Learning Center

Field Mode: organise work by field

Field Mode tags every survey, design, job and benchmark to a field, filters your saved work by field, prompts you to set and use the field's benchmark, and draws the field's past runs on the map. How to turn it on, make fields, pick one for each job, and turn it off with nothing lost.

In the app Settings › Fields › Field Mode

Field Mode is an optional way to file your work by field. With it on, every survey, design, grading job, levee job, LiDAR field and benchmark you save is tagged to the field you're working in. The Load lists can show just that field, the map can show everything you've done on it, and the app walks you through the benchmark routine every visit.

Turn it on

Tap Settings

On the Home screen, tap Settings, the fourth button down the right-hand column, with a gear symbol. The Settings page opens.

Home screen with Settings, a gear symbol, fourth in the right-hand column
  1. Settings. Gear symbol.

Scroll down to Fields and tap the Field Mode switch

Settings is one long page. Slide your finger up the page to scroll down (how to scroll) until you see the Fields box, about halfway down. Tap the switch at the right end of the Field Mode row.

Settings scrolled to the Fields box: Field Mode with an orange BETA tag and a switch at the right end of the row, turned off
  1. Fields, Field Mode. With a BETA tag.
  2. The switch. Tap it to turn Field Mode on.

Read the beta notice and tap OK

A window says Field Mode is in Beta: Your surveys, designs, jobs and benchmarks stay safe — turning it off any time returns the app to its standard behavior with nothing lost. Tap OK at its bottom right. It's shown once.

A wide window across the screen: Field Mode is in Beta, an explanation, and an OK button at the bottom right
  1. Field Mode is in Beta.
  2. OK. Bottom right.

Find the field chip

A small button (a chip) appears at the bottom of the right-hand column, under Pre-Flight Checks. It names the active field, or reads Unfiled until you pick one. Tap it any time to change field.

Bottom of the sidebar: the orange Pre-Flight Checks button and below it a chip reading Unfiled 1
  1. Field chip. Unfiled until you pick a field.

Make your fields

Tap the field chip

Tap the chip at the bottom of the right-hand column, under Pre-Flight Checks. A window called Fields opens.

Bottom of the sidebar: the orange Pre-Flight Checks button and below it a chip reading Unfiled 1
  1. Field chip. Under Pre-Flight Checks.

Tap Add Field

Tap Add Field, the wide button under the list. A small window asks for a name.

The list always starts with Unfiled: anything saved while Unfiled is active is saved exactly as the app always has, with no field tag.

Fields window: Unfiled marked CURRENT, an Add Field button, Close 1
  1. Add Field.

Type the field's name, then tap Save

Type the name you call it at the coffee shop: "North 40", "Section 12 West" (typing on the tablet). Then tap Save at the bottom right of the small window. The new field becomes the active one.

Add Field with the name North 40 typed, Cancel and Save 1
  1. Save.

Switch, rename or delete from the list

Tap a field to make it active (CURRENT). Its ⋮ menu has Rename Field and Delete. Deleting a field never deletes files: Saved work tagged to this field becomes Unfiled. The files are not deleted.

Fields list: Unfiled, North 40, and Section 12 West marked CURRENT, each field with a three-dot menu; Add Field; Close 1 2
  1. CURRENT. The active field.
  2. ⋮ menu. Rename Field, Delete.

Pick the field for each job

With Field Mode on, tapping a workflow card on Home first opens the Fields list so you confirm which field the job is in. Tap the field (or Add Field) to carry on; Cancel stays on Home.

Fields picker after tapping a workflow card: Unfiled, North 40 CURRENT, Section 12 West, Add Field, and Cancel 1 2
  1. Tap the field you're in.
  2. Cancel. Back to Home.

While a field is active, new surveys, designs, grading jobs, levee jobs, LiDAR fields and benchmarks are tagged to it. In the Load lists, two choices at the top show just the active field or All fields; every item's menu has Move to field… to re-file it (or move it back to Unfiled).

Load window, Surveys tab, with two choices at the top, Section 12 West (0) and All fields, set to All fields, and saved surveys each tagged Unfiled with Load, Export and menu buttons
  1. Active field / All fields. The count is how many items belong to the active field.
  2. ⋮ menu. Has Move to field….

Field benchmarks: the routine, done for you

Field Mode is the easiest way to follow the benchmark rule: one benchmark per field, calibrate on it every visit (Benchmarks and calibration). When you open a Survey or Grade screen in a field:

Set a benchmark for this field? North 40 has no benchmark yet. Park on a repeatable spot, lower the implement, and set one now. Not Now and Set Benchmark 1
  1. Set Benchmark. No benchmark in this field yet: opens the panel ready to record. Asked once per field per session.
Calibrate to this field's benchmark: BM 4 is 318.3 ft away. Drive to it, lower the implement to the ground, and calibrate before you survey or grade. Later and Go 1
  1. Go. The field has a benchmark you haven't calibrated to this session: opens its drive-to card. Later skips it for the session.
  • Doing a same-day job on one base setup? Later is fine; you don't need to calibrate (Do I need to calibrate today?).
  • The Benchmarks panel shows the active field's benchmarks, with an All fields chip to see the rest. Each benchmark's ⋮ menu adds Move to Field.
  • Loading a survey, design or job: if it was saved aligned to the benchmark you're calibrated to, nothing is asked. If it was aligned to a different benchmark, or saved before the benchmark existed, Calibrate GPS? appears.

The field's past runs on the map

On the survey and grading maps, Field Mode adds a timeline button (a zig-zag line) to the column of map buttons. Green means on, grey off: the active field's history is drawn faintly under your live track, so you can line up a new ditch or tile run against what's already there.

LineMeans
Dashed greyA surveyed run
Dashed blueA designed run
Solid greenA grading job or levee job (a run you've implemented, finished or not)

Only work saved while the field was active (or moved to it) shows. Switching field redraws the lines.

Turn it off

Tap Settings, scroll down to the Fields box and tap the Field Mode switch again to turn it off (the same places as in Turn it on).

The chip, the field picker and the prompts disappear. Every file stays where it is; the field tags are simply ignored until you turn it back on.

If something goes wrong

  • A survey or design is missing from Load: tap All fields at the top of the list. It may be Unfiled or in another field. Missing from the list
  • No Fields box in Settings: check the app version (Check your version), then call support.
  • The app keeps asking to calibrate when you load a job: Calibrate GPS?
  • Something in Field Mode looks wrong: it's beta, so tell support; turning it off loses nothing.

Related

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