TractBuilder Tools for ArcGIS is an industry-standard specialized software suite developed by TractBuilder LLC to automate the conversion of complex written legal land descriptions into precise GIS boundary data. Instead of drawing separate plats, it integrates directly within Esri’s ecosystem—specifically modern ArcGIS Pro and legacy ArcMap environments—to generate real-world spatial polygons. Core Tools & Functionality
The platform bridges the gap between raw real estate or surveying text and spatial features using four principal tools:
Metes & Bounds Tool: Parses complex surveying text (bearing, distance, and calls) to generate highly accurate parcel polygons. It provides on-the-fly acreage and closure error calculations to ensure spatial consistency.
Quartering Tool: Designed around the Public Land Survey System (PLSS). It precisely quarters sections and creates subdivisions of land parcels from text descriptions with zero manual splitting required.
Auto-Quartering Tool: A high-volume batch processing feature. Users can upload a standard spreadsheet containing legal descriptions, link it to an online section database or local map layer, and batch-convert rows into mapped polygon tracts.
Online Mapping Tool: A browser-based web application that lets teams map legal land descriptions on any device without requiring an ArcGIS Pro license. Integration Approaches
TractBuilder adapts to different organizational scales through multiple deployment methods:
ArcGIS Pro Native Add-Ins: Runs as an integrated toolbar or ribbon utility natively inside desktop ArcGIS Pro (requiring version 3.4 or later).
REST API Endpoint Integration: Exposes all legal description, quartering, and parcel-building capabilities as HTTPS JSON endpoints. This allows organizations to build legal description parsing into their own custom enterprise databases, CRMs, or web apps.
Custom Geoprocessing Toolboxes: Enables businesses to configure custom workflows, schedule automated data migration tasks, and integrate spatial maps with external databases like SQL Server or Oracle Spatial. Who Uses It?
The software is heavily relied upon by land surveyors, title insurance companies, oil and gas landmen, right-of-way agents, and municipal GIS departments. It eliminates the slow, error-prone workflow of manually reading a legal description deed and drawing it using generic CAD or GIS sketch tools. TractBuilder Pro for ArcGIS Pro
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