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NSW Digital Plans — Known Limitations

This page lists features and scenarios that R3Survey does not currently support or has limited support for in the NSW LandXML export workflow. Use this as a guide for what plan types and scenarios are fully supported today, and what may require workarounds or future development.

Last updated: July 2025

NSW LRS mandate stages

NSW LRS is rolling out mandatory digital plan lodgement in stages. The scope of each stage (from the Digital Plan Builder User Guide, April 2026):

Stage 1 — 1 July 2026

  • New lot parcels and lot boundaries
  • New road parcels
  • Survey connections and control traverse
  • SCIMS control marks and connections
  • Natural boundary surveyed traverses and irregular line visualisation

Stage 2 — approximately 6 months after Stage 1

  • Reference marks (found and placed)
  • Boundary marks (found and placed)
  • Marks gone / not found

R3Survey's export covers both Stage 1 and Stage 2 requirements. Reference marks, boundary marks, and monument data are included in the export when present.

Important: Ground distances only

All plans prepared in R3Survey must be drawn using ground distances. The polyline geometry in the drawing represents the legal boundary dimensions directly. R3Survey does not support boundaries drawn on MGA grid coordinates with a scale factor applied to dimensions.

The Combined Scale Factor (CSF) is used only for control traverse connections between SCIMS marks — it is not applied to boundary dimensions.

If importing a LandXML file that uses MGA grid coordinates (where distanceAdoptionFactor is applied to boundary observations), the geometric dimensions from the polyline vertices will differ from the legal dimensions by the scale factor. R3Survey handles this by writing per-segment dimension overrides during import, but new plans should always be prepared on ground distances.

Fully supported

These features work end-to-end for the Stage 1 and Stage 2 mandate:

  • New lot parcels (single and multipart/part lots)
  • New road, reserved road, and railway parcels (auto-numbered R1/R2)
  • New easement and secondary interest parcels (auto-numbered E1/E2)
  • Hydrography parcels (auto-numbered H1/H2)
  • Administrative area parcels
  • Reference marks — Found, Placed, Found By Me (re-referenced), Gone, Not Found
  • SCIMS control marks and datum terminals (imported or manually entered)
  • Survey connections and control traverse with CSF
  • Observation overrides (legal bearings and distances)
  • Survey Method — Measured/Compiled for boundaries, GNSS methods for control
  • Dim. Suffix (FieldNote) text on observations
  • Parcel state — proposed, existing, adjoining
  • Part lot / Multipart parent auto-generation
  • XSD schema validation
  • Coordinate system, admin areas, surveyor details, purpose, plan heading

Not yet supported

Reference mark scenarios

Scenario Description Priority
Double reference marks Two marks at the same bearing from one corner (e.g. either side of a road). Nixon's XDRM command handles this in one step. Medium
One mark referencing multiple corners A single physical mark used to reference two or more corners at different times during the survey. Requires one Monument element but separate ReducedObservations per corner. Medium
Line peg A mark on a boundary line (not at a corner). The CgPoint must have pntSurv="traverse" and not be part of the parcel CoordGeom. Low
Obstructed boundary corner Corner within a structure that cannot be marked. Requires Monument@state="Not Marked Obstructed" and Monument@type="Not Marked". Low
RM symbol block insertion Automatic placement of survey mark symbol blocks (DH&W, GIP, peg, etc.) at mark locations. Currently manual. Medium

Natural / irregular boundaries

Scenario Description Priority
IrregularLine export Creek, river, and other natural boundaries require IrregularLine elements with PntList2D coordinates for visualisation, plus separate traverse observations for lot closure. R3Survey currently exports all segments as Line elements only. High — blocks plans with water frontage
Natural boundary point type Intermediate points on an irregular boundary traverse need CgPoint@pntSurv="natural boundary". Not currently supported. High
Compiled irregular boundaries Compiled plans with irregular boundaries use IrregularLine only (no traverse). Not currently distinguished. Medium

Strata plans

Scenario Description Priority
Structural line types (SR/SL/SC) Strata lot boundaries require Line@desc values of SR (structure right), SL (structure left), or SC (structure centre) to indicate wall position. High for strata
Building level numbers Strata parcels need Parcel@buildingLevelNo and Parcel@buildingNo attributes. High for strata
Strata datum points Level-specific datum points with stacking on the location plan. Medium
Non-structural boundaries (NS) Boundaries not defined by structure need Line@desc="NS". Medium

Note

Strata plan support is a significant body of work. The current release targets deposited plans (DP) only.

