This page is a guide to the Deed Studio interface. It will explain what the different buttons and functions are within the Deed tab and the Plot tab.
See Also: What is the Deed Studio?
Accessing the Deed Studio
Currently, the Deed Studio can be accessed from the File drop down in any Surety® Pro account
This will open the Deed Studio in a new tab or window.
Deed Studio Menu Items
The top of the interface does not change when accessing the different tabs within the Deed Studio.
The left side contains the:
New Project,
Open Project,
Save project,
and OCR icons.
Visit the Deed Studio's OCR Help Page
The upper right side of the interface contains 4 icons:
Send Help Request to AgriData, Inc.
Once you have named and saved your project, you can use this button to send the support team at AgriData your currently saved work if you are having trouble mapping out a certain call or tract. We will take a look at your project and contact you either by phone or email with help.
Note: Make sure that your Surety Pro profile is up to date with the correct email address and phone number since this information is what we will use to contact you.
Attach File
Attach the digital version of your source materials to always have them on hand.
Magnetic Declination
To be used with the Plot Tab open. This will rotate the boundary a set degree.
Client Select
Select or change the current selected client.
Note: changing a client in the middle of mapping does not transfer the project to that client, it simply will allow you to open existing projects under the newly selected client or create a new project under that client.
If you attempt to change the client without first saving your current progress, the Deed Studio will prompt you to either Save and Continue, Continue without Saving, or Cancel and return to current project and client.
There are two main pages within the Deed Studio interface. They are set up as tabs that can be cycled back and forth as you map.
Deed Tab
The first page is the Deed tab.
This tab is where the Deed and Tracts can be setup and named within the project (the Deed name is required for saving the project)
The Menu button is used to manage the different tracts and exceptions.
Any separate boundaries that are contained within the legal description need to be added as a separate tract. Click Add Tract to number and add the additional Tract to the project.
To add an exclusion, make sure that you have the tract highlighted that the exclusion is taken out of and use the menu to select Add Exclusion.
The exclusion will be placed beneath that selected tract after numbered and saved.
You can also re-number a tract or exclusion with the Edit Selected menu option or delete an entire tract or exclusion with the Remove Selected option.
You are able to add and remove any number of tracts and exclusions at any point in the project.
Tract Text and Segment creation
To use the full capabilities of the Deed Studio, it is highly recommended that the Legal Description be either typed or copy/pasted into the Tract text area in the Deed tab.
Simply select the tract or exclusion that you want to enter the description for and enter the text into the main text area.
Once the legal description is entered, the Deed Studio will automatically detect and segment out the different calls the best it can. The different segments are listed to the right of the main tract text.
The indicator for the Deed Studio to create a new segment is the detection of the word "Thence". If your legal description is not segmenting correctly, check to see if there is a "thence" before the call and add it if needed. These segments are what is used in the Plot tab to map the tract or exclusion boundary on the map.
When manually modifying the Segment's text, you can do it in a couple of different places. Modify the text directly within the parsed segments then click on the Save icon to then apply the change to the main body of tract text.
For example: if you add a whole new segment within an existing segment and then save,
a new segment will be parsed out on its own.
Note: To delete a segment, the entire text for that segment must be removed from the main text area of the description.
The other way to add a segment is to type the call text directly into the main text. The segment will be automatically created once the word "Thence" is detected.
When you are ready to start mapping, click on the tract or exclusion you want to map and click on the Plot tab. (Remember to save your progress often!)
Plot Tab
After segmenting the map calls from the Legal description, the Plot tab will present you with a new interface to use to map the boundaries.
The right side of the page is the Map where you will set your beginning point and see the boundary segments get plotted out.
If either/or the county, state and/or the Section - Township - Range information is available in Segment 1, the map will have automatically zoomed to the location. Make sure to double check the map position before starting your boundary.
If the map's location is incomplete or not able to be parsed, then it is easy to use the search and zoom capabilities to manually find the correct location.
Typically the boundary's location will be documented within the beginning of the legal description. If that is the case, it is simple to highlight that text with your cursor, copy it, click on the magnifying glass to expand the search bar, and paste the information. Try to limit the text to include only information for one particular location but include as much information as possible for that location. Type the enter key on the keyboard to perform the search.
