Supported coordinate systems

There is a wide range of formats in which you can enter coordinate data. Be aware of the following points when you are using any of the following coordinate systems.

Military Grid Reference System

MGRS coordinates with less that the prescribed five-digit northing and easting values are accepted by iBase, but these low-precision values represent a large square surface area. For conversion purposes, the upper left corner of their effective area is used.

For example, 40UCE11 and BCE11 are interpreted, for conversion purposes, as being identical to 40UCE1000010000 and BCE1000010000.

British National Grid

BNG coordinates with better than 1-meter accuracy are not supported when automatically converting coordinates in bulk. You can choose one of the following options:
  • Treat as conversion failure: the conversion is skipped so that you can review the record and update the coordinates as required.
  • Round to nearest meter: this conversion automatically rounds the coordinate down to the nearest meter.
Due to the potential for overlap with Degrees, BNG coordinates that fall within 0, 0 and 360, 360 are not recognized. If you want to enter coordinates in this area, use a zone letter. For example, SV0030000300.

Decimal Degrees

Latitude and longitude must be within the range 90 - 90 and 180 - 360.

The flags N, S, E, and W can be replaced by words (North, South, East, and West) when this format is used: 01.00°X, and 02.00°Y. These values are not case-sensitive.

Decimal Minutes

Decimal minutes is not a natively supported system, so all decimal minutes formats are converted to decimal degrees and stored in the decimal degrees format.

Latitude and longitude must be within the range 90°S to 90°N and 180°W to 360°E.

The flags N, S, E, W can be replaced by words (North, South, East, and West) for the following formats (these values are not case-sensitive):
  • 01° 02.00’X, and 03° 04.00’Y
  • 01°02.00’X, and 03°04.00’Y
The characters that are assigned as the degree and minutes representations must remain constant for a single set of coordinates. For example:
  • 56°45’N 32°14’W is valid.
  • 56°45’N 32D14MW is not valid.
As a minimum, there must be a single character between the degrees and minutes if you omit the degree representation for the following formats:
  • -01°02.00’, and -03°04.00’
  • 01°02.00’X, and 03°04.00’Y
  • X01°02.00’, and Y03°04.00’
If not using the degree representation, use a space instead. For example:
  • -1234 8221.4 is not valid.
  • -12 34 82 21.4 is valid.
Important: Decimal minutes formatted as minutes are not supported. For example, it is not valid to format 03° 04.00’Y as 184.00’Y.

Degrees Minutes Seconds

Latitude and longitude must be within the range 90°S to 90°N, and 180°W to 360°E.

The flags N, S, E, and W can be replaced by the words (North, South, East, and West) for the following formats (these values are not case-sensitive):
  • 01° 02' 03.00"X, and 04° 05' 06.00"Y
  • 01°02'03.00"X, and 04°05'06.00"Y
As a minimum, there must be a single character between the degrees and minutes if you omit the degree or minute representations for the following formats:
  • -01°02'03.00", and -04°05'06.00"
  • 01°02'03.00"X, and 04°05'06.00"Y
  • X01°02'03.00", and Y04°05'06.00"
If not using the degree or minute representation, use a space instead. For example:
  • 123443.6 822113.8 is not valid.
  • -12 34 43.6 82 21 13.8 is valid.

Universal Polar Stereographic

The easting and northing values are interchangeable if E or N is used. If neither E or N is used, then the first number is assumed to be the easting value. For example, the following are all valid and represent the same point:
  • 2,500,000mE 1,850,000mN
  • 1,850,000 2,500,000mE
  • 2500000 1850000

If easting and northing are swapped over, the final character on E must be “E” and the final character on N must be “N”. Neither of these values are case-sensitive.