How To Read A Survey Map Coordinates. Many surveys start out with a series of letters and numbers denoting how to find the parcel and what its boundaries are. Qocmike is correct, the numbers are bearings and distances from 1 corner to the next.
While a written description of a piece of land is useful — and in fact, necessary — in a survey, a map serves an important purpose. If you are resurveying the land at the time of transfer, you may find a map on file with the local governing authority, or the homeowner may have a copy. Obviously the map has 4 points.
Survey plats can also be read in reverse.
A line showing it travels n 15° 30′ 45″ e can also be described as traveling s 15° 30′ 45″ w. After converting the compass degree headings to cartesian degrees, we convert them to radians and use basic trigonometry to convert the angle and distance into distances in x and y. Knowing this, it is probably easier to decipher the code below. For all quadrants, to convert quadrantal angle to true.