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PLATCHECK VERSION 4.00 MANUAL USER SUPPORTED SOFTWARE The program, PLATCHEK, is being distributed under the "Freeware" concept under which an individual or firm using this program and finding it of value will voluntarily compensate the writer of the program. Users are encouraged to copy this program and give it to others for their use. If you find that this program has value to you, a contribution of $35 would be appreciated. Upon receipt of your contribution, you will become a registered owner of PLATCHEK. Registered owners will receive notifications of upgrades of the program which they will be eligible to receive at nominal cost. The author of the program is R. H. Holstein, III of Batesburg, S. C., a career real estate appraiser and former employee of the Federal Land Bank System. His experience in real estate appraisals prompted his writing software capable of speedily and reliably checking land descriptions by surveyor's plats and courses and distances. HOLSTEIN APPRAISALS 521 RAILROAD AVENUE P O BOX 7 BATESBURG, S. C. 29006 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ~ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ FILES ON DISTRIBUTION DISKETTE The following files should be on the distribution diskette: PLAT4.EXE is the executable file containing the PLATCHEK program. By entering the command "PLAT4" at the DOS prompt the program will begin. PLT4HELP.MAN is the text file containing the manual for operating PLATCHEK. PLTWRITE.COM is the executable file which prints the manual. By entering the command "PLTWRITE" at the DOS prompt the entire PLATCHEK manual will be printed. OTHER FILES ASSOCIATED WITH PLATCHEK PRINTER.DTA is a text file used to store printer commands. It can be altered to provide programming for different printers. It does not matter if PRINTER.DTA is not on the distribution diskette. If it is absent, PLATCHEK will create one with the commands for an IBM ProPrinter. The operator can change the commands to the specificat- ions of his or her printer if change is needed. The commands from this file are read into memory when the program is begun. It will not be necessary to change PRINTER.DTA unless the printer is changed. XXXXXXXX.PLT are files of plats created by PLATCHEK at the command of the operator. They contain the course and distance descriptions. XXXXXXXX.ARC are files containing the area within arcs. The files are only created when plats containing arcs are saved. ~ GETTING STARTED The opening screen appears as follows: ~~ PLATCHEK A Program to Examine COURSE AND DISTANCE LEGAL DESCRIPTIONS OF REAL ESTATE ______________________ (1) BEGIN NEW PLAT (2) MANAGE FILES (3) EXAMINE ARC (4) SETUP (5) EXIT <==SELECT _____________________ Version 4 ~~~ 1. Begin New Plat: Pressing this button produces a screen asking whether the description contains courses expressed to minutes. When the selection is made the entry or input screen appears: ~~ Return: Enter Data F9: Clear Entry Screen F10: Main Help Menu Alt F10: Help Screen Menus F1: Calculate F2: Print Results F3: Screen Plat F4: Print Plat F5: List Files F6: Save File F7: Line to Close F8: Load File Cntrl F2: Enter Arc Data Shf F9: Correct Line Entered Cntrl F9: Insert Alt F9: Delete Shf F10: Clear Screen and Memory ESC: Exit PLATCHEK (N/S) Direction: 0 to 90 Degrees: 0 to 59 Minutes: 0 to 59 Seconds: <---{only appears if seconds selected} (E/W) Deflection: Feet Distance: Control F1: Toggle Feet and Chains ~~~ ~ The four lines at the top are always displayed on the input screen as are the two lines explaining the functions of Shift 10 and Escape. These boxes have gray backgrounds on color monitors. The window between is used to pull up six screens of instructions. Pressing Alt F10 produces the following in the help screen window: ~~ HELP SCREENS: Alt F1: Clearing and Entering Alt F2: Cursor Movements Alt F3: Entering Degs, Mins, Secs Alt F4: Line Distances Alt F5: Entering Due North, S, E, or W Alt F6: Clockwise Direction of Lines ~~~ This screen identifies the keys to depress to obtain specific help information. For example, holding down the alternate key and pressing F1 produces the following information in the window. ~~ F9 clears entry screen only. Shf F10 erases memory and returns to Main Menu. <Enter> or <Return> functions as down except in distance cell. When pressed in distance cell, the line information is entered into memory. ~~~ There are five other such screens to assist the