Data Connect with LL83 Shape - No CS Transformation

[EcosystemServices]

I'm a Civil 3D user, but this is more of a map question.  It does not appear that shape files with LL83 CS transform to other coordinate systems using Data Connect.  Is there a hotfix or other solution for this error?

I have a drawing I set up in state plane CS and am using data connect to connect to a shape file in LL83.  The shape file does not appear in the correct geographic location (or at the correct scale [it appears very, very small relative to the units, feet, of the drawing]).  Now things get interesting.

If I set up the drawing in LL83 Metric (or Imperial, doesn't matter), and data connect to the shape file and then query a drawing in any coordinate system (state plane for my purposes), everything appears in the correct location relative to each other.  In addition, I can connect to WMS or use the ArcGIS plugin and this data also appears correct; however, the drawing is still at this strange miniscule scale.  The scale does not correlate to anything I can figure (miles, kilometers, meters, etc.).  The scale is approximately 309861.27 feet/ drawing unit.  I have no idea.  Your assistance is greatly appreciated.

Also, if the drawing is set to LL83 an "Unrecognized" CS is displayed in the bottom right hand corner where Civil 3D lists the coordinate system.

Thank you.

Civil/Map 3D 2014, SP1

NVIDIA Quadro 3000M

Windows 7, 64 bit, 16GB

[diane.cloutier]

Hi,

What state plane coordinate system are you using?  Would it be possible to attach the LL83 shapefile that you are connecting to?  I am not aware of this being a known issue, but I would be happy to take a look and see if I can figure out what's going on.  A sample DWG file in your state plane coordinate system would also be helpful.

Thanks!

[EcosystemServices]

Virginia State Plane North Zone US Feet (VA83-NF).

[diane.cloutier]

Thanks for attaching the files. I will have a look and let you know what I find.

Thanks again,

[parkr4st]

BASE_SITE opens with VA83-SF Coordinate system.  should it be NF?

Dave

[EcosystemServices]

No, it should be South Zone; I misspoke in the previous reply.  However, I do not believe the LL83 shape file works with either State Plane Zone.  This shape file was acquired through the NRCS Geospatial Gateway.  They also have these data in UTM.  My solution is to use the UTM shape files and they transform correctly with State Plane.  It would still be helpful to have operability between data in world CSs (LL83, WGS84) and projected state plane CSs.

Thank you for your time.

[diane.cloutier]

I was able to open up BASE-SITE.dwg and connect to the shapefile, and it looked like everything lined up ok.  I was also able to create a new drawing in LL83, connect to the shapefile and query in BASE-SITE.dwg, and everything looked the same as it did in the first one.  I am thinking that something in your coordinate system library may have been corrupted.  Can you try running a repair on Civil 3D 2014 and see if that resolves the issue?  

I am also getting "Unrecognized" in Civil 3D 2014 when the drawing is assigned LL83 (or any other geographic coordinate system).  But if you look at the Drawing Settings > Units and Zone, or the Currently Assigned coordinate system using MAPCSASSIGN, you will see that the LL83 coordinate sytem is in fact assigned to the drawing and everything seems to work as expected for me.  I can log it with development for 2014, but it seems to be a non-issue in 2015 as it looks like they got rid of "GIS Coordinate System" in the Application Status Bar.

I created a short video of my findings for your reference as well: https://chronicle.autodesk.com/Main/Details/06ebe777-6a1f-49c8-a7d1-0f61a25222a6

Let me know if the Civil 3D repairs works for you.

Thanks,

[EcosystemServices]

Hi Diane,

Thank you for your assistance.  Does running a repair remove customization (plug-ins, workspace, lisp routines, extensions, etc.)?  Did you use the "dist" command in either drawing to see if the units were being portrayed accurately?

What I ended up doing was saving a layer (.lay) of the shapefile and then just dragging and dropping the shape file into my drawing with the CS that I want to work in.  Somehow this works without fail even if when saving the layer it was showing the miniscule scale.  This seems to work the best and since this is a shapefile I use often it also saves any styles that I have added.

thanks again!

[diane.cloutier]

Hello,

My pleasure.  As far as the repair goes, I think you will lose your customizations, so you would need to back those up and re-import them after the repair.  But before you do the repair...

Another thing that could be causing this behavior is custom coordinate systems/transformations.  Check to see if you have any by going to the Coordinate System Library and selecting "User defined" for the status.  If you have some, back up the folder where they are stored, delete them and see if that makes a difference.  For 2014 products, the user coordinate systems are stored in: C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Autodesk\User Geospatial Coordinate Systems.

Also, try logging into Windows as a different user and see if the transformation works properly.  If it does, you will know it's a user setting.  You can then try resetting your AutoCAD Civil 3D settings by following these instructions (again you will need to back up any customizations):

http://knowledge.autodesk.com/article/Resolving-user-specific-issues-by-resetting-AutoCAD-Civil-3D-2...

I did try using the DIST command in both drawings.  The VA83-SF drawing distance is in feet and the LL83 drawing distance is in degrees, so maybe that is the discrepancy you are seeing?

Thanks,