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

[TanuHoque]

just to add a comment here to let everyone subscribed to this thread that the request is implemented in ArcGIS Pro 3.2.

Please see this idea for more info:

https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-pro-ideas/arcgis-pro-2-6-an-option-to-clear-the-coordinate/idi-...

[RTPL_AU]

This is implemented from 3.2.
3.3 is current at time of writing this post.

Set the map coordsys to Unknown.

Help for 3.2:
https://pro.arcgis.com/en/pro-app/3.2/help/mapping/properties/use-an-unknown-coordinate-system.htm

[JosephChampagne]

Respectfully, setting a MAP projection to unknown is not the same as having the ability to clear the projection from a dataset and this is not an adequate replacement for the functionality in ArcMap.

At the very least, the Unknown projection shouldn't be hidden in 'Define Projection'; having to set a map frame as unknown and pass that through is a janky workaround. Saying this is 'Implemented' is a joke.

[MelitaKennedy]

Hi Joseph, 

The original idea is to clear the coordinate system from a map (or scene) in ArcGIS Pro to match the same functionality from ArcGIS Desktop. We have implemented that. The capability is designed to see how two or more layers display relative to each other. If one layer has a defined coordinate system but you think that it's incorrect, visualizing the offset can help you figure out what the correct coordinate system should be. 

If you instead want to remove the coordinate system from a dataset itself permanently, yes, that is better handled by the Define Projection tool. 

Do you want to temporarily set a layer's coordinate system to 'None', while within a map or scene? We did discuss that possible capability while working on clearing the map/scene coordinate system, but decided against implementing it for a few reasons. It wasn't possible in ArcGIS Desktop. It would be difficult to implement because so many different workflows interact with a data layer. Sometimes they're interacting with the actual data set rather than the 'copy' of the metadata in the map or scene so we would have to modify all these workflows/functionality. It gets complicated quickly. 

Melita Kennedy

[JosephChampagne]

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If you instead want to remove the coordinate system from a dataset itself permanently, yes, that is better handled by the Define Projection tool. 

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From the dataset, yes. If this is the intended 'Implementation' of the ability to modify that property of a dataset directly in Desktop Catalog, at least let us select 'Unknown' directly in 'Define Projection' rather than having to pass it as the inherited projection of a map or another dataset that has to have ITS projection manually set as 'Unknown' separately.

Even lacking the ability to directly re-specify the projection of a dataset in Catalog makes this so many extra steps versus Desktop. When EVERYTHING in Pro is already so many extra steps compared to equivalent functionality in Desktop. If long-time users are going to be forced off of Desktop at least don't force us on to something that makes our jobs and lives harder.

[JamalNUMAN]

I tried the “unknow” option in ArcGIS Pro 3.4.2 and it appears to work fine.

In the screenshot below:

1. The coordinate system of the map is “Palestine 1923 Palestine Grid.”

2. The coordinate system of one of the layers is “Palestine 1923 Palestine Grid,” and the other is “Israel TM Grid.”

Now, in the case where these two layers are added to a map with the “Palestine 1923 Palestine Grid” coordinate system, they are aligned according to the coordinate system of the map, which in this case is “Palestine 1923 Palestine Grid.”
If the coordinate system of the map is set to “Unknown,” then the two layers will be displayed using their absolute units