operator while in the program as shown on the previous window information. The window at the left bottom is used to enter course and distances of property lines. To prevent input errors the cells will only except certain characters. If an input error has been made (such as leaving a distance blank), the program will reject it after the return key is pressed allowing the operator the opportunity to avoid a mistake which could cause erratic results in the calculations. While over 59 minutes or seconds could be entered at the keyboard, the program would reject the entry when the operator attempted to enter the line into memory. ~ ~~ (N/S) Direction: {accepts only N or S, lower or upper case} 0 to 90 Degrees: {accepts only numbers 0 through 9} 0 to 59 Minutes: {accepts only numbers 0 through 9} 0 to 59 Seconds: {accepts only numbers 0 through 9} (E/W) Deflection: {accepts only E or W, lower or upper case} Feet Distance: {accepts 0 through 9 and decimal(period)} ~~~ The cursor can be moved about the input window with the up and down arrow keys. The home key moves the cursor to the top (N/S) cell, and the end key moves it to the bottom (distance) cell. The return key functions as the down arrow except in the distance cell; there it enters the line data into memory and clears the input window. As plat information is put into memory it appears on the right hand side of the monitor: ~~ 1. N 44 33 21 E 457 Return: Enter Data 2. N 01 00 12 E 265 F9: Clear Entry Screen 3. S 55 54 00 E 154 F10: Main Help Menu 4. S 73 12 12 E 431.3 Alt F10: Help Screen Menus 5. S 30 00 00 E 327 F1: Calculate F2: Print Results F3: Screen Plat F4: Print Plat F5: List Files F6: Save File F7: Line to Close F8: Load File Cntrl F2: Enter Arc Data Shf F9: Correct Line Entered Cntrl F9: Insert Alt F9: Delete Shf F10: Clear Screen and Memory ESC: Exit PLATCHEK (N/S) Direction: 0 to 90 Degrees: 0 to 59 Minutes: 0 to 59 Seconds: (E/W) Deflection: Feet Distance: Control F1: Toggle Feet and Chains ~~~ ~ The plat may not be finished, but the operator can check on what has been done. Pressing F1 causes the program to calculate the closure error: ~~ RESULTS OF PLAT CHECKING ---------------------------------------------------- The easting error is 1029.19 feet. The northing error is 96.44 feet. The gap in closure is 1033.70 feet. The precision of the field survey is 6325.05 per 10,000 The area computes to be 7.932 acres. ~~~ He can press F2 and send the lines to the console or the printer: ~~ ════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ ACREAGE, CLOSURE, AND ERROR OF PLAT ════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ Line # 1 North 44° 33' 21" East 457.00 feet. 2 North 01° 00' 12" East 265.00 feet. 3 South 55° 54' 00" East 154.00 feet. 4 South 73° 12' 12" East 431.30 feet. 5 South 30° 00' 00" East 327.00 feet. The easting error is 1029.19 feet. The northing error is 96.44 feet. The gap in closure is 1033.70 feet. The precision of the field survey is 6325.05 feet error per 10,000 feet traverse. The area computes to be 7.932 acres. ~~~ Pressing the F3 key will cause the lines entered to be drawn on the graphics screen. The operator could press F4 and print out the lines entered to scale(corners only or full sketch). ~ Pressing F7 causes the line necessary to close the plat to be displayed on the top line of the monitor. ~~ Line to close : S 84 38 49 W 1033.702 ~~~ If the operator enters the above line and then presses the F1 key to calculate, the following appears: ~~ RESULTS OF PLAT CHECKING -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The easting error is 0.00 feet. The northing error is 0.00 feet. The gap in closure is 0.00 feet. The precision of the field survey is 0.00 per 10,000 The area computes to be 6.793 acres. ~~~ Since the line to close really isn't on the plat, the operator can easily remove it by pressing Alt F9. The top line on the monitor displays: ~~ DELETE LINE (#) ("0" for none): ~~~ The operator looks to the lines displayed on the right of the monitor and sees that the line he entered to close the survey was line #6. He or she enters "6", and that line is removed. The lines rescroll on the right and the sixth line is gone. Entering "0" will cause the program to return to the input screen mode with no deletions having been made. The operator can save the plat at any point by pressing F6. A prompt appears on the top line of the input screen for the file name. The operator can enter up to eight characters for a file name such as "myplat". PLATCHEK provides the suffix, ".PLT". A path can also be given for filing such as "C:\platdata\myplat. DOS syntax must be used in entering paths. Let us suppose that an error is found in the third line. The degrees should be 56. The operator presses Shift F9. A prompt for the line number appears on the top line. The operator enters "3". The input screen now contains: ~ ~~ LINE (#) TO CORRECT ("0" for none): 3 1. N 44 33 21 E 457 Return: Enter Data 2. N 01 00 12 E 265 F9: Clear Entry Screen 3. S 55 54 00 E 154 F10: Main Help Menu 4. S 73 12 12 E 431.3 Alt F10: Help Screen Menus 5. S 30 00 00 E 327 F1: Calculate F2: Print Results F3: Screen Plat F4: Print Plat F5: List Files F6: Save File F7: Line to Close F8: Load File Cntrl F2: Enter Arc Data Shf F9: Correct Line Entered Cntrl F9: Insert Alt F9: Delete Shf F10: Clear Screen and Memory ESC: Exit PLATCHEK (N/S) Direction: 0 to 90 Degrees: 0 to 59 Minutes: 0 to 59 Seconds: (E/W) Deflection: Feet Distance: Control F1: Toggle Feet and Chains ~~~ Note that the input window contains the line to be corrected. The operator simply moves the cursor under the second "five" of 55 degrees and enters "6". When the corrected line is entered, the input screen is cleared and the correct lines displayed. ~~ ~ 1. N 44 33 21 E 457 Return: Enter Data 2. N 01 00 12 E 265 F9: Clear Entry Screen 3. S 56 54 00 E 154 F10: Main Help Menu 4. S 73 12 12 E 431.3 Alt F10: Help Screen Menus 5. S 30 00 00 E 327 F1: Calculate F2: Print Results F3: Screen Plat F4: Print Plat F5: List Files F6: Save File F7: Line to Close F8: Load File Cntrl F2: Enter Arc Data Shf F9: Correct Line Entered Cntrl F9: Insert Alt F9: Delete Shf F10: Clear Screen and Memory ESC: Exit PLATCHEK (N/S) Direction: 0 to 90 Degrees: 0 to 59 Minutes: 0 to 59 Seconds: (E/W) Deflection: Feet Distance: Control F1: Toggle Feet and Chains ~~~ Line can be inserted using Control F9 in the same manner. If the operator encounters an arc, he or she presses F5 which produces this screen: ~~ PROCEDURE FOR CHECKING ACREAGE OF ARCS IN SURVEYOR PLATS 1. Chord and radius known 2. Arc and radius known 3. Arc and chord known (slow) 4. Exit ===> ~~~ ~ Let us suppose that that an arc with a chord or 245 feet and a radius of 195 feet is given by the description or plat. The operator would select option # 1 and be prompted for the chord and radius length. ~~ Length of Chord===>245 Length of Radius==>195 Area : 0.166 acres 7242.64 square feet. Press "A" to Abort Arc - Any Other Key to Accept ~~~ When the radius is entered, the program computes the area within the arc (between the chord and the arc). It allows the operator to abort if the wrong data was entered in which case program control would return to the input screen. If any other key is pressed, the program prompts for the chord direction. The inputs follow the form of the input window but operate somewhat differently. The user cannot move about and make corrections as with the input window, but he is offered a chance to do it over in the case of a mistake before entering. ~~ Enter the course of the chord. North (N) or South (S) : S Degrees (0-90) : 51 Minutes (0-59) : 13 Seconds (0-59) : 45 East (E) or West (W) : W With reference to the chord does the arc deflect to the Left (L) or Right (R) ? : L Confirm that above data is correct (Y/N) : ~~~ ~ Whether the arc deflects left or right is important. Moving clockwise as one must do to use PLATCHEK, an arc that deflects left is an addition to acreage, a convex arc, while one that deflects right is a subtraction from acreage, a concave arc. The operator confirms that the above data is correct. The input screen now looks like this. ~~ 1. N 44 33 21 E 457 Return: Enter Data 2. N 01 00 12 E 265 F9: Clear Entry Screen 3. S 56 54 00 E 154 F10: Main Help Menu 4. S 73 12 12 E 431.3 Alt F10: Help Screen Menus 5. S 30 00 00 E 327 6. S 17 10 34 W 33.073A F1: Calculate F2: Print Results 7. S 26 54 20 W 33.073A F3: Screen Plat F4: Print Plat 8. S 36 38 06 W 33.073A F5: List Files F6: Save File 9. S 46 21 52 W 33.073A F7: Line to Close F8: Load File 10. S 56 05 38 W 33.073A Cntrl F2 Enter Arc Data 11. S 65 49 24 W 33.073A Shf F9: Correct Line Entered 12. S 75 33 10 W 33.073A Cntrl F9: Insert Alt F9: Delete 13. S 85 16 56 W 33.073A 14. S 51 13 45 W 245.000C Shf F10: Clear Screen and Memory ESC: Exit PLATCHEK (N/S) Direction: 0 to 90 Degrees: 0 to 59 Minutes: 0 to 59 Seconds: (E/W) Deflection: Feet Distance: ~~~ Note that there are eight lines with a capital "A" at