Creating a custom WKID

In ArcGIS for Desktop at 10.2.2 the Projections Team has added a new file type, the AREAINFO file, that can be created and set up to check if the custom PROJCS, for example, has been set up properly before deploying the file. Here is a sample of an AREAINFO file, a description of the format, along with the PROJCS file, and the UNIT file, that are associated with it.

At previous versions of ArcGIS Desktop, the file names could not include the .txt extension, but at 10.2.2 the .txt extension can be used on these files.

Steps

To verify that the projcs.txt was formatted correctly, I created the areainfo.txt file to check the projcs.txt file in ArcMap.

I used the value 202001 as the unique identifier for the custom projection in the projcs.txt file.

The areainfo.txt file contains the following information: AREAINFO, 202001, "projcs", "01563518_pulkovo_1942_GK_CM_81E", "Projected Coordinate Systems/STATOIL"

Note that the ID number, 202001 matches the ID assigned in the projcs."projcs" tells the AREAINFO file what type of information the file is looking for.

"01563518_pulkovo_1942_GK_CM_81E" is the name of the custom projection file as shown in the projcs. This does not have to be the same, but I think it makes most sense to use the identical name here.

"Projected Coordinate Systems/STATOIL" is the path where the projcs contents will appear in ArcMap, IF the projcs.txt file is constructed correctly.

If the new projection was a Geographic Coordinate System instead of a Projected Coordinate System, you would of course specify that path element instead.

You could specify additional path elements as well, or call the top level folder something other than STATOIL. For example, you could use "Projected Coordinate Systems\Gauss Kruger\STATOIL" or "Projected Coordinate Systems\National Grids\Russia", whatever works best for your specific project.

After placing these files in a folder on the local hard drive, and setting the system variable PEOBJEDITHOME variable to that path, open ArcMap with a new, empty map.

In ArcMap, go to View > Data Frame Properties > Coordinate System tab, and open the Projected Coordinate Systems folder in the top window. Under that folder you will see a folder named "STATOIL" which will contain the projection file named "01563518_pulkovo_1942_GK_CM_81E". That will verify that the file has been constructed correctly. CUSTOM:201001 should then be available for use in Python scripting.

Files

areainfo.txt

projcs.txt