# Having trouble with UTM zone positions

**URL:** <https://community.thinkgeo.com/t/having-trouble-with-utm-zone-positions/3210>\
**Category:** WPF\
**Created:** [May 10, 2012, 3:49pm UTC](https://community.thinkgeo.com/t/having-trouble-with-utm-zone-positions/3210 "2012-05-10T15:49:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Joel](https://community.thinkgeo.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Joel](https://community.thinkgeo.com/u/Joel)\
**Post date:** [May 10, 2012, 3:49pm UTC](https://community.thinkgeo.com/t/having-trouble-with-utm-zone-positions/3210/1 "2012-05-10T15:49:16Z")

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I&nbsp;am&nbsp;working&nbsp;on&nbsp;software&nbsp;for&nbsp;a&nbsp;system&nbsp;that&nbsp;has&nbsp;targets&nbsp;displayed&nbsp;on&nbsp;the&nbsp;map.&nbsp;Each&nbsp;target&nbsp;has&nbsp;its&nbsp;position&nbsp;stored&nbsp;in&nbsp;the&nbsp;model&nbsp;in&nbsp;both&nbsp;UTM&nbsp;coordinates&nbsp;and&nbsp;Geodetic&nbsp;latitude/longitude.&nbsp;Our&nbsp;map&nbsp;data&nbsp;is&nbsp;in&nbsp;UTM,&nbsp;so&nbsp;we&nbsp;use&nbsp;UTM&nbsp;data&nbsp;when&nbsp;plotting&nbsp;the&nbsp;targets&nbsp;using&nbsp;a&nbsp;SimpleMarkerOverlay.&nbsp;Our&nbsp;map's&nbsp;unit&nbsp;is&nbsp;GeographyUnit.Meter.

The&nbsp;problem&nbsp;is&nbsp;that&nbsp;we&nbsp;cannot&nbsp;figure&nbsp;out&nbsp;how&nbsp;make&nbsp;the&nbsp;format&nbsp;used&nbsp;for&nbsp;UTM&nbsp;to&nbsp;match&nbsp;properly&nbsp;with&nbsp;the&nbsp;format&nbsp;ThinkGEO&nbsp;uses&nbsp;by&nbsp;default&nbsp;with&nbsp;GeographyUnit.Meters.&nbsp;Our&nbsp;map&nbsp;is&nbsp;in&nbsp;UTM&nbsp;Zone&nbsp;12&nbsp;(between&nbsp;longitude&nbsp;108&nbsp;W&nbsp;and&nbsp;114&nbsp;W).&nbsp;It&nbsp;seems&nbsp;like&nbsp;the&nbsp;coordinates&nbsp;of&nbsp;markers&nbsp;are&nbsp;only&nbsp;set&nbsp;with&nbsp;X/Y.&nbsp;We&nbsp;pass&nbsp;the&nbsp;Easting&nbsp;and&nbsp;Northing&nbsp;for&nbsp;this,&nbsp;but&nbsp;whenever&nbsp;there&nbsp;is&nbsp;a&nbsp;target&nbsp;that&nbsp;goes&nbsp;in&nbsp;a&nbsp;zone&nbsp;outside&nbsp;the&nbsp;map's&nbsp;default,&nbsp;its&nbsp;position&nbsp;is&nbsp;still&nbsp;calculated&nbsp;with&nbsp;respect&nbsp;to&nbsp;the&nbsp;map's&nbsp;default&nbsp;zone.

