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geozap
264 post(s)
#25-Sep-21 06:59

The lack of a function similar to "Go to..." that exists in M8 is one of the things that lack M9 and that can be very irritating. At present, when I want to go somewhere on the map using specific coordinates I use a auxiliary drawing, I create there a point, I select it, and I use Zoom to selection. I was hoping there is a fastest way but I can't think of any. Any ideas?

P.S. By the way this is on my top three of M9 "small thing deficiencies" that I thing would be easy to add. Other being the lack of little boxes with crosses to wrap tables/drawings and labels one to another (I would prefer drawing as a child to table and labels as a child to drawing), and the option to use a dialogue to change the path of linked drawings/images etc or the option to set the path as relative to the main file.

Dimitri


7,413 post(s)
#25-Sep-21 07:33

Use locations. It's not quite as easy as entering the coordinates into a box, but it is easy, and simpler than other ways. Here's how:

1. Save a location anywhere, at about the scale (zoom level) that you'd like to have.

2. In the Project pane, double-click that location to open it. Undock the window and then resize it so the coordinates in the location are conveniently in view without the window being big. Drag it to some convenient place on your Windows desktop. You now have something that looks like a "go to" box that's floating around on your desktop, that you can use whenever you want a "go to".

3. Any time you want to "go to" some coordinates, enter them into location window that's you have open. You would have to do that anyway in a go to box, keyboard the desired coordinates, into a "go to" box that's on a menu bar, so it's no extra effort.

You can then go to that location by clicking it in the Location button. The view instantly goes to the coordinates you entered since the location was updated the moment you changed coordinate numbers.

If you get in the habit of having a location in a project, you can just reuse that same location over and over whenever you want a "go to".

Using locations also has the virtue that you can adjust the scale desired when you enter the coordinates, since that's just a number in the location along with the coordinate numbers.

By the way, if there's anything you'd like different in 9, the way to get that is to send in a suggestion as described in the Suggestions page. Posting wishes in the forum has no effect unless some other person who reads them here agrees with you and submits a suggestion. Always make sure to send in a quick suggestion.

I send in a few suggestions a week, at least. They're usually very small things.

For example, the last one I sent in was a suggestion to enable using an expression for the Z value in the Viewsheds transform template. It currently offers choices only to picking a field or using Z from within the geom, but being able to use an expression would not only allow a computed Z value based on other fields but would also allow entering a specific number for Z (which, of course, is also an expression).

Before that, I suggested when the focus is on a table always showing the context record in the Info pane, which I think would be more valuable and convenient than showing the Component tab by default.

geozap
264 post(s)
#25-Sep-21 09:08

Locations use WGS84 lat long, but usually data (and info about where I want to"go to") is in some country/regional projection.

Regarding suggestions, I have already sent in the past suggestions for what I wrote. Moreover, some things are so obviously necessary and that I guess manifold development team has some good reasons for not having implemented them yet.

Dimitri


7,413 post(s)
#25-Sep-21 14:40

Moreover, some things are so obviously necessary

Never take it for granted everyone agrees on what things are "obviously necessary." 9 has a very wide range of uses and a very wide range of constituencies. Other people may have totally different priorities, and if they vote and you don't vote, development will go their way. The rule of thumb is to always send in suggestions, to make sure your priorities carry weight.

usually data (and info about where I want to"go to") is in some country/regional projection.

Entering coordinates as projected numbers and not as lat/lon might be an example of something you feel is obviously necessary where others might not agree.

I'm not saying that a feature to enter projected coordinate system numbers would be a bad thing, I'm just respectfully pointing out that not everyone might be on the same wavelength with it in terms of priorities. For example, when responding to your post it didn't occur to me that you might mean something other than lat/lon coordinates, as those are pretty much universal in "go to" boxes when people want to go somewhere on the map using specific coordinates in various web map applications, GIS packages, geocaching, cited locations of buildings, archaeological sites, etc., on web pages, and so on.

