Key Features

Everything btdeed can do, from parsing 18th-century deed language to real-time collaboration on shared projects.

Parsing Engine

Metes & Bounds

Full bearing + distance parsing. Supports N 45°30’20″ E, decimal degrees (S34.3E), compact notation (N45E), and written-out forms (North 45 degrees East).

8 Distance Units

Feet, chains, rods, poles, perches, links, varas, and meters. Fractional support like "15 1/2 poles".

Compass Rose (32-point)

Cardinal, intercardinal, and "by" directions. Northeast, South Southeast, North by East — all 32 points recognized.

Curves & Arcs

Radius + arc length, radius + central angle (delta), chord bearing + chord length. Left/right direction. 16-segment parametric rendering.

PLSS Descriptions

Section/Township/Range with quarter subdivisions. Formal, compact, and dotted formats. Automatic geometry and acreage.

Meander Lines

Keyword-based detection for "meandering", "meander", "meanders". Rendered as dashed blue overlays.

Landmarks & POB

Extracts landmarks ("to an oak tree", "to a creek") and auto-detects the Point of Beginning.

Magnetic Declination

Manual entry or NOAA historical lookup. Adjusts all bearings for the time period and location of the deed.

Error Recovery

Parser skips filler words (thence, running, along) and highlights errors inline with position markers.

Map & Visualization

Interactive Map

Leaflet with OpenStreetMap tiles. Click to place, drag to reposition, arrow keys to nudge. Zoom, pan, and explore.

5 Basemaps

OpenStreetMap, USGS Topo, Satellite, OpenTopoMap, and CartoDB Light. Switch anytime.

SVG Preview

Real-time polygon rendering with course numbers, bearing/distance labels, direction arrows, POB marker, and vertex dots.

Parcel Rotation

Rotate parcels on the map to align with known boundaries. Rotation field in the detail panel.

Image Overlays

Place historic maps, plat images, or georeferenced backgrounds on the map. Click two corners to position, then adjust opacity, rotation, and scale. Synced to cloud storage when signed in.

Layer Groups

Organize deeds into named groups with drag-and-drop reordering. Collapse/expand groups in the sidebar. Toggle visibility per group.

PLSS Grid Overlay

6×6 township section grid with serpentine numbering and highlighted section for PLSS deeds.

Shared Boundaries

Automatic neighbor detection. Shared edges highlighted in orange with distance/bearing tooltip.

Print at Scale

Print view with selectable scale, north arrow, scale bar, and course table. Designed for archival output.

Map Screenshot

Export the current map view as a JPG image with one click.

Data & Export

6 Export Formats

JSON, KML, GeoJSON, CSV, MBL (DeedMapper), and Shapefile. All from the project header.

DeedMapper Import

Native .mbl file import with auto-detected loc unit and county-centroid anchoring. Handles 5,000+ deed files without freezing.

JSON Import/Export

Full project + deeds round-trip. Zod-validated on import with upsert behavior.

Closure Analysis

Error distance, precision ratio (1:N), and perfect closure detection. Compass Rule (Bowditch) adjustment.

Area & Perimeter

Shoelace formula for area in square feet and acres. Perimeter in the project’s default unit.

Course Table

Bearing, distance, landmark, curve info, and meander indicators for every course.

DeedMapper (MBL) Workflow

One-Click MBL Import

Drop a .mbl file on the Projects page. btdeed parses every deed, auto-detects the loc coordinate unit, and anchors the cluster on the correct county centroid based on the filename.

Onboarding Banner

Imported projects open with a dismissable banner showing filename, deed count, anchor county, and detected unit — so you always know what you’re looking at.

Alignment Toolbar

MBL projects get a dedicated floating toolbar with every refinement tool in one place. Disappears once you convert the project to a normal one.

Realign All

Pick a reference deed, click where it should sit, and the entire cluster shifts by the same delta in a single batched operation.

Overlap Detection

One click highlights every polygon that overlaps another in red. Resurveys, closure-error drift, and bad imports become obvious at a glance.

Illustrator-Style Edit Mode

Toggle edit mode and drag any deed to nudge it. Marquee-select with a rectangle, shift-click to add or remove, then drag the whole group together. Arrow keys nudge the selection (shift = 10×).

Batched Cmd+S Saves

Drag offsets buffer in memory — nothing writes to disk until you press Cmd+S. One Dexie transaction, one bulk cloud upsert. The dirty counter shows how many deeds are unsaved.

Canvas Rendering

Large MBL projects render through a Leaflet canvas layer with viewport culling, so 5,000-deed clusters stay smooth at every zoom level.

Convert to Normal Project

When refinement is done, one click hides the alignment tools and treats the project like any hand-built one. Deeds keep their positions.

Project Management

Project CRUD

Create, rename, and delete projects. Each groups related deeds with a name, description, and default unit.

Trash & Restore

Soft-delete projects to a trash bin with 30-day auto-cleanup. Restore anytime or permanently delete. Works across local and cloud.

Duplicate Project

Full copy of a project including all deeds, overlays, and layer groups. Auto-naming with dup1, dup2, dup3 suffixes.

Search & Sort Projects

Search projects by name from the projects page. Sort by recent, name (A–Z / Z–A), or creation date.

Measurement Consistency

Change the project’s default unit and all distances convert project-wide — course tables, detail panels, and wizard defaults.

Deed Management

Create, edit, and delete deeds. Text paste or course wizard entry. Metadata: owner, grantor, date, book/page, notes.

Search & Filter

Full-text search across all deed fields with match highlighting. “As of Date” temporal slider to filter deeds by year.

Table View

Grantor-grantee table sortable by 7 columns. Click a row to see details. Placed/unplaced status badges.

Undo/Redo

50-entry history for deed editing. Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Shift+Z or buttons in the toolbar.

Keyboard Shortcuts

N (new deed), E (edit), P (place), Delete, Escape, Ctrl+S, arrow keys, ? for help.

Cloud & Collaboration

Cloud Sync

Sign in to auto-save projects to the cloud. Changes sync across devices automatically with last-write-wins conflict resolution.

Project Sharing

Share via email (viewer or editor roles) or anonymous link. Manage access and revoke anytime.

Shared with Me

Browse projects others have shared with you, Google Docs–style. See owner name, role badge, and deed count at a glance.

Real-time Collaboration

See who’s viewing the project with presence avatars. Deed changes appear live across all viewers.

Guest Mode

No account needed. Everything works locally in the browser. Sign in later to unlock cloud features.

User Profiles

Set your name, username, and bio. Shown in presence indicators and shared project views.

Supported Formats

Input

  • Pasted deed text
  • Course wizard (manual entry)
  • DeedMapper .mbl files
  • JSON project files

Export

  • JSON (full project)
  • KML (Google Earth)
  • GeoJSON
  • CSV (spreadsheet)
  • MBL (DeedMapper)
  • Shapefile (GIS)

Distance Units

  • Feet
  • Chains & Links
  • Rods, Poles & Perches
  • Varas
  • Meters

Ready to plot your first deed?