the end. These are not lines that appear in the description or plat. They are lines computed by PLATCHEK to describe the arc. They are a series of eight line segments whose end points fall on the arc. They are useful to describe the arc on the monitor when F3 is pressed and useful to sketch the plat when F4 is pressed. The program allows the use of 4, 8, 16, or 32 line segments. Eight is recommended for most uses. More can be messy in corner printouts except on very large arcs. These segments are not used in acreage computation; therefore, accuracy is not improved by using more line segments. The line with the capital "C" at the end is the chord. It is necessary to compute acreage. It is not shown on the monitor representation of the plat produced by F3. ~ 2. Manage Files: Only one operation can be performed in the "Manage Files" subprogram that cannot be from the input screen. Plat files can be erased. 1. Managing Printers: There may be a file on your installation diskette, PRINTER.DTA, which contains commands for printer operation. If there is no file on the diskette, the program will create one for you. If the program is started in the absence of a PRINTER.DTA file, it will advise the operator that there is no file in the directory and ask permission to create one. The initial file will contain command paramaters used by several IBM compatible printers. These printer commands can be changed as needed to adapt to different printers by pressing the Master Menu selection (4) for Manage Printers. A list of the printer commands required by the program will be displayed on the screen along with the current commands on file (which are given to the computer when the program is entered). Any or all of these commands can be changed. The operator should consult the manual of his printer for the commands necessary to control the printer in use. The printer command file that PLATCHEK will create is that which follows. The operator should consult the manual for the printer manual in use for the first seven lines of information. ~~ Printer Commands: Compressed Print: 15 0 0 0 Normal Print Size: 18 0 0 0 Line spacing at 1/72": 27 65 1 0 Activate Line Spacing: 27 50 0 0 Line spacing at 1/6": 27 65 12 0 Double Strike (NLQ) (Corr): 27 71 0 0 Cancel Double Strike: 27 72 0 0 Characters per inch in compressed print: 17.1 (N) Normal or (W) Wide carriage: N Character for printed plat corners(ASCII value): 248 Number of points to use to describe arc: 8 Color (C) or Non-Color (M) Monitor: M Horizontal Scaling Factor for F3 Sketch: 1.2 Vertical Scaling Factor for F3 Sketch: 1.98 Are the above correct for desired program operation? (Y/N) : ~~~ ~ The printer manual should also indicate the number of spaces per inch printed in compressed mode. This number is important as the east to west accuracy of the printed, scaled plat is dependent on the correct spaces per inch. When printing plat corners only, a larger plat can be drawn on wider paper. (The vertical length of the plat is not important as the program will disregard form length in printing plat sketches.) By entering "W" in the carriage designation, the program will consider the width of the paper in allowing the selection of a scale. If the PRINTER.DTA file contains "W" and narrow paper is being used, the printer may print the dots off the paper. If the printer does not have a wide carriage, the printed plat may be a confusing matrix of points as the printer will do a carriage return before it gets to the end of an east-west distance. Characters for printed plat corners: The default is #248 which is the symbol for degrees. That was selected as it produces a small round corner for the plat. However, the operator can make the corners anything he wishes by using the proper ASCII code. Not all printers will print #248, and the user will have to select an alter- native. If nothing is printed to represent corners when F4 is pressed and corners only selected, this is the likely cause of the problem. Some possibilities: Period (.) # 46 Small "o" # 111 Small "x" # 120 Large "X" # 88 Asterick (*) # 42 Plus Sign (+) # 43 Number of points to use to describe arc: To set the number of points to be used the following screen appears: ~~ Number of points to describe arc. 1. 4 points 2. 8 points 3. 16 points 4. 