Map Projection How To Guides

 

Make sure to have a backup of the entire project before ever attempting to reproject a project.

Re-projecting a project is not trivial.  Selecting a reasonable map projection at the beginning of a project and simply correcting for the other reference datum-based data with the Datum tab will largely prevent the need to reproject an entire project.

A map projection is an attempt to portray the curved surface of the earth on a flat piece of paper or computer screen.  Map projections have two parts: the reference datum and the coordinate system.  The reference datum is a model of zero elevation, which is used to calculate longitude and latitude.  The coordinate system essentially is a set of coordinates that transforms latitude and longitude on a globe into XYs on a flat map.  

In a sense, these two parts of a map projection (the reference datum and the coordinate system) constitute two separate steps:

  • The reference datum, used to calculate LatLons for a location on a globe
  • The coordinate system converts this LatLon data into XYs for plotting on a flat map

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Changing the reference datum of a project means that the old LatLon points need to be reprojected in order to spot correctly on a map.  Since the LatLon data changes, Petra will apply the coordinate system to calculate new XY points.  

Changing a project's reference datum is done in two parts:

  • Recalculating the LatLon and XY of every well location
  • Recalculating the LatLon and XY of all auxiliary files including overlays, grids, XYZ files, and LatLonZ files.

 

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