User Guide

1. Overview

The PLSS Monument Field Tool is a web-based application for locating, documenting, and managing Public Land Survey System (PLSS) monuments. It runs in your browser — no installation required. It works on desktop computers and tablets. The drawing tool is best used on a large screen.

The system has three pages:

• PLSS Monument Field Tool (surveyor.weist.net) — corner lookup, GLO records, monument logging, community monument search, formal reports, COGO traverse, parcel lookup, Corner Record generation, and admin functions
• Survey Parcel Drawing Tool (parcel-drawing-tool.html) — canvas drawing tool for producing California-standard parcel sketches
• My Profile (profile.html) — view and edit your personal information and license details

Data flows automatically from the field tool into the drawing tool — coordinates, geodetic data, and your firm's information are all pre-filled when you open a drawing from the Q/QQ Lookup or COGO tab.

2. Getting Started

2.1 Signing In

Navigate to surveyor.weist.net. Enter your username and password and click Sign in.

If this is your first login, you will be prompted to set a new password immediately. Enter the temporary password your administrator gave you, then choose a permanent password (minimum 8 characters, at least one letter and one number).

Accounts lock after 5 failed attempts for 30 minutes. Contact your administrator to unlock early.

2.2 Forgot Password

1. Click Forgot password? on the sign-in screen
2. Enter the email address on your account
3. Click Send Reset Link
4. Check your email — a reset link arrives within a few minutes (check spam)
5. Click the link and set a new password

The reset link expires after 60 minutes. If it expires, request a new one.

2.3 Guest Mode

Click Continue as guest to use the Q/QQ Lookup without signing in. Guests see a restricted version of the lookup — useful for elevation checks and general PLSS orientation.

Use the feedback form to request a full account.

2.4 Navigation

2.5 Your Profile

Click your name in the top navigation bar at any time to open your profile in a new tab. From there you can update your display name, personal email, license type, license number, and license state. The main tool tab stays open. Administrators can also edit firm information from the profile page.

3. Q/QQ Lookup Tab

This is the primary field planning tool. Use it before and after a field visit to find State Plane coordinates, elevation, nearby control, and monument history for any PLSS corner.

3.1 The PLSS System

The Public Land Survey System divides land into townships (6 miles × 6 miles), each containing 36 sections (1 mile × 1 mile). Each section can be divided into quarter sections and quarter-quarter sections (40 acres each).

3.2 Entering a Corner

Step 1 — Identity Bar

Fill in Township number and direction, Range number and direction, Section number (1–36), and Meridian. MDM is correct for most of California. Humboldt (HUM) covers the northwest corner of the state. San Bernardino (SBM) covers the southeast.

Step 2 — Choose Corner Mode

QQ Corner — for a corner of a 40-acre aliquot parcel. Select First Quarter (larger subdivision), Second Quarter (subdivision within the first), and Corner (which corner of that parcel).

Example: The SW corner of the NW¼ of the NE¼ of Section 14 — First Quarter=NE, Second Quarter=NW, Corner=SW.

Section Corner — for a major section boundary monument. Choose from: NW, NE, SW, SE, N 1/4, S 1/4, E 1/4, W 1/4, or Center.

Lot Corner — for a government lot in a closing section. Lot numbers are mutually exclusive with QQ designations — if the section contains lots, use Lot mode. See Section 3.8.

Step 3 — Select State Plane Zone

Step 4 — Look Up Corner

Click Look Up Corner. The tool queries the BLM PLSS database and returns results within a few seconds. The query log at the bottom shows every API call and result for troubleshooting.

3.3 Reading the Results

3.4 Grid vs Ground — Which to Use When

Use Grid N/E when: Navigating to a corner location. Entering coordinates into AutoCAD, your data collector, or any GPS/GIS software. Grid is the language of positioning — it's what GPS receivers output and what mapping software understands.

Use Ground N/E when: Computing traverse distances from a total station. Distances you measure physically in the field are ground distances — slightly longer than grid distances at elevation. The CSF converts between them.

The Ground-to-Grid Distance Converter in the results panel performs this calculation automatically for any distance you enter.

