Tracts
Introduction
A tract in Farmapper is a named group of shapes on the map. Basically, it is the bucket that holds the individual polygon shapes. You can use it in any way you like. For example, you can separate owned ground, leased ground, pivot ground, dry ground etc. into different tracts. You can also have multiple farms in your project with a separate tract for each of them.
Tracts are minimal units used in KML or CropScape integrations, which means that you can select any tracts for these functions, but not individual shapes.
In order to use full Tracts editing functionality you will need to log into the system using a Google, Facebook or Twitter account or your own email. This will also allow saving of the project so that you can work in stages.
Tracts management
The easiest way to create a tract is by adding a new shape, for example using the legal description dialog to add a qq section to a project. See Figure 1. That will create a new tract automatically, which will contain just this one shape.
Another way to create a new tract is to extract a shape from another existing tract. There is a "Take to new tract" button next to each shape in Tracts list. Basically, this will pull the shape into its own tract.
When you create a bunch of one-shape tracts then you can start to merge the lots, legal description sections, custom shapes, Texas survey, etc. into farm and ranch tracts. To group shapes, you should select all tracts containing them and click the Merge tracts button - see Figure 2. You can also drag shapes among the tracts in the Tracts list.
When you hit the Merge tracts button you will see a dialog similar to Figure 3. It allows you to define the new tract name and colors. By default they are taken from the first merged tract, but you can easily use the name or color from any other one. You can also specify your own custom tract name and colors.
It is also possible to delete the whole tract or any individual shape. Just click the x icon next to the object. See Figure 4. If you remove the tract all its shapes and documents will be removed as well. Caution as deletion is permanent and irreversible.
Tract and shape names
Every time a new shape is added to the project it gets the default name assigned by the system. This name depends on the type of shape. For the rules determining these names you can read the PLSS guide or Allotment guide that show the default names given these shapes. There is an example of the legal description name including the Township, Range, Meridian and Section or the name given the BLM range allotment. The shape name becomes the default name of the containing tract - see Figure 5
It is possible to change the name of any tract. To customize, select the tract and click a Change link on the map view - see Figure 6
Tracts list
All tracts added to a project are visible in the tracts list on the left side of the window. You can see an example on Figure 7. The list is really a two-level tree. The first level of the tree consists of the tracts. Every tract can then be expanded to show the shapes contained in the bucket. Next to each tract or shape there is information about its size and an icon to delete it. Shape elements contain an additional icon allowing the user to extract the shape from their tracts into a new tract. They can also be dragged and dropped between the tracts.
Switch to Metric or Imperial Measurement
The area of the tracts can be specified in two different units depending on your choice. To change units click Settings and select Account settings Figure 8.
In the Display tab you will see "Display unit system" Figure 9. Select Imperial and the application will use feets and acres (ac) units if you choose Metric your units will be meters and hectares (ha).
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