Survey Parcel Drawing Tool

The Survey Parcel Drawing Tool is a self-contained application that runs entirely in your web browser. It is designed for surveyors, mappers, and assessors who need to draft a parcel from field data — bearings and distances, or Northing/Easting coordinates — and then dress the drawing with monuments, labels, site features, a title block, and an accompanying site-assessment report.

1. Introduction

Everything happens locally on your computer. Nothing is uploaded to a server; your drawings live in files you save and reload yourself. Because the whole tool is a single file, you can keep it on a USB drive or a local folder and open it with a double-click.

1.1 What You Can Do With It

• Enter a boundary traverse by bearing/distance or by coordinates, and see the closure error computed automatically.
• Import point data from a CSV file (header-less files like Trimble/AutoCAD exports are auto-detected).
• Add non-boundary lines \u2014 easements, right-of-way, setbacks, curbs, fences, watercourses, and more.
• Place survey monuments and site symbols (found/set monuments, pins, pipes, ADA features, fixtures, and others).
• Fill areas with hatching, detectable-dome dots, brick/paver patterns, or landscaping scribble.
• Annotate with leader arrows, free text, and a full engineering title block.
• Underlay a background aerial or plan image and align it to your drawing.
• Build a site-assessment item list tied to the drawing.
• Export to PNG, LandXML (for Civil 3D), and traverse CSV / report formats.

1.2 Boundary/Traverse vs. Everything Else

The tool draws a firm line between two kinds of geometry, and understanding this distinction makes everything else clearer.

2. Getting Started

2.1 Opening the Tool

The application is a single HTML file. To open it, double-click the file, or drag it into any modern web browser (Chrome, Edge, or Firefox). No installation, internet connection, or login is required.

2.2 The Screen Layout

The window is divided into two main areas. The drawing canvas fills most of the screen \u2014 this is where your parcel is drawn and where you click to place and manipulate features. The control panel runs down one side and is organized into tabs. A small toolbar of Quick Tools sits at the top of the Lines tab, and a zoom control floats over the canvas.

2.3 The Eight Tabs at a Glance

3. Drawing the Parcel Boundary

Everything about the parcel boundary lives on the Lines tab. There are two ways to build a traverse, and you can mix them.

3.1 Setting the Point of Beginning

The Point of Beginning (POB) is the anchor for the whole traverse. In the Point of Beginning section of the Lines tab, enter its Northing and Easting. Every course you add builds outward from here. The \u2302 PoB quick tool re-centers the view on the POB at any time.

3.2 Entering Courses by Bearing and Distance

In the Add Segment section, enter each course as a quadrant bearing (for example N 45\u00b030\u203200\u2033 E) and a distance. Add them in order around the parcel.

3.3 Importing Points from CSV

The CSV Import section reads point files. Header-less files in the common Point, Northing, Easting, Elevation, Description order \u2014 the format Trimble and AutoCAD typically export \u2014 are auto-detected, and a header row is recognized if present. This is the fastest way to bring in a coordinate geometry file from field software.

3.4 Line Types

Not every line is a boundary. The Line Type selector offers a full set of drafting line styles, each rendered with its own conventional symbology.

4. Draw and Fill Tools

The Quick Tools toolbar on the Lines tab holds a set of drafting tools under the Draw heading. Most prompt you to click points on the canvas.

4.1 The Fill Tool

The Fill tool covers a closed area with a repeating pattern. Start it by clicking Fill, then either click an existing closed shape, or click a series of points to outline an area and double-click (or press Enter) to close it. The tool then asks which pattern to use.

How fills are stored and managed

A single fill can create many objects (a curb ramp of detectable domes can be thousands). To keep the drawing responsive, all the pieces of one fill are grouped together. In the line lists a fill appears as one summary row \u2014 for example, “Fill \u2014 862 domes” \u2014 with a single delete button that removes the entire fill in one click. The pattern engine is shared, so dots, brick, and scribble all behave consistently and clip to the boundary with whole tiles.

5. Symbols, Labels, and the Title Block

5.1 Monuments and Site Symbols

The Symbols tab holds a palette of monument and site symbols \u2014 found and set monuments, pipes, pins, nails, witness corners, calculated points, and a range of site fixtures and ADA features. Pick a symbol, set its size and optional label, then click on the canvas to place it. Placed symbols are movable and can be individually locked and rotated.

