Change default projection for first layer added to map from RAVE
Opened this issue · 1 comments
Downside of a smart feature/choice
For these new production grade network tools (e.g. VBET, sqlBRAT) weare deliberately doing everything in GCS_WGS_1984 so that it works anywhere in world. This is in part because many watersheds or HUCs span multipe UTM zones. @philipbaileynar is super careful that parameters are still in m and we convert on the fly.
ArcGIS in a new map will automatically change the Data Frame's display projection to that of the first layer that gets added. If first layer added is a Basemap, it just sticks with GCS_WGS_1984 (ie. non-projected lat-long with lots of distortion in higher lattitudes). If first layer added is from a Riverscapes project like one of ours, it will also be GCS_WGS_1984.
The downside is this looks distorted and ugly.
The Manual Fix is Easy - Change to an appropriate projected coordinate system
So here I could use UTM Zones 10, 11 or 12. If I use 11:
Request a Feature to Change Display Coordinate System to Nearest UTM Zone
When a user adds a layer from a riverscapes project in RAVE to a map with an empty table of contents, it looks at center of extents of dataset being added, and grabs the nearest UTM Zone, and then uses that for the display coordinate system. For 95% of users, this will just look "correct" and for the few power users that are annoyed, they can turn it off or override.
I would request that this feature that is on by default, but can be turned off in RAVE options.
Ironically, because I used HUC boudnaries with an image as text... my "pretty example" has distorted text.