Geographic Calculator 2023 includes an update to the Geodetic Dialogs Search Function. While the longstanding folder-style view is still a primary way to navigate the datasource, the updated dialogs now contain a checkbox to view the objects in all subfolders of the selected folder, which facilitates the search. This optional expanded view, coupled with a live filter search and multi-parameter search, makes it easier to pull up a coordinate system or other geodetic definition you aren’t sure exactly how to find.

How to Search

Typing in a search string will immediately begin to apply the search as a filter on the currently selected folder, so that only matching items will display. If no folder is selected, no results will be displayed. If the “Include Subfolders” checkbox is checked (found in the top right corner of the dialog), then all objects in the folder, as well as those in any subfolders, may be displayed if they match.

To limit the search to a specific field, choose the desired Search Type from the dropdown box. Options include “All,” “Name,” “Remarks,” “Codes” and “Recent.” See below for more on using “Recent.”

If “Name” is selected, the search will be performed only on object names. Similarly, “Remarks” and “Codes” will limit the search to those fields. “All” will search for the desired string(s) across all three.

Search is performed on each word, or can also be split using the delimiters comma, period, colon, tab, underscore (",", ".", ":", tab, "_"). You can also use quotes surrounding multiple words or characters to perform an exact match.

Example:

In the above search, the search strings are UTM and 19N, thus we see that items containing both those substrings are returned. They are not required to contain the exact string “UTM 19N.” Also note that we are currently searching inside the Projected folder. If we were to switch to Geodetic we might have no results.

To remove the current search, click the “X” button to the right of the Search text box.

Advanced Search Options:

When Searching for Coordinate Systems there is an additional Advanced Search option available, via the clickable link. This will bring up a set of Advanced Search options:

The Advanced Search options include: “Geographic Area”, “Datum,” “Angular Units,” “Linear Units,” “Geodetic” and “Projection.” To enable one or more of these searches, turn them on by checking the box beside them. You may choose to apply all, or none, of these searches.

You must then provide the necessary parameters for the chosen search. For example, you must provide a search string for Datum and/or Geodetic, or chose an Angular, Linear Unit or Projection from the provided lists. If you enable the Projection search, you may optionally provide search strings for any or all of the parameters.

All these string searches will be performed similarly to the generic “All” search. For example, if you provide the Datum “Tananarive”, a filter will be created to look for coordinate systems that are based on any Datum that has the string “Tananarive” in its name, remarks, or one of its codes. More details on Geographic Area search are provided below.

Once your search conditions are complete, click Search to execute. This will return to the main display, showing the results of the current folder filtered by all the search conditions. Note that if a given search has no parameter specified, it will not be applied.

Each filter will be displayed along the top of the dialog. Clicking the trash can for a given filter will remove it and reapply the other searches. To remove all advanced search filters, you may click “Remove all Filters.”

You may also apply one of the standard searches to these filtered results by typing your search string into the Search text box as usual.

Geographic Area Search

One of the options within Advanced Search is the Geographic Area search. If this option is checked, you may then click the “View Map” button to set up the search conditions.

Specify the Geographic Area you'd like to limit your search to by clicking in the world map. You may choose to specify a single point, or a box. This can be set via the Search Type dropdown box.

• To select a point, simply click on the map. You may zoom in or out with the mouse scroll or the zoom buttons along the upper right side of the map, or pan by holding down the left mouse button and dragging the map as desired.

• To draw a box, click once to select one corner of the box, then move the mouse to complete the rectangle and click again.

The current search point, or box min and max points, will display at the bottom of the dialog.

Once you have set up the conditions as desired, click OK to return to the Advanced Search page.

If you want to ignore any Coordinate Reference System with an Area of Use that has no bounds, or that has bounds that include the entire world, check the “Ignore World AOUs” checkbox before proceeding:

Click Search when you are ready to perform the search. As with the other Advanced Search filters, a new filter button will be displayed at the top of the dialog, detailing the current search:

Recent

One of the options in the Search Type combo box is “Recent.” If this is selected, all other searches will be disabled, and instead the current display will be filtered to include only those object used (picked or edited) most recently. Up to five objects per type will display. Note that if you navigate to a folder that does not contain any of the most recently used objects, it will appear empty.

In the image below, we have three recent Projected Coordinate Systems displayed. Note that the current search “UTM” has been disabled, and does not apply.