Getting Started

What GoSurvey is

GoSurvey is a Windows CAD program built around survey work. Alongside ordinary drafting (lines, arcs, text, dimensions, hatching, layers, sheets) it carries three things a general CAD program does not:

a survey point database — numbered points with northing, easting, elevation, description, layer, and label style, kept separate from the linework;
raw-observation reduction — the Traverse Editor takes field angles and distances and computes coordinates and least-squares closure;
coordinate transformation — ALIGN fits a 2D Helmert transformation from control pairs, so a local-coordinate drawing can be moved onto state-plane.

Drawings are saved as .gs. Exchange with other CAD is through DXF (built in) and DWG (through an external converter). Survey points move through CSV in PNEZD/PENZD order.

Install (Windows)

Open the Releases page.
Download the .exe installer from the latest release.
Run it. GoSurvey installs to %ProgramFiles%\GoSurvey and adds a Start Menu entry. A desktop shortcut is offered.
SmartScreen — the installer is not code-signed yet, so Windows may show "Windows protected your PC". Choose More info → Run anyway if you trust the release.

If the program will not start with a missing-DLL error, install the Visual C++ Redistributable for x64.

Updates

GoSurvey checks for a newer version each time it opens. A short "Checking for updates" dialog appears while it does; with no internet connection the check is skipped, and if it is slow you can press Continue without checking.

Nothing downloads or installs on its own. When an update exists you choose Update Now, Remind Me Later, or Skip This Version. Choosing to update downloads the installer, verifies it against a SHA-256 published with the release, prompts you to save open drawings, then installs and reopens GoSurvey.

Both update settings live in View → Settings… → System:

Setting	Default	Meaning
Check for updates on startup	On	Turn off and GoSurvey makes no network requests at all
Include beta releases	Off	Turn on to receive pre-release builds

See Files and Drawings for how drawing compatibility is handled across updates.

Starting the application

A splash screen appears while the program loads, then the main window opens with one empty drawing tab named Drawing 1.

Take a moment with User Interface — the manual assumes you know where the ribbon, command line, Properties panel, and status bar are.

Creating a new drawing

File → New

A new tab appears named Drawing 2, Drawing 3, and so on. Each tab is a completely independent document: its own geometry, layers, survey points, paper layouts, plot scale, and undo history. Switching tabs switches all of it.

There is no "new from template" dialog. New drawings start from the bundled template (resources/default-template.gs) if one is present — see Settings → Files.

Opening an existing drawing

File → Open → choose a .gs file.

The drawing opens in a new tab, named after the file. Opening does not replace what you are working on.

GoSurvey opens drawings saved by any older version, converting them as it loads. The file on disk is not modified until you save.

To bring in a drawing that is not a .gs file, use File → Import DXF… or File → Import DWG… instead — see Import and Export.

Saving

Action	How	What happens
Save	`Ctrl+S` or File → Save	Writes to the current file path. If the drawing has never been saved, the Save-As dialog opens first.
Save As	File → Save As…	Choose a new name and location. The drawing tab is renamed to the file stem, and later saves go to the new path.

There is no autosave and no automatic backup file. Save deliberately.

Closing

File → Quit Application, or the window's close button.

If any open tab has unsaved changes, a confirmation dialog appears before the program exits. If everything is saved, it closes immediately.

Your first drawing

Type LINE (or L) and press Enter. The log reads LINE — specify first point (click or type X,Y / X Y). ESC to cancel.
Type 0,0 and press Enter.
Type 100,0 and press Enter — a segment appears.
Type @0,50 and press Enter — @ means relative to the last point, so this goes 50 units north.
Press Esc to end the command.
Type ZE and press Enter to fit the drawing in view.

You now have a two-segment line. Select it by clicking a segment; grips appear at the endpoints and the Properties panel on the left fills in with its layer, colour, and coordinates.

Next: Drawing Tools · Coordinate Input

Your first survey workflow

Goal: get field points into a drawing, look at them, and measure between them.

Import the points. Type IMPORTPOINTS (or IMPPTS). In the dialog:
- Browse… to your CSV.
- Set Column order to match the file — P,N,E,Z,D is the common PNEZD order.
- Tick First row is header (skip) if the file has one.
- Check the File preview and Validation summary, then press Import.
Frame them. Type ZE.
Look at the table. Type VIEWPOINTS (or VWPTS) to see and edit every point's ID, easting, northing, elevation, layer, and description.
Measure. Type INVERSE (or INV), then snap to two points. The log reports ΔE, ΔN, horizontal distance, and bearing.
Draw the boundary. Type LINE, and with OSNAP on (press F3), snap point-to-point around the parcel.
Save. Ctrl+S.

Next: Survey Points · Object Snaps · Workflows

Your first complete project

The full path — set up units, bring in points, reduce a traverse, draw and annotate, build a sheet, plot a PDF — is laid out step by step in Workflows.