Projection of External Data


Use the following menu commands to project data in external files:
  • File – Project Shape File: Project vector data in ESRI Shape files and store it in one of these formats: DXF (georeferenced), ESRI Shape (georeferenced), Adobe Illustrator AI, JPEG, PDF, PNG, SVG, or Ungenerate (georeferenced).
  • File – Project Image: Project a variety of raster image formats (PNG, JPEG, GIF, TIFF, etc.). PNG is the recommended format. Projected raster images are saved in TIFF format with a .tfw world file containing the information for georeferencing the projected image.
  • File – Project Grid: Project a grid in ESRI ASCII Grid format, containing a digital elevation model or other raster data, and store the projected grid in an ESRI ASCII Grid file.
These commands will project files using the current projection of the frontmost window. To apply another projection stored in a file, first open the file (File–Open) and then select File–Project Shape File, Project Image or Project Grid. External data files are not displayed in the window. Instead, Flex Projector will present a dialog to generate a file to write the projected data to. You can then use the projected data in other applications.

Important: All data must be in the “geographic” projection (i.e. longitude / latitude or Plate Carrée projection), using degrees as units.

Raster image data with a width-to-height ratio of 2:1 is automatically georeferenced, assuming a Plate Carrée projection.

When reprojecting raster images or grid data, users have the choice between Nearest Neighbor or Bi-cubic Interpolation in the Preferences dialog. Use Nearest Neighbor for categorical data, such as thematic land cover data that should not be interpolated. Use Bi-cubic Interpolation for continuous tone images or continuous grid data, such elevation models.