PLS

PLS Tools

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All Topo Maps V7 Professional, coupled with a matching 'PLS Tool' provides unique support of Township/Range/Section based coordinates not available in any other product from any vendor.

If you work with legal (Public Land Survey System) coordinates, the PLS Tool will save you time finding maps; time figuring out which section, township and range you are looking at; and time aliquoting sections. Coordinates generated using the PLS tool are typically more accurate and less prone to mechanical errors as those interpolated by hand.

The 'PLS Tool' adds:

Real time display of cursor position using Township/Range/¼¼ Section, or footage call from section lines. more...
Assisted search for locations. more...
Automatically aliquots sections and draws them on the map. example...
PLS Magnet tool snaps waypoints to nearest ¼¼ section corners, automating property delineation. example...
Geographic (Lat/Lon, UTM, State Plane and MGRS) coordinates can be quickly converted to Township/Range/Section ¼¼ or footage offset coordinates or from PLS to geographic coordinates. more...

What is PLS? more...

How is the PLS Tool dataset generated? more...

Which states are PLS Tools available for? How much do they cost? more...

Real Time PLS Display

Real Time PLS Display

As the cursor moves over the map surface, the All Topo viewer instantly calculates the PLS coordinate and displays it as a cursor coordinate

Either the Primary or Secondary coordinate display window (or both) may be configured to display PLS coordinates:

Double-clicking on either cursor coordinate display shows the coordinate style dialog:

You may choose between ¼¼ section display, a footage call from section edge, a Arizona Water Resources style PLS coordinate "PM06 T32N R80W S11ACB" that encodes ¼¼¼ location, or just the Township and Range.

Finding PLS Locations

Finding PLS Locations

All Topo Maps will automatically find, aliquot and display sections, half sections, ¼ sections or ¼¼ sections!

To find a PLS location, press the 'Find Location' button , then select the 'PLS' tab, then enter a PLS point or aliquot part. In this case we are looking for 'the North Half of Section 23, township 6 North, Range 1 East, SLB&M" In addition, we want to specify an base point at the East ¼ section (the Southeast corner of the North half):

Press the 'Show Coordinate' button to show the location:

All Topo Maps automatically shows the requested PLS location.

PLS Magnet

The PLS Magnet

The delineation of property boundaries is a common task for professional users. Typically large ranches are comprised of sections, half sections, quarter sections or quarter-quarter sections.

All Topo Maps makes quick work of delineating these properties. For example, lets consider the descripiton: 'the North Half of Section 23 and the Northwest quarter of the Northwest quarter of Section 24, township 6 North, Range 1 East, SLB&M".

To plot this description, first use the 'Find Coordinate' tool to display section 23 (see Finding PLS Coordinates), then depress the "PLS Magnet" button , choose the point-to-point cursor , then move the mouse cursor to a point near the Northwest corner of section 23:

All Topo will drop a waypoint at the Northwest corner of section 23 (RA1), next left-mouse-click near the Northeast corner of section 23 (RA2), then the Northeast corner of the NW¼ of the NW¼ of section 24 (RA3), and continue clicking around the property until the Southwest corner of the North half of section 23 (RA7) has been marked, finally right-mouse-click and select 'Close Current Line':

All Topo will draw the property and compute and display the enclosed area.

Once a polygon is described, you can automatically convert the outline to a metes and bounds property description. Click here for details...

Converting Between PLS and Geographic Coordinates

Converting Between PLS and Geographic Coordinates

All Topo Maps will convert Lat/Lon coordinates to PLS coordinates and PLS coordinates to Lat/Lon coordinates.

For a demonstration, place the cursor over the map and press F2, then select the 'Details' tab:

All Topo Maps sets the coordinate location to geographic coordinate, press the button, select the 'PLS' tab and choose an appropriate PLS style:

All Topo Maps will convert the geographic coordinate to a PLS value:

You can also bulk convert coordinates using the annotation editor (press F8 to view and edit the annotation source file). Consider these UTM coordinates, :

Pressing the "Convert" button brings up the 'Convert Coordinates Style To' dialog, choosing the PLS tab and an appropriate model converts the geographic coordinates to PLS offsets:

By highlighting the PLS coordinates, and pressing the convert button again, we can convert the PLS offset coordinates back to geographic coordinates:

What Is PLS

What is PLS?

