Established in the United States in the 1930s. For states that are larger east-west than north-south, Lambert Conformal Conic is most commonly used. For those with a north-south orientation, Transverse Mercator is usually chosen. These projections have largely replaced the Polyconic projections commonly used by the U.S. Geological Survey (and others) in the 19th and early 20th century.

The purpose of the SPCS is to minimize map distortion for each state (or zone within a state), yet limit the number of standards in existence.

In previous editions of MicroStation GeoGraphics this projection method could be selected and the official U.S. State Plane numeric identifier could be specified, but the current interface does not provide this support. Previously set DGN files will have their State Plane-based Geographic Coordinate System taken into account and reprojection will be applied properly.

Instead of using this method, select the appropriate predefined Geographic Coordinate System from the predefined dictionary, which contains all officially defined State Plane Geographic Coordinate Systems for NAD 1983, HARN, or NAD 1927 datums.