Transform Coordinate Systems by Drag and Drop

1. Create a new Letter sized Adobe Illustrator document in landscape orientation.

2. Import world.mif from the Tutorial Data folder.

3. Import worldwest.shp from the Tutorial Data folder.

There are two MAP Views: one called world, in the WGS 84 coordinate system, that contains the world_area layer; and the second called worldwest, in the Robinson coordinate system, that contains the worldwest_area layer.

4. In the MAP Views panel click the worldwest_area layer and drag it to the world MAP View.

The worldwest_area layer is transformed into the WGS 84 coordinate system and matches the page scaling of the world_area layer.

5. Drag worldwest_area back to the worldwest MAP View and it will transform the layer back to the Robinson coordinate system.

Drag layers into existing coordinate systems

6. Use the Toggle Visibility button in the Adobe Illustrator Layers panel to hide the world_area layer.

7. In the Adobe Illustrator Layers panel, create a new layer called Extras, and move it to the top of the layers hierarchy.

8. With the Extras layer selected, roughly trace over some features that exist on the worldwest_area layer using the Adobe Illustrator Pen tool and give it a red-colored fill.

The new features are polygons. Make sure that the elements are closed so that the start and end points of the lines are coincident.

9. In the MAP Views panel, click the Extras layer and drag it into the worldwest MAP View.

10. In the Undefined Layer dialog box, choose Area from the Feature type drop-down list, and click OK.

The Extras layer is now stored in the same coordinate system as the worldwest MAP View.

Drag new layers into different coordinate systems

11. In the Adobe Illustrator layers panel, use the Toggle Visibility buttons to hide the worldwest_area layer, and to make the world_area layer visible. The Extras layer is already visible.

12. In the MAP Views panel click the Extras layer and drag it into the world MAP View.

The Extras layer is moved to the coordinate system of the world MAP View. It is immediately transformed from Robinson to the WGS 84 coordinate system and aligns with the data in the world_area layer.

Edit layer names using search and replace

13. In the MAP Views panel option menu, click Layer Name Search & Replace.

14. In the Find what box, type _area. In the Replace with box, type _layer. Click the OK button.

The text _area is replaced with _layer in the name of all applicable layers.

15. Close the document without saving.