Pipelines, transportation center lines, fiber optic cables, and many, many more items need to be mapped as a polyline in a GIS. Now, using the TractBuilder Metes and Bounds Tool users are able to create polyline features based on legal descriptions and/or latitude and longitude (XY) coordinates. This new feature really opens up the tools for use by the utilities, transportation, and midstream energy sectors. Users are also able to extract the metes and bounds of existing line features!

The tool automatically recognizes when you are using a line/polyline feature class and slight changes to the interface let users know that the tool has detected this fact. Users can enter direction bearing calls, specific coordinates, and simple or complex curves to create their lines. And since the tools work in a “standard edit session” any polygon or polyline layer you can edit with ArcMap you can edit with the TractBuilder Tools.

“We had so many users saying that they wished they could draw lines as easily as they could polygons, we had to add this as a feature. At TractBuilder, our goal in not to sell a good product that does a good job, but instead, the best product that does the best job. I look forward to seeing and hearing about how this has enhanced people’s workflows even more than the original tools.” – Kyle Souza, Sales Manager, TractBuilder

To try these new features download a trial of the latest version of the tools from the TractBuilder website (http://www.tractbuilder.com, click the “Demo for ArcGIS 10” button, demos for versions 9.3 and 9.3.1 are also available).