Creating grids for panels that cross the 180° meridian

Every chart has coordinate information displayed using borders, grids, and/or graticules, indicating to its users the coordinates of where it's located in the world. The grid is also important to navigation, assisting mariners in determining direction and distances traveled. Grids, graticules, (linear) scaled borders, and neatlines are created with grids and graticules tools.

Typically, features are split when crossing the 180th meridian. However, to create grids that span the 180th meridian, a single area of interest feature with a single (part) geometry is required.

ArcGIS for Maritime: Charting comes with preconfigured grids based on the IHO's INT2 standard. These preconfigured grids are delivered as XML files in the following locations:

• For 32-bit Windows operating systems—<Installation location>\Program Files\ArcGIS\MaritimeCharting\Desktop10.3.1\Charting\Cartography\GridDefinitions
• For 64-bit Windows operating systems—<Installation location>\Program Files(x86)\ArcGIS\MaritimeCharting\Desktop10.3.1\Charting\Cartography\GridDefinitions

The following INT2 grids are provided:

Preconfigured grids for the INT2 standard

File name	Limiting scale	Purpose
INT2_C.xml	N/A	Sheet of plans
INT2_D.xml	N/A	Inset plan
INT2_E_10K.xml	Greater than or equal to 1:10,000	E grid for large-scale plans
INT2_E.xml	1:1 to 1:30,000	Neatline and geographic grid system for E-scale plans
INT2_F.xml	1:30,000 to 1:100,000	Neatline and calibrated border for 1:30,000- to 1:100,000-scale plans
INT2_G.xml	1:100,000 to 1:200,000	Neatline and calibrated border for 1:100,000- to 1:200,000-scale plans
INT2_H.xml	1:200,000 to 1:500,000	Neatline and calibrated border for 1:200,000- to 1:500,000-scale plans
INT2_J.xml	1:500,000 to 1:1,500,000	Neatline and calibrated border for 1:500,000- to 1:1,500,000-scale plans
INT2_K.xml	1:1,500,000 to 1:2,250,000	Neatline and calibrated border for 1:1,500,000- to 1:2,250,000-scale plans
INT2_L.xml	1:2,250,000 to 1:4,750,000	Neatline and calibrated border for 1:2,250,000- to 1: 4,750,000-scale plans
INT2_M.xml	1:4,750,000 and above	Neatline and calibrated border for 1:4,750,000-scale plans and above
INT2_N.xml	N/A	Noncalibrated border (tick marks only)
INT2_S.xml	N/A	Secondary/Projected ticks
INT2_V.xml	N/A	UTM grid and border

Preconfigured grids for the INT2 standard

Each grid is created independently using the Make Grids And Graticules Layer geoprocessing tool using a data frame that has the same geographic coordinate system (ensuring that any transformations that are required have been set before the grid is created).

Modifying the data frame properties

Before creating your grids using the standard set of steps, you will need to change your data frame properties so that the central meridian value is not equal to 0 (<> 0). It is recommended that the central meridian value be changed to 180 or a value close to it.

Note:

To set the coordinate system of a data frame, you cannot be in an edit session. To stop editing, click the Stop Editingbutton on the Production Editing toolbar.

1. Click View > Data Frame Properties.

   Tip:

   You can also right-click the data frame name and click Properties to display the Data Frame Properties dialog box.

2. Click the Coordinate System tab and navigate to the desired coordinate system for your chart.
3. Double click the coordinate system to modify the properties.
4. Click in the Central_Meridian value field and change the value to 180.
5. Click OK to close the Projected Coordinate System Properties dialog box.
6. Click OK to close the Data Frame Properties dialog box.

Creating grids

You can make your chart's grid based on an area of interest represented by a preexisting polygon. This polygon may be stored in your product library; it may come from another source, such as a personal database, shapefile, or layer file; or it may be part of your data, already captured as metadata. In any case, you may need to edit this polygon. It is strongly recommended that you double-check that you have permission/privileges to perform edits on the area of interest (AOI) polygon used to make your chart's grid.