32 points <===Select ~~~ Note that all of the number are two raised to a certain power. There are several considerations in selecting this number. First, in the sketch too many points will look cluttered; therefore, the scale of ~ the plat and the size of the arc are the prime considerations. Imperfect alignment will be apparent with many points as the scale (17 plus or minus spaces to the inch) is inadequate for absolute accuracy. For that reason fewer points will give a less cluttered appearance to the plat sketch. The screen generated sketch will not be greatly improved with 32 points compared to 16 or eight. Another consideration is memory although memory should not be a problem except in unusually large plats. An arc with 16 points uses 17 times as much memory as a single survey line; an arch with 32 points uses 33 times as much. Again, that is not as likely to be a memory problem as a clutter problem in the scaled sketch and the survey line printout. Color or Monochrome Monitors: The user may prefer to set the default for "M" if using a monochrome monitor. The program will run on most monochrome monitors in either selection; however, some unwanted underlining may be present using the "C" selection. Horizontal and Vertical Scaling Factors: The factors are used to adjust the plat image drawn on the graphics screen. The default values are 1.0 and 1.0 which is designed primarily for a 640 by 200 CGA graphics screen. The values 1.2 and 1.98 shown above were from an actual file adjusted for a Hercules type card producing 720 by 350 pixels. Adjustment would also be necessary for EGA and ATT type graphics cards all of which are compatible with PLATCHEK 4. Monitors may vary; thus the values may vary. The shift print screen function will work only with CGA monitors. To adjust simply measure the image on the monitor. Say the vertical length should be four inches and is only three inches. That means the vertical scaling must be increased 133% (4 / 3). Multiply the existing vertical scaling factor by 1.33. Recheck the image to see if another, smaller adjustment is needed. With CGA cards when the screen images are dumped to the printer, the user may wish to make adjustments based on the printed image. ~ OTHER INFORMATION Clockwise Direction It is essential that from the starting point all lines are reported in a clockwise direction. The location of the starting point does not matter. Sometimes plats are encountered which give their directions in a counter-clockwise direction; these calls must be reversed. For example, if a plat is traveling counter-clockwise, NW direction must be changed to SE, NE to SW, and vice versa. Sometimes this situation is encountered with one or more lines of a plat which for no apparent reason is reported as the backward direction of all other lines; i. e., is going in a different direction by 180 degrees. In subdivision plats this is often found as the line call on adjacent lots while clockwise for one is counter-clockwise for the other. Begin New Plat The first screen upon entering this procedure asks whether the plat to be checked reports angles to seconds and whether the distances are in feet or chains. Feet and chains can be toggled at the input screen level, but the program must be advised correctly as to whether seconds are to be used to produce the proper input screen. If the program is advised that seconds will be used, a screen will appear with help screens for entering survey line data for that type of plat, and the program will accept eighteen characters interpreting the characters as follows: Digits Program Will Receive And Interpret It As ------ -------------------- ------------------- 1 N, S The first direction 2&3 Any number, 0-9 Angular Degrees 3&4 Any number, 0-9 Angular Minutes 5&6 Any number, 0-9 Angular Seconds 7 E or W Deflection from first direction 8-18 Any number, 0-9 Distance in feet or period(decimal) ~ A selection minutes only commands the program to accept eighteen characters and will interpret them as follows: Digits Program Will Receive And Interpret It As ------ -------------------- ------------------- 1 N, S The first direction 2&3 Any number, 0-9 Angular Degrees 3&4 Any number, 0-9 Angular Minutes 5 E or W Deflection from first direction 6-18 Any number, 0-9 Distance in feet or period(decimal) All the arrow keys are active. The delete key will erase the character at the cursor position and the cursor will remain in position. The backspace key will erase as it moves the cursor backwards. The return key functions as the down arrow except when it is in the last cell; when pressed in the last cell, the survey line is entered and the screen clears to receive another survey line. F9 