ArcGIS Developer Help

IVerticalCoordinateSystem Interface

Provides access to properties of a vertical coordinate system.

Product Availability

Available with ArcGIS Engine, ArcGIS Desktop, and ArcGIS Server.

Description

A vertical coordinate system has two types. It can either be gravity-related, which requires a VerticalDatum; or ellipsoid/spheroid-based which requires a horizontal Datum. A horizontal Datum is the same as one used for a geographic coordinate system. It has a linear unit of measure. A VCS has two parameters. The positiveDirection value defines whether the vertical coordinate system has positive values 'up', for heights, or 'down', for depths. Use -1 for positive depths. The verticalShift parameter is a way to identify this VCS as offset from some other known surface. For example, you might know that a dataset's depths are referenced to mean lower low water (a tidal level). You might also know that for this dataset, mean lower low water is 1.23 meters 'down' from local mean sea level. The VCS could be defined for mean sea level but with a verticalShift of -1.23 to shift the 'zero' level to mean lower low water.

You can use ISpatialReferenceFactory3 to create a predefined VCS or use the IVerticalCoordinateSystemEdit interface to create a custom VCS.

When To Use

Members

	Name	Description
	Abbreviation	The abbreviated name of this spatial reference component.
	Alias	The alias of this spatial reference component.
	CoordinateUnit	The linear unit of a vertical coordinate system.
	Datum	The datum of a vertical coordinate system.
	FactoryCode	The factory code (WKID) of the spatial reference.
	GetParameters	Gets the vertical coordinate system parameters.
	Name	The name of this spatial reference component.
	PositiveDirection	The positive direction of the z coordinates. Up is 1. Down (in the direction of gravity) is -1.
	Remarks	The comment string of this spatial reference component.
	Usage	The usage notes of a vertical coordinate system.
	VerticalShift	The vertical shift of a vertical coordinate system.

Inherited Interfaces

Interfaces	Description
ISpatialReferenceInfo	Provides access to members that control the properties common to all components of a spatial reference system.

Classes that implement IVerticalCoordinateSystem

Classes	Description
VerticalCoordinateSystem	Creates a vertical coordinate system.

Remarks

[C#]

ISpatialReferenceFactory3 srFactory = new SpatialReferenceEnvironmentClass();

IVerticalCoordinateSystem vcs;

// WGS_1984 is spheroidal

vcs = srFactory.CreateVerticalCoordinateSystem(115700);

string csName = vcs.Name; //"WGS_1984"

ILinearUnit unit = vcs.CoordinateUnit;

string unitName = unit.Name; //"Meter"

[C++]

ISpatialReferenceFactory3Ptr ipSRFactory(CLSID_SpatialReferenceEnvironment);

IVerticalCoordinateSystemPtr ipVCS;

// WGS_1984 is spheroidal

ipSRFactory->CreateVerticalCoordinateSystem(115700, &ipVCS);

BSTR bstrCSName; //"WGS_1984"

ipVCS->get_Name(&bstrCSName);

ILinearUnitPtr ipUnit;

ipVCS->get_CoordinateUnit(&ipUnit);

BSTR bstrUnitName;

ipUnit->get_Name(&bstrUnitName);//"Meter"

[Visual Basic .NET]