3.5 CSF — Combined Scale Factor

The CSF accounts for two effects that make grid distances differ from ground distances: the State Plane projection scale factor and the elevation factor. Both are small but compound over long distances.

CSF × Ground distance = Grid distance (entering field measurements into CAD)
Grid distance ÷ CSF = Ground distance (staking from CAD coordinates)

The CSF is displayed to 8 decimal places because even the 7th decimal affects distances over a mile.

3.6 Convergence Angle

Deed bearings are typically true bearings. AutoCAD and total stations work in grid bearings. The convergence angle converts between them.

• East of the central meridian (most of CA Zone 2): Grid bearing = Deed bearing − Convergence
• West of the central meridian: Grid bearing = Deed bearing + Convergence

The tool tells you which operation to use after every lookup. The convergence angle is location-specific and is typically a few minutes to a couple of degrees in California.

3.7 Magnetic Declination

Magnetic declination is displayed after every lookup — the angle between magnetic north (where your compass points) and true north. The value comes from the BGS World Magnetic Model 2025, computed for the exact location of the looked-up corner.

The declination panel shows three things:

1. The value — e.g. 12°49'34" E
2. The conversion formula — e.g. "True bearing = Compass bearing − 12°49'34" E"
3. Plain-language field instruction — e.g. "Read your compass bearing, then rotate the compass 12°49'34" counter-clockwise (left) to get the true bearing."

East declination (California and most western US): your compass needle points east of true north, so your compass reading is higher than the true bearing. Subtract the declination. Rotate the compass counter-clockwise (left). Mnemonic: "Declination East — compass least" (compass reads high, subtract).

West declination (eastern US): your compass needle points west of true north, so your compass reading is lower than the true bearing. Add the declination. Rotate the compass clockwise (right). Mnemonic: "Declination West — compass best" (compass reads low, add).

3.8 Closing Sections and Government Lots

Closing sections occur at the western and northern edges of a township. Because townships are laid out from east to west and south to north, accumulated measurement error is absorbed at these edges — resulting in sections that are not exactly one mile square. The BLM assigned government lot numbers to the irregular portions of these sections.

When the tool detects a closing section, it shows a warning banner and draws the lot polygons on the map if BLM has them on file. Use Lot mode to look up lot corners. A section correction offset may be especially important in closing sections where the BLM polygon displacement tends to be larger.

3.9 Township Scan — When No Data Is Found

If the BLM database returns no data for your township at any step, the tool automatically scans the entire township to see what sections and lots exist. Results appear on the map as orange/brown parallelogram section outlines — these are the actual BLM cadastral polygons — with lot outlines in blue and a ★ label on the requested section.

A banner explains the likely historical reason, with three distinct cases:

• Section geometry not found (all 36 sections in database) — the BLM database has complete township data but could not return geometry for your specific section in this query. This is typically a temporary API issue. Try the lookup again — the corner position can also be computed mathematically from surrounding sections.
• Partial data — some sections exist but the interior is missing. The township may have been a military reservation, federal withdrawal, or mission land excluded from the rectangular survey.
• Entirely blank township — the land was almost certainly a Mexican land grant (rancho). The GLO never entered the interior. No PLSS corners were set. Look for a private land claim survey filed under the rancho name rather than by township and range.

County contacts are listed in the banner for El Dorado, Placer, and Sacramento Counties. The county surveyor may have information about locally established control that is not in the BLM database.

The township scan banner clears automatically when you run a successful subsequent lookup.

3.10 The Map

After every lookup the Leaflet map updates to show:

• Green marker (PoB) — the computed corner position — your chosen Point of Bearing
• Corner labels — all four corners of the looked-up parcel show Grid N/E and GPS lat/lon. The PoB corner is green with a ★; the other three are blue.
• Blue markers — nearest NOAA CORS and CRTN stations (click for station ID and distance)
• Purple markers — NGS survey marks within the section (click for PID, designation, condition, and full datasheet link)
• Section grid overlay — section boundary, quarter lines, QQ lines, and highlighted QQ for the searched corner
• Lot polygons — colored polygons with lot labels in closing sections

The action bar below the results offers:

