There are three places to access the projection settings of Grid+, as described below.
- Access from the toolbar button, as shown in Working with Projections in Grid+.
- Access from the File menu, as shown in Working with Projections in Grid+.
- Access from the Tools menu, as shown in Working with Projections in Grid+.
When the Projection Settings is selected, the Projection Settings form will appear as shown in Figure 4. As mentioned in the information box below, The user is not able to change the coordinate system from this form as Grid+ chooses the WGS84 geographic coordinate system as a default setting. It means that when we create any files from Grid+ and then export them to external files, their coordinates are in Latitude and Longitude. Figure 5 shows coordinates of a spline file when opening with the Notepad editor as an example. The first line of the file provides information on the coordinate system.
As a default setting, Grid+1.2 always works with the Geographic Coordinate System (GCS). It means that its coordinates are longitude and latitude.
While the projection settings cannot be changed, Grid+ allows the user to convert from the geographic coordinate system for each file layer in the Layer Control panel to the Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM). The user must define the correct UTM zone number for the latitude and longitude location. For example, we have made a grid by using Grid+ for the Caloosahatchee River in Florida, USA. As we have defined it, this river is located in the northern hemisphere UTM zone 17. We now want to convert the grid from the geographic coordinate system to the UTM zone.
To do this, select the grid layer from the Layer Control panel, then Right-mouse click (RMC), select Properties as shown in Working with Projections in Grid+. After that Grid Settings form will appear. Select Coordinate System tab, as shown in Working with Projections in Grid+, and then click the Convert button. The form for the Coordinate System will pop up, as shown in Working with Projections in Grid+. Now, we need to define the correct target coordinate system to which we want to convert. In this case, we select UTM zone 17 in the northern hemisphere, then click OK button. Next, click OK button in the form of Working with Projections in Grid+ to close it. Coordinate system conversion is now complete.
Figure 1 Access projection settings from a toolbar button.
Figure 2 Access projection settings from File menu.
Figure 3 Access projection settings from Tools menu.
Figure 4 Projection Settings form.
Figure 5 Open a generated file by Grid+ with the Notepad editor.
Figure 6 Select the Properties option of a layer in Layer Control (e.g., Grid layer).
Figure 7 Grid Settings: Coordinate System tab.
Figure 8 Convert Coordinate System.
In this step, we will export the grid to an external grid file. Select the grid layer from the Layer Control panel, then RMC, select Export/Export Grid as shown in Working with Projections in Grid+. After that Export Grid form will appear, enter a file name and click Save button, as shown in Working with Projections in Grid+.
Opening the grid file with the Notepad editor, we can see that the file contains UTM zone number information (e.g., 17 means that UTM zone 17, in the northern hemisphere) and coordinates values are Easting and Northing in units of meters, as shown in Working with Projections in Grid+. The UTM zone number will be negative for the southern hemisphere, as shown in Working with Projections in Grid+.
For a file that is converted from geographic coordinates to UTM zone by Grid+, do we need to define a coordinate system when opening it by Grid+? The answer is no because Grid+ will get projection information in header lines from the file and locate it in the correct place.
Figure 9 Export the Grid layer to an external file (1).
Figure 10 Export the Grid layer to an external file (2).
Figure 11 Exported grid in the northern hemisphere.
Figure 12 Exported grid in the southern hemisphere.
In another case, when we open a file generated by a third party, for example, a shoreline *.LDB (Delft3D LDB format), we will need to define a coordinate system.
In this case, we consider the shoreline as an overlay file so that we will click the Import button from the toolbar, then select Import Overlay as shown in Working with Projections in Grid+. The Import Overlay Layer form will pop up. Select the file and click Open button, as shown in Working with Projections in Grid+. As a result, a new shoreline layer is added to the Layer Control panel, as shown in Working with Projections in Grid+. However, when we RMC on that layer and select Zoom to Layer option, it is not located in the place we expected. This is because the file does not contain the coordinate system information, so Grid+ does not know where it should be located. This means we must make the shoreline located in the right places in the online background map.
To correctly configure the shoreline location, we must define the correct projection (coordinate system) to the file. RMC on that layer and then select Properties option. The Overlay Properties form will pop up. Select the Coordinate System tab and click the Define button as shown in Working with Projections in Grid+. The Coordinate System form will appear, as shown in Working with Projections in Grid+, and we will select the correct projection from this form. The projection should be known by the user. In this case, we select UTM zone 17, northern hemisphere. After that, click OK button. This form will close and go back to the form in Working with Projections in Grid+. Next, click OK button to close the form. The process for defining the coordinate system is completed. RMC on the shoreline layer and select Zoom to Layer, and it will be located in the correct location, as shown in Working with Projections in Grid+.
Figure 13 Import third-party files with Grid+.
Figure 14 Select the file to import.
Figure 15 New shoreline layer added to Layer Control.
Figure 16 Coordinate System: Define.
Figure 17 Coordinate System: Define.
Figure 18 Shoreline located in the correct place after defining a coordinate system.