clears the screen but does not enter the survey line. Leading zeroes are not necessary. Cells for degrees, minutes, and seconds will hold two digits. [2 ], [ 2], and [02] would all be received into the program as "2". When a second digit is entered, the cursor moves down to the next cell. ~ On the screen where courses and distances are entered are help screens. Please use them and read them carefully until fully familiar with procedures. The alternate keys are used to pull up help screens. Easting Error The distance in feet on the east-west axis that the plat fails to close when all survey lines have been entered is the easting error. A negative value means that the point of ending is west of the point of beginning; conversely, a positive value mean the ending point is east of the point of beginning. Easting Error Northing error is the distance in feet on the north-south axis that the plat fails to close. A negative value means that the ending point is south of the beginning point; a positive value means that the ending point is north of the beginning point. Gap in Closure Gap in closure is the distance in feet separating the beginning point and ending point. It is the hypotenuse of the triangle formed by the easting and northing errors. Precision of Field Survey The amount of gap in closure is expressed as feet per 10,000 feet is the precision. Acres Area enclosed in the survey is expressed in acres (43,560 square feet) and square feet. Computer Generated Sketch on Monitor (F3) A scaled computer drawing of the plat will appear on the monitor. The drawing will be oriented on a north-south axis. The scale will also be displayed. Any gap in closure will be graphically shown. Any lines entered will be displayed on the monitor whether or not they approach reasonable closure. A printed copy of the computer generated sketch can be obtained by holding the shift key down while pressing the "PrtSc"(Print Screen) key when using CGA monitors. This will cause the contents of the screen to be printed. ~ Scaled Printed Plat (F4) PLATCHEK 4 allows the user to choose between a complete plat drawing and a drawing of corners only. The selection will depend on the intended use of the finished product. The screen asks the operator to designate a scale to have a sketch drawn. If the scale named is too small for the sketch to be printed on the printer paper, the operator will be advised and asked to select a larger scale. (A scale of one inch equal 500 feet is considered larger than a scale of one inch equals 100 feet). Corners Only Sketch A sketch of corners only is much faster than a complete drawing and requires far less memory. PLATCHEK uses either wide or narrow paper. The operator advises PLATCHEK through the, "Managing Printer", Selection on the Master Menu. PLATCHEK allows smaller scales when it is advised that wide paper is in use. When the scale is selected, the printer will produce a matrix of characters selected by the user which when connected will be a sketch to scale of the subject plat. The computer generated sketch will be helpful in connecting the dots properly. The accuracy of the sketch on the east-west axis is determined by the number of spaces per inch in compressed print. Most printers compress around 17 characters per inch. On the north-south axis the points are more accurate. The line returns are 1/72 inch of inch. Therefore, the divisions per inch are 72 on the vertical axis and 17 on the horizontal. Complete Sketches IBM compatible dot matrix printers will produce a complete drawing of the plat or legal description. This procedure is much slower and requires more memory as each individual dot used to form the lines must be computed and stored in memory. Plats can be nearly eight inches wide. An eight inch line would have 480 dots or 60 dots per inch which provides much more precise horizontal location than the corners only sketch with 17 characters per inch. Vertically the printer prints 72 dots per inch, comparable in accuracy to the corners only sketch. A square plat printed out to be eight inches wide and long would require 276,480 printer instructions (480 x 576) for the 2,112 dots. Each dot would have to calculated, stored, sorted, and then printed. PLATCHEK uses a special technique for fast storage and sorting of data. ~ Saving Plats on File PLATCHEK allows the operator to enter a path and file name. The program will supply the suffix, ".PLT." The plat file as named will then be saved on the diskette or in the