• Copy lat/lon — copies the PoB coordinates to clipboard
• Copy N/E — copies Grid (and Ground if available) N/E to clipboard
• Export All Corners — downloads a CSV with all four corners of the looked-up parcel: corner label, PLSS description, Lat/Lon, Grid N/E, Ground N/E, Elevation, CSF, and Zone. The PoB corner is flagged. Ready to open in Excel or import into a data collector.
• Google Maps, CalTopo, BLM PLSS Map, Topo — external links centered on the PoB corner
• Show Township Grid / Show Ground Grid — on-demand overlays (see Section 3.10a)

3.10a Three-Grid Map Display

Two on-demand overlay buttons appear in the action bar after every successful lookup:

⊞ Show Township Grid — overlays the actual BLM cadastral polygon data for the entire township. These polygons are the shapes as digitized from the original GLO survey maps — they form a slightly irregular parallelogram grid rather than a perfect rectangle, reflecting the real-world errors of chain-and-compass surveys from the 1800s.

⊞ Show Ground Grid — fetches the elevation at all four corners of your parcel individually, computes the Combined Scale Factor (CSF) for each corner using the proper LCC projection formula, and draws a Ground-corrected polygon in warm brown. Ground coordinates account for the distance above the ellipsoid — Ground distances are always slightly longer than Grid distances at elevation.

With both overlays active alongside the computed Grid section, you see three reference grids simultaneously:

The offset between the blue theoretical grid and the orange BLM grid reflects the accumulated error of the original survey — compass variation, chain pull, terrain, and surveyor skill. This offset is typically 20–100 feet and is the primary reason monument recovery requires field search rather than just walking to a coordinate.

Each brown Ground corner label shows the Ground N/E, the elevation used, and the computed CSF — useful for field notes and formal reports. Click ⊞ Hide Township Grid or ⊞ Hide Ground Grid to remove the overlays.

3.10b BLM Monument Coordinates — What Is and Isn't Available

A common question is whether the BLM has a publicly accessible database of GPS-surveyed monument positions — exact coordinates where a monument has been physically located and measured. The short answer is: not through any public API.

The BLM maintains an internal database called the Geographic Coordinate Data Base (GCDB) that contains field-surveyed monument positions collected over decades. However this database is not exposed through their public ArcGIS REST services. The public-facing BLM PLSS services provide:

• Polygon geometry — the section and QQ shapes digitized from historical maps (what this tool uses)
• Survey records — who surveyed each township, when, and what type of survey
• GLO scanned documents — the original handwritten field notes at glorecords.blm.gov

None of these contain the actual GPS coordinates of a physically recovered monument. The polygon vertices are digitized approximations — typically 20–100 feet from the actual monument position.

The professional solution is to establish your own zero point:

1. Find a monument you can physically verify — confirm stamping, condition, and that it is undisturbed
2. Occupy it with your GNSS base — get an RTK-quality Grid N/E measurement
3. Use that as your network origin — all rover measurements from it are internally consistent
4. Document it thoroughly — monument description, condition, basis for accepting it as control
5. Enter it as a Section Correction in this tool — this calibrates all future lookups in that section to real-world monument positions

3.11 Section Correction Offsets

BLM PLSS polygon geometry is digitized from historical maps and is systematically offset from actual monument positions — typically 50–150 feet per township. When a section correction is on file for the current section, the tool displays the offset and shows an adjusted search center on the map — the position where field experience says the monuments actually are.

To add or update a correction after recovering a monument:

1. Run the Q/QQ Lookup for any corner in the section
2. Click Add/Update Section Correction
3. Enter the actual Grid Northing and Easting from your total station or RTK GPS
4. The offset is computed automatically — preview updates as you type
5. Click Save

Corrections are shared with all users in your organization. As more monuments are measured, the correction becomes a weighted average improving over time.

3.11a Measured Corner Positions

When you open the Monument Log modal after a Q/QQ or Section lookup, a new section appears at the bottom: "📍 Measured Corner Positions." This is where you enter the actual Grid N/E coordinates measured by your GNSS equipment for each corner of the parcel.