5.2 Leader Arrows and Free Text

The Label tab adds annotations. A leader arrow points from a note to a feature; free text drops a standalone label anywhere. The Manage section lists existing annotations so you can edit or remove them.

5.3 The Title Block

The Title tab fills the engineering title block that frames a finished plat. Its sections are Parcel / Map Information (names, APN, county, drafter, date, sheet), PLSS Location (township, range, section, meridian), Engineering Firm, Record Data (basis of bearing and record references), POB Coordinates, and Notes with display options for the block.

6. Moving, Rotating, and Locking Objects

Field data is sometimes an estimate. An extra line entered from approximate Northings and Eastings may need to be nudged to agree with the realities of a PLSS or a found improvement. The Select tool is how you move, rotate, and fine-tune the drafting elements \u2014 while the boundary/traverse stays protected.

6.1 The Select Tool

Click Select in the Quick Tools (or press Alt+S from any tab). Then build a selection by dragging a box (marquee) around the objects you want, or Shift-click / Ctrl-click individual objects to add them. Once something is selected, drag the group to move it, or drag the small \u27f3 handle above the selection to rotate it about its center. Only extra lines, field points, and monuments can be selected \u2014 boundary/traverse points never enter the selection.

6.2 The Floating Dial Controls

Whenever the Select tool is active and something is selected, a small control panel appears in the corner of the canvas with two dials for precise, numeric adjustment. The rotation dial has counter-clockwise (\u21ba) and clockwise (\u21bb) buttons around a center where you set the step in degrees, minutes, and seconds. The movement dial has up/down/left/right arrows around a field where you type the distance per click, from whole feet down to thousandths of a foot. The dials work from any tab.

6.3 Keyboard Nudging

6.4 Locking

Locking prevents accidental changes. There are two levels.

Layer locks (by category)

On the Layers tab, each category (extra lines, field points, monuments, and others) has a lock. Locking a category freezes every object in it at once. If you lock a category while some of its objects are selected, they are dropped from the selection immediately.

Per-object locks (one specific item)

You can also lock a single object \u2014 one particular monument, line, or point \u2014 while leaving its neighbors free. This is ideal for freezing a course you are confident about while you continue nudging the estimates around it. Select object(s) and use the padlock button on the dial panel, or press Alt+L; or right-click any monument, field point, or extra line and choose Lock / Unlock.

6.5 Rotating Symbols

Each monument carries its own heading. When you rotate a group, its symbols turn with it, keeping their orientation relative to the group \u2014 a north arrow rotated as part of a selection points the new direction, not its original one. To rotate a single symbol in place, right-click it and choose \u27f3 Rotate\u2026, then enter a heading in degrees (0 = upright, clockwise on screen). The selection highlight and the symbol's text label stay upright, and locked symbols will not rotate.

7. Background Images

The Image tab lets you underlay an aerial photo or existing plan and align it beneath your drawing \u2014 useful for tracing features or checking your parcel against imagery. Its controls act on the image only; your lines never move when you adjust the underlay. You can load and toggle the image, rotate it in degrees/minutes/seconds, scale it uniformly with a micro-adjust, nudge it by a typed distance, enter a pan/zoom mode to reposition it, and step back through image adjustments with its own undo.

8. Site Assessment

The Assess tab builds a site-assessment item list alongside the drawing \u2014 a natural fit when the drawing supports an inspection or condition report. Add items manually (for example, “Cracked footing at NE column”), and manage the running list in the Items section.

9. Saving, Loading, and Exporting

All of this is on the File tab. A drawing saves as a single file that contains everything \u2014 the traverse, extra lines, symbols, labels, title block, layers, lock states, and background image reference. Load it back later to pick up exactly where you left off.

10. Navigation and Keyboard Shortcuts

The Quick Tools include Fit (zoom and center on the whole drawing), \u2302 PoB (re-center on the Point of Beginning), and Help (toggle the built-in help overlay). The floating zoom control has large and small +/\u2212 steps, a Fine Tune option that halves the step size, and a Lock View toggle that freezes the current pan/zoom.

11. Example Workflows

11.1 Drafting a Parcel from a Bearing/Distance Traverse

11.2 Aligning an Estimated Line to a Found Feature

11.3 Detailing a Curb Ramp with Detectable Domes

11.4 Producing a Site-Assessment Report

12. Troubleshooting and Tips