Where to find and or create the Projection files for Coordinate Systems to use for Trimble GPS Pathfinder Office export?
Below are some options to finding and or creating the Projection files to use for Export of data from Trimble GPS Pathfinder Office.
Or, what if you don’t have direct access to ArcGIS and would still would like to use these projections files to define the projection of your Coordinate System for your SHP file export – then what do you do?
Look no further:
Here’s the link to the ArcGIS projection files (in a ZIP file)
If you are unable to download and save the Projection Files from above then see our website:
Scroll down and on the right underneath the “General Support” column look for below the GPSCorrect and GPS Analyst links and locate and click on the link called ArcGIS 10 Coordinate System Files.
- Download from the Seiler Mapping Support website the ArcGIS 10.0 “Prj’s” listed above.
- Manually create the “Prj” – see below for details
- Trimble Support Note: PRJ FILE ACQUISITION WITH ESRI ARCGIS 10.1 OR LATER
- You can download the projections 1 at a time from Spatial Reference
- You can watch this video on how to create the Projection File one at time from an existing SHP file or database for ArcGIS 10.1.
Tip: Remember to define the projection as the same as your coordinate system “Apples to Apples” otherwise your data might end up in another state or continent.
Once you save the folder to your PC you can then Browse to the Projection folder/files you are interested in from within the GPS Pathfinder Office “SHP files Export Properties Coordinate System” tab. Side note: If you are not finding the proper “WGS84” in the projection folder then try the “Geographic projection” folder.
Manually create the Projection File if you are running ArcGIS 10.1 or higher then do the following:
- Open ArcCatalog
- Create a new shapefile
- Under Spatial Reference, select edit
- Set the coordinate system/datum you need
- Add it to your favorites
- Repeat for all coordinate systems you need
- The Location to Browse to On Win7, the Favorites location is something like:c:Users[login][Roaming | Local | etc]AppDataESRIDesktop10.1ArcMapCoordinate Systems
On WinXP, it’s C:Documents and Settings[login]Application DataESRIDesktop10.1ArcMapCoordinate Systems
NOTE * You may have to unhide your folders so you can see AppData folder
Why doesn’t the software automatically choose the proper projection file based on the coordinate system of the output file? That would prevent data from being assigned the wrong projection.
Kim,
Hi, thats a great question. I don’t have an exact answer as to why Trimble does not have it programed that way. About 3 years ago this was not even an option in GPS Pathfinder Office. You would then have to assign the projection in ArcGIS. You are in control of then pointing to the ESRI projection and or Geographic files as there might be cases where you don’t want the same projection as what your coordinates are set to.
Jay
Thank you so much for providing the zip file of all the .prj files! It makes my life so much easier, and I will provide a copy to my co-workers as we all transition to 10.1.
You are welcome.
Jay