When trying to establish the property lines of a parcel, my deeds give bearing and distance from an existing monument. I normally do not know the exact coordinates of this monument in advance. I was hoping that SW Maps had a feature that would guide me to a point a certain distance and bearing away from my present position (coordinate). However the stakeout feature just guides me to a known point (coordinate) from my present position.
So I have the following questions:
If this has been covered in a previous post, feel free to link it. I did a search on SW Maps in this forum and didn’t find this exact issue.
Is there a feature in SW Maps that accomplishes what I describe above?
Is there a feature in other software that does this? I have started to look at Qfield. I am using iOS but I could switch to Android if necessary.
My workaround has been to find the monument coordinates, go online with my laptop and then use publicly available software (web pages) that calculate coordinates based upon distance and bearing from a known coordinate.
It just seems weird to me that wanting to move a certain distance and bearing from the present location is not a supported function when it is a common task. Or am I missing something obvious?
I read that post when it first came out. It is an impressive plotter which I can duplicate using a combination of some other publicly available web pages. However one must still have a known point coordinate. My situation is that I have my legal description in hand, I find the monument on the ground, and then I want to stake the corner points (using the legal description) starting from the monument I just found (and determined the coordinates).
I am looking for something that (for example) will take me 208’ at a bearing of 315 degrees from my present (and previously unknown) location.
If you can physically find 2 points that are referenced on the deed, and establish RTK coordinates at those points - you can perform a Site Localization. The Generated file is used by SW Maps to recover the other points on the ground.
If you can only find 1 referenced point (as you mentioned), you don’t have an easy/quick way to replicate the “basis of bearing” from the deed.
What you are referring to is called COGO. GNSS gives us discreet positions. Traditional surveying gives us a distance and angle with respect to a backsight. The “reported” bearings on a deed are basically an afterthought, and directly tied to the basis of bearing for the adjusted survey. A Site Localization is how you handle it in this context. We translate with 1 control point, and rotate with a 2’nd.
As an example, you said:
I am looking for something that (for example) will take me 208’ at a bearing of 315 degrees from my present (and previously unknown) location.
Doing that with GNSS would not necessarily be duplicative to the original survey.
I don’t think that would be very accurate. I would get a total distance station but the GNSS is basically as or more accurate over the distances that I am using.
Either I don’t understand what you are stating or I disagree that you can’t find the coordinates of a second point given a your present position, a distance, and a bearing. If you go to https://legallandconverter.com/pro/plot10main.html input a coordinate location (which you would know when your GNSS is located at the monument), input a distance, and input a bearing, it gives the coordinate position. Although I haven’t tried it yet, I assume that the Deed Plotter by @Andrew74 does something similar. I also just found this Q-Cogo: Online Land Surveyor's Calculator based upon your description of a COGO.
So basically I am asking if SW Maps will automatically take my present position, and an input distance and bearing, then calculate the next coordinate like the two web pages that I linked, and then direct me to that next coordinate. I definitely don’t think that it is impossible. I just have to do it in two steps, find the monument coordinates in SW Map, then input the coordinates, distance, and bearing, at my first link (legallandconverter), calculate the next coordinate and then use the stake out tool to find the next coordinate.
SW Maps is good for finding the coordinates of corner points of a parcel if the corner points are physically known but it is not quite as easy to find the corner points if only one corner point is known along with the legal description.
I don’t disagree with your statement at all.
I’m saying that you will need to align yourself and workflow with the original survey.
Otherwise, would that point be projected on a Grid or Geographic Basis ?
Translation, Rotation, (and Scale) avoids most of the got-ya’s
Here’s a quick example:
Say I have a simple deed, with 8 calls. The original surveyor had to establish the basis of bearing. That could have been a Sun shot, existing line, magnetic azimuth and declination, etc. After the field work is complete, the survey is adjusted using Lease Squares, Compass Rule, Transit Rule, etc. This is required so the survey mathematically “closes”.
If the survey was produced with a sun shot, then a projected point in SW Maps would be very close. However, there are many circumstances where this wouldn’t work like you might expect it to.
That’s why we localize with 2 points on the ground.
OK. I understand you now. You are trying to line up with the original base line (if you want to call it that) and two points establish a line. I always wondered how the original land surveys for the United States were able to go over mountains, through rivers, up cliffs, and head due north while avoiding bears and get the correct distance. So your comment refers to the accuracy of the bearing. I will try to find some other monument that is in the deed but I am sure the witness tree from 120 years ago is gone. The origin of one of my parcels has a corner marker from the original Spanish land grant, a 6” x 6” redwood post.
Luckily my current project is just to establish the corners of my brother-in-laws new house. One corner is 400’ due west from the centroid of the section and the centroid has a monument. It is a relatively recent survey (maybe 30 years old) so due west shouldn’t have been too difficult. Hopefully I will be able to find some other markers or monuments.
“I am looking for something that (for example) will take me 208’ at a bearing of 315 degrees from my present (and previously unknown) location.”
I’ve never used SW Maps, but since you can navigate to a point just record a waypoint at your present location and then walk away from it the appropriate distance and direction. For your example just walk away 208’ feet at 315 degrees. When you get there I assume SW Maps will display that you are 208 feet away from the waypoint you just set and it is at bearing 315-180 = 135 degrees. It should have a display to continuously update distance and bearing. Now your deed might have a different way of looking at direction and distance than SW Maps (as already discussed), but it’s a simple thing to try.
I am not familiar with SW maps, but I am familiar with survey methods both Field and Office procedures to go about solving your problem.
Disclaimer: You will still require a Land Surveyor if you plan to change any property lines or plan to work up to your property lines. I doubt there is a state that doesn’t require a Land surveyor for this. But if you are just curious to locate the monuments, then go for it.
As I mentioned before, this is the methods a surveyor would go to locate the monuments. I am not license and there might be gaps in my knowledge. First, research deed documents of the land in question as well as the adjoining lands. Locate most recent recorded maps as well as older maps because junior and senior rights must be considered. Draft the bearings and distances if that is how the land is described in the deed. Some deeds subdivide land using a method called Aliquot parts where they just say something like the north half of section 11. I use AutoCAD to draft my boundary lines. It’s on an assuming coordinate system. I generate a .csv file that has the Point#, Northing, Easting, (Elevation disregard), Description. We call this file format PNEZD. This information gets put into a data collector. We arrive on site with no GPS coordinates. We can either choose to keep our assuming coordinates or create a baseline using our GNSS receiver. Lets assume we found two monuments that are tied together on the survey/deed. We setup a total station and backsight over those two monuments and creating two new coordinates with them. We check the distance between what we measured versus the survey/deed distance. We then translate and rotate our .csv file info in the data collector holding one monuments and rotating the other that matches. If we did that correctly then it will allow us to stake out the next point. We will likely need to traverse across the site to locate the remaining monuments in this way.
You’re not missing anything, SW Maps doesn’t support a true forward bearing-and-distance stakeout, only navigation to known coordinates. The usual workaround is to compute the point first (COGO) and then stake it out. QGIS/QField handles this more directly if you need it built in.