For&nbsp;example,&nbsp;suppose&nbsp;there&nbsp;is&nbsp;a&nbsp;target&nbsp;with&nbsp;longitude&nbsp;-111,&nbsp;which&nbsp;is&nbsp;the&nbsp;center&nbsp;of&nbsp;zone&nbsp;12.&nbsp;The&nbsp;user&nbsp;manually&nbsp;edits&nbsp;the&nbsp;longitude&nbsp;to&nbsp;-105,&nbsp;which&nbsp;is&nbsp;the&nbsp;center&nbsp;of&nbsp;zone&nbsp;13&nbsp;(this&nbsp;will&nbsp;be&nbsp;outside&nbsp;the&nbsp;range&nbsp;of&nbsp;the&nbsp;map&nbsp;file&nbsp;we&nbsp;are&nbsp;using,&nbsp;but&nbsp;we&nbsp;want&nbsp;to&nbsp;allow&nbsp;the&nbsp;user&nbsp;to&nbsp;do&nbsp;that).&nbsp;The&nbsp;target's&nbsp;position&nbsp;on&nbsp;the&nbsp;map&nbsp;will&nbsp;not&nbsp;change.&nbsp;The&nbsp;easting&nbsp;value&nbsp;has&nbsp;not&nbsp;changed,&nbsp;only&nbsp;the&nbsp;zone&nbsp;(the&nbsp;target's&nbsp;position&nbsp;with&nbsp;respect&nbsp;to&nbsp;the&nbsp;zone's&nbsp;center&nbsp;is&nbsp;still&nbsp;the&nbsp;same).&nbsp;How&nbsp;can&nbsp;we&nbsp;calculate&nbsp;the&nbsp;position&nbsp;of&nbsp;a&nbsp;marker&nbsp;so&nbsp;that&nbsp;it&nbsp;takes&nbsp;UTM&nbsp;zones&nbsp;into&nbsp;account&nbsp;instead&nbsp;of&nbsp;only&nbsp;the&nbsp;easting?

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**Author:** ![ThinkGeo](https://community.thinkgeo.com/user_avatar/community.thinkgeo.com/thinkgeo/32/25029_2.png) [@ThinkGeo](https://community.thinkgeo.com/u/ThinkGeo)\
**Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 11:43am UTC](https://community.thinkgeo.com/t/having-trouble-with-utm-zone-positions/3210/2 "2012-05-11T11:43:24Z")

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Joel,&nbsp;  
&nbsp;&nbsp;  
&nbsp;Welcome&nbsp;to&nbsp;MapSuite&nbsp;world,&nbsp;I&nbsp;am&nbsp;James,&nbsp;any&nbsp;question&nbsp;please&nbsp;feel&nbsp;free&nbsp;to&nbsp;let&nbsp;me&nbsp;know.&nbsp;  
&nbsp;&nbsp;  
&nbsp;If&nbsp;the&nbsp;MapUnit&nbsp;is&nbsp;set&nbsp;to&nbsp;Meter,&nbsp;the&nbsp;coordinates&nbsp;of&nbsp;marker&nbsp;should&nbsp;be&nbsp;meter&nbsp;as&nbsp;well.&nbsp;From&nbsp;your&nbsp;description,&nbsp;it&nbsp;seems&nbsp;you&nbsp;want&nbsp;to&nbsp;use&nbsp;decimal&nbsp;degree&nbsp;(longitude/latitude)&nbsp;unit&nbsp;for&nbsp;marker,&nbsp;so&nbsp;that&nbsp;you&nbsp;need&nbsp;to&nbsp;use&nbsp;our&nbsp;Proj4Projection&nbsp;to&nbsp;convert&nbsp;the&nbsp;coordinate&nbsp;from&nbsp;Wgs84&nbsp;to&nbsp;UTM,&nbsp;we&nbsp;have&nbsp;sample&nbsp;in&nbsp;HowDoI&nbsp;sample&nbsp;which&nbsp;is&nbsp;under&nbsp;Projection&nbsp;folder.&nbsp;  
&nbsp;&nbsp;  
&nbsp;Let&nbsp;me&nbsp;know&nbsp;if&nbsp;you&nbsp;have&nbsp;more&nbsp;questions.&nbsp;  
&nbsp;&nbsp;  
&nbsp;Thanks,&nbsp;  
&nbsp;James&nbsp;