Note:

Before running any geoprocessing tools in ArcMap, it is strongly recommended that you do the following: From the main menu, click Geoprocessing > Geoprocessing Options. In the General area, check the Overwrite the outputs of geoprocessing operations and Log geoprocessing operations to a log file check boxes. Uncheck the Enable check box in the Background Processing area. In the Display/Temporary Data area, check the Add results of geoprocessing operations to the display check box. Click OK to close the dialog box and apply your options.

1. On the main menu, click Customize > Toolbars > Nautical Cartography.
2. If necessary, open the Product Library window by clicking Customize > Production > Product Library on the main menu.

   A tree view of the product library appears.

   

3. Expand Product Library and Products.
4. Navigate to the AOI for the product instance.
5. Check the check box next to the AOI.

   The AOI feature layer is added to the ArcMap data frame.

   Note:

   If you do not see the AOI feature, right-click the AOI feature in the Product Library tree view and click Zoom To.

6. Right-click the AOI feature in the Product Library tree view and click Select.
7. On the Nautical Cartography toolbar, click Grids > Make Grids and Graticules Layer.

   The Make Grids and Graticules Layer dialog box appears.

   

   Note:

   The Make Grids and Graticules Layer tool requires you to have a feature dataset to write the output to. The Chart data model comes with a Grids feature dataset already configured.

8. Click the browse button next to the Grid Template (XML file) text box.
9. Navigate to the following location:
   • For 32-bit Windows operating systems—<Installation location>\Program Files\ArcGIS\MaritimeCharting\Desktop10.3.1\Charting\Cartography\GridDefinitions
   • For 64-bit Windows operating systems—<Installation location>\Program Files(x86)\ArcGIS\MaritimeCharting\Desktop10.3.1\Charting\Cartography\GridDefinitions
10. Choose the grid XML that best suits your chart based on purpose and scale.

    For example, a chart that has a scale of 1:50,000 would use INT2_F, since the F scale range is 1:30,000 to 1:100,000.

11. Click Open.
12. For the Input Area of Interest [feature or extent] parameter, use the Feature Layer option and choose the AOI polygon layer from the drop-down list.
13. For the Input Feature Dataset parameter, click the browse button .
14. Navigate to the Grids feature dataset in your production database.
15. Click Add.

    You have the option of removing or modifying this grid name or keeping the default.

    The Output Layer parameter will be automatically filled with an abbreviation of the grid XML you choose; the Name [value or field] (optional) parameter is also autopopulated. In this instance, it will take the last letter of the grid .xml selected.

    

16. Expand Advanced Settings (optional).

    If there is a warning next to the Mask Size (optional), you can ignore this since it is optional to change the mask size and units.

    The Advanced Settings parameters appear.

    
17. Change the value in the Reference Scale (optional) text box to that of your chart.
18. Click the Properties button that is next to Primary Coordinate System (optional).

    This will already be populated with World_Mercator.

    The Spatial Reference Properties dialog box opens.

    

19. Double-click Mercator (world) to modify the projection.
20. Enter the decimal degree values for the central meridian and standard parallel for your chart.

    

21. Click OK to close the Projected Coordinate System Properties dialog box.
22. Ensure that the values you entered are now listed on the Spatial Properties dialog box.
23. Click OK to close the Spatial Properties dialog box.
24. Leave all other advanced settings.

    It is optional to change the values for Ancillary Coordinate Systems 1 and 2; however, the grids will be generated without changing these parameters.

25. Click OK.
26. Once the tool has finished running, click Close to close the Results dialog box.

    Grids are added to the top of the Table Of Contents window; be sure to keep them there. After later steps in the guide book, it will be necessary to move the grids back to the top of the list of layers in the Table Of Contents window.

27. Examine the grids after they have been added to the Table Of Contents window.
28. Save the map document by clicking the Save button on the Standard toolbar.
29. Close ArcMap.

Once you have finished with these tasks, you will have created a grid that spans the 180th meridian.