GB Grid not displaying correctly

[JudithCauldwell]

Hi,

I don't know if anyone else has noticed this but when you set the co-ordinates of ArcGIS Explorer to British National Grid and ask to view Position Information the co-ordinates are the wrong way round i.e. they show them as northings and eastings, not eastings and northings as is standard.

Is this a known bug, or am I doing something wrong? I'm working in 2D mode, if that makes a difference?

🙂

[MichaelBranscomb]

Judith,

The coordinates are being displayed as a direct conversion of Latitude & Longitude - i.e. the opposite way round to X,Y. This is probbaly considered "as designed" - but I'll enter an enhancement request to swap the coordinates to correctly represent the X,Y order.

I assume you're a UK customer - any UK-specific feedback you have is much appreciated. You may also be interested in a couple of Add-Ins I posted recently:

Zoom to Map Scale: http://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=dd68c3836cb24d6d9d5030f6837e61a2
Zooom To British National Grid Reference: http://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=c328c0e8aad6449898362859a75de366

Regards

Mike

[JudithCauldwell]

Hi Mike,

Many thanks for raising it. I had a feeling it was probably something to do with Lat/Long being the default.

Yes, as you've guessed, I am a UK user. I've found the addin for the 'Zoom to map scale' and it's extremely useful. I'll certainly be looking at the OS grid one as I'm in the middle of trying to replicate MapExplorer functionality as best I can, which is where the printing issues came in.

One thing that has been bothering me is normally in GIS you have a zoom to previous/next extent - very useful when you accidently double click on a layer and it zooms out to the whole extent -you'd think I'd learn after the first time of doing it but no 😮 - you don't happen to know of an addin for that?

🙂

[MichaelBranscomb]

Judith,

Unfortunately I'm not aware of an Add-In that offers zoom to previous/next extent - I'll give that some thought.

You may also be interested in some of these other Add-Ins: http://www.arcgis.com/home/group.html?owner=arcgis_explorer&title=ArcGIS%20Explorer%20Labs&start=1. Notably probably the Query Plus and Table Viewer Add-Ins.

Regards

Mike

[JudithCauldwell]

Hi Mike,

Yes I'd found those and they are very useful, especially the query ones as I've got to get our gazetteer sorted as an address locator.

I've had a quick look at the zoom to an OS grid reference, I like the fact you can draw the extent but my understanding was the grid reference was the south west corner of the bounding box not the centre, for example 2569 would translate as 25000 69000. Also, an option to put in the co-ordinates without the sheet letters (i.e. NJ, SK etc) would be good as more and more grid references are quoted without them using the numbers instead (so NJ2569 would be, if I remember correctly, 325469 and SK2569 425369) If I'm being really pernickity the tag line is a bit long when you the addin is a ribbon button, might I suggest 'GB' instead of 'British National'? Also It would be nice, as a point option maybe(?), if you could zoom to a ten or twelve figure grid reference.

It would be nice to have the ability to turn on the UK grid with the grid tick under the units options, I believe this works for Lat/Long but not other projections.

Judith 🙂

[MichaelBranscomb]

Judith,

This is all excellent feedback - thanks. If I have the time to evolve the Add-In then I will attempt to do so. I already have another version planned - but this will be specific to the next version (due in the next couple of months) to highlight one of the new features.

Of the enhancements you suggested...

- Allow user to enter actual grid ref number instead of characters - probably not complicated but would require a little time to work out.

- Title/caption too long: I can change this easily - if I have time I will alter and update the Add-In online.

- Zoom to 10 or 12 figure grid ref: This could quite easily be added - again - if I have time I'll look into this.

Regarding the point that is displayed - it is actually the centre point of the grid cell reference. Once the conversion is complete, an additional amount is added to the new coordinates to obtain the cell centre point - but I agree this may not always be desirable. It would be easy to provide an additional option allowing the user to choose whether the point is added at the centre OR the lower left corner.

Regards

Mike

[ShellyGill2]

Unfortunately I'm not aware of an Add-In that offers zoom to previous/next extent - I'll give that some thought.

This would be tricky in the current release, as there's no way to know when the user has stopped navigating and there is a new extent. However, with the upcoming 1500 release, the new ViewpointChanged event could be used pretty simply to write a back/forward extents button. Ideally I think you'd also need to factor in the new DisplayModeChanging/DisplayModeChanged events in order to reset things when the user switches from 2D to 3D and back.

[JudithCauldwell]

Hi Shelly,

Thanks for that. Just out of interest I'm hearing a lot about 1500 but there doesn't seem to be a release date, any ideas how soon it's coming along? Also will the add-ins for 1200 work on 1500?

Many thanks,

🙂

[MichaelBranscomb]

Judith,

We're in the final stages of getting 1500 ready for release - but unfortunately there's not a specific date I can announce at the moment. The goal is some time in the next few weeks.

Regarding 1200 Add-Ins - the vast majority will just work but as ever it depends on what the developer has done specifically. All the Add-Ins which are posted on the Explorer Labs area are tested by the team (http://www.arcgis.com/home/group.html?owner=arcgis_explorer&title=ArcGIS%20Explorer%20Labs).

Regards

Mike

[KathrynPollard]

Hi,

I am using build 1750 and have found that the co-ordinates for the British National Grid display OK but if I type a co-ordinate into 'find' (eastings,northings) it flies to the wrong place but the other way round it works fine. Just a small but annoying bug....and could do away with the addin too.

Kate.