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Lot Commands

Commands for building, numbering, ordering, and labelling lots on a survey plan.

R3BUILDLOTS

Command: R3BUILDLOTS

Builds closed lot polylines from individual lines and arcs. Uses a planar face enumeration algorithm (half-edge / DCEL data structure) to find the minimal closed regions formed by the selected edges.

When to use

Use this when you have a subdivision drawn as individual line and arc entities (e.g. imported linework, or manually drawn boundary lines) and need to convert them into closed lot polylines before numbering and exporting.

Usage

  1. Type R3BUILDLOTS
  2. Select all boundary lines and arcs that form the lot edges
  3. The command analyses the geometry and reports any issues:
    • Near-miss vertices (1mm–10mm gaps) — highlighted with red circles and labels
    • Near-miss T-junctions — where a vertex nearly touches the interior of another edge
    • Crossing edges — highlighted with magenta X markers
  4. If issues are found, you are prompted to continue or cancel (fix the geometry first)
  5. Closed lot polylines are created in green on the current layer
  6. You are prompted whether to erase the source lines and arcs

How it works

  • Endpoints within 1mm are merged into a single node
  • T-junctions are detected and edges are split automatically (e.g. a 30m line is split at the point where a 20m line from an adjoining lot meets it)
  • Duplicate edges (shared boundaries between lots) are handled automatically
  • The outer unbounded face is discarded — only interior lot faces are created
  • Arc segments are preserved with correct bulge values in the output polylines

Tips

  • Fix any near-miss warnings before continuing — a 3mm gap at a T-junction will create a polyline with a backtracking segment
  • The command works with any mixture of lines and arcs
  • After building lots, use R3ROADFRONTAGE to create road frontage polylines from the same geometry

R3ROADFRONTAGE

Command: R3ROADFRONTAGE

Creates an open polyline along a road frontage by tracing a path through lot edges. Use this after R3BUILDLOTS to create road and easement polylines from the lot boundaries.

Usage

  1. Type R3ROADFRONTAGE
  2. Select the lot polylines that contain the road frontage edges
  3. Pick the start point — snaps to the nearest vertex on the selected lots
  4. Pick the end point — snaps to the nearest vertex
  5. Optionally pick a through point to guide the path (press Enter to skip)
  6. The command finds the shortest path along lot edges and creates an open polyline in blue on the current layer

Through point

If the start and end points can be connected by more than one route (e.g. around a corner block where both sides are road frontage), pick a through point on the desired road to disambiguate. The path is forced through that point.

For two separate roads at a corner, run the command twice — once for each road frontage.

Tips

  • The path follows existing lot polyline edges exactly, including arc segments
  • Move the resulting polyline to the appropriate plan layer (e.g. Roads component layer) after creation
  • The command uses BFS (breadth-first search) to find the shortest path by edge count

R3NUMBERLOTS

Command: R3NUMBERLOTS

Auto-numbers all closed polylines on the active survey plan's Boundaries layer. Numbers are assigned sequentially starting from a user-specified number.

Usage

  1. Make sure a survey plan boundary layer is current (or only one plan exists in the drawing)
  2. Type R3NUMBERLOTS
  3. If lots already have numbers, you'll be asked whether to overwrite
  4. Enter the starting lot number (default: 1)
  5. Lots are numbered top-to-bottom, left-to-right based on their centroid position

Part lots

If polylines are marked as Part lots (via the ParcelType field in R3PROPERTIES) and share the same existing lot number, R3NUMBERLOTS keeps them grouped — all parts of the same lot receive the same new number.

R3ORDERLOTS

Command: R3ORDERLOTS

Re-numbers lots interactively by picking points through them. A fence line is drawn as you click, and every lot the line passes through is numbered in order with live visual feedback.

Usage

  1. Type R3ORDERLOTS
  2. Enter the starting lot number (default: 1)
  3. Click inside the first lot — it is assigned the starting number
  4. Click the next point — a rubber-band line extends from the previous point. Every lot boundary the line crosses through is numbered in the order the line enters them
  5. Continue clicking — drag the fence line through lots in the desired order
  6. Press Enter when done — review the transient numbers, then press Enter again to confirm

Visual feedback

  • Red lines show the fence path you've drawn
  • Green numbers appear at the interior of each lot as it is numbered
  • Numbers persist until you confirm with Enter, so you can review before committing

Part lots

Same as R3NUMBERLOTS — part lots sharing the same existing lot number are kept grouped and receive the same new number.

