Add MGRS coordinates to PDF exports

1685
3
08-08-2012 11:04 AM
Status: Open
Bo_King
Occasional Contributor III
Currently the georeference information saved inside the PDF file appears to contain only latitude and longitude info.  It would be nice to be able to read MGRS coordinates from the PDF when the map is georeferenced to a UTM coordinate system.  Obviously, Esri and Adobe would have to collaborate in order for the Adobe Geospatial Location Tool to be able to display both geographic and MGRS coordinates.
3 Comments
Bo_King
Further research reveals that the TerraGo Toolbar (ver.6.0.0) will read Esri embedded MGRS coordinates from a PDF exported from ArcMap.  I probably should have tried this yesterday.  C'est la vie. 
 
When exporting a PDF from ArcMap, simply check the "Export Map Georeference Information" on the Advanced tab of the Export Map window.  Then in Adobe, both the geographic and MGRS coordinates will be displayed using the TerraGo Toolbar.
 
TerraGo Toolbar (Free Download)
http://www.terragotech.com
 
TerraGo Toolbar Functionality Matrix
http://www.terragotech.com/terrago-toolbar-functionality-matrix
Note that the "Geospatial PDF" is a conventional PDF, with geospatial info, created with the ArcMap exporter. The "GeoPDF" is a PDF created using the TerraGo Publisher for ArcGIS.
 
I was pretty excited to discover this extended functionality that is a result of the TerraGo-Esri partnership.
RandyKnippel
Support for MGRS / USNG coordinate display of the open geospatial PDF produced by ArcMap has been discontinued in both Adobe Acrobat, Acrobat Reader, and the TerraGo Toolbar.  There isn't much information on the web about why this happened.  Here is an explanation from a TerraGo rep "We recently quit supporting geospatial PDF's to simply increase the value of our Publisher product.  Sorry for any inconvenience.".

It seems like there could have been a better, more strategic solution, like supporting minimal functionality (i.e. MGRS/USNG coordinate display) as a lead-in to more advanced functionality through the proprietary GeoPDF.

There are very few products supporting the open geospatial PDF standard.  Maybe Esri should produce a free viewer?
ThomasColson

Not a solution....but a workaround...Avenza lets your “display” in UTM....