Automated Map Projection Selection ArcMap Python Add-in

715
0
06-20-2020 05:59 AM
PaulGosling1
New Contributor II

In case anyone out there is interested, a few months ago I published an ArcGIS Python Add-in Toolbar which automates the selection of map projections for your specific project.

It was created by developing a selection scheme based on the user purpose, and also takes an input feature class which defines the user's area of interest. Different map projections are provided as candidates depending on the geographical characteristics of the input data, and these can be interactively selected and viewed using the add-in. A quantitative assessment of map projection distortion is also provided in a results text file.

The add-in is available from the following GitHub link, together with a User Guide and an ArcMap Python Toolbox with some of the functions as individual tools: https://github.com/pcgosling/ArcGIS-ProjectionSelection. The add-in was developed on earlier versions of ArcMap but works well on the current version 10.8.

For a more in-depth description of the background to the selection scheme and add-in development please see the article published in the Cartography and Geographic Information Science journal: https://doi.org/10.1080/15230406.2020.1717379

I would certainly be interested to hear anyone's experiences of using the add-in, and whether this has provided a useful tool to carry out the complex and sometimes confusing task of map projection selection.

I also hope that this stimulates further interest in determining what specific projections are suitable for different purposes and geographic characteristics, and therefore feed this in to the selection scheme to make this tool even better. There are a number of improvements I already know that I would like to implement, together with creating a version to work with ArcGIS Pro, but please note that this is not a project I am currently actively working on.

0 Replies