Land surveying terms, in plain words.

Short, accurate definitions of the terms that come up when record documents become CAD - written for anyone who works with deeds, plats, and the surveyors who sign them.

• Metes and bounds

  Metes and bounds is a method of describing a parcel of land by walking its perimeter in words: a sequence of courses, each giving a direction (bearing) and a length (distance), starting at a point of beginning and returning to it.

• Closure error

  Closure error, or misclosure, is the gap between where a boundary traverse starts and where its courses actually end when plotted in sequence - a closed boundary should return exactly to its point of beginning.

• Plat vs. survey

  A plat is a recorded drawing - the official map of how land was divided, filed with the county, showing lots, blocks, rights of way, easements, and the bearings and distances that define them.

• Point of beginning (POB)

  The point of beginning (POB) is the corner where a metes and bounds description starts and to which it must return - the anchor of the whole description.

• Bearing and distance

  A bearing and distance is one course of a boundary: a direction and a length, such as "N 45°30'15" E, 210.00 feet." The bearing gives the direction as an angle east or west of north or south (the quadrant system), and the distance gives the length of the line in that direction..

• DXF

  DXF (Drawing Exchange Format) is the open file format for exchanging CAD drawings between programs, originally published by Autodesk.