No figure on the plan is ever written by a model.
Distances, bearings, areas and encroachment depths are computed from the points your crew shot. The model reads the certificate of title and drafts the wording of a note. It never produces a number that prints.
Every figure sits with its reference: a tie shows its line, a flag names the bylaw rule, a City figure says it is the City’s. Measured, read and assumed are always labelled.
One job, five steps, in order.
A technician runs the first three. The surveyor who signs runs the fourth. Each step has one thing to do and one button that does it.
1
Order
The address, the client, and what the City has on file for the lot.
2
Title
Upload the certificate. The legal description and the instruments are read from it.
3
Field data
A point file, a receiver export or a CAD drawing. The plan is drawn.
4
Review
Every encroachment with what to do about it. Edit, and the sheet redraws.
5
Deliver
Seal, send, apply for compliance, invoice. One at a time.
A finding says what to do.
This is the garage on the sample plan, as the review shows it. The depth is measured. The plan number comes from the title. The advice is written the way a senior technician would say it.
Encroachment: Detached Garage encroaches 1.32 m into the Utility Right of Way (Plan 0712346).
A structure in a registered right of way is the usual reason a compliance certificate is refused.
Do this: Keep the callout and the exception on statement 4. Tell the client the City may ask for an encroachment agreement. Add its file number in Additional notes if there is one.
Any file the crew already makes.
The columns, the coordinate system and the codes are read from each file and shown back before anything is drawn. Your code list is matched first; the model is asked only about what is left, and you confirm it.
- Data collector export
- The coded point file from a total station or rover controller. Trimble, Leica, Topcon, Carlson, MicroSurvey. Any column order.
- GNSS receiver or phone app
- Points in latitude and longitude, converted to metres in the right UTM zone. Emlid Flow, Trimble Catalyst, SW Maps.
- CAD drawing
- A drafted DXF with the property line, buildings and fences on layers. You say which layer is which, once.
The hours around the report go too.
Title orders
The Title step emails your search agent the order. Upload the PDF when it arrives; the legal description and instruments are read from it.
The City’s record
Calgary and Edmonton open data fill the lot, block, plan and district for an address, and put the City’s parcel and roof outlines behind your plan for a check.
Compliance package
The Certificate of Compliance application, filled from the job, with the tracker for when it was applied for and decided.
Client email and tracking
The sealed report goes to the client with a tracking page. Realtors and lawyers can order from your own page.
Invoice
Drafted from your prices with GST, emailed with the report, pushed to QuickBooks when connected.
Updates of a prior RPR
When the same land was surveyed before, start from that survey and the review shows what changed on the ground.