Michigan DNR Projection Extension

The Michigan DNR, in collaboration with Pacific Meridian Resources, has developed a user friendly projection extension that provides a single, straight forward interface for projecting both within and ACROSS North American Datums (i.e., NAD 27 and NAD 83). It combines the Projector! extension (prjctr.avx), that comes with ArcView, with the NADCON extension (nadcon.avx) which was developed by NOAA to transform shapefiles from NAD 1927 to NAD 1983 and vice versa - available at ftp://ftp.ngs.noaa.gov/pub/pcsoft/nadcon/ or on the ESRI web site.

The customized interface allows users to easily project between the most commonly used projection systems in Michigan (Michigan Georef, UTM, State Plane, Lat/Long) as well as custom projections specified by the user. It was designed to work with ArcView 3.1 and 3.2, but should also be functional in ArcView 3.0a. It is only capable of projecting shapefiles - grids, images, coverages, etc. are not supported.

The extension is packaged as a self-extracting executable (.exe) file that includes extensive help documentation and all necessary support files. To use this extension:

- copy the attached .exe to your computer
- double click on it, and follow the extraction instructions (accept the default file locations unless you have ArcView installed somewhere other than the default location)
- start ArcView, select "Extensions.." from the "File" dropdown menu, click on the check box next to "MI DNR Projection Extension", click OK
- 2 new icons will appear on the top right of your button bar. Select the "F" button if your display is set to large fonts. Select the other button (2 bars connected by arrow) to activate the projection tool. Once here, follow instructions and/or see "Getting Started" via the "Help" button.

Please note that running the .exe file will replace the default.prj file that installs with ArcView (c:/esri/av_gis30/arcview/etc/), and defines projection parameters, with a modified version. It will also add another file called default_original.prj which is the original default.prj file that comes with ArcView 3.2.

Also note that:
1) the speed of the re-projection is limited primarily by the NADCON procedures. Therefore, projecting across North American Datums will take some time for larger shapefiles.

2) this extension does NOT support international feet. The extension is based in part on the Projector! extension which also does not support international feet. Therefore, when a user selects "feet" as the unit in the wizard dialog, it is US Survey Feet. This is NOT mentioned in the help documentation that comes with the extension.

This extension may be freely used and redistributed, with proper credit, however, there is no technical support provided. The script(s) are provided "as-is," without warranty of any kind, express or implied, by statute or otherwise, including, but not limited to all implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. The author does not warrant that the operation of the scripts shall be uninterrupted or error free. Developer bears all risk as to the quality and performance of the scripts.

DOWNLOAD this ArcView extension.