Capture geometry

There are multiple ways to capture points, lines, and areas in Survey123. For example, you can capture points using your location or tapping the map, and you can draw lines and areas by sketching or adding one vertex at a time. You can also search for a location by name or coordinates.

Capture points

You can capture points using your current location or panning the map to choose a specific location.

Tap the Location button on the location panel in the survey form or open the full screen map for more options.
If you open the map, you can pan to center the map at the location you choose, and tap the Place pin button.

Note:

You can also search for a location or map coordinate. See Geosearch and geocode for more information.

The coordinates of the location for the captured point are shown in the map window.
Tap Done to close the map and return to the survey form.

The altitude of the point is captured only if the question has been configured to use a 3D feature layer, and when it is available from the location provider. When you specify a location by repositioning the map pin in the map window, the altitude value is cleared.

Capture lines and areas

Lines and areas have two capture methods, sketch and vertex. The survey author defines which method is used by a survey.

Sketch

The sketch method captures the geometry in a single motion, with the capture completing once the user has stopped drawing this single line.

To capture geometry using the sketch method, complete the following steps:

Open the map, tap the Tools menu, and choose one of the following tools: Freehand, Rectangle , Ellipse, Triangle or Arrow.
Draw the geometry on the map.

The length of a geotrace or the area and perimeter of a geoshape is displayed below the map.
If you make a mistake, tap the Undo button or one of the drawing buttons to erase it and draw another geometry.
Select the finished geometry to resize, reshape, move, or delete it if necessary.
Tap the Done button to accept the geometry and return to the survey.

Vertex

The vertex method allows more precise geometric capture of a line or shape by placing vertices that connect together.

To capture geometry using the vertex method, complete the following steps:

Open the map, tap the Tools menu, and choose Tap to add .
Tap the map to place the first vertex, or tap the Capture vertex at location button to place a vertex at the location of your device.

If vertex streaming is enabled by the survey author, the Follow button displays. Tap this button to begin capture. Line or area vertices are captured at a nominated minimum distance interval as you move around. The default minimum distance interval is 10 meters, but this can be changed by the survey author. For more information, see Capture methods.
Tap the map again to place more vertices, or use the available tools.

If you place a vertex at the wrong position, tap the Undo button to remove the last vertex placed, or drag the point to move it to a new location.
To change map interactions to navigation mode and move the map instead of placing vertices, tap the Tools menu, choose Crosshair , and capture a vertex at the map's central point with the Add vertex button.
When you finish, tap the Done button to accept the geometry and return to the survey.

Geosearch and geocode

Geopoint questions include geosearch functionality, allowing you to search for an address or point of interest and have the map pan to and place the geopoint marker at this location. To search, tap the location panel in the survey to open the full screen map. Tap the search button and type the address or location in the text box that appears. Select the correct result from the autocomplete results. The map pans to the location. Tap the Place pin button to use the selection for your geopoint location.

While panning the map, or when you tap the capture at location button, the coordinates of the current location are shown at the bottom of the map window.

You can also search by coordinates in the following ways:

Type the coordinates in one of the supported coordinate formats (Degrees Minutes, Decimal Degrees, MGRS, USNG, UTM/UPS). For example, type the following coordinates in UTM/UPS format to move the map pin to the Eiffel Tower in Paris: 31U 448241E 5412004N.
Type comma-separated decimal coordinates. For example, type the following coordinates to move the pin to the Eiffel Tower in Paris: 48.858328, 2.294514.

By default, geosearch returns results from the entire world, using ArcGIS World Geocoding Service. To narrow the search extent, pan or zoom the map after searching a location and tap the Search this area button that appears, which triggers a new search for the current map area. The survey author can optionally configure a custom locator. To choose a different locator, tap the More tools button in the corner of the map and tap Locators. If you're not signed in, you only have access to ArcGIS World Geocoding Service.