Skip to main content

Draw Fields and Plots

Quickly draw clean field boundaries and plot polygons on the map.

Farmer
Agronomist

This tutorial covers the mechanics of drawing field and plot boundaries cleanly the first time. Five minutes per field once you get the hang of it.

What you'll need

  • An idea of where the field corners are. Satellite imagery + your local knowledge are usually enough.
  • About 5 minutes per field.

The walkthrough

  1. Open the Map Prescription wizard

    From the sidebar, click Map Prescription, then Create New.

  2. Pick the farm

    Either pick an existing farm or click Add New Farm.

  3. Start drawing the field

    In the Field dropdown, click Draw new field.

    The map enters drawing mode. The cursor becomes a crosshair. A hint appears: "Drawing new field — Draw the perimeter of your field."

  4. Place vertices

    Click on each corner of the field, walking around the boundary in order (clockwise or counter-clockwise, either works).

    • Zoom in before clicking corners — small misclicks at low zoom become large boundary errors.
    • Don't over-vertex. A rectangular field needs 4 clicks; an irregular field 8–12 clicks.
    • Use the satellite background to align with visible field edges (tree lines, fence rows, sprayer headlands).

  5. Close the polygon

    Click the starting vertex to close. The polygon fills with a translucent color.

    If you click somewhere else first, you can press Esc to cancel.

  6. Save the field

    A modal opens: "Save drawn field — Give your field a name to save it."

    • Enter the Field Name (e.g., "North 40 (Sec 12 T8N R3W)").
    • Click Create Field.

    Validation: "Field name is required" if empty.

  7. Draw the plot

    In the Plot dropdown, click Create new plot, then Draw plot.

    The hint changes to "Drawing new plot — Draw the area of the plot within the field."

    Click around the plot boundary. The plot must stay inside the field. If you draw outside, the portal refuses on save.

  8. Close and save the plot

    Click the starting vertex to close. Fill in:

    • Plot Name.
    • Crop Type (Soybean / Corn / Wheat / Cotton / Sugar cane / Coffee / Rice / Beans / Other).
    • Season (e.g., 2025-26).

    Click Create Plot.

    Validation errors surface inline:

    • "Plot name is required"
    • "Crop type is required"
    • "Season is required"

Editing a polygon

Need to fix a vertex? Use the Move Points tool on the map tool palette.

  • Drag a vertex to move it.
  • Alt + Click a vertex to delete it.
  • Click on an edge to insert a new vertex.

Use Select / Correct to pick a polygon, then Delete to remove it.

Best practices

  • Click on real corners, not approximate ones. Sloppy boundaries produce sloppy prescriptions.
  • Pull the boundary in by a swath width if you have wide headlands you don't want to spray.
  • Match the field name to how your crew says it on the radio. Adding the legal section/township/range in parentheses helps your accountant.
  • One field = one contiguous parcel. If you have two separate parcels you call "North 40," they're two fields.

Common pitfalls

Was this page helpful?

Edit this page on GitHub

Last updated Oct 20, 2018