Fixing mapping mistakes

What to do when a block looks wrong — wrong row numbers, stray posts, unwanted breaks, and a fill that's gone astray — and the recovery tools in the Archer app.

Platform: Mobile (the Archer app)

Sooner or later you'll type a row number wrong, drop a post at the wrong place, or look at the map and think "that is not my block." This page is organised by symptom — find what you're seeing, fix it with the tools below. Nothing here is destructive to the wider system: a block being mapped is a draft, the wizard auto-saves as you go, and every post can be edited or deleted until you publish the block.

Your recovery toolkit

Edit Point dialog — tap any post on the map. It leads with the First row / Last row control (the only two rows you ever number), then the Row break point toggle, and a Delete button. If the post isn't attached to a row yet, a banner says what Archer will do with it ("Will attach to Row 4 automatically", with an Assign to Row 4 button to do it now).
The status bar's sub-line — the one-line bar above Add Point names the first thing in the way. If it reads N unassigned point(s), tap the line: the map cycles through them (Unassigned 1 of 3) so you can open each in turn.
The review dialog — tap the status bar. Under To confirm the outline: (or To publish this block:) it lists every blocker, usually with the row numbers involved, and has its own Find unassigned point button.
Reset Row Numbers — in the ⋮ overflow menu. Clears every post's row assignment so you can redo the two anchors. The posts and their GPS positions are kept — you're redoing the labelling, not the survey.
Undo auto-fill — in the ⋮ menu once the outline is confirmed. Removes every generated post (rows and suggested breaks) and keeps every post you marked.
Rebuild from walk — in the ⋮ menu whenever you've marked any posts. Recalculates everything derived from your posts, keeping the posts and any row ends you've locked. This is the big reset button.

"There are way too many rows crammed into part of my block"

Cause: a wrong anchor number. If your rows really run 1–30 and you set the last row to 130, Archer fills a hundred phantom rows into the space of thirty.

Fix: tap a post on the mis-numbered row. On its Last row (or First row) line, tap Reset. If the row has both its posts, Archer asks whether to Renumber this row or Clear this end; choose Renumber this row, type the right number, Set, and save. The fill recalculates immediately.

Archer also guards against the commonest slips: it asks first if a number would squash or stretch the row spacing by more than about a fifth, asks before you give a row a number another post already holds, and challenges an assignment that would put a post far from where you're standing. A last-row number smaller than the number of rows you've marked is refused outright ("That would make the first row number −N — row numbers can't go below 0.").

"One row is drawn at a weird angle" / "the block looks skewed"

Cause: one of a row's posts is wrong — attached to the wrong row, or dropped at the wrong place. Two posts define each row's line, so one bad post swings the whole row.

Fix: tap the suspect post and Delete it, then drop a fresh one at the right post. If the skew is subtle, the completion check will still catch it — rows must be parallel within ±5°, and the blocker names the offenders ("Row(s) N have divergent headings"). If several rows have gone astray, Rebuild from walk recomputes the lot from your posts.

"I can't tap Add Point"

Cause: the button tells you why. Waiting for GPS... means no position yet; RTK Fix Required means your receiver hasn't locked (you want Fixed, not Float); Too close (Xcm) means you're within 30 cm of an existing post — "Move at least 30cm away". It also stays quiet for a moment after each drop while you're still standing on that post.

Fix: stand still and let the receiver settle, or move to the next post. Check the GPS status bar at the top of the screen.

"The rows won't generate"

Cause: the fill needs both ends of two rows — your first and last, each with two posts and its number set — before it can fill anything in. Until then you'll just see your own pins, and the status bar's sub-line says why: "Auto-fill needs two rows with both ends — currently 1."

Fix: finish your first and last rows: a post at each end, and the number set on the First row and Last row lines. The in-between rows appear the moment the second row is complete.

"It won't let me confirm the outline"

Cause: the outline isn't established yet. The button still reads Complete outline… even though the bar says Ready to confirm outline, and the dialog shows "Keep mapping — the outline needs posts on more rows" with no hold. The outline needs at least six posts you've marked, across at least three rows. Four corner posts aren't enough.

Fix: add both ends of a row in the middle of the block: one end on the headland between your first and last rows, the other on the way back. They join that row by themselves. If the dialog instead says "Outline crosses itself near rows N–M", the posts went in a zig-zag order; delete the stray ones and add them again in order round the block.

"It says I have unassigned points"

Cause: a post Archer couldn't attach to any row — usually one dropped too far from the grid, or before the grid existed. Unassigned posts block the outline ("N unassigned point(s)").

Fix: tap the N unassigned point(s) line in the status bar to jump to the first one and open it. The banner in the dialog says what Archer thinks: Assign to Row N if it's near a row, or "Not close enough to any row" / "Too close to two rows to auto-assign" if it isn't — in which case Delete it if it was an accidental drop, or set it as a row end if it's genuinely a new row. Repeat until the blocker clears.

"There's a break where there shouldn't be one"

Cause: the outline you marked has a notch in it, so Archer suggested a break pair (light red) on rows that cross it.

Fix: tap either point of the pair and turn Row break point off. Both points go, Archer confirms "Row N's break removed — it won't be suggested again", and it stays removed on later fills. See Mapping row breaks.

"It says a row has an odd number of break points"

Cause: breaks come in pairs — one point where the row stops, one where it resumes. A lone break point (often left over from an unfinished auto-fill pass) trips the "must be in pairs" blocker.

Fix: the blocker names the row. Go to it, then either add the missing partner point on the other side of the gap or delete the stray.

"The fill is wrong and I don't trust any of it"

Fix: ⋮ → Rebuild from walk. Archer throws away everything it derived — filled rows, suggested breaks, guessed row ends — and recomputes from the posts you marked and the ends you locked. If only the generated posts are the problem, Undo auto-fill is the gentler version: it removes them and leaves the rest alone.

"I've made a mess of the numbering — I want to start the labelling over"

Fix: ⋮ → Reset Row Numbers. Every post keeps its surveyed position but loses its row assignment; set the First row and Last row numbers again and the fill re-attaches everything else. This is much faster than re-surveying — the GPS work is the expensive part, and it's preserved.

"I want to abandon this attempt entirely"

Backing out of the wizard keeps the block as a draft at the top of the vineyard's Blocks list, so you can return to it or leave it. A block you cancel at the New Block dialog, before mapping anything, is never created.

The general principle

Mapping mistakes are labelling mistakes far more often than they're GPS mistakes. The surveyed positions are almost always fine — it's a row number, a row end, or a break that's wrong, and those are always editable. Fix the label, watch the geometry recalculate, and read the review dialog before you Hold to confirm outline: if it shows no blockers, the block is internally consistent.