How To Change Coordinate System In Arcmap

How to add lat, long coordinates from an Excel spreadsheet into ArcGIS

If y'all have a list of Excel lat long coordinates in a spreadsheet, giving them locations can be a daunting task for those starting in ArcGIS.

And so that'south why we've made this piece of cake-to-follow tutorial to guide you in the right direction.

You can have any GPS locations or any lat long coordinates from a spreadsheet and import them as points.

Permit's look at a quick and like shooting fish in a barrel approach to transform an Excel table into geographic data in ArcMap.

1. Convert degrees/minutes/seconds to decimal degrees

If you lot take latitude and longitude coordinates, you will have to prepare these columns in decimal degrees.

Offset, use this online decimal degrees converter or the conversion formula below.

Conversion formula: Decimal Degrees = Degrees + (Minutes/60) + (Seconds/3600)

Please annotation:

All column headers should have no special characters and should be kept to a minimum.

READ More than: Degrees/Minutes/Seconds (DMS) vs Decimal Degrees (DD)

two. Ensure data frame is prepare to your geographic coordinate system

In ArcGIS, correct-click the "Layers" data frame in the table of contents. So, select properties for the data frame.

In the coordinate organisation tab, expand geographic coordinate systems. Because GPS receivers utilise WGS84, click earth and then select WGS 1984.

Now, the data frame is set to WGS 1984 geographic coordinate organisation.

3. Add Excel lat long coordinates tabular array to ArcMap

Now, add your excel data to ArcMap (file > add information).

Navigate to your Excel spreadsheet and double-click the sheet with the lat long coordinates.

This will add the Excel table to ArcGIS and appear in the table of contents.

iv. Display XY Information

Right click the table and select brandish XY data.

The 10 field should equal longitude.
The Y field should equal latitude.

When you click OK, this will create an issue layer on your map. Simply this is merely a temporary layer that y'all need to make permanent.

5. Relieve as characteristic form

As mentioned in step 4, when you create an XY effect layer, ArcGIS doesn't save it to memory. Before you close your ArcGIS session, you need to create a characteristic form or shapefile.

So right-click the upshot layer and consign data (data > consign information). Next, click "employ the same coordinate system equally the information layer".

Relieve the file. At this point, you permanently create a spatial file from an Excel spreadsheet.

Epitomize: How to Import Excel Data in ArcGIS

ane. Convert degrees/minutes/seconds to decimal degrees
2. Ensure data frame is set to WGS 1984
3. Add together Excel table to ArcMap
iv. Display XY Data
5. Save as feature course

When yous follow these quick v steps, you turn an Excel spreadsheet with latitude and longitude coordinates into spatial data.

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