Geonex
Why land surveyors are moving field data collection to a single phone app
Traditional field surveying workflows are stitched together from several disconnected tools: a data collector or total station for raw coordinates, a separate spreadsheet or notebook for attribute notes, a desktop GIS package for coordinate transformation, and email or a USB drive to get everything back to the office. Every handoff between those tools is a place where a decimal point gets dropped, a datum gets mixed up, or a field note never makes it into the final deliverable. Geonex was built to collapse that chain into one app that a surveyor, rodman, or GIS technician can run entirely from a phone, in any weather, with or without a signal.
At its core, Geonex treats a land survey the way a surveyor already thinks about it: as a set of points, lines, and polygons, each tied to a coordinate system, each carrying whatever attributes the job requires. You are not filling out a generic "map pin" — you are defining a layer's schema once (parcel ID, land use code, ownership, whatever your project needs) and then every point your crew drops in the field inherits that structure automatically.
Collecting points, lines and polygons without leaving the field
Geonex's collection screen shows a live map with your current GPS position, with Street and Satellite basemaps so you can switch to whichever gives you the clearest read on the ground. Once your GPS has settled on the location you want to record, a single tap adds that point to your working list with its coordinates, elevation, and any custom fields filled in on the spot. Need a point somewhere else on the map rather than your current position — a corner you can see but can't safely stand on, for instance? Long-press that spot on the map and add it the same way.
Lines and polygons follow the same logic: walk or drive the boundary, adding vertices as you go, and Geonex builds the geometry in real time so you can see the shape taking form on screen instead of discovering an error back at the office. Mistakes are cheap to fix — tick the box next to any point you don't want and remove it before you move on.
Coordinate conversion that follows the system you already chose
Set your default coordinate system once, under Settings, and it propagates through every tool in the app — collection, address search, measurement, and the dedicated Transform tool. When a client, a permitting office, or a GIS department needs data in a different system or datum, you don't need a second app: enter the input and destination systems, type in the values, and Geonex returns the converted coordinates immediately. For larger deliverables, the batch converter reads an XLSX file directly — up to 1,000 rows at once on Geonex Pro — and writes the converted values back out as a ready-to-send Excel workbook.
Area, distance and elevation, calculated on site
Area and distance are often the first numbers a client asks for, and Geonex calculates both without a separate tool. Drop points around a parcel boundary and the polygon's area and perimeter are shown as soon as you close the shape. Need a distance instead — a right-of-way, a fence line, a haul route? Select points along the path and Geonex reports the length of each segment plus the running total. Pro subscribers also see the elevation of every point they select, which matters for anything involving grading, drainage, or slope.
Sharing layers with the rest of the crew — and the office
Survey work is rarely a one-person job, and Geonex Pro's cloud layers are built around that reality. Create a layer for a job, invite teammates by the email they registered with, and grant each person read-only or edit access depending on their role on the crew. Everyone sees the same data update in real time: a rodman adding boundary points in the morning, a technician reviewing and correcting attributes at lunch, a project lead exporting a deliverable that afternoon — all from the same live layer, with no file to merge and no version to reconcile.
Every point, line, and polygon can also carry a photo, stored in the cloud alongside the geometry — useful for documenting a monument, a damaged corner marker, or site conditions a client will ask about later. Only people you grant access to can see that layer's data and photos.
Getting data out: KML and Excel exports
A survey isn't finished until the deliverable is in the client's or the GIS department's hands. Any layer open on the map can be exported as a single KML file — ready to open in Google Earth or import into most desktop GIS software — or as an Excel workbook with each layer on its own sheet, attributes and all. Both export types can be shared directly from the app by email, so a field crew can send a finished deliverable without ever returning to the office.
Onboarding a new crew member in minutes, not days
Survey crews turn over, and every new rodman or technician has traditionally meant a day or two of shadowing before they could be trusted with a data collector and a project's coordinate system settings. Because Geonex sets the coordinate system once at the project level and presents collection as a simple "find the spot, tap Add" workflow, a new crew member can be collecting usable, correctly-referenced data within their first hour on site. Custom attribute fields are already defined on the layer, so there's no separate cheat sheet to memorize for what needs to be recorded at each point — the form on screen already asks for it.
Frequently asked questions from surveyors
Can I define my own attribute fields for a layer?
Yes. When you create a new layer, you choose the feature type (point, line, or polygon) and then define its fields on the next screen, picking the data type that fits each one — text, number, date, or boolean.
Which coordinate systems does Geonex support?
Geonex currently supports World – WGS84, World – WGS84 UTM 6, Indonesia – 1974 UTM 6, and Indonesia – DGN 1995 TM3. You set your default system once in Settings and every tool follows it automatically.
What happens if I lose signal in the field?
Local, on-device collection works fully offline. For cloud layers, keep collecting as usual — your data syncs to the cloud and to teammates automatically the next time you're back online.