Survey Traverse Closure Calculator
Check the closure error of a land-survey traverse from its leg bearings and distances — sums the latitude/departure components to give the linear misclosure, the industry-standard precision ratio (1:N), and the direction of the closure error.
Input
Enter at least 2 legs, one per line, as a whole-circle bearing (0-360° from north, clockwise) and a distance, e.g. "45.5, 120.3". Order them around the traverse.
Output
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| No data yet | |
Guides
The Survey Traverse Closure Calculator checks how well a closed land-survey traverse actually closes back on itself. Enter each leg of the traverse as a bearing and distance, and get the linear misclosure, the industry-standard precision ratio, and the direction of the closure error.
How to use it
- Enter one leg per line, as a whole-circle bearing (0–360°, measured clockwise from north) and a distance, separated by a comma:
45.5, 120.3. - Order the legs the way you walked the traverse, station to station, back to the start.
- Read the results: the sum of latitude (north-south) and departure (east-west) components, the linear misclosure, the precision ratio, and the closure bearing.
What the numbers mean
Each leg is resolved into a latitude (north-south) and departure (east-west) component using distance × cos(bearing) and distance × sin(bearing). For a perfectly closed traverse, both sums come out to zero — you end exactly where you started. In practice, measurement error means they don't, and that residual is the linear misclosure: the straight-line distance between where the traverse should have closed and where it actually did.
The precision ratio expresses that misclosure relative to the traverse's total perimeter, as "1 : N" — a misclosure of 0.5 units over a 900.5-unit perimeter is roughly 1:1801. Land-title surveys (ALTA/NSPS) commonly require 1:10,000 or better; a lower ratio flags a traverse that needs re-measuring before it's trustworthy. The closure bearing is the direction of that residual error, which can help point to which leg is the likely culprit — an error bearing pointing back along one particular leg often means that leg's distance or bearing was misread.
Is my data private?
Yes. The entire calculation runs locally in your browser — your survey data is never uploaded to a server.
Common uses
Checking field survey notes before adjustment (e.g. by the Bowditch/compass rule), verifying a boundary or cadastral traverse meets a required precision ratio, and spotting a likely blunder leg before re-shooting it in the field.
Use it from code
REST API
curl -X POST https://api.iotools.cloud/v1/tool/survey-traverse-closure-calculator \
-H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"legs": "0,100\n90,100\n180,100\n270,100"
}'Swap in your own key from your account. The tool's fields are the body — no wrapper.
Ask an AI agent
Use the IOTools `survey-traverse-closure-calculator` tool (Survey Traverse Closure Calculator) on this input:
YOUR_INPUT_HEREPaste this at any agent connected to the IOTools MCP server, then add your input.
| Cost per call | From 5 credits |
|---|