Each of the four corner rows (NW, NE, SE, SW) shows three columns:

• Theoretical Grid — the computed position from BLM polygon data, same values shown on the map corner labels
• Ground (ref only) — the CSF-corrected Ground position, read-only, for field comparison
• Measured Grid + Offset — two input fields for your GNSS-measured N and E in US Survey Feet. As you type, the offset computes automatically and color-codes: green if within 5 feet, amber if 5–25 feet, red if over 25 feet.

You don't need to fill in every corner — enter only what you measured. Unfilled corners are simply omitted from the saved record.

The offsets are stored in the database and displayed to future surveyors in Monument Search results. Over time, if multiple surveyors enter measured positions for corners in the same area, patterns in the offset direction and magnitude will reveal the systematic displacement of the BLM polygon data relative to actual monument positions — giving future searchers a reliable hint about which direction to dig.

3.11b County Parcel Overlay

After a successful lookup, a "County Parcels ▾" dropdown appears in the action bar. Selecting a county queries that county's public parcel GIS service and draws the parcel boundary on the map as a colored dashed polygon, with the APN and acreage labeled at the centroid.

Currently configured counties:

• El Dorado County — orange polygon, queries Parcels_Public_View FeatureServer. Shows APN, legal description, address, land use, acreage, land value, structure value.
• Sacramento County — green polygon, queries PARCELS MapServer Layer 22. Shows APN, recorded document label, parcel type, jurisdiction, tax status.

Click the parcel polygon on the map to open a popup with full parcel details. Select a different county to switch overlays, or select the blank option to clear.

If you find a working parcel service for a county not yet in the tool, submit it via the Feedback form — the County Parcel Service submission type has a structured form for the service URL, field names, and a test APN.

3.12 Open in Drafting Tool

Click Open in Drafting Tool to pass the current lookup result to the drawing tool. The drawing tool opens in a new tab pre-populated with: Grid N/E as the Point of Beginning, PLSS description, geodetic data (CSF, convergence, declination, zone, elevation), basis of bearing, and your firm's complete title block information.

4. BLM GLO Search Tab

Search the Bureau of Land Management's General Land Office records database for historical survey records. Enter Township, Range, and optionally a Section number, then click Search.

Results link directly to glorecords.blm.gov for field notes, plats, and master title plats. GLO field notes describe what the original surveyors found — witness trees, terrain, bearings to corners — and are essential context for any monument recovery.

5. Monument Log Tab

The Monument Log is your field diary. Use it to record every search attempt — whether you found the monument, found it disturbed, or didn't find it at all. Entries are saved to the database and shared with all users in your organization.

5.1 Logging a Search Attempt

1. Click Log New Search or click the Log This Search button after a Q/QQ Lookup
2. The identity fields (Township, Range, Section, Meridian) pre-fill from the current lookup
3. Set the Corner and QQ designation
4. Set the Result: Found, Partial (found but disturbed), or Not Found
5. Fill in monument details if found: type, condition, coordinates, elevation
6. Select equipment used — check all that apply
7. Enter field notes — describe what you found, where you looked, terrain, anything useful for the next surveyor
8. Click Save Entry

All Found and Partial entries for PLSS framework monuments are automatically shared with the community monument database (Monument Search tab). Not Found entries are not shared — there is no measured position to contribute.

5.2 Equipment Selection

Click any equipment tile to select it — it turns amber. Click again to deselect. Multiple selections are correct — for example Metal Detector + Probe Rod + Shovel for a thorough search. Select all equipment actually used.

Visual recovery — select this when the monument is above grade and visible without any digging or electronic equipment. Your eyes are the equipment. This is the appropriate choice when a monument is found standing 3 feet above grade in plain view.

If you used none of the listed equipment — for example a visual recovery with only handwritten field notes — check Visual recovery and leave everything else unchecked.

5.3 Viewing and Filtering Entries

Log entries appear as cards below the entry form. Filter by result type using the Found / Partial / Not Found buttons. Statistics at the top show totals and breakdown by result. Export all entries as CSV using the Bulk Export button.

Each Found or Partial entry has a Corner Record button — click it to generate a formal Corner Record document from that entry.

