Make a Selection in Acres
Understanding how selections work and how to make selections within your map
Selecting land and adding it to your map is a core feature of Acres, and a very common starting point for many work flows. In this article we’ll explain 1) What Selections Are, 2) Why Selections Are Important, and 3) How To Make A Selection.
What Selections Are
Selections are everything that will get saved to your map. These will populate on the right-hand side of the screen.
Selections can include Boundaries, Drawings, Listings, Sales, Mortgages, and Deeds.
Boundaries
- Parcel Boundaries — This is most often what we will be referring to when we are referring to boundaries. These include legal parcel information such as parcel number, recorded acres, owner name, and other data that is pulled directly from the county assessor’s office.
- FSA Boundaries — These are mapped boundaries of farm fields defined by the Farm Service Agency.
- Custom Boundaries — These are boundaries which you create, and thus are not attached to any legal information like our included parcel boundaries. These can be created with tools in the toolbar. Shape tools, such as the Polygon or Pivot tool, allow you to draw your own. You can also use the Merge tool to merge together 2 or more existing boundaries, or the Convert tool to change another type of boundary to a Custom Boundary. Custom Boundaries can be edited, unlike other types.
- Uploaded Boundaries — Acres supports uploading .kml files, and this can be done through the Upload option in the toolbar.
Drawings
Similar to Custom Boundaries, drawings can be created and further edited. These are either created using the shape tools, such as the Polygon or Pivot tool or by cloning a boundary into a drawing. Drawings can also include points of interest, lines, text blocks, and more. They can be formatted in a variety of ways, and you can even attach media like photos to drawings. Shape drawings do calculate acreage, but it is not combined like it is with boundaries, and you can’t pull insights from drawings.
Listings, Sales, Mortgages, Deed Groups
As mentioned, you can also select listings, sold land, and mortgages to be saved to your maps. DeedAI creates another special set of boundaries that are added as their own group as well. These features require a subscription. Visit our pricing page for more information.
Why Selections Are Important
You need to have selections made in order to
- Save a map to your portfolio
- Share a map with others
- Generate a Property Analysis Report (at least one boundary required; sold land can also be included)
- Generate a Market Analysis Report (at least one sold land property required)
- Export parcel data
- View Insights (for Boundaries exclusively)
How To Make A Selection
To select a boundary, navigate to your desired area by zooming/panning around the map or using the search bar. Then simply click on your desired parcel.
Note: Acres has two different cursors for different needs and work flows.
The Info Cursor (black arrow with info icon) will pull up relevant information on the left-hand side. After clicking on a legal parcel, you’ll see Parcel Details. After clicking on sold land, you’ll see data related to that sale.
The Quick Select Cursor (white arrow with plus icon) allows you to quickly add land to your selections panel, bypassing the information screen.
When you click on the boundary using the Info Cursor, you’ll need to click the large green Select button at the top of the left-side panel to add it to your selections panel. The Quick Select Cursor will add it automatically.
Save your map to easily return to your work anytime, including in the field with the Acres Mobile app. Click here to learn more about saving maps.