Tips for searching are available when the question Mark button is clicked. This page will indicate what the format of the searched text needs to be in.
Search text is not case sensitive.
Search Municipality - Prefix the city, town or village name with 'city', 'cty', 'town', 'twn', 'village', 'vill', 'vil', 'vlg', 'villg'
city grand forks
Town rapid city
Village twin falls
city fargo
city fargo nd
Search Township - Postfix with 'township' or 'twp'grand twp
grand twp sd
St. Vincent township
St. Vincent township ar
Search State - Use state abbreviation
nd
city fargo nd
Search County - Postfix with 'county' or 'cnty' or 'cd' or 'parish' or 'ph' or 'par'
cass county
cass cnty nd
Search Legal - Section Abbreviations allowed: Sec, Sec.,Sect, Sect.
section 2, township 28 north, range 1 west
2-28n-1w
section 2, township 28 north, range 1 west, ms
2-28n-1w ms
Sec. 2, township 28 north, range 1 west, ms
2-28n-1w ms
Sect. 2, township 28 north, range 1 west, ms
2-28n-1w ms
Use the Plus and Minus (+ -) buttons to zoom in and out manually from the map.
The Forward and Back extent buttons will move the map zoom extent to a previous step or a step forward. These work even when switching between different tracts and exclusions within the Deed tab.
Clicking the Full View button will center the map on the saved borders or forms within the selected client's record (from the main Surety Pro interface).
Using the mouse to manipulate the map
- To pan the map, simply use the mouse to left click and drag the map around.
- Use the mouse's scroll wheel to zoom in and out.
- Another way to zoom is to hold the shift key down and left click and drag a box around the area to zoom into.
Click the Map Layers button to switch the map imagery between street view and satellite imagery. You can also turn the FSA fields, Sections, Quarter Sections, and Quarter Quarter Section lines on and off with their respective settings.
Note: The Section, Quarter Section, and Quarter Section Quarters layers are visually differently than the layers of the same name in the main mapping interface.
The sections are a thick grey line.
The Quarter section's grey lines are medium thickness.
The Quarter Quarter sections's lines are a thin grey line.
The Gradicule layer consists of Latitude and Longitude lines so they can be used as reference in certain scenarios.
The bottom left of the map contains a scale, latitude and longitude coordinates of the current mouse position, and the current map's county and state.
Segment Mapping Interface
Initially, the left panel will require you to set the the Point of Beginning. Take a look at our Deed Studio Mapping Scenarios Walkthrough page for more help with this step.
The panel to the left of the map will contain hints on what to do next.
Once the first point is dropped on the map the left panel will offer a text box with 2 buttons to the right of it. This is where the boundary segment descriptions are input.
If a segment text is able to be parsed, then this box will automatically fill in with the suggested information.
Otherwise, if the information is not automatically filled in, then it will have to be manually added by either directly typing into the box or clicking on the ellipses button to the right.
Once a description is entered, the plus button is used to plot the point on the map. (You can also use the Add/Next or the Auto Add buttons to add this description and then proceed to the next segment automatically.)
TIP: After typing in the course information, clicking the TAB key on your keyboard will parse the information and the ENTER key will parse AND add the segment to the map.
Manual Point Interface
While adding manual points to the map, 2 lengths are shown initially and after one point is placed, 2 more appear
the purple number is the distance from the previous point to the cursor's location
the orange number is the straight line distance from the start of the manual points to the cursor
the yellow number is the total distance from the first manual point to the cursor including all of the points in between
the bottom set of information in black font is the bearing of the line segment from the last point
each time a point is clicked, the exact latitude and longitude coordinate of that point is documented in the left panel.
A point can only be deleted by clicking on the red x next to the segment.
Closing the Polygon
Once the final segment is reached, the Deed Studio will ask if you would like to close the polygon. It gives the distance from the last point entered to the closest point that it would connect with to close. It will also display the acres of the closed polygon.
Click YES to close the polygon.
Once the polygon is closed, the entire boundary can be shifted by using the arrow keys in the lower right corner of the map.
Display the boundary within the Surety Pro interface
Please see the Deed Studio Mapping Scenarios page for details on how to view the created boundary within the Surety Pro interface.
See Also:
Deed Studio
Deed Studio Mapping Scenarios Walkthrough
Dossier Studio