Tips

  • You can number multiple lots in a single stroke — just drag the fence line through several lots at once
  • If a click lands inside a lot without crossing its boundary from the previous point, that lot is still picked up
  • Works correctly with any UCS orientation

R3SHOWLOTS

Command: R3SHOWLOTS

Temporarily displays the lot number for every numbered lot on the active survey plan. The numbers are shown as green transient text at the interior of each lot and disappear when you press Enter.

Usage

  1. Type R3SHOWLOTS
  2. Lot numbers are displayed on all lots that have a LotNo set
  3. Press Enter to dismiss

This is useful for quickly reviewing lot numbering before running R3ADDLOTS, or checking the result after R3NUMBERLOTS or R3ORDERLOTS.

R3ADDLOTS

Command: R3ADDLOTS

Places lot number text at the interior point of each lot on the plan's LotNumbers layer.

Usage

  1. Number your lots first using R3NUMBERLOTS, R3ORDERLOTS, or manually in R3PROPERTIES
  2. Type R3ADDLOTS
  3. Text is placed at the interior of each closed boundary polyline that has a lot number

What it does

  • Places a DBText entity at a guaranteed interior point of each lot (handles irregular shapes like battle-axe lots)
  • Text height is 5mm at print scale based on the current R3DWGSCALE setting
  • Text is placed on the plan's LotNumbers component layer (e.g. SP1_LOTNO)
  • Part lots are displayed with the PT prefix (e.g. "PT 51")
  • Single lots display just the number (e.g. "51")

Requirements

  • Lots must be closed polylines
  • Lots must have a LotNo set (via numbering commands or R3PROPERTIES)
  • Drawing scale must be set (run R3DWGSCALE first)
  • The plan must have a LotNumbers component (created automatically for new plans)

Part Lots (Multipart Parcels)

When a lot is split into two or more separate areas (e.g. a lot on both sides of a creek), each area is drawn as a separate closed polyline but they share the same lot number.

Setting up part lots

  1. Draw each part as a separate closed polyline on the Boundaries layer
  2. Number all lots normally using R3NUMBERLOTS or R3ORDERLOTS
  3. In R3PROPERTIES, select each part polyline and:
    • Set the Lot number to the same value for all parts (e.g. "51")
    • Set the Type to Part
  4. Alternatively, type PT 51 in the Lot field — R3Survey will automatically set the type to Part and store the lot number as "51"

How it works on export

When you run R3EXPORTLANDXMLNSW, part lots are automatically grouped:

  • A Multipart container parcel is created with the total area (sum of all parts)
  • Each part is exported with its own geometry and individual area
  • Parts are automatically suffixed with letters (e.g. 51A, 51B) — this is internal to the XML file and not shown on the plan

On the plan

  • R3ADDLOTS labels each part as PT 51 (not 51A/51B)
  • Each part has its own area shown in brackets on the plan
  • The total area is shown on one of the parts without brackets (standard NSW convention)

Typical Workflow

  1. Draw boundary linework as individual lines and arcs, or draw closed polylines directly on the Boundaries layer
  2. Build lots — if you drew individual lines/arcs, run R3BUILDLOTS to create closed lot polylines from them
  3. Build road frontages — run R3ROADFRONTAGE to trace road frontage polylines from lot edges, then move them to the Roads component layer
  4. Mark part lots — set ParcelType to Part in R3PROPERTIES for any lots that have multiple parts
  5. Number lots — run R3NUMBERLOTS for quick auto-numbering, or R3ORDERLOTS for specific ordering
  6. Adjust part lot numbers — give all parts of the same lot the same number in R3PROPERTIES
  7. Label lots — run R3ADDLOTS to place lot number text on the drawing
  8. Review — check numbers visually, re-run R3ORDERLOTS if needed
  9. Export — run R3EXPORTLANDXMLNSW — part lots are grouped automatically

See also