Trouble adding XY data

[KevinDoyle]

Hello,

I'm a college student just becoming familiar with all of the facets of GIS software. I have a lot to learn so bare with me.  I'm currently doing a project that calls for me to obtain lat/long coordinates from a website.  What I did was right click on the tables shown in the website and exported them to excel.  Now I have my data.  I go into ArcMap to add the XY data. (File>Add Data>Add X,Y data). Once I add my data (excel sheet 1) it comes up in the T.O.C however on the map itself it appears only as one point.  Rather than, oh i dont know, the 200 different points included in the excel table data.  I do not know if it is because I'm not using the right projection or coordinate system or if the points need to be converted into a different format or what. I have never used these forums before so I guess I'm being pretty vague until someone responds to this thread so I know that it works. Someone please help!!! This is my final project for school!! Thanks.

[TimothyHales]

Hi! Welcome to the ArcGIS Forums.

Could you check a couple things with the new layer that was added?

1. Right click the layer > Open Attribute Table.  The table that opens should be similar to the Excel table.  Here you will see the number of features.  Do you see approximately 200 records?

2. Right click the layer > Zoom to Layer.  Are you able to see more points?  It is possible that you are zoomed so far out that the display generalizes the layer to a single point.

I hope this helps.  Please let me know if you have any other questions.

[KevinDoyle]

Woo! I'm excited to see that I actually got a response. Thank you for responding. I wasn't even sure if I posted my question in the right spot.  So to answer your question, yes, when I open the attribute table all of the points are there.  I have already zoomed out.  I have a feeling I'm missing an important step somewhere.  I think I need to convert these points but I'm not sure to what or how I would go about doing it.  I am pretty sure the points that I obtained from the web-site are DD and I think THINK! that they need to be in DMS?

I'm using ARC10.  Below I have posted a link to the site where I am getting my table data from.  I hope this helps make things a little clearer.  Again, thank you!


                         http://www.obsidianlab.com/gis_sources.html

Doyle

[KevinDoyle]

Oops. I just re-read what I wrote.  I said "I already zoomed out".  What I meant by that is that I already zoomed IN to see if the scale I was working with was preventing the other points from showing up. That is not the case.  Everything seems to be in order. It's just the conversion of the points from one coordinate system to another....

[KevinDoyle]

I've ALSO noticed that this post has gotten 25 views. If anyone else knows anything about my situation, please, give your two cents. I need it...both literally and metaphorically

[michaelcollins1]

Are you adding directly from the table? You need to specify a geographic coordinate system rather than a projection, probably "Geographic Coordinate Systems | World | WGS 1984"

[KevinDoyle]

This is what the "Add X,Y data" window says when I navigate to my table data:

Projected Coordinate System:
  Name: WGS_1984_Web_Mercator_Auxiliary_Sphere

Geographic Coordinate System:
  Name: GCS_WGS_1984

...is this an ArcMap default or something? Either way, I still only see one feature point.

[KevinDoyle]

If I open up the layer properties and click on the source tab, I'm given this information. 

"Data Type: XY Event Source
Location: P:\GIS_Intern\Kevin_Doyle\Projects\School_GIS_Proj\Tables\GIS_Proj.xlsx
Table: Sheet1$
X Field: LONG
Y Field: LAT
Has Object-ID Field: No

Projected Coordinate System: WGS_1984_Web_Mercator_Auxiliary_Sphere
Projection: Mercator_Auxiliary_Sphere
False_Easting: 0.00000000
False_Northing: 0.00000000
Central_Meridian: 0.00000000
Standard_Parallel_1: 0.00000000
Auxiliary_Sphere_Type: 0.00000000
Linear Unit:  Meter

Geographic Coordinate System: GCS_WGS_1984
Datum:  D_WGS_1984
Prime Meridian:  Greenwich
Angular Unit:  Degree"

I have a feeling this information answers my question but I know nothing about projection/coordinate systems.

[michaelcollins1]

follow this

http://www.wwu.edu/huxley/spatial/tut/XYdata.htm

[KevinDoyle]

Thanks. I'm going on lunch now but I will try it when I return and hopefully this will solve my problem.  I glanced at the site and it looked like it will be helpful. I'll let you know how it goes.