5.4 Deleting Entries

Survey Technicians and Field Technicians can delete their own entries — but only if the entry has not been linked to a formal report (MSR) or a Corner Record. Once an entry is the foundation for a formal document, it is permanently locked and cannot be deleted. The delete button will not appear for locked entries. All deletions are permanently logged in the audit trail.

6. Monument Search Tab

The Monument Search tab lets you search the shared community monument database — Monument Log entries that have been marked publicly shareable by their authors across all organizations using the tool.

1. Enter Township, Range, and Meridian (Section is optional)
2. Click Search
3. Results show: corner designation, result type, monument type and condition, elevation, coordinates, date of search, finder name, license number, firm, and field notes

This is read-only — you cannot edit another organization's entries. Use it to find what other surveyors have already documented before going to the field. A recent Found entry with coordinates and a monument description can save hours of search time.

7. Corner Record Generator

Generate a formal Corner Record document compliant with California B&P Code §8771. Corner Records must be filed with the county surveyor when a PLSS corner is found and used as control in a survey.

1. In the Monument Log, find a Found or Partial entry
2. Click the Corner Record button on that entry
3. The Corner Record form opens pre-filled with data from the log entry and your profile
4. Complete all required fields including GPS equipment, method, datum, control station, and reference monument ties
5. Click Generate Corner Record
6. A printable HTML document opens in a new tab — print it or save as PDF
7. File with the appropriate county:

8. Reports Tab

Formal survey reports sit above the informal Monument Log as the professional documentation layer. Three types are available. Reports are signed under a license number when finalized — making them a certifiable professional document, not just a field note.

8.1 Report Types

8.2 The Reports Tab Layout

The Reports tab has three columns:

• Left (45%) — Organization Log — your organization's informal field log entries (LOG type). These are the raw search records created from the Monument Log tab or the + New Log Entry form.
• Center (10%) — Statistics — summary counts by result type and equipment for the current filter.
• Right (45%) — Official Reports — Draft and Final MSR, TRR, and DPR records.

8.2a Creating a Monument Search Report (MSR)

The recommended workflow is LOG → Promote → MSR:

1. Run a Q/QQ Lookup for the corner you searched
2. Log the search in the Monument Log tab (or + New Log Entry in the Reports tab left column)
3. Open the Reports tab — your LOG entry appears in the left column
4. Click the card to open the detail panel, then click → Promote to MSR
5. The promote form opens pre-filled with your log data — expand the field journal narrative, add any additional context
6. Click Create Draft MSR — the MSR appears in the right column, the LOG entry remains in the left column
7. Click the MSR card to open it, then click Edit to add photos, county filing info, and review the content
8. When complete, a Licensed Surveyor or System Architect can finalize

You can also create an MSR directly using + MSR in the right column header without a LOG entry — but the LOG → Promote workflow keeps your field notes and formal report linked.

8.3 Creating a Township Research Report (TRR)

TRRs are typically created automatically when the Q/QQ Lookup triggers a township scan that returns no data. Click + TRR in the Reports tab to create one manually.

A TRR should document: which sections and lots were found in the BLM database, which were absent, the historical explanation for the gaps, neighboring section data used to estimate positions, county contacts consulted, and recommended next steps. Include the mandatory disclaimer that positions in the report are approximate and not for use as survey control without field verification.

8.4 Creating a Derived Position Report (DPR)

A DPR documents the mathematics behind an approximate corner position computed from adjacent section polygon vertices. It is a short, technical document that explicitly states its limitations. Always pair a DPR with a TRR that explains the research context.

DPR reports are automatically flagged with a warning when a section correction is later logged for the same section — indicating that field data now exists that may supersede the derived position.

8.5 Finalizing a Report

Finalization is the professional act of certifying a report under your license number. Only Licensed Surveyors and System Architects can finalize.

Before asking for your license number, the tool runs a pre-finalization checklist and will stop with a clear explanation if anything is missing:

• Meridian, Township, and Range must be present
• Section number must be present (for MSR)
• Field journal must be at least 20 characters
• Summary must be present
• Result (Found/Partial/Not Found) must be set for MSR
• Report must be in DRAFT status
• Your license must be verified against the California DCA database (see Section 11)
• Verification must be current — not older than 30 days

If any item fails, you will see a specific message explaining what is missing and how to fix it. Once all items pass, you will be prompted to enter your license number and confirm.

