How to “clear” the coordinate system of the “Map” to get it to “unknown” in ArcGIS Pro,

[JamalNUMAN]

How to “clear” the coordinate system of the “Map” to get it to “unknown” in ArcGIS Pro,

For example, in ArcMap, the clear option is available and one can set the “data frame” to unknown. I couldn’t figure out how to “clear” the coordinate system of the “Map” to get it to “unknown” in ArcGIS Pro as this option is not there

[GregoryLund2]

Dan,

I'm in full agreement on checking and double checking, but... when teaching students, i have found that this little 'stop gap' is a great way to show it to them, explain about the data being in different spaces.

If they click 'full extent' and their data doesn't line up, they know that they forgot to do something.

Similar with 'Clear Projection'... If one of the layers disappears.... they realize right away that there is an issue.

This gives them a visual, and concrete reasoning of why we must line up our data, rather than it being an abstract concept. Thus far... 10 years in, it has worked, students 'get it' and rarely make Coordinate System/Projection mistakes after the 'Coordinate System and Projections' lab!

[DanPatterson_Retired]

True Gregory... as long as they remember to zoom to full extent

[JamalNUMAN]

I’m sure, Dan, why are even against to having it an optional!. We do really need it at our work and can’t live without it.

I would appreciate if other experts can share us the discussion on this

[GregoryLund2]

I know this is two years after the fact, however, I do not think that Jamal (& Jamal please correct me if I'm wrong) wishes to utilize an 'Unknown' Coordinate system, rather... he (and I) would like to utilize the actual coordinate systems of the data/layers.
To me, what Pro is doing, essentially... is Projecting on the Fly, no?, rather than utilizing the actual coordinate system of the layers/data?

To Repeat my question from 15 October 2019:

I'm writing to ask... what does ArcPro do then? Project on the fly? Project in the Layer's coordinate system? I haven't been able to find the answer to this.

Regards.

[Robert_LeClair]

Gregory - here's the AGP workflow for project on the fly behavior.

1. When a new map is added to an AGP project, the default coordinate system for the Map View is WGS 1984 Web Mercator Auxiliary Sphere.
2. The first vector/raster dataset added to the new Map View defines the coordinate system for the Map View. (i.e. UTM Zone 13N NAD83 for example)
3. All vector/raster datasets that are not in the now default coordinate system for the new Map View (i.e. UTM) are projected on the fly to match the coordinate system of the Map View.  (ex.  uncoming GDB FC is in Stateplane NAD 83 Colorado Central "projects on the fly" to UTM Zone 13N NAD83)  The coordinate system for the incoming datasets are not changed.
4. Any geographic transformation warning error messages are automatically resolved by AGP.  In ArcMap, it would throw a warning message for the user to fix.  Many people clicked Close not knowing what this meant.

Hope this helps!

[JamalNUMAN]

Thank you guys for the rich input

I need to re-confirm that we do still need the “clear” option in ArcPro. This option used to be in ArcMap since ages. It is a simple as this. I’m not sure why this should be very challenging for developers to have it implemented in the Pro

[GregoryLund2]

I'm writing to ask... what does ArcPro do then? Project on the fly? Project in the Layer's coordinate system? I haven't been able to find the answer to this.

Ironic... I just uploaded a video about Coordinate Systems and Projections for my introduction to GIS course at the University of Washington Tacoma.

[Robert_LeClair]

So in researching this question a bit further, there is a bug number (BUG-000114029) for it although technically it's not a bug.  As described to the customer "Unfortunately removing the ability to set 'none' coordinate system in Pro is a design decision.  Having no coordinate system could lead to lots of problems..."  The support call also references this thread as well.  Lastly there is an ArcGIS Idea submitted for this item that is marked as Reviewed.

[KoryKramer]

Hi Gregory Lund‌!  Like Robert wrote above, this is currently a design decision in ArcGIS Pro and is being tracked as an ArcMap equivalency issue over here: https://community.esri.com/ideas/17163 The mapping team is interested in hearing users' use cases for this functionality - some of which has already been provided on this thread.  I'd recommend moving this discussion over to the Idea thread, with comments focusing on how you currently use the functionality in ArcMap.  Thank you - and hope you are well!

[deleted-user-2Fg69EwaShGZ]

Having an "arbitrary plane" or no projection is used when bringing in data from many data sources. It is important to have this functionality in the software to make it as flexible as possible for many different types of users and uses. Many spatial data outputs from other software don't always work directly with ESRI products, especially in Raster workflows, so being able to see the actually pixel coordinate in the image structure is useful and necessary.

And the real thing that annoys many many arcGIS users is: Why does ArcPro eliminate functionality that has existed in past software, but ESRI doesn't think is useful or shouldn't be there for unknown reasons?  ESRI you should listen to your userbase a lot more. Many have been posting on forums like this for years about reasons why they need fuctionality, but it feels like you aren't listening or dont care.