For example, the ArcGIS Pro "Go To XY" command allows you to "specify the location as a longitude-latitude coordinate pair, a Military Grid Reference System grid location, a Universal Transverse Mercator coordinate, or a U.S. National Grid location." In ArcGIS Pro you can't specify the XY location in whatever country/regional projection you happen to be using.

But if you want to be able to enter projected coordinate system numbers, by all means send that in as a suggestion. That's essential to make sure that someone who might not have thought that was desired knows that it is, and to give it a nudge up the priority hill over competing desires that others are advocating.

geozap
264 post(s)
#25-Sep-21 15:39

Here https://desktop.arcgis.com/en/arcmap/10.3/map/working-with-arcmap/using-the-go-to-xy-tool.htm it has also "Values in the map document's coordinate system" that probably means projected coordinates that the map uses (I don't know and use Arcgis). Anyway, if a ridiculously costly software as Arcgis lacks such an option, what can I say... On the other hand M8 has go to Location by projected coordinates, that is very useful. Of course, go to WGS84 lat/long makes sense too, for example in the case you see something on google earth and you want to find the place in your dataset that may use another coordinate system.

Anyway, should we be sending suggestions ever for things we have asked before, as a reminder? If yes, how much time after the first suggestion should we do this?

Dimitri


7,413 post(s)
#26-Sep-21 10:22

it has also "Values in the map document's coordinate system"

That's the older ArcMap product, not ArcGIS Pro, Esri's new flagship GIS package that is replacing the older ArcMap product. The quotation I cited came from the ArcGIS Pro documentation. The option that was in ArcMap appears to have been dropped from the new ArcGIS Pro.

Anyway, if a ridiculously costly software as Arcgis lacks such an option, what can I say...

Well, you might say that indicates Esri users have other priorities. If a very expensive package like ArcGIS Pro dropped that option, most likely the reason is that Esri customers did not want it.

One of Esri's design goals for Pro was to focus on commands that people use and, as part of simplifying the UI and making the package easier to learn, reducing the number of commands and options that were not used.

That's a typical goal for any company introducing new generations of very large products. A new generation is a good time to clean out unused commands, making judgement calls in cases of commands that only a very few people use.

Anyway, should we be sending suggestions ever for things we have asked before, as a reminder? If yes, how much time after the first suggestion should we do this?

The best advice for how to get your way is in the Suggestions page. Nowhere does that page advise repeatedly submitting the same suggestion. Given the very detailed information in the Suggestions page, it seems to me that if repeating the same suggestion from time to time had any value, it would be one of the tips provided. Therefore, I'd recommend a focus on what the Suggestions page advises.

One of the things the Suggestions page advises is to avoid having tunnel vision. There are often many ways of accomplishing a goal in 9, and fixating on just one method can prevent you from seeing alternative ways of doing what you want. As the Suggestions page puts it, "don't jump to the assumption that something cannot be done and so a new feature is required."

For example, if you want to Goto a location in projected coordinates, you don't need to select a point to go there. You can have quicker workflow.

What I would do is to work with a map (almost always more efficient for the use of multiple layers it provides), and have a drawing layer in that map that's in the projected coordinate system I want, with one point in the drawing. I'd have that drawing opened in its own, undocked, small-sized window as well, so when I picked the point in it with an Alt-click it will stay picked, with the Info pane automatically popped up anytime I clicked on that drawing's undocked window.

You can then do whatever you want in the map window and all the layers it has, and whenever you want to go to some projected coordinate, you just click on the small undocked drawing window, enter the coordinates you want into the Coordinates tab, and then you can Ctrl-click the Drawing's tab in the map and it will zoom to the new location of the point.

For repetitive operations, how does that compare in click count to using a GoTo box?

For any GoTo XY operations, you still have to enter the X, Y coordinates you want, so that's the same amount of keyboarding whether you enter them into a GoTo box or into the Info pane coordinates. The number of mouse clicks ends up being the same, or very close to the same, as using a GoTo box.

