A couple of issues when downloading shapefiles.

[FilmonFishastion]

I have found that when downloading shapefiles from open data, aliases revert to the original field names and the coordinate system transforms on the fly. I was wondering if it was possible to retain these two components from the original data uploaded to open data.

[AdrianWelsh]

Hi Filmon,

It doesn't look like it.

Prepare your data—ArcGIS Open Data | ArcGIS

In here it says:

• Field aliases—Change complex GIS data field names to a more user-friendly description of the content of the field. Dataset downloads will supply the field name, not the field alias.

It doesn't mention coordinate systems but it is likely the same issue. What transformation is happening with coordinate systems?

[DanPatterson_Retired]

The actual coordinates of the file are not changed.  They will project to the coordinate system of the data frame, assuming you are adding to arcmap, but in order for the coordinates to physically change, a new file needs to produced through the projection process.

[DanielFenton1 · Accepted solution]

Hi Filmon, unfortunately shapefiles do not support aliases. So the original field name is used. Typically the data will be downloaded in the WGS84 CRS unless the data owner has local projections turned on. It that case, the projection will match the projection the data is served in.