Measuring Plat Maps???

[ryanwhitelaw]

It’s rare that I ever need too, but sometimes one of the only ways to get a lot size is to measure the plat map. I used to use Win2 Data at my old company, and that program has a built in feature that lets you trace around a plat map and get the area that way. In the new software that I’m using – you view the plat map in a TIFF viewer and it does not have the measuring feature. Has anyone else ever come across this? Does anyone know of some kind of TIFF viewer that has a measuring feature? Any info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[rtubbs]

Ryan, why not call the engineering firm that produced the plat and have them to tell you what the dimensions and area are? Of course, I'm sure it's not that simple.

 

[Jo Ann Meyer Stratton]

Apex's latest version includes the survey module--very handy. If you have the dimensions and angles either from the plat or the legal description, you can sketch it out in Apex, print out the map and there is the square footage and amount of acreage. That print can be kept in your file in case the client questions you on how you arrived at the site area. If you have been sketching houses in Apex it only takes a few minutes to learn their survey module, very similar key strokes.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

If it has a scale, I just measure it with an engineering rule.

 

[EDWARD BERRY]

It would be overkill, but a tablet and low end cad program will do it.

Saves typing all those calls in.

Ed in Arkansas

 

[Farm Gal]

And a really low tech method is using a quadrile scored graph paper and counting the little squares when you are done and rounding to the nearest whatever seems appropriate.

I have resorted to this method on occsaion, it works pretty fast with a highlighter to scrore off the results by tens... and was recently used to explain 'estimating' to the 8 year old :wink:

The county mapping dept was off-line and I figure it was close enough for the purpose at hand

 

[Mike Garrett RAA]

Live in a county that has it on their website. Sorta like how we used to count elk herds from the air. We would count their legs and divide by four.

 

[Richard Carlsen]

<span style='color:darkblue'>How do you report the area?

I use acres for everything, including platted lots.

If the 4 dimensions are not the same, I take the opposite sides, add them together and divide by 2. The results of the opposite side averages are then multiplied together for the sq footage. This is divided by 43,560 sf to give me the area in acres. If all sides are different lengths, I simply add "M/L" after to indicate that this is an approximate area.

This is accurate enough for appraisal purposes here in the north country.</span>

 

[Pat Butler]

For what it's worth, I trace a scanned bitmap of it in Corel Draw and there's a free script for Corel that calculates area.

There are at least two consumer level platting programs that do the same but are more complex. One that I can remember is http://www.bwmuncy.com/. The problem with programs like this is that you need to have the bearings available and those usually aren't on the plat, but are on the survey.