When finalized: the report is locked (no further edits), the license number is embedded in the report, it becomes immediately publicly visible to all logged-in users, and the filename changes from -Draft to -Final.

8.6 Report Filenames

Report filenames are generated automatically from the report's components:

MtDiablo-04N-06E-Sec14-NWSW-MSR-2026-04-16-WEI-RW-Draft

8.7 Photos

Each report can have up to 5 photos, 2MB each. Click any empty photo slot in the report detail panel to upload. Supported formats: JPEG, PNG, WebP, GIF.

If a photo exceeds 2MB, a message will explain the limit and suggest reducing file size. Most phone cameras set to Medium quality produce photos well under 2MB — sufficient for field documentation. For photos that are too large to upload, enter the URL in the external URL field — but note that external URLs are not guaranteed to remain accessible permanently.

8.8 Public Reports and Draft Visibility

Final reports are publicly visible to all logged-in users immediately upon finalization. Draft reports are visible within your organization to users with appropriate permissions. After 180 days, Draft reports that have not been Recalled become visible to all logged-in users — still marked as DRAFT. This ensures that field research does not remain permanently hidden.

Recalled reports are removed from public view entirely and are only visible to Org Admins and System Architects.

9. COGO Traverse Tab

The COGO (Coordinate Geometry) Traverse tab computes the State Plane coordinates of each point in a deed traverse from its bearings and distances.

1. Set the Point of Beginning — click Pull from Q/QQ Lookup to use the last looked-up corner, or enter Grid N/E manually
2. Add traverse legs — each leg requires a bearing (N/S, degrees, minutes, seconds, E/W) and a distance in US Survey Feet
3. For curves, enter the arc data: chord bearing, radius, and either delta, chord length, or arc length
4. Click Compute Traverse
5. Results show Grid N/E, Ground N/E, and Lat/Lon for each point
6. Click Open in Drafting Tool to pass all data to the drawing tool

You can also upload a photo of a plat or deed to extract traverse data using AI image recognition — click Extract from Image.

10. Parcel Lookup Tab

Find a parcel's PLSS township, range, section, and quarter section, plus the Assessor Parcel Number. Two ways in: by street address, or by APN if you already have one. Pick a method with the By address / By APN buttons above the input.

By address

1. Enter the full street address including city and state
2. Click Look Up
3. The tool geocodes the address, queries the BLM PLSS layer, and looks up the APN from the county
4. Results populate the shared identity bar at the top — use it as the starting point for a Q/QQ Lookup

If no parcel comes back, try again with just the number and street name. Drop the street type (Rd, Ln, Ave, Blvd), commas, and periods — some counties store the street type in a separate field, so a shorter string can match more.

By APN

1. Switch to By APN and type the parcel number
2. Optionally pick a county. Leave it on Search all three if you are not sure — the tool tries each county in turn and takes the first match. Naming the county just makes it one query instead of up to three.
3. Click Look Up

Dashes are optional, and the number is matched in every form the counties store it in. A short Placer APN such as 076-101-005 resolves without the trailing -000 segment, and 076101005000 works as well as 076-101-005-000. Type it however the deed spells it.

APN lookup covers Placer, El Dorado, and Sacramento Counties. An APN outside those three returns a not-found message rather than a wrong parcel.

Reading the result

Both methods produce the same result panel — coordinates, PLSS grid, county parcel detail, and nearby survey monuments. In APN mode the heading shows the parcel number and county in place of a matched address, since there is no address to match. Where the county supplies a situs address it is appended.

Open the debug log below the results to see which county resolved an APN and confirm the coordinate came from the parcel polygon. That log is the first place to look when a result is not what you expected.

11. My Profile

Click your name in the nav bar to open your profile in a new tab.

License Verification

To finalize formal reports, your California professional license must be verified against the DCA database. Click Verify License on your profile page. The system checks that your license number exists, is the correct type (PLS, PE, or LSIT), and is in CLEAR (active) status. Verification is cached for 30 days — after that you must re-verify before finalizing another report.

If the DCA API has not been configured by your administrator, finalization will be blocked until it is set up. Contact your administrator.

