How a description becomes a shapefile.
Five stages take a legal description from source text to reviewed, exportable geometry.
- Stage 1
Parse
The description becomes structured calls.
TractEdge reads the description and transcribes it into bearings, distances, adjoiners and natural features. Every value has to ground against the exact span of the deed it came from, or its confidence goes to zero. Text that never became a call stays marked in the source pane.
- Stage 2
Anchor
The calls get placed on the Earth.
TractEdge resolves the survey reference against RRC original-land-survey geometry and uses the matched reference to place the point of beginning. Adjoiner calls follow the matched reference line, and the state-reported wells in and around the tract are pulled in automatically. Anchoring decisions include confidence values, and the public reference geometry is a digital interpretation, not a legal survey.
- Stage 3
Traverse
A deterministic engine does all the geometry.
The engine computes bearings, distances, closure and an optional Bowditch adjustment in ordinary code. Once the calls and anchor are fixed, the resulting geometry is repeatable.
- Stage 4
Edit
You are the final authority.
The editor puts the deed text, the calls table and the map side by side. Selection links them: click a call and its phrase highlights; click the phrase and the leg highlights on the map. Vertices are draggable and closure recomputes live. Where the point of beginning couldn't be resolved with confidence, you place it yourself.
- Stage 5
Export
A bundle your GIS takes as-is.
Boundary, vertices and wells as shapefiles, with GeoJSON, KML and a README, in the Texas State Plane datum you ask for: NAD27 or NAD83, ftUS. NAD27 exports use grid-based NADCON5 transforms. TractEdge does not export NAD27 when the required grid is unavailable.
How TractEdge fits with existing tools.
| Tool | What it does | What TractEdge adds |
|---|---|---|
| Enverus, TGS | Wells, units and leases that are already mapped, with the analytics on top. | Drafts and anchors a new legal description that is not already mapped. |
| Net Deed Plotter, Metes & Bounds | You type the calls, it draws the shape, and it does that well. | Reads the description and places the resulting tract against public survey geometry. |
| A contract landman and QGIS | The whole job, correctly, with a professional's judgement attached. | Provides a faster first-pass draft for evaluation and review. |
| A chatbot and someone who knows GIS | Turns calls into coordinates quickly. | Grounded extraction, survey anchoring, closure reporting and datum-aware export. |
| TractEdge | Reads the description, anchors it to live public survey geometry, runs a deterministic traverse, reports closure, and exports in the datum you work in. | |
What TractEdge supports.
Coverage depends on the available public reference geometry.
Metes-and-bounds coverage
Anchoring resolves against Texas RRC original land survey geometry. This is TractEdge's strongest coverage.
Section and aliquot coverage
New Mexico section, township-range and aliquot descriptions use BLM CadNSDI reference geometry. Oklahoma is not currently supported.
Manual point of beginning
If the survey reference or point of beginning cannot be resolved from public geometry, you can place the point manually.
Repeatability and professional scope
The reading step can vary between runs. Once the calls and anchor are fixed, the geometry is repeatable. TractEdge is a drafting aid and does not determine a legal boundary.
Try one of your descriptions.
Paste a legal description to review an editable draft against the source text. Two free drafts, no card.