LEO_07 Help Documentation
Version 7.12.11.19 (W).

Overview
This application converts Kansas Public Land Survey System (PLSS) legal description township, range, section notation (TRS) to latitude/longitude geographic coordinates. It is designed to run interactively by manually entering location information in the appropriate text fields and then selecting the "Process" button to perform the calculation conversion.

The program can also process an input file containing a formatted list of locations and produce an output file. Click on the "Batch Processing Help" tab under the help menu option for more information on batch file processing and input file formats.

Menu Options
The program offers the following main menu options.

Currently the File menu option allows the user to navigate to the batch processing screen for reading an input file and to "Exit" the program. Future File menu features will include options to print and save "Interactive Calculations."

The Conversion option is the main option control. It allows the user to select the desired conversion method and controls which conversion screen is displayed.

The Utilities option offers additional controls for reporting Quarter Call Spot information. Using radio buttons the user can set the level of PLSS quarter call subdivision and control how the "spot" is determined inside the smallest subdivision.

The Help option offers limited program help with additional information available at http://www.kgs.ku.edu/software/LEO/.

Conversion Options
This program can perform the following conversions:

1.) Degree Decimal Degree Lat/Lon to TRS
2.) Degree Minute Second Lat/Lon to TRS
3.) Degree Decimal Minutes Lat/Lon to TRS
4.) TRS and Offset Footage to Lat/Lon
5.) TRS and Quarter Calls to Lat/Lon
6.) UTM Coordinates to Lat/Lon
7.) Batch Process Input File

* Click on the radio buttons under the Conversion menu option to display a desired conversion screen.

Geodetic Datum
The North American Datum (NAD) serves as the horizontal geodetic control for calculating lat/lon values.This program allows the user to select either the NAD27 or NAD83 datum. Note: It is essential to record the geodetic datum when capturing lat/lon data. The user must specify the correct datum when performing conversions. Guessing or specifying the wrong datum results in calculation errors in the order of 10's of feet.

Footage Corner
This program will calculate the distance for a given location relative to a user specified section corner. The default corner is the South East (SE) corner of the section. Radio buttons allow the user to change the reference corner. The location is reported as feet North (or South) and East (or West) of the specified footage corner.

Quarter Calls
Currently LEO_07 uses an equal subdivision process to determine the quarter call description containing the lat/lon location. Utility menu options allow the user to control the level of subdivisions reported and how the spot is determined.

Interactive Calculation Display
Depending on the conversion method selected: The user will either enter lat/lon and datum geographic coordinates or PLSS legal location description information. If the parameters are valid the conversion can be calculated by pressing the "Process" button.

The location is displayed in a graphics window showing the spot relative to the boundaries of the corresponding PLSS section. The displayed section is subdivided into 4 equal subdivisions.In an ideal square mile section (640 acres) each quarter section would equal 160 acres.However, in reality less than 7 percent of the sections in the state are actually 640 acres in size. Therefore when considering PLSS subdivisions, the calculated spot is a simplified approximation of the legal PLSS location description and the information should be used accordingly.

A text display of the conversion calculations is viewed in a window below the graphics display.

Example Conversion Results For:
Latitude = 38.12345
Longitude = 99.56789
Datum = NAD83
Footage Corner = SE

Kansas TRS = 22S20W19
Kansas STR = 19 T22S R20W
Township 22 Range 20W Section 19
Approximately 617 acres
length of north line = 5054 Ft
length of south line = 5051 Ft
length of east line = 5305 Ft
length of west line = 5322 Ft
Spot Footage 2477' N of South line & 4543' W of East line
Spot Center of NE NW NW SW subdivision of Section
NAD83 Datum Latitude = 38.1234500 Longitude = -99.5678900
DMS Lat 38° 7' 24.41'' Lon -99° 34' 4.40''
Deg MM.mm Lat 38° 7.4069' Lon -99° 34.0734'
UTM Northing = 4219664.49 Easting = 450224.28 Zone = 14