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

[Bernd Vogelgesang]

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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> Qgis-user mailing list
> Qgis-user at lists.osgeo.org
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-- 
Bernd Vogelgesang
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91083 Baiersdorf/Igelsdorf
Tel: 09133-825374