directory which contains the program file unless a path has been given. If the plat saved contained an arc, another file will be created with the suffix, .ARC. It is a text file that contains the area in the arc. PLATCHEK only computes the arc area in the original calculations; if the plat is recalled, it reads the arc area from the XXXXX.ARC file. Thus, if a plat containing an arc is recalled to memory, the arc file must be in the active directory to get a correct acreage reading. Managing Files Recall a Plat File to Memory: PLATCHEK will ask for the name (and path if applicable) of the plat file. When this is entered, the plat file will be loaded into memory. The program will move to the screen on which survey lines are entered. From that point the program operates exactly as it did under the BEGIN NEW PLAT menu option. New lines entered will be added to those already in memory. Understanding Plat Errors The program computes mathematically the area within a polygon and arc no matter the number of sides (up to the limit of the computer memory). It uses the distance and direction of these sides to make the computations. Plats are not always true polygons; that is, they do not always close. If a rectangle did not close, the area it enclosed would not be defined. The program computes an area anyway, based on the data available, but this is only an estimate, the greater the gap in closure the less accurate the estimate. As plat error (measured as gap in closure per 10,000 feet of tra- verse) increases the reliability of acreage computations decreases. Many plats, especially older ones, do not close within tolerances normally expected by today's professionals, but still are accurate enough for checking. The user should keep in mind that the reli- ability of acreage computations varies directly with closure error. To assist in the evaluation of descriptions a new function was added to PLATCHEK, the computation of a line to close they survey. The operator may enter that line and determine how the plat would look and what the acreage would be under forced closure. ~ Distance in Feet or Chains PLATCHEK will compute acreages based on line distances in feet or chains. Control F1 functions as a toggle switch for feet and chains. Feet is the default setting. When entering the program through the Master Menu the user selects the proper unit. When files are read into memory, the user must select the proper unit with Control F1. Feet and chains cannot be mixed on a single plat. The proper setting is essential before entering ARC data else accurate area measurements cannot be made. If a plat contains no arcs, the setting during input of lines is not critical so long as the correct setting is made prior to acreage computations. The setting is always displayed at the distance input cell. When plats are sketched with the printer using F4 the setting should be correct. PLATCHEK will interpret the distance numbers as feet or chains depending upon the setting. Plats with Arcs Note: The Master Menu Selection, "Examine Arc" is used only to calculate areas within arcs. It is not part of the program to check plats. It should be used only for what it says, to examine arcs. Pressing Control F2 will allow the user to enter arc data. Many plats will give the distance in feet of the arc and of the chord (straight line that connects the two ends of the arc). To compute the acreage based on the chord and arc, PLATCHEK must use an iterative method which can last up to a minute depending on the speed of the computer and the ratio between the arc and the chord. If the arc length and the length of the radius of the circle are given, the user may enter these data and obtain the same result instantly. If the chord length and radius are known the calculations are also almost instantaneous. When the user presses Control F2 to alert the program that he has encountered an arc, he will be prompted for the necessary information. When arcs are computed by PLATCHEK Version 2,0 and the user elects to save the plat, two files will be created: xxxxxxxx.PLT and xxxxxxxx.ARC. To compute acreage precisely the area in the arc(s) is computed separately from the area within the straight lines. The area in the arc in square feet is stored in xxxxxxxx.ARC; thus, when a plat containing an arc is recalled to memory, the arc area is recalled also to be added to the area within the straight lines which PLATCHEK will recompute. If a user is curious about the net area in arcs after running