There's a click to choose the undocked drawing window for context and a click for the Coordinates tab in the Info pane, as compared to one or two clicks to choose a GoTo command from a menu. There's a Ctrl-Enter to accept the new coordinates as compared to a click or two to do the same in a GoTo command, and then there's a Ctrl-click to zoom the map to the new location. For repetitive work it's one more click and might even end up being the same number of clicks. You can leave the drawing in the map so that once you create it, it's always available, even in future sessions with no need to redo. One advantage of using the Info pane approach is that the initial coordinates of the point are visible there, to show beginners what coordinates look like in that projected coordinate system, so that might reduce user errors in some cases.

Given a simple way to GoTo a projected XY coordinate, combined with the rarity of use (when's the last time any Geocaching or other location web page published coordinates other than Latitude Longitude?), based on the tips in the Suggestions page it seems to me that the best odds for advancing such a niche desire would be to discuss how it comes up and why it should be prioritized over something else and is genuinely necessary compared to existing workflow possibilities. Priorities, as the Suggestions page comments, are important.

For example, I personally like the idea of Goto functionality, but I'd prioritize first, a text goto where the text was automatically searched for by a web geocoder like Google or Bing. You could then just enter "Buenos Aires" to go there. That also automatically gets you street address GoTo and Lat / Lon using a variety of formats, and it provides some automatic protection against entry of nonsense or wildly wrong coordinates.

I'd give second priority to an offline GoTo using Lat / Lon decimal degrees, and third priority to offline GoTo using Lat / Lon in various other formats, like degrees, minutes, seconds. But I wouldn't prioritize arbitrary projected coordinate system entry. Instead, as a fourth priority I'd suggest the same options Esri provides, just so that Esri people who also use 9 would have the comfort of the same options.

We don't know why Esri didn't implement arbitrary projected coordinates in a GoTo XY that already allowed some projected coordinates. My guess is that they had zero user interest in that, or that they had so little user interest that it was not worth it for them to harden the dialog against misuse by people who don't understand projected coordinates. That's also something to consider, as there's always a cost to provide protections against people misusing advanced options.

Anyway, this essay is offered in the spirit of encouraging suggestions by discussing a example, and to encourage taking advantage of the Suggestions page tips to get what you want.

geozap
264 post(s)
#26-Sep-21 14:52

ESRI didn't drop the option we talk about. From the link you provided: "Enter coordinates in the default units of the map's projection or in one of six predefined unit formats.". By "default units" they mean meters, feet etc in the map projection. There is a video on YouTube on that.

Anyway, probably I will be using the method you describe. I already use a map file as a template, so I will add a "navigation" drawing there.

Dimitri


7,413 post(s)
#27-Sep-21 08:23

ESRI didn't drop the option we talk about.

That's not what the documentation for ArcGIS Pro says. It says "You can specify the location as a longitude-latitude coordinate pair, a Military Grid Reference System grid location, a Universal Transverse Mercator coordinate, or a U.S. National Grid location."

As written, the "Enter coordinates" sentence is how to enter coordinates for one of the four specific systems. It doesn't mean you can enter coordinates for some country/regional projection which is not one of the four systems cited. For example, if a particular country/region uses Guyou Projection, that's not one of the supported projections.

That's in contrast to the goto box in 8, which can handle any projection used by a component.

Esri's documentation is pretty good, and they usually are very careful to write what they mean. It could be that in this case the documentation is wrong, or that they intended something other than the meaning of the text as written.

But if that's the case then it would be a surprise that they didn't write

"You can specify the location as a longitude-latitude coordinate pair, a Military Grid Reference System grid location, a U.S. National Grid location, or as any X,Y pair of coordinates for whatever non-radial coordinate system that is being used."

geozap
264 post(s)
#27-Sep-21 09:09

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDPP56cUftQ

If they dropped it later, or if this is a different product, I apologize in advance. As I say I am not an ESRI products user, so I don't follow their products' development.

Dimitri


7,413 post(s)
#27-Sep-21 09:21

if this is a different product

It is a different product, the older ArcMap. No need to apologize, but I do respectfully point out that is covered in my prior post:

That's the older ArcMap product, not ArcGIS Pro, Esri's new flagship GIS package that is replacing the older ArcMap product. The quotation I cited came from the ArcGIS Pro documentation. The option that was in ArcMap appears to have been dropped from the new ArcGIS Pro.

