Shapefiles not lining up after XY import (please help)

MaximilianHirn — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 19:13:48 GMT

Sorry for the cross-post / I initially posted here but the general forum might be more appropriate. I can't see a "delete" button!?

Hi,

I am using ArcInfo 10 Evaluation Edition (no service pack) and have a real problem, because my XY imported point-data (waterpoints) does not line up with country-shapefile data.

I have the clan-administrative boundary files for Liberia. I also have an Excel .xls file with approx. 10,000 waterpoints, each with longitude and latitute coordinates (Example: lon -8.831632, lat 6.95777). I want to import these points into ArcMap to display them on the Liberia clan-map. The clan-map works perfectly fine. All files are in the same folder. The longitude/latitude points clearly lie on Liberian territory.

My work-flow is as follows:

1. I start with a Blank Map and right-click on Layers -> Add Data...
2. I select the "All_WP_clean.xls" file and choose "Sheet1$" (the only one)
3. In the Table of Contents, I right-click on the Sheet1$ and select "Display XY Data"
4. In the menu, I select my longitude coordinate for the X-field (lon), and latitude for Y
5. For the "coordinate system of input coordinates", which is auto-set to "World_Mercator", GCS_WGS_1984", I choose "Edit" -> "Import" and then select the Clan-map shapefile. The coordinate system then shows up as:

Projected Coordinate System:
Name: World_Mercator
Projection: Mercator
False_Easting: 0.000000
False_Northing: 0.000000
Central_Meridian: 0.000000
Standard_Parallel_1: 0.000000
Linear Unit: Meter (1.000000)

Geographic Coordinate System: GCS_WGS_1984
Angular Unit: Degree (0.017453292519943299)
Prime Meridian: Greenwich (0.000000000000000000)
Datum: D_WGS_1984
    Spheroid: WGS_1984
      Semimajor Axis: 6378137.000000000000000000
      Semiminor Axis: 6356752.314245179300000000
      Inverse Flattening: 298.257223563000030000

Now I click on OK. This yields the message "Table Does Not Have Object-ID Field", I click OK again.

7. The point data shows up nicely, roughly outlining the country-borders as expected.

8. I now click on data->export data and save the point-data as a shapefile "All_WP_clean.shp". It prompts me: "Do you want to add the exported data to the map as a layer?" and I say Yes.

9. I now open the ArcCatalog box, and I right-click on the "All_WP_clean.shp" file, select properties and verify that the XY Coordinate Sytem is still the same as shown above, and the same as displayed for the clan-boundary shapefile. This is the case.

10. Hence, I now right-click on Layers, click on Add Data and add the clan-shapefile.

HOWEVER - the clan shapefile does not show up (under) the waterpoints as it should. The only way I can make it show up is to right-click on the layer and select "Zoom to Layer". If I do that, I can see the clan boundaries, but none of the waterpoints.

I'm really at my wits end. How can I make these points to line up?

I would be most grateful for help. The clan-shapefile, excel file and resulting All_WP_clean shapefile can be downloaded here as a zip-file: http://tinyurl.com/454zh8d

topic Shapefiles not lining up after XY import (please help) in Data Management Questions

Shapefiles not lining up after XY import (please help)