Editing field boundaries

After you've gotten your field boundaries into FarmQA, you maintain the functionality to edit your field boundaries, whether that be moving them, making them larger or smaller, or splitting them. Before you go about editing your fields, it's important to understand how we handle your field boundaries and how this could impact your data. In this article, you'll learn how to edit the field boundaries in your account, as well as learning more about how FarmQA handles your fields and their associated.

Field parcels vs. boundaries: how FarmQA handles your data

Splitting field boundaries

Manually editing your field boundaries from the FarmQA web app

Uploading a new shapefile to update your field's shape

Deleting fields

Field parcels vs. boundaries: how FarmQA handles your fields and data

When you import the shapefiles containing your fields into FarmQA, we use those files to create your field parcels. Parcels are the fields that you originally imported into your FarmQA account that we use to create your fields in each of your growing seasons. Data, including recommendations, scouting reports, and soils data, are tied to your parcels. This is how we create a continuous dataset for your fields, so keeping your parcels in one piece is very important. 

You're only able to access your parcels when you view them as fields without any crops assigned to them. Once you assign a crop to one of your fields, you create a field boundary. Field boundaries are essentially copies of your parcels that are displayed in your growing seasons. Editing a field boundary will not affect your parcel, so you have the freedom of splitting fields or editing field shapes without tampering with your parcels. 

Manually editing your field boundaries from the FarmQA web app

• Login to FarmQA account from the web app.
• Make sure you're in the Map tab, then locate and click on the field that needs to be edited.
• Next click Edit Field button (pictured below).

• Within the edit view, the following functions can be implemented:
  • Drag fields
  • Delete points
  • Drag vertices

Dragging fields to a new location

If a field was drawn or uploaded in the wrong spot, it can manually be moved to its proper location using this function. Follow these steps to move your field while actively editing it.

• Double click on the boundary of the field.
• Click anywhere within the field boundary and drag it to your desired location.
• Select the Save button once your field is in the desired location.

Deleting points in a field

Sometimes you might accidentally add an extra point when drawing fields. Field geometry can be edited by deleting points on the field boundary, which can be done by following the steps below.

• While editing a field, double click on the field boundary to edit the boundary itself.
• Click on the point on the field you want to delete. Once selected, the point will have a white outline (pictured below).
• Click the Delete button on the upper right-hand side of the screen.
• Select the Save button to complete your edits to the field. 

Dragging a field's vertices to update the shape

Fields that are drawn incorrectly can be edited by dragging the existing fields vertices to the proper location. This function can be used to create more complex field boundaries.

• While editing a field, double click on the field boundary to edit the boundary itself.
• After double clicking on the field boundary, midpoints on the vertices of the field will appear (pictured below). These are the points you can currently edit within the field.

• Midpoints can be dragged to the position you want the midpoint to be at. If you do this, a new midpoint will appear on the new vertex you have created. This allows you to create fields that match complex field boundaries. 

• Once you are done editing your field boundaries, click the Save button to complete your changes.

Uploading a new shapefile to update your field's shape

You can completely remake a field boundary by dragging a shapefile into the edit field pane. Follow the instructions below to complete this task.

• While editing a field, either drag a shapefile into the edit pane or click on the box to upload a shapefile.
• The boundary will be updated once the file has been uploaded. Visually inspect that the field looks correct, then click the Save button.
• TROUBLESHOOTING: Below are a few reasons why the field may not update
  • The file must be a Shapefile, KML/KMZ, or GeoTiff file. 
  • The file can only contain one field (it can be a multi-polygon field).
  • The field boundary cannot intersect itself. 
  • The file can only contain polygons (no line segments, or points).
  • The shapefile cannot have any zones it in. 

Splitting field boundaries

If you need to split your fields within a growing season, whether that's to assign multiple crops to a field or if it's being shared by multiple growers, you can use FarmQA's Split tool. The Split tool will split the field programmatically to create two halves with as close to 50% field size as possible. After a field has been split, you can adjust the field boundary to the size and shape you want.

A Split operation can only be performed on fields that have a crop assigned, and a Split CANNOT be undone, so keep that in mind when you're thinking about performing this operation on your fields. 

The Split tool is still in BETA, however if you're interested in using this feature you can access it by signing into your FarmQA account through this link: https://controller.farmqa.com/?split-field=true#/secure

Instructions

• Log in to FarmQA account using this link. If you do not use the link provided you WILL NOT see the Split tool.
• While in the Map view, locate the field you wish to split and click on it.
• Select the More... option in the slide out map pane, then click the Split option.

• In the Split the field window that appears on the screen, click the Split button to confirm that you want to split the field.
• The field will automatically be split to generate two equal sized halves.
• After you split the field, you can use the edit function to drag points around to the correct field shape. Follow these instructions to learn about how to edit your fields in FarmQA.
  
  • NOTE: If you do not like the split location, you can un-assign the crop from the field and reassign it to the white master boundary to get the initial shape back. If doing this, remember to delete the half of the field you do no plan to keep. This will be the half WITHOUT data in it from the previous year.
• You can easily confirm which boundary to delete as it's name will be Field Name-New (pictured below).

Deleting fields

• Log in to your FarmQA account from the web app if you aren't already.
• Within the Map tab, locate and click on the field that you want to delete.
• Click More ...  in the field information pane, then select the Delete Field option in the box that appears (see below).

• You will be prompted to confirm that the field should be deleted. Click the Delete button to confirm that you wish to delete this field.

Please contact FarmQA Support with any further questions