Civil engineers · Architects · Survey departments
Base maps your design team can check and trust.
Scale and Key Surveying prepares topographic and boundary base maps, project control and existing-conditions surveys and takes overflow field and office work for firms with their own survey staff. Each Civil 3D file states its datum, basis of bearings, control, utility sources and boundary status.
Seth Kursel, PLS (Idaho license 1181318), takes the call and does the work. On Scale and Key surveys he is the licensee in responsible charge; on overflow assignments your licensee is. The firm holds Idaho Certificate of Authorization 3281730 and works from Boise across the Treasure Valley and Wood River Valley. Look up license 1181318 on the Idaho public license search.
WHAT YOU GETDeliverables
- Civil 3D 2026 drawing with survey points, breaklines, a surface and contours at the agreed interval
- Drawing notes: horizontal and vertical datum, zone, units, grid or ground coordinates with the combined scale factor, and basis of bearings
- Control list with coordinates, elevations and how each point was set and checked
- Utilities labeled by source: surface features located in the field, locator marks found on site, or record drawings
- Boundary labeled as resolved from monuments and records, or as record lines not surveyed
- Layer list and point code key, on your template if you send one
- PDF plot; point file and LandXML surface on request
WHAT TO SENDTo scope it
- Site address or parcel number, and a marked-up limit of survey
- What the map is for: grading, utilities, site plan, addition, plat
- Project datum and any existing control or benchmark your design must match
- Your CAD template, layer standard and Civil 3D release, so the handoff format can be set
- Title commitment, prior surveys and plats, if boundary is in scope
- Access contacts, site restrictions and your design start date
How it works
From limit of survey to base file.
1. Define the scope.
We review the site, records and design needs, then send a proposal stating limits, datum, deliverables and fee basis.
2. Control and field work.
After you authorize the proposal and access is arranged, control is set and checked, then the site is surveyed from it.
3. Draft, check, hand off.
The drawing is checked against control and records and delivered.
Fee and schedule
What drives the fee and schedule.
- Site size, terrain, vegetation, traffic and improvements
- Contour interval and level of detail
- Whether a boundary must be resolved, and the state of monuments and records
- Utility scope: surface evidence only, or records research too
- Ties to existing project control or a published benchmark
- Access, travel distance and snow cover
- File standards and review rounds
Fees and dates are set in the proposal once these are known. An inquiry does not book field work.
Questions
What engineers ask first.
What datum and basis of bearings will the map be on?
Unless you specify otherwise, work is on the Idaho State Plane Coordinate System, NAD 83, West Zone in Ada and Canyon counties and Central Zone in Blaine County, with the datum realization, vertical datum, geoid model and units named. The basis of bearings is grid north of that zone or the line between two named monuments. Ground coordinates carry the combined scale factor and the point it was applied about. Ties to your existing control are reported.
Where does the utility information come from?
Each utility is labeled by its source. Lines shown from marks or records are not verified at depth unless potholing by others is in scope.
Is the boundary resolved or shown from record?
The map says which. With a boundary survey in scope, the drawing shows the monuments found and the records relied on. With topography only, property lines are drawn from record and labeled as not surveyed.
Can you work under our survey department's standards?
Yes. Send your template, point codes and layer names and name the tasks: field data collection, control, drafting or research. Your licensee remains in responsible charge of anything issued under their seal, and handoff and review duties are written into the scope.
What file formats do you deliver?
A Civil 3D 2026 drawing with a PDF plot. Civil 3D objects do not open as live objects in earlier releases, so if your team is on an older version, the surface is delivered as LandXML with an AutoCAD drawing of the linework and contours.
What is Seth's background in this work?
Before he was licensed, Seth worked on the survey staff of a prior employer in the Treasure Valley, drafting topographic surveys, ALTA/NSPS land title surveys and subdivision plats under another licensee's responsible charge. Those were that firm's projects, not Scale and Key's.