How to Batch Convert PLSS Descriptions to GPS Coordinates

Converting one or two PLSS descriptions by hand is quick. Converting hundreds or thousands is a different problem. If you are a landman assembling a lease block, a GIS analyst building a spatial dataset, or an FSA staffer processing field records, entering descriptions one at a time is not a realistic workflow.

Township America's batch converter accepts a CSV of PLSS descriptions and returns GPS coordinates for every row — along with boundary data you can load directly into GIS software.

Who Uses Batch Conversion

Landmen and land departments process lease acquisition lists, surface use agreement inventories, and due diligence parcels. A lease block covering 50,000 acres might reference 300 individual legal descriptions that all need to be mapped before a drilling decision is made.

GIS analysts receive legal descriptions from field teams, contracts, or legacy databases and need to convert them to geographic features for spatial analysis. Getting coordinates from a batch conversion is faster than digitizing from paper plats.

FSA and NRCS staff work with PLSS descriptions for every farm field in their county's records. Batch processing CLU (Common Land Unit) descriptions against Township America's converter can validate coordinates or fill gaps in spatial data.

Oil and gas operators maintain large inventories of surface ownership, pooling units, and well locations expressed in PLSS. Keeping that inventory current requires periodic bulk conversion as new parcels are added.

Preparing Your CSV

The CSV is the starting point. Getting it right before upload prevents most processing errors.

Required Column

Your CSV must include at least one column containing the PLSS legal description. The column can be named anything — description, legal, plss, parcel_desc — as long as you identify it during the upload step.

Optional Columns

Additional columns pass through the converter unchanged and appear in the output file. Useful additions:

Column Format

id,label,state,description
1001,Parcel A,OK,NWSE 15 4N 7W Indian Meridian
1002,Parcel B,CO,SENE 22 3S 68W 6th Meridian
1003,Parcel C,OR,NE 6 2S 1E Willamette Meridian
1004,Field 14,KS,SW 8 28S 3W 6th Meridian
1005,North 40,MT,NWNE 1 5N 12E Montana Meridian

Description Format Consistency

The parser tolerates format variation across rows — mixing "NW" with "NW/4" with "NW 1/4" is fine. However, inconsistency in meridian names causes the most failures. Standardize meridian names before uploading:

If your source data uses abbreviations, do a find-and-replace to expand them before uploading.

File Size

There is no hard row limit on the batch converter, but very large files (10,000+ rows) may take several minutes to process. For datasets over 5,000 rows, consider splitting into multiple files so you can identify failures more easily.

Uploading to Township America

Go to the batch conversion guide for the upload interface. Batch conversion is available on Business plans.

Step 1: Upload the CSV

Drag and drop your CSV file or click to select it. The converter previews the first few rows and asks you to identify the description column.

Step 2: Map the Columns

The column mapping screen shows each column in your CSV. Select which column contains the PLSS description. If you included a state column, map it — this helps the parser resolve ambiguous meridians.

All other columns are passed through automatically.

Step 3: Start Processing

Click Process. The converter works through your file row by row. A progress bar shows how many descriptions have been processed and how many remain.

Processing time depends on file size:

• Under 100 rows: seconds
• 100–1,000 rows: under a minute
• 1,000–5,000 rows: 2–5 minutes
• 5,000+ rows: 5–15 minutes

You can leave the page during processing — results are saved to your account and accessible from the job history when complete.

Reviewing Results

After processing, the results page shows every row with its conversion status.

Success Rows

Successful conversions show:

• Latitude and longitude (decimal degrees)
• Acres for the described parcel
• Principal meridian identified
• A map thumbnail you can click to verify visually

Spot-check a sample of your results. Pick 5–10 rows representing different states and meridians, and confirm the coordinates look reasonable on the map. If a cluster of results looks wrong, the issue is usually a systematic error in the source descriptions — a consistent meridian typo, for example.

Failed Rows

Failed rows are flagged with an error reason. Common error codes:

Failed rows are included in the export with blank coordinate columns and the error code filled in. This lets you sort by error type and fix batches systematically.

Exporting Results

Township America exports batch results in four formats. Choose based on your downstream workflow.

CSV

The output CSV contains all your original columns plus:

• latitude — decimal degrees
• longitude — decimal degrees
• acres — area of the described parcel
• meridian — principal meridian identified
• status — success or failed
• error — error code for failed rows (blank for successes)

Use CSV when you are loading coordinates into a spreadsheet, a custom application, or any tool that reads tabular data.

KML

KML creates a Google Earth-compatible file with a point placemark for each parcel center. Labels use your label or name column if present, otherwise the description itself.

Use KML for quick visual review in Google Earth or sharing with colleagues who don't have GIS software.

GeoJSON

GeoJSON is the standard format for web mapping applications. Each parcel becomes a GeoJSON Feature with the coordinates as a Point geometry and all your original columns as properties.

Use GeoJSON when loading into Mapbox, Leaflet, ArcGIS Online, or any modern web mapping tool.

Shapefile

The Shapefile export produces a zipped archive containing the standard .shp, .shx, .dbf, and .prj files for use in ArcGIS, QGIS, or other desktop GIS software. The projection is WGS84 (EPSG:4326).

Use Shapefile for desktop GIS workflows or when a client or agency requires Shapefile format.

Troubleshooting Common Formatting Errors

High Failure Rate Across All Rows

If most of your rows fail, the issue is almost always the description column mapping. Confirm you selected the right column during the upload step. If you have a header row that reads "description" but the actual data is in a column labeled "legal_desc", the converter is parsing the wrong column.

Failures Concentrated in One State

A cluster of failures from one state usually means meridian name inconsistency for that state's descriptions. Pull the failed rows, check the meridian names, standardize them, and re-upload just those rows.

Section Numbers Failing Validation

Section numbers above 36 are invalid in standard PLSS. If you are seeing SECTION_OUT_OF_RANGE errors, check whether your source data includes township or range values that were accidentally placed in the section column, or whether the descriptions come from a non-standard survey (some early surveys used irregular numbering).

Quarter Sections Not Recognized

If quarter sections are failing, check the character encoding. Fraction symbols like ¼ (Unicode U+00BC) sometimes get corrupted when a file is saved from Excel or converted between encodings. The recommended approach is to use the simplified format without fractions — for example, "NW" instead of "NW¼" or "NW/4". This avoids encoding issues entirely.

Slow Processing

If processing stalls for more than 15 minutes on a file under 1,000 rows, try splitting the file in half and uploading each half separately. This isolates whether a specific row is causing the processor to hang.

API Access for Automated Workflows

If you need to run batch conversions programmatically — for example, as part of a nightly data pipeline or a custom application — Township America's API accepts PLSS descriptions and returns JSON coordinates. The API is available on Business plans.

See the API documentation for endpoint details, authentication, rate limits, and example requests.

Related Guides

• PLSS converter
• Batch conversion guide
• API documentation
• Oil and gas industry tools
• Agriculture industry tools