[Qgis-user] Finding the right PRJ file or CRS for my data?

[Bob DuCharme]

Thanks Bernd, that worked great!

Bob

On 7/11/2015 3:19 PM, Bernd Vogelgesang wrote:
> Hi Bob,
>
> I hope you will enjoy QGIS even more, when you find out how to do 
> things properly ;)
>
> You do not need external sotware to import a csv file.
>
> Menu Layer -> Add Layer -> Pick last item from flyout "Add Delimited 
> Text Layer"
> Browse to your csv file and properly assign the x and y field columns 
> and resume.
> Your point layer will get added to the canvas.
>
> If you didn't change any options under Settings/Options/CRS 
> beforehand, your project is in default WGS84 EPSG 4326 and your new 
> layer will have WGS84 as well by default (change settings to e.g. 
> being asked for the CRS when a new layer is created if you like.)
>
> The coordinates of your csv file are in WGS84 too, so this part is ok 
> in this case.
> You previously loaded layer is in another CRS.
> Check under Menu Project/Project properties, that "Enable 'on the fly' 
> CRS transformation is ticked. Then your two layers will be aligned 
> correctly.
>
> As you only imported the CSV so far, it is still a CSV which you can't 
> edit. To make it an editable shape file, right click the layer in the 
> layers panel and choose "Save As ..."
> Pick the path where you want to store your shape file.
>
> If you want to change the new layers CRS so it's the same as your 
> other layer, you will first have to find out the CRS.
> To find out, in which projection this layer is stored, double click on 
> it in the layer panel to get to the layer properties and check the CRS 
> under "General". In your case, this is NAD83 with EPSG-Code 4269.
>
> When saving the CSV as ESRI-Shape, search and choose this CRS, and you 
> will receive your reprojected points as a new layer.
>
>
> Hope this helps
> Bernd
>
>
>
>
>
> Am 11.07.2015, 19:15 Uhr, schrieb Bob DuCharme <bob at snee.com>:
>
>> To summarize, when I use QGIS to add a layer with some points on it 
>> to a layer with a map, they don't show up in the right place. I'm new 
>> at GIS work (but enjoying QGIS!)
>>
>> I got shapefile tl_2014_us_state.zip from 
>> https://www.census.gov/cgi-bin/geo/shapefiles2014/main and loaded it 
>> into QGIS. Next, I used https://code.google.com/p/csv2shp/ to convert 
>> the following CSV file to an ESRI shapefile:
>>
>> "lat","long","name"
>> 40.712700,-74.005898,New York City
>> 34.049999,-118.250000,Los Angeles
>>
>> it creates all the necessary files except for the PRJ file. I tried 
>> copying the PRJ file from shapefile tl_2014_us_state for the 
>> generated data and loaded that layer, and I see dots for the two 
>> cities, but far, far away from the US, and one of the dots looks 
>> north of the other instead of east of it.
>>
>> Here is that PRJ file. I'm guessing that I should be using a 
>> different Coordinate Reference System, but I have no idea which and 
>> how to specify it:
>>
>> GEOGCS["GCS_North_American_1983",DATUM["D_North_American_1983",SPHEROID["GRS_1980",6378137,298.257222101]],PRIMEM["Greenwich",0],UNIT["Degree",0.017453292519943295]] 
>>
>>
>> Any suggestions?
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Bob
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>
>