Projection and distance units

[PeteWyatt]

Hello, I wonder if someone can help.  I have three map layers where the point coordinates are in lat/long (WGS 1984).  I've displayed them using the TWD_1997_TM_Taiwan national grid projection and the map units are set to meters - that's all fine.  But when use the 'generate near table' tool the distance measurements that are output are not in meters, they seem to be in decimal degrees.  Does anyone know how to output from the near tool in meters?  Many thanks in advance.

[SimonLiu]

Hi,

It sounds like you are projecting your input layers only for display, but the underlying data is still in WGS 1984.

You need to run the Project tool (Data Management -> Projections and Transformations -> Feature -> Project) on each of your data layers, setting the Output Coordinate System to 102443 (which is TWD_1997_TM_Taiwan).

Then, you can run Generate Near Table on the resulting layers. The units used should be metres.

Regards,
Simon

[PeteWyatt]

Simon, that's great, thank you very much for your help.