topic Re: Elevation Profile Chart x-axis in Geodestic Distance, how to make in 3D distance? in ArcGIS Pro Questions

Elevation Profile Chart x-axis in Geodestic Distance, how to make in 3D distance?

JFW107 — Sun, 18 Jul 2021 22:58:37 GMT

Hello! I am attempting to make elevation profiles from Polylines and can't get the Profile Graph to chart to be useful. Both using "Create Chart" and the Profile Tool give the same result, a distance x-axis that is miles longer than the distance of the Polyline. I know it's charting it in the Geodesic distance because if I calculate the geometry in a field in the attribute table property Length (geodesic), it charts displays axis values out to that distance value, while I am looking for the Length (3D) for the distances to display on the profile map. When I run the Exploratory 3D analysis Elevation Profile from a Layer, it gives me the correct x-axis length automatically, but I can't use that tool to create the custom profiles because it is so limited in customization (only one unit for both x/y axis). Everything is in WGS1984. This is pretty inconvenient and I can't find what I'm missing anywhere. Any help is appreciated.

Re: Elevation Profile Chart x-axis in Geodestic Distance, how to make in 3D distance?

curtvprice — Mon, 19 Jul 2021 17:32:14 GMT

Unless you are covering such a large part of the earth so that using geodesic distance is absolutely necessary, I suggest projecting your data into an equidistant projection and working in projected space.

Re: Elevation Profile Chart x-axis in Geodestic Distance, how to make in 3D distance?

Dirk — Sat, 05 Aug 2023 05:05:51 GMT

The question and answer both helped me realise that the Elevation Profile tool was calculating distance using the Map's coordinate reference system (CRS).

I had incorrectly assumed it was using the CRS of the elevation surface DEM.

To fix the problem I set the map to a projected CRS. Note, because there is also a Z-plane when doing this sort of work, you first must set the map's Z CRS to none, set the XY CRS to a suitable projected one for the area, then set the equivalent Z CRS.