Height observations

Scenario Description Priority
Height difference schedule Height differences between control marks (Cl 69 SSI Reg 2017). Requires ReducedObservation@vertDistance and @MSLDistance attributes, or separate RedVerticalObservation elements. Medium
Height datum validation Height schedule required under Cl 71 SSI Reg 2017. Requires RedVerticalObservation elements with verticalFix and date attributes. Medium
Benchmarks Vertical position observations for strata plans. Low

GNSS on cadastral surveys (SG Direction 9)

Surveyor-General's Direction No. 9 (GNSS for Cadastral Surveys) requires specific information to be shown on deposited plans when GNSS methods are used. R3Survey partially supports these requirements:

Currently supported:

  • GNSS observation method on any line — set the Method in the Survey Method expander to the appropriate GNSS type (AUSPOS, Static GNSS, RTK GNSS, CORS NRTK GNSS, CORS RTK GNSS, CORS Static GNSS). Available for both boundary lines and control lines.
  • Control line labels show the method (e.g. (CORS NRTK GNSS)) instead of (BY SURVEY) when a GNSS method is set
  • GNSS method export — distanceType and azimuthType are set to the GNSS method in the LandXML file
  • MGA Ground / method dual labels on control lines between SCIMS marks

Not yet supported:

Scenario Description SG Direction 9 reference Priority
Survey Validation table Comparison of GNSS observation vs independent check (EDM or AUSPOS) between the same marks. Shows Grid Bearing, Grid Distance, Ground Distance, and Method for each measurement. Requires multiple ReducedObservation elements between the same InstrumentSetup pairs. Section 4, Table 2 Medium
Multiple observations between same marks The export currently deduplicates observations between the same point pair. GNSS validation requires keeping both (one GNSS, one EDM). Section 4 Medium
SCIMS Coordinate box Table showing MGA coordinates, H Class, H Order, CSF, Method, and Status for each permanent survey mark found and/or placed. Section 6, Table 3 Medium
Plan note for GNSS method A plan note stating which GNSS methods were used on the survey, e.g. "all distances greater than xxxx metres shown on this plan have been derived by CORS RTK GNSS methods". Section 6 Low

Easement scenarios

Scenario Description Priority
Transmission line easement Easement defined by a centre line traverse with offset extremity boundaries. Requires both a Parcel (unclosed) and PlanFeature elements for the extremity. Low
Easement over track in use Approximate position easements use IrregularLine elements. Depends on IrregularLine support. Low
Easement legend Automatic generation of an easement legend table grouping easements by description. Low

Occupations and plan features

Scenario Description Priority
Occupation offsets Perpendicular offsets from boundary to fence/wall/kerb. Requires PlanFeature elements with appropriate @name and @desc attributes, plus Monument@type="Occupation". Medium
Wall on boundary / boundary in wall Dual-tagging of boundary line with wall feature and appropriate Line@desc marking. Low
Flow direction arrows Tidal and non-tidal flow direction annotations on water courses. Requires Annotation@type="Direction Of Flow Tidal" or "Direction Of Flow Non Tidal". Low
Diagram / enlargement annotations Defining enlargement areas using Annotation@type="Diagram" with CgPoint references. Low

Administrative data

Scenario Description Priority
Parcel notes Per-parcel annotations (Annotation@type="Parcel Note"). Plan-level notes are supported but parcel-specific notes are not. Low
Road extent observations Boundaries between road parcels should use ReducedObservation@desc="Road Extent" rather than "Road". Not currently distinguished. Medium
Amendment elements Recording corrections to a lodged plan. Not required for initial lodgement. Low

Workarounds

Plans with natural boundaries (creeks/rivers)

Until IrregularLine export is implemented, you can:

  1. Draw the natural boundary as a polyline on the Boundaries layer
  2. Add traverse points along the boundary for lot closure
  3. Export — the boundary will appear as straight-line segments between traverse points
  4. Manually edit the exported XML to add IrregularLine elements if required by LRS validation

Double reference marks

Create two separate RM lines from the same corner, each to a different mark. Set the Type, State, and Origin on each independently. The export handles them as separate observations.

Strata plans

Strata plans cannot currently be exported via R3Survey. Use the LRS Digital Plan Builder or Nixon's LXML4AC plugin for strata plan preparation.

See also