An API for turning legal descriptions into structured, geospatial data.
Post a deed, a scan, or raw text; get back the plotted geometry and its checks as structured data. The same plotting core that runs Trace, called from your stack.
How it works
Three calls, from an empty project to plotted geometry you can put on a map.
Create a project
A container for related documents. One per file, per batch, or per county, however your product already groups the work.
Post the description or the document
Send the text of a legal description, or upload the document and the built-in OCR reads it first. Either way it is one request and one response; complex documents can take up to 4 minutes to return.
Retrieve the plotted output
The project returns consolidated geometry, linked as GeoJSON for your maps and DXF for CAD. Each description also returns its own geometry, ordered survey calls, and closure. Documents are included in the consolidated output with one call, so you choose what the project returns.
How it fits your stack
Text in, structured geospatial data back, and your product decides what to do with it.
Your system already holds the text
Deeds and easements, as text or as scanned pages.
legal description "Beginning at the NW corner of Section 14, thence N 40 15 30 W 176.87 feet ..."
The API plots it and returns data
Geometry, ordered survey calls, and the closure check come back as JSON.
{
"area_ac": 2.2923,
"closure_percent": 99.98,
"closure_ft": 0.02
}Your product maps, stores, or routes it
GeoJSON for your maps, DXF for CAD, plus closure values to route on.
One response: geometry, calls, and closure.
One plotted description, beside its drawing. Scroll the notes, or hover any field to light the part of the boundary it describes.
The survey calls, parsed from the description.
Survey calls are the individual instructions in a legal description, each a bearing and a distance. They come back as an ordered array, and the featured call inks its course on the plot so you can trace the array to the drawing.
Closure percent, computed on every plot.
Closure percent expresses how completely the boundary returns to its start, with 100% meaning the tract closes perfectly. The closure length rides alongside it in feet, so your product can route on either.
Parcel geometry, ready to place on a map.
Coordinates return as a polygon. Each vertex traces onto the plot in order, the same shape you would drop into CAD or GIS.
GeoJSON for your maps, DXF for CAD.
The response links the plot's GeoJSON and DXF files. GeoJSON is what web maps and GIS tools read without a conversion step, and DXF is the same plot for CAD. Retrieve a whole project at once, or one description on its own.
A real-world origin, placed by PLSS.
Ask for the AI locate and the API reads the locate from the description and places the tract's origin, the point of beginning or commencement, using PLSS data. The start point returns as latitude and longitude, and the geometry is tuned to WGS84, so the plot lands where the land is.
{
"tract": "A",
"calls": [
"S 23°08'21" W 211.05",
"R R=573 L=300.0",
"N 40°15'30" W 176.87",
"N 02°00'00" E 245.90",
"N 82°51'00" E 374.74"
],
"checks": {
"closure_percent": 99.98,
"closure_ft": 0.02,
"remainder": "S 18°50'00" E 0.02"
},
"geometry": { "type": "Polygon" },
"files": { "geojson": "[url]", "dxf": "[url]" },
"startPoint": { "lat": 43.0731, "lon": -89.4012 },
"crs": "WGS84"
}What teams build with it
Pricing and getting started
Volume tiers, set with sales.
Your first plotted description, end to end.
API questions
What can I send to the API?
The text of a legal description, or the document it sits in. Documents can be PDF, JPEG, PNG, or TIFF, and the built-in OCR reads the description off the page before plotting it.
What comes back in the response?
The plotted geometry, the survey calls in the order the description wrote them, and the closure check. The response links the plot's GeoJSON and DXF files, and a project returns one consolidated payload for everything included in it.
Does the geometry come back placed?
Ask for the AI locate and the API reads the locate from the description and places the tract's origin using PLSS data. The start point returns as latitude and longitude and the geometry is tuned to WGS84, so the plot lands where the land is.
How does access work?
API access is arranged with sales rather than self-service, and keys are issued as part of that setup. Volume tiers are agreed at the same time.
Where do credits apply?
One input document is one credit, however many tracts or plots it carries. Exports and reads never consume credits.
Put plotting in your product.
Talk to sales about API access, or read the docs and size the integration first.