Help drawing property lines from Survey PDF

[WhistlerBuilder]

Hello Chiefers,

 

I am having trouble getting property lines from surveys to draw correctly using the Input Line tool. I have been having the issue for too long now where when inputing lines from a pdf to do a preliminary site plan a few of the lines draw backwards or in the opposite direction they are supposed to compared to the source plan. I have been just disconnecting the line and flipping them or manually relocating them to close the polyline, then ensuring I have the correct outline when I get a DWG from the surveyor later in the project. I assume I am doing something wrong, or is this a common experience?

 

I live in Canada so the plans come in Meters with the line orientation coming in this format: 269°55'44". I seem to have this issue no matter what Angle Style I use for the Line Input.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. I feel like this is likely something simple that I am just missing.

 

Cheers,

[ComputerMaster86]

If  you are trying to type in a "Quadrant Bearing" measurement, chief will let you type something like n33 45 16w and chief will know what is degrees, minutes and seconds.  You don;'t have type any degree, minute or second symbol if you add a space between each value.  That is the format degrees space minutes space seconds.  I believe that also works for "Azimuth Bearing" where you would omit the letters.

 

[robdyck]

Whether you are drawing in plan view or in a CAD detail, you need to set up a few things:

1. General Cad Defaults - Displayed line length format should be set to meters and 2 or 3 decimal places. Display Line Angle shoudl be set to Azimuth Bearing.
2. Draw a north arrow. Usualyl this will point up on your screen BUT more importantly it should match the orientation of the survey drawing you are referring to. It's rare that a survey drawing is rotated, but it does happen.
3. To draw a line that matches the survey drawing, turn on the display of the line length and line angle. 
4. Draw a line that visually looks similar in angle to a property line. Open the line dialog and enter the angle. Close the dialog. Re-open the line dialog and enter the length.
5. You can accomplisht the same task with a polyline, paying close attention to the start and end of the line. If you haven't already, turn on the start and end indicators. Pick one segment of the polyline and enter the angle. Close the dialog, then re-open and enter the length. Repeat for each line segment.

[WhistlerBuilder]

I followed the instructions above by Rob, and immediately had the same problem. I drew the first two lines, with the first one drawing in the correct orientation, then the next one drew north when it was supposed to draw south.

 

Exact same problem I always have.

[JiAngelo]

Surveyors generally start at a POB (place of beginning) and call out distance & bearings either clockwise or counter-clockwise until returning to POB and closing the polygon.  Some lines like outer subdivision boundaries or ROW curves may conflict in bearing direction call out.

 

Keep in mind n33d45'16"w = s33d45'16"e 

It's just the start and ends flipped.  So for any line going the wrong way, delete it and re-enter with bearings reversed.  Think of it as a video game and have the map in your head.  After a few times you will start to recognize when the bearings head opposite and correct on the fly.  Alternately markup the plot as a guide prior to input.

 

 

 

[WhistlerBuilder]

There is no e / w / n / s notations on the source material. There also is no POB noted on the source material.

 

Adding a N/S to the input line sent it sideways instead of up/down. Even with the north arrow defined in the plan.

[Alaskan_Son]

Can you post a copy of the survey?

[robdyck]

2 hours ago, WhistlerBuilder said:

I followed the instructions above by Rob, and immediately had the same problem. I drew the first two lines, with the first one drawing in the correct orientation, then the next one drew north when it was supposed to draw south.

 

Exact same problem I always have.

Yes, there are times when you need to adjust the angle of input by 90,180 or 270 degrees. I've seen different survey types in different provinces, but one of the reasons for this is that a survey of property lines will often treat each line as an individual segment relative to north and what you often don't know is which is the start or end of the line segment. 

Determining the correct angles can become especially tricky for lines that are very close to 45, 90, 135 degrees, etc.

See this illustration:

With a little one-on-one over a virtual meeting, you'd get this sorted out. 

 

[robdyck]

It would actually be faster for someone to provide you with the correct polyline based on your survey than it is to try to type up the methods and instructions. For learning / practicing, a training session would go a long way. If there's anything else I could do to help, feel free to send me a PM.

[JiAngelo]

Sorry Whistler.  I missed you stated bearings were in this format:   269°55'44   

Add or subtract 180 degrees so that the result is within 0-360. It is the same as flipping a line bearing N60dE to S60dW which is what @robdyck's example above illustrates.

 

[WhistlerBuilder]

@robdyck@JiAngelo Thank you both for the help with this. Turns out I was not inputting it wrong or missing a setting, I just needed to be manually adjusting after the fact like you mentioned. While not the solution I was hoping for, at least I know I was inputting the information correctly.

Thank you everyone for trying to help!
Have a wonderful weekend.
Cheers,