Autodesk University 2010

Edward-James Surveying employee Richard Sincovec will be presenting a class at this year's Autodesk University in Las Vegas (Mandaly Bay hotel, Nov. 30 to Dec. 2), entitled "Solving the Grid-To-Ground Problem with Custom Coordinate Systems".

Of late, it has become more and more common for construction projects to be so large that we can no longer ignore the fact that we live on a curved Earth, and not on a flat surface.  It's also becoming increasingly necessary for us to incorporate georeferenced data in our projects, such as aerial imagery, GIS shapefiles, and more.

Because of this issue, it has become increasingly common for projects to utilize georeferenced coordinate systems such as UTM or State Plane.  However, such systems often introduce "The Grid-To-Ground Problem", where our ground distances are not the same as the distances we get by inversing between our coordinates.

One solution to this problem is to use a custom coordinate system, designed in such a way that the distortion between our coordinate system and the ground is so small that we can ignore it.  This type of coordinate system is often called a "Low Distortion Projection", or LDP.

In this class, we'll examine exactly how georeferenced systems such as State Plane and UTM work, and how they create the "Grid-To-Ground" problem.  We'll also learn how to create a Low Distortion Projection for a project, and how to use our new LDP inside of Civil 3D or Map 3D.  If you're feeling at all confused about this issue, then this class will be a great opportunity for you to solidify your knowledge of this increasingly-important topic.

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