a plat, he may view the xxxxxxxx.ARC file with the DOS TYPE command or a word processor. Arcs that deflect to the right represent negative areas, and arcs that deflect to the left represent positive area; the net area will be shown in the text file. Or the operator may use Master Menu Selection # 3, Examine Arcs, to determine the area within specific arcs. ~ One of the printer management selections asks whether to plot four, eight, sixteen, or thirty-two points for each arc. The number does not affect the accuracy of the acreage estimate. It determines the number of points that will be printed to represent the arc on the scaled sketch of plat corners that the program produces. Eight or sixteen is recommended for most applications. The complete plat is more accurately reproduced by a greater number of points, but eight or sixteen points usually produce an adequate representation. Lines on the printout with ARC attached are not survey lines at all but line segments whose beginning and ending points lie on the chord. The number of these that appear on the printout will correspond with the number of points selected. Lines with CHORD at the end are chords. The are used by PLATCHEK to compute the area in the straight lines which will be added to the area in the arcs. The chord will not be shown on the sketch generated on the monitor. Size of Plats Plat lines are entered into a linked list(dynamic variables). Therefore, the limitation as to the size of plat depends on the random access memory of individual CPUs. Line to Close Plat (F7) PLATCHEK offers the option to compute a line that would close a plat from the point of the last survey line entered. Pressing F7 during the input of survey lines will produce the course and distance of a line which would connect the beginning point of the first line entered and the ending point of the last line entered. Help Menus (Alternate + Function Keys) Using the alternate keys, the operator can obtain information during the input of survey data. On-screen information is believed to be self-explanatory. ~ Installation No special installation procedure is required. Non-Hard Disk Systems: The user should first make a copy of the distribution diskette for use and store the distribution diskette for safekeeping. With the diskette in the "A" drive, the operator must only enter "Plat4" at the A prompt: A> Plat4 Hard Disk Systems: The installation diskette should be copied into the appropriate directory. If the operator wishes to create a directory especially for PLATCHEK, he may wish to give the directory that name. To create the directory, from the root directory he would enter: C> mkdir platchek DOS will thus create the directory "PLATCHEK". To copy the distribution diskette into the new directory, the command would be (with the distribution diskette in the "A" drive) C> copy a:*.* c:\platchek Then C> cd \platchek to get into the platchek directory. Then C> Plat4 to start program operation; C> Pltwrite to print the manual. ~ Program Support Holstein Appraisals will help registered owners with problems which may arise in understanding program operation. Inquiries should be addressed as shown at the end of this manual. Revisions to Program Registered owners will be advised of any program revisions and be offered the opportunity to receive the new version at a much reduced update cost. ~ License Agreement This software is protected by United States Copyright law which means that it must be treated like a book; i. e., read by only one person at a time. A copy of PLATCHEK can be used by only one machine at a time. This does not preclude, however, the making of a backup copy such that either the backup or the original diskette remain in permanent storage unless and until the original diskette is damaged or no longer usable. The diskette may be freely moved about and used on different machines. Installation of the software on the hard disk of more than one machine is prohibited. Separate license agreements may be negotiated with organizations needing to distribute and use a large number of copies. The software is is provided "as is". No warranties or implications of warranty are made including the implied warranties of merchant- ability and fitness for a particular purpose. The manufacturer or developer of the software in no event shall be liable for any loss or profit or an other damage arising from the use of the software. HOLSTEIN APPRAISALS 521 W. RAILROAD AVE POST OFFICE BOX 7 BATESBURG, SC 29006 ~