In 1796 the United States Congress enacted a method of dividing public domain lands into theoretical six mile square units known as ‘Congressional Townships’. Townships are based from a central set of orthogonal axis, the North-South axis is called the ‘Principal Meridian’, the East-West axis is called the ‘Base Line’. Townships are consecutively numbered to the North and South and Ranges are numbered from East to West.

Each Township is divided into a six by six grid of 1 mile squares called sections. Sections are numbered in a serpentine fashion from the North East corner of the township. If perfect, each section would encompass 640 acres. Sections are additionally divided in to 160 acre quarters, and then into 40 acre quarter quarters.

Since the meridians and base lines are not truly parallel, no townships are perfectly square. Where different axis meet there are very significant errors. Early surveying errors added additional imperfections.

In spite of all the errors, the Public Land Survey system still accurately defines a point-on-the-ground or parcel by Principal Meridian, Township, Range, Section and offset.

The various scales of topographic maps have traditionally shown sections and townships. On a released 7½ minute quadrangle, township and range are identified in the map collars.

Using traditional digital products it is difficult to pan to the edge of a map and find the Township and Range for a given section. Many digital products de-collar the maps (seamless maps) which makes determination of Township and Range impossible.

Striping collars removes Township/Range information!

Most All Topo Map standard edition state sets are searchable by Township and Range. This makes viewing the map that contains a Township/Range/Section coordinate very easy. The All Topo Maps: PLS Tool adds a huge database of section information and provides real-time-display of the cursor’s position to ¼ ¼ section, or as a footage offset from a section corner. Displayed cursor PLS coordinates can be copied directly to the Window’s Clipboard for subsequent pasting to other applications. The PLS Tool also adds searching by Township / Range / Section for quickly finding and annotating features by legal coordinate.

While not accurate enough for survey or land division, the PLS Tool is great for locating maps and determining / displaying approximate legal coordinates.

Building PLS Tools

How the PLS Tool Data is collected and interpreted

1. BLM GCDB databases are mined for section corner data:

T09SR43E 20 MT
ORIGIN .0000 .0000
100600 445941.0432 1063118.8203 3800.00 37 37
100640 445946.1402 1063118.8203 3800.00 37 37
100660 445959.1898 1063118.8197 3800.00 37 37
100700 450012.2395 1063118.8190 3800.00 37 37

2. Townships are inspected by hand and computationally checked for consistency. Missing and incomplete townships are hand snapped to 1:100K base maps:

3. Section corners (and ¼ ¼ quarters if needed) are hand snapped on 7½ minutes quadrangles:

4. Completed, verified township data is integrated into a proprietary database format that enables high speed translation from geographic coordinates (Lat/Lon, UTM) to Public Land Survey coordinates:

PLS Tool Disclaimer

PLS Tool and Data Disclaimer

The Public Land Survey coordinates shown and exported from the Igage 'PLS Tool' are not a part of the legal land record. The information is generated from coordinates which have no legal status for location or boundary description. These coordinates are not final and are subject to change without notice as new information becomes available. Some of the coordinates are based on BLM and U.S.F.S. generated GCDB coordinates, some of the coordinates are based on hand snapped coverage from 1:24,000, 1:100,000 scale and 1:250,000 scale maps and some of the coverage is projected over unsurveyed lands.

A great number of known errors exist in the PLS Tool’s Public Land Survey coordinate database!

The Public Land Survey coordinates are not intended to take the place of surveys or resurveys, nor can they improve inaccurate survey data. It is up to the user of the data, with advice and assistance from a Professional Surveyor, to determine whether or not a set of coordinates is acceptable for any given purpose, and when it is necessary to resort to the legal record and a corner on-the-ground location.

The user is cautioned to consult a Professional Surveyor for assistance in determining if this product is suitable for a purpose. It is inappropriate to use this product and the data contained for any property sale or legal description.

Igage Mapping Corporation makes no warranties of the suitability of this data.

Purchasing
PLS Tools