topic Re: Conical map projection for Arctic North Pole display in ArcGIS Pro Questions

Conical map projection for Arctic North Pole display

a_bayard — Thu, 16 Feb 2023 20:08:55 GMT

Hello,

I've posted something like this a few years ago and got no responses, so I guess I'll just keep posting until someone from ESRI replies...

Can we make maps for the Arctic/North pole region that are shaped conically as can be done in software such as Matlab (I don't use, but have seen output) or Ocean Data View? I've tried using the same projection (orthographic) and settings that produces this effect in Ocean Data View, but it's still just a rectangle...🤔

It's frustrating not to produce maps in ArcGIS that are similar in nature to oceanography colleagues...🙁

Thanks...

Re: Conical map projection for Arctic North Pole display

AubriOtis — Thu, 16 Feb 2023 20:42:19 GMT

You can absolutely make these in ArcGIS Pro. A map frame on a layout can be any shape you'd like, we just default to a rectangle.

If you already have your layout you can reshape the map frame to a conical shape using the reshape tool.

Or you can right click the map frame and choose Edit Vertices which gives you an experience similar to editing features and supports changing line segments to curves.

If you are adding a map frame to the layout you can add it in a non-rectangular shape as well

I hope this helps.

Re: Conical map projection for Arctic North Pole display

a_bayard — Thu, 16 Feb 2023 21:15:14 GMT

Hi,

That's a helpful DIY hack and really cool to know...but the other softwares I mentioned do this automatically so the grid/lat-longs shape along with it. It can be tricky to make the adjustments to get it that way, but at least it's somewhat automatic...I gave what you suggested a try and it's at least a bit more similar, but the Ocean Data View maps looks much better...

So, even though I'm giving this suggestion a "kudo", it's not really a solution to what I'd want because the grid/labels look weird and unnatural to the eye...

I'll keep hoping someone either has another suggestion or ESRI can take it up as a challenge to make the grid/labels reflective of the ODV or Matlab look..

Thanks!

Re: Conical map projection for Arctic North Pole display

AubriOtis — Fri, 17 Feb 2023 00:04:59 GMT

I see what you mean. There isn't a one click button to do this in Pro (although you could certainly add that as an Idea), but there might be a better way then what I suggested above. If you have a polygon feature for the extent you want shown in your map, you can clip the map to that feature. Then you won't see anything outside of the area you are interested. Grids will respect map clipping which can you cleaner labels like Matlab has. You can also draw all the labels parallel to the map edges which gives you labels that follow the curved line.

Here's an example of a map and grid clipped to India for reference:

Re: Conical map projection for Arctic North Pole display

a_bayard — Fri, 17 Feb 2023 16:58:23 GMT

Thanks for the alternative options and the link to add suggestions! I will definitely do that...