Open an XY Point Data File

Estimated time: 1 minute.

Access the RockWorks Utilities datasheet and open the EarthApps Samples project folder, as described earlier. (Remind me… )
Locate the Project Manager pane along the left edge of the program window. Here you'll see groupings of a variety of different RockWorks file types in the Samples folder.

Expand the Datasheet Files heading in the Project Manager. You'll see a long list of sample data files.
Locate the file "Icons_Simple_01.RwDat" in the alphabetical list, and double-click on it. The program will load the contents of the data file into the datasheet.

This particular file contains sample IDs, and X and Y location coordinates in longitude and latitude.

! RockWorks permits you to organize your data almost any way you like. Any time you want to create a map or diagram, you can specify which columns in the datasheet contain what type of data.
View the Column Parameters: Right-click in the gray column heading for the Sample ID column (or select Columns | Column Properties). The program will display the column parameters window.

This is where you can assign the column title and column type. The Sample ID column is a "Generic" text column.
Click the green arrow at the top of the window again to advance to the Easting column.

This column contains geographic coordinates. Here you can specify the coordinate type and the units.

! X and Y coordinate columns must have type and units selected for map creation. In this example, the coordinates are recorded in a longitude and latitude system, in decimal degrees.

Click the green arrow to advance to the Northing column - it's also set as a Geographic/Spatial column, with coordinate system and units selected as decimal degrees.
Click OK to close the Column Settings window.