12. Survey Parcel Drawing Tool

The Survey Parcel Drawing Tool (parcel-drawing-tool.html) helps to produce parcel and plot plan sketches for use with deeds, subdivision maps, property line staking, ADA and QSP assessments, and corner records. Open it from the Q/QQ Lookup or COGO tab and its data pre-populates automatically — Grid N/E as the Point of Beginning, the PLSS description, geodetic data, basis of bearing, and your firm's title block information.

13. Coordinate System Reference

14. Tips and Best Practices

Field Planning

• Run a Q/QQ Lookup before the field visit — screenshot the map and note the nearest CORS station
• Check Monument Search for recent finds at the same corner — another surveyor may have recovered it last month
• If a section correction is on file, use the adjusted search center — it puts you closer
• For closing sections, read the lot polygon map before deciding which corner to search
• If the township scan shows no data, read the historical explanation — you may be in rancho territory where no PLSS corners were ever set

In the Field

• Under heavy tree cover, use magnetic declination to convert compass bearings to true, then apply convergence to get grid bearings
• Log the Monument Log entry immediately after the field visit while details are fresh — don't wait until the office
• If found: note monument type, cap condition, markings, height above grade, and reference ties
• If not found: describe the search area, depth probed, equipment used, and why you believe it's not there
• A visual recovery (above-grade monument in plain view) is the equipment selection — not "none"

Reports Workflow

• Monument Log → informal, quick, field-level — captured immediately after the search
• MSR → formal, professional — written from the log entry, reviewed and finalized by a licensed surveyor
• Corner Record → legal filing — generated from the log entry, printed and filed with the county
• These three documents tell the story of a monument recovery at increasing levels of formality
• Drafts are yours until finalized — write freely, revise as needed, don't finalize until you're sure

Coordinates

• Grid N/E → navigate to the corner, enter into AutoCAD
• Ground N/E → use for field staking and total station traverses
• Ground × CSF = Grid    Grid ÷ CSF = Ground
• The Distance Converter in Q/QQ Lookup results does this automatically

Drawing Tool

• Save frequently — no auto-save; use Quick Checkpoint before big changes
• Boundary/traverse points are protected; use extra lines for anything you need to move or rotate
• Drag segment labels to avoid overlapping bearings and distances
• Check closure before exporting — fix data entry errors first
• See the Survey Parcel Drawing Tool — User Manual for full details

15. Feedback & Contact

The 💬 Feedback link in the navigation bar opens the feedback form at /contact.html. The form requires you to be logged in — this prevents automated spam while keeping the process simple for real users.

Feedback types:

• Bug Report — something broken or producing wrong results. PLSS location fields auto-appear for coordinate bugs.
• Feature Request — new capability or improvement.
• County Parcel Service — submit a new county's ArcGIS REST endpoint. The form includes structured fields for the service URL, APN field name, legal description field name, acreage field, and a test APN you verified works. Submissions arrive pre-formatted as a ready-to-paste code entry.
• Data Issue — wrong coordinates, bad BLM data, incorrect calculations.
• UI / Display — layout, labels, readability issues.
• General — questions, comments, anything else.

Priority can be set to Low, Medium, or High. High priority submissions are flagged in the subject line. All submissions include your account username so follow-up is possible even without an email address.

If the form submission fails for any reason, it automatically falls back to opening your email client with a pre-filled message to the site administrator.

16. Geodetic Ray System (GRS)

The 🌐 GRS tab (navy blue, rightmost tab) introduces a proposed new coordinate framework for land boundary definition. It is not part of the current legal survey system — it is a concept tool designed to let surveyors explore and demonstrate what a mathematically-based alternative to the PLSS would look like.

16.1 What the Geodetic Ray System Is

Every point on Earth can be defined by the direction of a ray — an imaginary line — drawn from the exact center of the Earth outward to the surface. That direction is described by two angles: latitude (how far north or south of the equator) and longitude (how far east or west of the prime meridian). Together, these two angles uniquely identify any point on the planet.

