topic Re: Trouble adding XY data in Data Management Questions

Trouble adding XY data

KevinDoyle — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 18:31:07 GMT

Hello,

I'm a college student just becoming familiar with all of the facets of GIS software. I have a lot to learn so bare with me. I'm currently doing a project that calls for me to obtain lat/long coordinates from a website. What I did was right click on the tables shown in the website and exported them to excel. Now I have my data. I go into ArcMap to add the XY data. (File>Add Data>Add X,Y data). Once I add my data (excel sheet 1) it comes up in the T.O.C however on the map itself it appears only as one point. Rather than, oh i dont know, the 200 different points included in the excel table data. I do not know if it is because I'm not using the right projection or coordinate system or if the points need to be converted into a different format or what. I have never used these forums before so I guess I'm being pretty vague until someone responds to this thread so I know that it works. Someone please help!!! This is my final project for school!! Thanks.

Re: Trouble adding XY data

TimothyHales — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 18:51:18 GMT

Hi! Welcome to the ArcGIS Forums.

Could you check a couple things with the new layer that was added?

1. Right click the layer > Open Attribute Table. The table that opens should be similar to the Excel table. Here you will see the number of features. Do you see approximately 200 records?

2. Right click the layer > Zoom to Layer. Are you able to see more points? It is possible that you are zoomed so far out that the display generalizes the layer to a single point.

I hope this helps. Please let me know if you have any other questions.

Re: Trouble adding XY data

KevinDoyle — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 11:37:13 GMT

Woo! I'm excited to see that I actually got a response. Thank you for responding. I wasn't even sure if I posted my question in the right spot. So to answer your question, yes, when I open the attribute table all of the points are there. I have already zoomed out. I have a feeling I'm missing an important step somewhere. I think I need to convert these points but I'm not sure to what or how I would go about doing it. I am pretty sure the points that I obtained from the web-site are DD and I think THINK! that they need to be in DMS?

I'm using ARC10. Below I have posted a link to the site where I am getting my table data from. I hope this helps make things a little clearer. Again, thank you!

http://www.obsidianlab.com/gis_sources.html

Doyle

Re: Trouble adding XY data

KevinDoyle — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 11:39:22 GMT

Oops. I just re-read what I wrote. I said "I already zoomed out". What I meant by that is that I already zoomed IN to see if the scale I was working with was preventing the other points from showing up. That is not the case. Everything seems to be in order. It's just the conversion of the points from one coordinate system to another....

Re: Trouble adding XY data

KevinDoyle — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 12:02:04 GMT

I've ALSO noticed that this post has gotten 25 views. If anyone else knows anything about my situation, please, give your two cents. I need it...both literally and metaphorically

Re: Trouble adding XY data

michaelcollins1 — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 13:40:34 GMT

Are you adding directly from the table? You need to specify a geographic coordinate system rather than a projection, probably "Geographic Coordinate Systems | World | WGS 1984"

Re: Trouble adding XY data

KevinDoyle — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 13:51:02 GMT

This is what the "Add X,Y data" window says when I navigate to my table data:

Projected Coordinate System:
Name: WGS_1984_Web_Mercator_Auxiliary_Sphere

Geographic Coordinate System:
Name: GCS_WGS_1984

...is this an ArcMap default or something? Either way, I still only see one feature point.

Re: Trouble adding XY data

KevinDoyle — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 14:07:47 GMT

If I open up the layer properties and click on the source tab, I'm given this information.

"Data Type: XY Event Source
Location: P:\GIS_Intern\Kevin_Doyle\Projects\School_GIS_Proj\Tables\GIS_Proj.xlsx
Table: Sheet1$
X Field: LONG
Y Field: LAT
Has Object-ID Field: No

Projected Coordinate System: WGS_1984_Web_Mercator_Auxiliary_Sphere
Projection: Mercator_Auxiliary_Sphere
False_Easting: 0.00000000
False_Northing: 0.00000000
Central_Meridian: 0.00000000
Standard_Parallel_1: 0.00000000
Auxiliary_Sphere_Type: 0.00000000
Linear Unit: Meter

Geographic Coordinate System: GCS_WGS_1984
Datum: D_WGS_1984
Prime Meridian: Greenwich
Angular Unit: Degree"

I have a feeling this information answers my question but I know nothing about projection/coordinate systems.

Re: Trouble adding XY data

michaelcollins1 — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 14:53:15 GMT

follow this

http://www.wwu.edu/huxley/spatial/tut/XYdata.htm

Re: Trouble adding XY data

KevinDoyle — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 15:09:42 GMT

Thanks. I'm going on lunch now but I will try it when I return and hopefully this will solve my problem. I glanced at the site and it looked like it will be helpful. I'll let you know how it goes.

Re: Trouble adding XY data

KevinDoyle — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 16:14:41 GMT

OK. So I tried following the instructions as provided on the site you've provided. It was for adding data with 9.2, however everything pretty much seems to be the same (with the exception that 9.2 doesn't allow you to add Excel files, whereas 10 does). The only thing I could see in this walk-through that I didn't already do was to change the projected coordinate system to:

NAD 1983 UTM Zone 10N

AND I ALSO TRIED

WGS84 UTM Zone 10N

But I got an error message. This is becoming more and more confusing to me. I attached a photo of the error message that popped up.

Re: Trouble adding XY data

KevinDoyle — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 16:49:22 GMT

Can anyone see anything wrong with my Excel sheet?

Re: Trouble adding XY data

TimothyHales — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 10:51:18 GMT

Hey Kevin,

I tried out the Excel table and got the same results you did. The points showed up at 0,0. I believe there is something wrong with the spreadsheet. I'm not sure if it is the table or a format issue; however, I was able to get it to work. From ArcMap I exported the Excel table to a .dbf table. The new .dbf table displayed the points in the correct location when using the Display XY Data function. Try that out and let me know if it works.

Re: Trouble adding XY data

LeonardWilliamson — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 12:37:54 GMT

The field names all have spaces at the end. Once I removed the spaces, the data loads and the xy events display in the correct locations.

Re: Trouble adding XY data

KevinDoyle — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 12:10:21 GMT

Hey Kevin,

I tried out the Excel table and got the same results you did. The points showed up at 0,0. I believe there is something wrong with the spreadsheet. I'm not sure if it is the table or a format issue; however, I was able to get it to work. From ArcMap I exported the Excel table to a .dbf table. The new .dbf table displayed the points in the correct location when using the Display XY Data function. Try that out and let me know if it works.

Thank you! What you said worked, as did Lenny's advice (comment below this one).

Re: Trouble adding XY data

KevinDoyle — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 12:10:59 GMT

The field names all have spaces at the end. Once I removed the spaces, the data loads and the xy events display in the correct locations.

Thank you. You're help is appreciated!