UKH

Hi Folks,

It's a while since I've created anything with arcgis, from memory one needs to have a shape file onto which to plot the data, if one has an excel file with SK style grid references in it, how might one go about creating a shape file which relates to them (the area covered being parts of Hillsborough, Walkley & Crookes in Sheffield)?

If one assumes that I'm a novice in this, that's probably the best place to start from towards any instructions, and presently I just have the Excel csv file with my grid references contained.

Many thanks.

https://mapscaping.com/import-xy-coordinate-data-into-arcgis-pro/#:~:text=D....

You'll need to convert from SK to something Arc will understand

https://digimap.edina.ac.uk/help/our-maps-and-data/bng/#:~:text=To%20conver...

Given that this is your second or third post on this, can I suggest that you email your project supervisor/whoever taught you GIS for a meeting?

Yo, 
You can make a shapefile from a CSV, if you have a X and Y/ Easting and Northing.
 

Add the CSV file to ArcMap, right-click on it and select Display XY data. Select appropriate values in the shown dialog, press OK. A new featureclass will be added to the map. Right-click on that, select Data, Export Data. 

For ArcGIS Pro,

Navigate to the Geoprocessing pane.

In the search field, type “XY Table to Point” and select the tool when it appears.

For ‘Input Table’, select the table you imported.

The ‘Output Feature Class’ name will auto-populate. Modify the name if desired.

The XY fields should auto-populate based on attributes from the table. If not, use the dropdown menu to select the appropriate attributes for the X and Y fields.

Thanks.

Would you know how to convert an SK grid reference into the required XY or Easting/Northing format?

GIS was only in the 1st year, with my not taking that module in the 2nd, but looking into some university based GIS support may be a plan.

It feels like I'm just on the edge of understanding it.

Yeah I think you'd get a lot more out of some more formal support rather than on here, as much as there are a bunch of experts. These things are always easier in person.

And vis-a-vis converting from SK to a usable XY... see my second link in the post above  

I had never heard of 'SK grid references' before; I assumed it was some GIS format.

But now I suspect that you mean OSGB alphanumeric GRs.

In which case, assuming all your GRs are within the 100km grid square SK, you can simply drop the SK, and split the numeric part (however many digits) into linear (metres) E and N (X and Y).

Converting the alpha prefix to metre offsets is best done using an index lookup, as the ordering is illogical (alpha advances sensibly for E, but inversely for N) and drops the 'I'. The first character is the 500km grid square, and the second character is the 100km grid square.

OSGB GRs are also expressed purely numerically; look at the bottom left corner of any OS map to see the numeric origin of the sheet.

But you probably want to do this within your GIS... It probably has a utility to parse OSGB GRs.

It's these, it's looking like the first part is eastings, or X, which is help4ful.  SK 32616 87412

I still have 6 weeks to go, albiet with other work to do, so I'm working my ass off until three weeks in February, and then hope to keep things 'bubbling along' around other work from that point, I'm nothing if not determined, so should have found the way to do what I want by bedtime today (or be pretty close to that). 

Though, it isn't essential, I can use another means to calculate the closest nests which are on different buildings, and use that to 'bridge from' in talking about how in other settings swifs typically nest between half a metre and a metre away, and muse about whether that may impact on how well they can search for food. It's a 'desireable' rather than an 'essential'. 

Then, yes, those are 1m OSGB GRs. The alpha prefix identifies the 100km grid square (within the 2500km by 2500km area covered by the OS grid.

The first five digits are the Easting. The second five digits are the Northing.

Surely you know this from outdoor map reading experience?

The sad thing is I just looked up the first code I wrote to do this; in 1996 and 1997, in Psion's OPL, and AWK...

The OS provide a conversion tool in excel

https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/business-government/tools-support/os-net/c...

hope it helps.

As long as you include the full 6 fig grid reff (I.e. the correct prefix for SK) you can load it straight into Arc as long as you click the osgb option when creating the feature class. You can use any system you want as long as you tell arc what it's looking at! 

He's got 10 digit (12 character alphanumeric GRs). I'm sure it can parse those, hopefully accounting for the spaces.

It did seem odd that a GIS wouldn't be able to process a well-established NGR.

I've done some playing with QGIS in the past, and when you import data it prompts you to tell it what the source data is (OSGB1936) and how you want it to be projected (e.g. WGS84 or whatever you need). Does ArcGIS do something similar? 

It potentially might, but I'm also able to look at a map of the locations of 'natural' nests, or nests in buildings, and enter in the grid references of the closest five pairs (say), and talk about that as a branching off point about swifts nesting closely together even when predated upon, and speak about this hinting at communication about food sources being a possibility, and any implications which that may have when it comes to providing nest boxes for them, in allowing for multiple nests of apus-apus to be within a metre and a half of one another, and how that may affect their chances of not continuing to decline as a species in the face of reduced insect numbers. 

Many thanks to all.