Plot Deed Drawing Tool

Modified on 2024/04/15 15:48 by Adam — Categorized as: Uncategorized

The Plot Deed drawing tool is very valuable when needing to plot metes and bounds (course and distance) property descriptions found on a deed or other legal document.
Access to the tool requires a Surety^® Pro account.

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Note: you may want to Select a Client before finding your location and plotting the deed in order to be able to save the border when you are done.

You find the Plot Deed option under the Drawing tool in the left hand panel.

You will notice that a couple things have now appeared on your screen.

The small popup is where you enter the call information.

The "Plot Deed" panel on the right will serve as a history of the placed points once they have been added.

The first thing that we need to do after clicking on "Plot Deed" is to place a starting point on the map. The example that I am using tells me to begin at the southwest corner of the section. I will then left click once to place the starting point on the map.

Next I will follow the documentation and enter in the bearing coordinates and distance. This particular example tells me to "assume a bearing of North 00 degrees 09 min 19 seconds East a distance of 614.11 feet."

The first drop-down is going to need to be N for North then type in the coordinates like this into the first blank.

 00 09 19

Then I need to enter E for East and 614.11 in the second field. I am already using feet so that can stay the same.

Now click apply

The line will be drawn on the map and the coordinate will be added to the history panel on the right.

Keep typing in coordinates and hitting apply to add boundaries lines to the map, you can see that it will keep listing all of the calls that have been placed.

Drawing a Curve¶

If you need to place a curve on the map, click Add a Curve link on the Add linear Point pop-up.

A new window will open allowing you to enter the curve information.

Enter the Chord, Bearing, Distance, Radius, and Central Angle as desired.
NOTE: The Central Angle is not necessary if the distance and radius are supplied.

To determine if the arc side is left or right, look at the point that you are starting at and ask "does the line curve to the left or to the right in the direction of the next point." In our example, the direction of the line heading is west and the line is curving out toward the south so the Arc Side would be set as "left".

(Note: this works differently then the Deed Studio"Arc Side" input. The Plot Deed drawing tool does not assume a concave nature.)

Click apply.

If you need to enter another curve you can do so again, otherwise click x to exit the Add Curved points window.

Tangent Deflection
The Plot Deed drawing tool can also be used to draw curves that are calculated with tangent deflection and do not have a bearing. In the example below this is the information given for the first arc (purple): deflect to the left along a tangential curve, having a central angle of 22 deg 24 ft 11 in, a radius of 327.46 ft and a length of 137.17 ft. Notice even though a bearing wasn't provided, we can still draw out the curve. This is not to say that the bearing is optional, since if we put a direction or Chord Bearing the curve will rotate according to that bearing direction as demonstrated by the arc in blue.

Tangent Deflection example

Additionally, if a bearing, Radius, and Central Angle are all provided, then the length is not necessary to enter since it can be determined from the other information. You can see that in this example, I removed the length value and the curve was still able to calculate correctly.

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Now continue entering the lines and curves until you get to the last point.

If you are satisfied with the border then you can tell the Plot Deed tool to automatically close the polygon by clicking the "Close Polygon" link.
NOTE: YOU CANNOT MAKE ANY ADJUSTMENTS TO THE ENTERED VALUES AFTER CLOSING THE POLYGON. IT NEEDS TO BE DONE BEFORE CLOSING.

Now if you find that the last point is very far away from the first point you set, double check all of the entered points, if you find a mistake you can edit it in the right hand panel in it's respective call line. Then click the save icon (computer disk). Everything after that point will recalculate on the map.

If you see that you have repeated a line, you can delete it by clicking the delete icon (trashcan), everything after that point will recalculate.

Magnetic Declination¶

Magnetic declination, sometimes called magnetic variation, is the angle between magnetic north and true north. Declination is considered positive east of true north and negative when west. It varies with time and location. For More information, view the NOAA website. http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/geomag/declination.shtml

To account for a magnetic declination. Click on the link in the Add Linear Point window.

The number you put in will rotate the lines around the starting point by that many degrees. Depending if you set it to east and west will determine what direction it will rotate.

To remove the declination, simply type in a zero and hit apply.

Overlapping Points¶

If a line segment is added and it crosses another line, the intersecting sections will turn yellow. If this happens double check your entries and correct them if necessary.

Lines turn yellow when they cross one another.

Exporting a Plotted Boundary¶

It may be useful to export the plotted boundary in order to use it in a different program.

Once the Polygon has been closed, use the File drop down and select Export.

You can also find an Export link in the list of forms in the right hand panel.

The Export dialog box will open giving you 5 options for exporting (saving to your computer) the current borders.

For more details visit the Export help page.

Try out the Deed Studio for even more automation and control over your deed mapping.

Plot Deed Example Videos¶

Example 1:

Example 2:

See Also:

Deed Studio

Export Borders, Soils Borders, Map Image, JOB files, and KML files

Surety® Pro Features