Now that the National Geodetic Survey has released the new Geoid18 model, you can now download and load it into GPS Pathfinder Office. There are a number of improvements over Geoid12B including advancements in digital elevation modeling techniques and better elevation data. There was also a 26% increase in the number of Bench Marks collected to improve the accuracy of the NAVD88 model while still being constrained to Geoid18, therefore increasing overall elevation accuracy.

Below, I have outlined the steps necessary to load Geoid18 into Pathfinder Office.

  1. Download Geoid18 (Conus) from this website
  2. This will be downloaded as g18us.ggf, save it to your desktop.
  3. Open the Coordinate System Manager program. This is a program that is automatically installed with Pathfinder Office. 
  4. Click View > Options then copy and paste that directory file path into a new Windows Explorer window. Copy the Geoid18 .ggf you saved to your desktop into the list of the other .ggf files located at that file path.
  5. Go back to Coordinate System Manager, click Edit > Add Geoid Model.
  6. Name the file GEOID18 (Conus) Fixed. The geoid name must ready exactly as the Export Name reads otherwise you will not see it in Pathfinder Office. 
  7. Select the g18us.ggf file for your File Name selection. Click Apply > OK.
  8. Save your changes!!
  9. Open Pathfinder Office > Options > Coordinate System. You should now see GEOID18 (Conus) Fixed as an option to select from for your MSL Geoid Models.