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Europe / Belgium

GIMLabs in Belgium

Belgian projects can use Lambert 72, the long-standing national grid, or Lambert 2008 on ETRS89.

Coordinate systems

Every project picks its own grid: search the picker for "belgium", the grid's name or its EPSG code. Set Belgium as your company's country and GIMLabs suggests Lambert 2008 (EPSG:3812) for new projects. Belgium also falls in ETRS89 / UTM zone 31N (EPSG:25831), which any project can use instead.

Lambert 2008

EPSG:3812

Belgian Lambert 2008 on ETRS89, the newer national grid. Its coordinates differ from Lambert 72, so check which one a file uses.

On ETRS89, so it converts to latitude and longitude without a datum shift. EPSG area of use: Belgium - onshore.

Lambert 72

EPSG:31370

Belgian Lambert 72 on the BD72 datum, the grid much Belgian mapping and survey data is still delivered in.

Converts with EPSG's published datum shift (BD72 to WGS 84 (3)), good to about a metre: plenty for the map, not a survey-grade conversion. EPSG area of use: Belgium - onshore.

Your data, as written

What GIMLabs does with French and Dutch letters and the files a project in Belgium brings in.

Letters

Text with French and Dutch letters such as é è ê ë ç à ï keeps them through import, the table editor, log and figure PDFs, site plans, AGS and CSV exports and downloaded file names.

CSV files

CSVs saved as UTF-8 or UTF-16 import as written, and so do files Excel saves in Windows-1252, the code page Windows uses for French and Dutch. There is no need to re-save them first.

Excel workbooks

Drop an .xlsx on the import dialog and each visible, non-empty sheet imports as its own table. Workbooks store text as Unicode, so letters always come through.

AGS

AGS4 files import and export. AGS4 Rule 1 only allows plain ASCII, so letters beyond Western European ones import with a warning, and the "ASCII only (strict AGS4)" export option writes a file a strict checker accepts.

European geology

On Pro, the Manage map adds EuroGeoSurveys' EGDI 1:1 million surface geology for the whole of Europe, as two layers: lithology and age. Click a unit for its lithology, age and the survey that mapped it. The data is CC BY 4.0, and GIMLabs credits it wherever the layer is shown.

Country and time zone

Choosing Belgium in Product OS fills in the company's time zone, which dates and times in Manage, Insight and Connect are shown in.

Still UK-first

GIMLabs started in the UK, and a few things still show it. See what works across Europe.

Description checks follow BS 5930

The automatic soil and rock description checks follow BS 5930, the UK standard. They don't check against EN ISO 14688 or 14689 yet, so read their suggestions with that in mind.

AGS is a UK format

GIMLabs reads and writes AGS4, the UK data transfer format, and also imports CSV and Excel and exports CSV, so you don't need AGS to bring data in or take it out.

Other datums are good to about a metre

Grids on ETRS89 convert without a datum shift. Grids on other national datums, such as Amersfoort, MGI or S-JTSK, use EPSG's published shift, good to about a metre: plenty for the map, not a survey-grade conversion.

Some map layers are UK only

BGS geology, coal mining and historic Ordnance Survey layers cover Great Britain, and the Environment Agency's cover England, so they are left out for projects outside Great Britain.

The app is in English

Screens, emails and help are in English. Your data can be in any European language written in the Latin alphabet.

Other countries

National grids GIMLabs has elsewhere in Europe. Not listed? Every European project can use ETRS89 / UTM, or ask us about your national grid.

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