Display Longitude, Latitude of objects

[yasin2ray]

I have locus points for proposed trees and a worksheet displaying information about the trees: ID, Latin Name, Common Name. I want to add the Longitude and Latitude of each tree to the worksheet but I cannot find what function to use in the cell to display that.

I have a georeferenced file.

I'm waiting for an email reply from tech support but this is urgent and I have no idea how long it'll take to hear back. Does anyone know how to display Latitude and Longitude?

I've attached a screenshot of my file showing the Data tab of one of the objects that needs Longitude, Latitude displayed. It also shows the worksheet I have set up for displaying the tree info. What function goes in those dang cells?

By the way, Xcenter, Ycenter, XCoordiante, YCoordinate do NOT work - they display the location based on x,y of the file not taking the georeferenced location into account.

 

Having said all that, I'm a bit worried the trees are not in the correct location. The location of the highlighted tree locus in the file is 2882818'9", 2315428'6.156" while the coordinates of this location (Gary, Indiana) are 41 North and 87 West. Also, to help you understand what you're looking at, the tree loci are a shapefile I exported from my project file and imported into this file for the purpose of checking on what I produced. This shapefile is a deliverable to the client who will put the tree location shapefile into an app so that people can locate the trees as part of a national science project.

Thank you!

Anna

[Tamsin Slatter]

Your signature says 2016. Is that correct? If you are on 2016, the following instructions will not work for you and it's not possible to combine X and Y with Lat and Long in 2016.

 

If you are using 2020, did you first set the GIS coordinate system? 

Workflow should be:

1. Blank file - set Georeferencing settings to match appropriate coordinate system.
2. Tools > Origin > User Origin - Set User Origin to match georeferencing coordinate system. Now, X and Y will match Easting and Northing for the appropriate coordinate system, and you will be able to report Lat Long as well for the same coordinate system.
3. Import any DWG data using the File contains georeferenced geometry setting - this will align the data with the GIS coordinate system.
4. Import Shapefiles. These will also align with the GIS coordinate system.

As for reporting Longitude and Latitude in a worksheet, I am not sure that you can... I am hunting through the functions to see what I can find. But, if your coordinate systems are correctly set up as above, you can report the Easting and Northing values which should match what you have (using XCoordinate and YCoordinate). The Stake tool can display the Lat Long values, but I cannot, at the moment, see a way to report those values in a worksheet.

I hope that helps and that tech support are able to supplement this.

 

[Pat Stanford]

The Stake Object does not appear to actually store the displayed values (in any unit), but rather just calculates and displays them. That means there is no way to pull that data into a worksheet. I may have already put in an enhancement request to have the values stored so they could be accessed (read only) from the PIO Record..  :-(

[Tamsin Slatter]

Thanks for clarifying Pat. If you can't do it, I know, no one can!

But at least if the correct Easting and Northing is mapped to X and Y, then those numbers will be correct.

[Pat Stanford]

It may be worthwhile to save your pennies and see if you can hold your breath for 60 days.  ;-)

[yasin2ray]

On 7/17/2020 at 1:14 PM, Tamsin Slatter said:

Thank you @Tamsin Slatter

I need to change my signature - we have Service Select so I'm currently using v2020.

I'm not quite sure what you're saying here: "if your coordinate systems are correctly set up as above, you can report the Easting and Northing values which should match what you have (using XCoordinate and YCoordinate)."

I"m attaching a screenshot of what the XCoord and YCoord functions produce. Perhaps you're saying this is the Easting and Northing but, of course, not the Longitude and Latitude.

 

On 7/17/2020 at 1:14 PM, Tamsin Slatter said:

Your signature says 2016. Is that correct? If you are on 2016, the following instructions will not work for you and it's not possible to combine X and Y with Lat and Long in 2016.

 

If you are using 2020, did you first set the GIS coordinate system? 

Workflow should be:

1. Blank file - set Georeferencing settings to match appropriate coordinate system.
2. Tools > Origin > User Origin - Set User Origin to match georeferencing coordinate system. Now, X and Y will match Easting and Northing for the appropriate coordinate system, and you will be able to report Lat Long as well for the same coordinate system.
3. Import any DWG data using the File contains georeferenced geometry setting - this will align the data with the GIS coordinate system.
4. Import Shapefiles. These will also align with the GIS coordinate system.

As for reporting Longitude and Latitude in a worksheet, I am not sure that you can... I am hunting through the functions to see what I can find. But, if your coordinate systems are correctly set up as above, you can report the Easting and Northing values which should match what you have (using XCoordinate and YCoordinate). The Stake tool can display the Lat Long values, but I cannot, at the moment, see a way to report those values in a worksheet.

I hope that helps and that tech support are able to supplement this.

 

@Tamsin Slatter 

[yasin2ray]

@Pat Stanford ?!

Having the Long/Lat stored at part of the PIO record would be amazing. Frankly, I assumed that was already there, but hey, I'm always grateful for enhancements and for customer requests being heard.

60 days, I assume you're referring the release of v2021 - is it that time of year already?! Wow.

I can wait 60 days if you're advocating on my behalf to get this feature fulfilled. Thank you so much. Georeferenced data is integral to so many of our projects and sometimes we need to be able to display on a map the location of a feature (for example, a data tag that displays the Long/Lat for each tree). We sometimes work with environmental scientists who collect 'threatened and endangered' plant and animal gis data and they hire us to map the location of these existing features.

 

For this particular project, we were producing shapefiles for a project partner who will train "citizen scientists" to monitor the trees for the purpose of gathering climate change data.  So the shapefiles we produce out of Vectorworks are not just for something mundane like knowing where to construct the planting beds. The shapefiles are not the end of the project but the beginning of the next phase of the project. As we speak, people in Gary, Indiana are discussing the project, developing educational signage, and beginning to receive training that complies with the National Phenology Network program. It's a very exciting project and we hope to do more of them.

Thank you so much,

Anna