topic missing spatial reference/projection in Spatial Statistics Questions

missing spatial reference/projection

valerieadair — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 16:40:32 GMT

Hello,

I am having trouble getting a shapefile to be projected correctly. I have added a prj. file to match the other prj. file for which that shapefile is being projected correctly.

Any ideas as to what to try next?

Thank you.

Re: missing spatial reference/projection

ArinaChesnokova — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 17:12:53 GMT

Hi Valerie,

I'm not exactly sure what you are asking, but here are some thoughts.

Does the shapefile you are using have a defined coordinate system? You first have to define a geographic coordinate system and then project the shapefile. Projecting a shapefile that doesn't have a defined coordinate system causes mumbo-jumbo.

Are you using a downloaded or a self-generated shapefile? E.g. Tiger/Line Census files come with a pre-defined coordinate system (NAD 1983, I believe), but are not projected.

The "Define Projection" and the "Project" tools will be helpful in achieving your goals.

Hope this helps.
arina

Re: missing spatial reference/projection

valerieadair — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 17:47:01 GMT

Thank you, arina.

I understand the 2 step process. I have contacted a GIS help desk and they are having trouble, as well. A suggestion was to contact the person who sent me the files, which I have done. Will find out more on that late next week. A thought was that the data were collected under an unknown coordinate system by mistake.

When I "define projection" a check mark comes up on the lower right corner signifying the process was successful.
When I "project" a little x comes up where a check mark should be. This tells me that the process was unsuccessful. I was planning to look into this error code to see where the problems could arise.

val