In the GRS, a parcel boundary is defined by specifying the angular coordinates of its corner points — nothing more. The distance between two corners is computed using the Vincenty geodetic formula on the GRS80 ellipsoid, which is accurate to better than one millimeter. These distances are mathematically immutable: they don't depend on any physical monument, any State Plane projection, or any particular coordinate system. They can be verified independently by any surveyor with a modern GNSS receiver.

The angular coordinates use the existing degree/minute/second system you already know. One arc-second of latitude is approximately 101 feet. To match RTK GNSS precision of ±0.1 foot, you need coordinates expressed to three decimal places of arc-seconds (0.001") — which is well within what modern equipment provides.

The boundary table in the GRS tab makes a related point explicit. Traditional deed bearings are expressed to the nearest arc-second — implying an angular precision of 1/3600th of a degree. To physically read one arc-second on a graduated circle using 1/16-inch divisions requires an instrument of approximately 1,074-foot radius. No field compass approaches this scale. The arc-second notation in recorded deeds reflects the mathematical resolution of the coordinate system, not the physical capability of the instruments historically used to establish or retrace those bearings. GNSS-derived coordinates routinely achieve sub-arc-second positional accuracy as a function of baseline processing, without reference to any graduated circle.

Tectonic plate movement is handled the same way geodetic datums already handle it — by specifying an epoch (a reference date). NAD83 at epoch 2010.0 means the coordinates are valid as of January 1, 2010, with any subsequent movement of the North American plate documented separately.

16.2 Using the GRS Tab

At the top of the tab, choose your input mode: Decimal Degrees (e.g. 38.710876, -121.063472) or DMS (degrees/minutes/seconds). A built-in converter between the two formats sits below the toggle.

Enter coordinates for Point A and Point B. The "📍 Use current lookup corner" button pre-fills from whatever corner you last looked up in the PLSS tab — a convenient way to anchor one point of your GRS analysis to a known PLSS position.

Click "🌐 Compute Geodetic Ray Analysis". The results show:

• Point summaries — lat/lon in both DMS and decimal, ECEF (Earth-Centered Earth-Fixed) XYZ coordinates in meters
• Geodetic distance A to B — three distance values: geodetic arc (along the ellipsoid surface), chord (straight line through the Earth), and ground arc (scaled to mean elevation). The geodetic arc is the legally meaningful distance.
• Angular separation — the angle between the two rays at Earth's center, in DMS. Followed by a subdivision table showing what 1/2, 1/4, 1/8... of that angle equals — demonstrating how GRS parcels can be subdivided just like the PLSS without any new survey.
• Proposed GRS Legal Description — a formatted text block showing exactly what a legal description would look like in this system. Click "📋 Copy Description" to paste it into a document.
• Map — shows the points and connecting line on the Leaflet map.

Add Point C using the "+ Add Point C" button to enable triangle analysis. With three points, the results include all three side lengths and all three ray angles, plus a check for whether the triangle qualifies as equilateral within 0.1% — which demonstrates the geometric validity of the spherical equilateral triangle concept.

16.3 Importing a Measured Monument Position

At the top of the GRS tab is a green card titled "📥 Import a Measured Monument Position." This is the bridge between the current PLSS system and the proposed GRS.

When you physically locate a monument in the field and measure it with your GNSS receiver, your data collector stores the position as Grid Northing and Grid Easting — large numbers in US Survey Feet based on the State Plane projection. The Import section converts those numbers back into latitude and longitude on the GRS80 ellipsoid — which are the exact angular ray coordinates of that physical monument.

To use it:

1. Enter the Grid Northing and Grid Easting from your data collector (e.g. Trimble TSC3 showing N 2,019,856 E 6,896,638)
2. Select the State Plane zone — CA Zone 2 for most Sacramento Valley and Sierra foothill work
3. Click "→ Load as Point A" (or B or C)

The result panel shows both what went in (Grid N/E) and what came out (lat/lon in DMS and decimal), with a plain-language explanation: "the ray from Earth's center that passes through the monument you physically measured intersects the GRS80 ellipsoid at these exact angular coordinates. This is the monument's permanent GRS address."

Make sure your data collector is set to NAD83, CA State Plane Zone 2, US Survey Feet before recording the point. Do not use UTM coordinates here.