Vineyards and blocks
How vineyards, blocks, and block versions fit together in Archer.
Vineyards and blocks are the foundation of everything else in Archer. Almost every other feature — field features, trouble spots, work orders — is recorded against a vineyard (and usually falls within a block), so getting this mapping right is the first job for any new site.
Vineyards
A vineyard represents a single physical site. You'll usually create one vineyard per property or contiguous piece of land you manage.
At minimum a vineyard has a name and an owning organisation (called the management group in the mobile app). It then acts as a container for the blocks and features that belong to that site.
Vineyard planting defaults
A vineyard can also carry optional planting defaults — an in-row plant spacing (m) and a plants per bay value. These are set per vineyard and act as the fallback for every block on the site.
Blocks inherit these defaults unless they set their own override. When you look at a block's planting figures, Archer shows a small source chip next to each value so you can see where it came from:
- Vineyard — the value is inherited from the vineyard default (the portal block sheet shows this as "from vineyard").
- Block — the block has its own override set.
- Not set — neither the vineyard nor the block has a value, so plant counts can't be computed.
Plant spacing and plants per bay are what Archer uses to estimate plants, posts, and positions per block, so it's worth setting at least a vineyard default early on.
Blocks
A block is a subdivision of a vineyard — typically a single variety with consistent row layout and trellising. Blocks are mapped in the field by surveying GPS/RTK points on posts along the rows — Archer fills in the rows in between and derives the block outline from them (see Mapping a block).
Each block stores:
- Name — how it appears in the app and portal.
- Variety — the grape variety planted in the block.
- Boundary — the block's outline, derived from the mapped rows.
- Row layout — the rows you surveyed plus the rows Archer interpolates between them.
- Status — draft, release, or deprecated (see below).
Block versioning
Blocks in Archer are versioned. This matters because field work — especially spraying — depends on exact row positions and boundaries. You don't want someone editing a block mid-season and silently changing the map that the team is working against.
Every block has one of three statuses:
- Draft — you're still mapping or reviewing. Not used for operational work.
- Release — the "live" version. This is what field devices will use. (The app labels this status Release; you'll also hear it called the "released" version.)
- Deprecated — an older version that's been superseded.
When you want to change the live block, Archer creates a new draft version. You can work on the draft until you're happy with it, then release it. The previously released version is automatically deprecated. The portal always shows the released version — drafts exist only on the mobile app until they are released.
See Block versioning for the full workflow.
Where mapping happens
Block boundaries are almost always mapped on the mobile app, in the field, using GPS/RTK. The portal is used to review blocks and to edit the parts of a vineyard that don't need to be drawn in the field.
- Creating a vineyard — portal or mobile
- Mapping a block — mobile
- Mapping row breaks — mobile: power poles, frost fans, roads, and auto-fill
- Mapping tricky blocks — mobile: tapers and irregular shapes
- Fixing mapping mistakes — mobile: recovery when the block looks wrong
- Editing block details — portal and mobile
- Block versioning — mobile
The portal is read-only for block geometry and versioning today. From the portal you can create and edit vineyards (name, sub-region, declared hectares, planting defaults), set a block's planting overrides (plant spacing and plants per bay), and edit a block's block-sheet rows (per-row actual plant and post counts — row lengths are derived from the mapped geometry and are read-only). Admins and Managers can also correct a block's variety from the portal: an edit pencil next to Variety on the Maps block card opens a variety picker — an office fix for blocks mapped with the wrong variety. You cannot draw, re-draw, or version a block in the portal — that happens on the mobile app. The portal does show each block's version number for reference.