Working with geographic transformations in ArcGIS Pro

So, you've downloaded ArcGIS Pro and you're not entirely sure where to put your Canadian .gsb geographic transformation files. Then this post is for you.

The first release of ArcGIS Pro has been available for a few weeks. If you haven’t downloaded it yet I encourage you to check it out. You can find install instructions here.

For those of you who are already giving ArcGIS Pro a try, you might be wondering how ArcGIS Pro works with geographic transformations, especially regarding those not included as an out-of-the-box tool (such as NTV2 Canada).

Like ArcGIS Desktop, ArcGIS Pro requires users to place transformation files (.gsb) in a specific location in order for the application to make it available to you when applying geographic transformations. Below are screenshots showing where to put the NTV2 Canada .gsb file in order for ArcGIS Pro to make the NTV2 Canada transformation available.

Navigate to C:\Program Files\ArcGIS Pro\Resources\pedata\ntv2 and create a folder named canada. Place the .gsb file in the 'canada' folder.

'Right-click' the Map element in the 'Contents' pane and choose 'Properties'. In the 'Map Properties' window choose 'Transformation' and apply the NAD 1927 to NAD 1983. NTv2 Canada transformation will now be available.

In summary, if you have a Canadian .gsb transformation file placing it in the following folder will make it available in ArcGIS Pro:

C:\Program Files\ArcGIS Pro\Resources\pedata\ntv2\canada

Note that the 'canada' folder is not initially present after the install of ArcGIS Pro. You need to create it yourself.

If you have questions or comments, please leave a comment below.