This is the code referred to in my previous entry. This is written for Matlab. It should work in Octave as well, but I haven’t tested it.

Edit: Updated the code to return arc segments split into two or four pieces, depending on deviation from a straight line. Also, code now supports many bearing delimiters for degrees, minutes, and seconds.

… See full entry

Well, really just metes…

Anyway, I had a description of the property, which can be hard to follow for most of us. Here’s an example description of part of Buttonbush Nature Area:

Commencing at the South ¼ corner of Section 10, T2S, R6E, City of Ann
Arbor, Washtenaw County, Michigan; thence N01°57’53”W 60.00 feet
along the North-South ¼ line of said Section 10 and along the East line of
Foxfire Condominium, Washtenaw County Condominium Subdivision Plan
No. 136 for a PLACE OF BEGINNING; thence continuing N01°57’53”W
2208.89 feet along said North-South ¼ line and along the East line of
Foxfire Condominium, Washtenaw County Condominium Subdivision Plan
No. 136 and along the East line of Fox Ridge Commons Condominium,
Washtenaw County Condominium Subdivision Plan No. 176; thence 96.56
feet along the arc of a 7442.41 foot radius circular curve to the right, chord
bearing N81°07’45”E 96.56 feet along the South right-of-way line of US-23
(variable width); thence S07°00’18”E 195.59 feet; thence S48°50’07”E
5.51 feet; thence S01°57’53”E 2022.40 feet; thence S88°16’54”W 117.07
feet along the proposed north right of way line of Dhu Varren Road (60
feet proposed half width) to the Place of Beginning, being a part of the
Southeast ¼ of said Section 10 and containing 5.90 acres of land, more or
less.

My eyes glazed over the first time I read that. But after looking at it for a while, I realized that i only needed a little bit of that to figure out the boundary. Most of it was just prose.

To get the data I needed, the first step was to eliminate all the prose, and put it in a standard form that could be more easily read in. I copied the text and just started deleting the extra words. This became:

… See full entry