.
My collection points are off because the base map is not what I want to use.
Larry

Re: Measure the orthometric height in Field Maps

LaurenceLanglois1 — Tue, 01 Oct 2024 12:44:34 GMT

Also setting the 'base map' for 'Field maps' to use in the projection I want is very complicated. I can't figure it out.

My collection points are off because the 'base map projection' is not what I want to use.

Larry

Re: Measure the orthometric height in Field Maps

Sietse_de_Haan — Tue, 12 Nov 2024 10:34:19 GMT

Hey guys,

I contacted Leica, and they send me some documents collect the correct height in NAP values (Dutch height).After installing in Zeno Connect we are now collecting heights in Dutch NAP values.

I dont know, but maybe this can work the same for the countries you are in. I cant attach them here for some reason (pdf and zip). Reach out to me if you want them.

Re: Measure the orthometric height in Field Maps

tikola — Mon, 18 Nov 2024 15:38:16 GMT

As Y_Chau wrote it goes all the time correctly to feature geometry attribute if settings are as they should but stays wrong (or different) in normal attribute table. This is case in Finland where Leica Zeno Connect contains neccessary geoid models. The steps I needed to do to make it work in Finland are:

1) Set Zeno Connect to use local projection and geoid model to get orthometric heights. I get confirmation that this works just by looking coordinate values that Zeno Connect shows.

2) Second I needed to make a webmap that had a basemap in projection my editable data is. In case you do not do that you end up easily to result that Profile you define in Field Maps is not valid for a map used and things stop there as map does not open at all in Field Maps

3) As a final step you need to define Profile in Field Maps that contains correct coordinate systems as they should be.

As an output of this process I get all the time in attribute table a height that is 20m above true orthometric value. That you may consider a bug or feature to be fixed but on the other hand it makes sense to store also the mathematic ellipsoidal height. So one way to fix this issue is to wrote attribute name in some more intuitive way than just "Altitude".....maybe "Ellipsoidal Altitude" would be a better name.

In the same time the feature geometry attribute is correct orthometric height all the time. The challenge of course is that ArcGIS Pro is the only(?) way to see this value. So system works as it should in a smart way but there is no very easy way to confirm this. And the only value you easily see tells you that it has not worked in proper way. So before thinking that process does not work check always is there a difference in attribute table

There is no problem to transfer values from geometry attribute to normal attribute or vice versa. There is a geoprocessing tool in both ways.