You can see that this is ArcMap from the opening of the video (screenshot below):

(Esri has a very broad product line, and it's easy even for long-time Esri users to mix up different products.)

Attachments:
arcgis.jpg

steveFitz

340 post(s)
#24-Oct-21 09:52

I'm using ArcGIS Pro 2.8.29751 (the latest at the time of writing) and the 'Go to' box takes coordinates in metres in the coordinate system of the project as well as Lat Lon, etc., (as did my previous 2020 version).

steveFitz

340 post(s)
#25-Oct-21 05:40

which makes since since I'm using GDA2020 (55) which is a Universal Transverse Mercator coordinate system...

yves61
438 post(s)
#27-Sep-21 08:19

I am hoping that M9 will offer as soon as possible a 'GoTo' functionality not only using coordinates (offering input choice be it coordinates corresponding with WGS84, active Map or active Layer projection) but also using addresses .

Would that be difficult to integrate in M9 ? If I am not mistaken M8 offered this functionality already.

Dimitri


7,413 post(s)
#27-Sep-21 08:25

Even better than hoping is helping to steer the product by voting. :-)

yves61
438 post(s)
#27-Sep-21 08:37

I just sent in a suggestion to sales@manifold.net !

yves61
438 post(s)
#27-Sep-21 08:39

How can we organize a vote / poll on this forum ?

Would be nice to have a voting page for suggestions on the forum.

Need to send in a suggestion too? I will do.

Dimitri


7,413 post(s)
#27-Sep-21 08:56

The forum is not for polling. See the Use Agreement.

yves61
438 post(s)
#27-Sep-21 08:59

Dimitri , you just mentioned :

Even better than hoping is helping to steer the product by voting. :-)

So I was trying to get a better understanding of how to get voting done.

Dimitri


7,413 post(s)
#27-Sep-21 09:03

So I was trying to get a better understanding of how to get votingdone.

Read the Suggestions page. From your most recent posts, it doesn't sound like you've done that.

yves61
438 post(s)
#27-Sep-21 09:19

That is limited for a suggestion. Not for "helping to steer the product by voting" as you mentioned earlier.

So in order to leverage a user's suggestion effectively one would need to invite the forum users to support the suggestion and send in their support for the suggestion to sales@manifold.net too ? Right , or is there a better way to do so ?

Dimitri


7,413 post(s)
#27-Sep-21 10:14

I used "voting" as just a casual, shorthand way of meaning "expressing your desires by sending in a suggestion." The Suggestions page uses that word the same way as well.

is there a better way to do so ?

Yes, there is. Please read the Suggestions page. For example, "Independent votes for similar features count much more than a cluster of votes promoted by an advocate." says this is not a good way to get your way: "one would need to invite the forum users to support the suggestion and send in their support"

yves61
438 post(s)
#27-Sep-21 08:51

By the way : how many supporting votes are needed - and by extention in general - what criteria make a suggestion a serious candidate for quick integration in M9?

Dimitri


7,413 post(s)
#27-Sep-21 09:00

what criteria make a suggestion a serious candidate for quick integration in M9?

That's covered in the Suggestions page, which is full of useful tips for advocacy.

Dimitri


7,413 post(s)
#04-Oct-21 11:37

There's a new video: 5 Minute Tutorial - GoTo a Latitude, Longitude Coordinate that was inspired by this thread.

Description: When working with maps in Manifold Release 9 it's easy to "GoTo" any latitude, longitude spot with this quick hack. The video shows how to enter coordinates for any spot desired and to instantly pan and zoom the map view to that location. Works for any layer, vector or raster, and works for the free Manifold Viewer, too!

lionel

995 post(s)
#24-Oct-21 14:17

perhaps from a selected x,y position , make manifold create location .

and when select location , make the mouse cursor focus on the positionnot only the center postion .

So location is not only on center and zoom but rather show translate center to x,y position .

Does end user should add many specific point location that location store and go to each using "tab" key ?

location ll be are like web link bookmarks inside directory

regard's


Book about Science , cosmological model , Interstellar travels

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