Converting Coordinates

This topic focuses on the units of coordinates and whether or not they are grid vs ground.

Converting Units

You can convert a survey's units using TPC's Coordinate Conversion tool. Use this to change between imperial and metric.

See Changing Units Using Coordinate Conversion.

Converting Coordinates on Import & Export

The ASCII Import Settings dialog and ASCII Export Settings dialog allow you to convert coordinates both on import and export. Just tell TPC you want to convert coordinates, then select the Settings button to open the Coordinate Conversion dialog and tell TPC how you want to convert them.

If you turn on [x] Details when importing, TPC will include the raw coordinates along with the converted coordinates in the report.

Converting Coordinates Anytime

The Coordinate Conversion dialog lets you convert coordinates that are already part of the survey. You will use the What list in the dialog to tell TPC what part of the survey to convert. If you imported a traverse from a data collector, you can convert just that traverse from ground to grid.

Scaling Without Changing Units

This dialog can be used to scale coordinates without changing their units. Just leave the To units the same as the From units and enter the scale Factor to multiply by.

Grid vs Ground

What if you have computed all the coordinates in your survey on a grid projection based on that survey's Coordinate Reference System, but you need to export ground coordinates for the contractor working on the project?

Saving a Conversion as a Calibration

Starting in TPC 2022 R1

You can save any coordinate conversion parameters as a calibration that you can use elsewhere.

When you choose Save as Calibration

•TPC creates a calibration with just scale and base point, using the values from this dialog.

•Displays the calibration properties dialog so can document the calibration

•You then save the calibration to a file that can be reused as needed.