Many organisations have offices that operate worldwide on projects that use many different coordinate systems. Data is often collected in the Latitude and Longitude format, OpenGround previously supported the calculation of Lat/Long values from Easting and Northing data but not the creation of E and N data from Lat/Long values.

Civils can only access E and N data making it difficult to go from Lat/Long in Civils 3D and also Quick Sections. The use of Coordinate Conversion looks to solve this issue for users. The Location Details Grid in OpenGround has been updated to include both E/N and also Lat/Long fields.

When Data is imported into OpenGround there is now a new drop-down for selecting which coordinate format to use. If the import file contains both E/N and Lat/Long values then both formats are available in the drop-down. If there is only one format in the file then that format only is available for selection.

The example below illustrates importing data into OpenGround using Lat/Long values in the CSV file. During the import process the wizard allows the selection of Lat/Long and after import has completed it will automatically display the E/N values after converting the Lat/Long values.

Lat Long location coordinates chosen.

E/N values are now displayed and locations can be viewed on the map.

Editing Coordinate Data

It is possible to edit coordinate data and have the locations on the map update to reflect the changes.

When you edit either the E/N or Lat/Long values the other coordinate format will also update on save.

The example below shows editing E/N values, on save the map will update and the Lat/Long values will also be updated.

Note: It is only possible to edit E/N or Lat/Long values and you will not be able to edit E and Long, N and Lat or E/N and Lat/Long at the same time. If attempted a validation error message will be displayed.

Latitude and Longitude Fields

Note that there are 2 sets of headers for Latitudes and Longitudes within OpenGround.

There are the the Latitude and Longitude headers, which have a String data type and can be used to enter text values, such as in Degrees Minutes Seconds (DMS) format.

And there are the Latitude Decimal and Longitude Decimal headers that are numeric/Decimal fields.

Coordinate conversion is only performed for the Decimal headers. If coordinates appear to not be converting in your project, check the configuration pack to see which set of headers are active in your configuration.