Migrating DLS Legal Land Descriptions from ArcMap to ArcGIS Pro

Esri retired ArcMap on March 1, 2026. If your team ran DLS or NTS legal land description workflows in ArcMap — batch geocoding from a well inventory, custom locators, or coordinate lookups — those workflows do not carry over to ArcGIS Pro automatically.

The short version: ArcGIS Pro has no native support for Canadian legal land descriptions. NE 14-032-21W4 means nothing to the built-in search bar. You need a locator add-on to restore that functionality.

This page covers what breaks in an arcmap to arcgis pro legal land description migration, and the steps to fix it.

What Breaks in the Migration {#what-breaks}

Custom DLS Locators Built in ArcMap

Some ArcMap users built composite locators for DLS conversion by pairing a custom address locator with coordinate-based geocoding. Those locator files (.loc) are not compatible with ArcGIS Pro — the format changed in ArcGIS Pro 2.x and ArcMap .loc files cannot be imported. You'll see a "locator is not compatible" error if you try.

Batch Geocoding Tables

ArcMap projects that batch-geocoded a DLS or LSD attribute table break at two points after migration:

1. The .loc locator file is incompatible with ArcGIS Pro
2. ArcGIS Pro's Address Locator framework doesn't recognize DLS notation as a valid address type

You can export the source data, but you can't re-geocode it without a DLS-aware locator.

Saved Map Documents (.mxd)

Opening an .mxd in ArcGIS Pro converts it to an .aprx project. The conversion preserves layers and symbology, but any tool that depended on a DLS locator stops working silently — no error, just empty search results.

Replacing the DLS Locator in ArcGIS Pro {#solution}

The Township Canada ArcGIS Pro toolbox (TownshipCanada.pyt) adds a fully functional DLS and NTS locator to ArcGIS Pro. It works with the Locate pane search bar and as a geoprocessing tool for batch conversion.

Step 1: Install the Toolbox

Download TownshipCanada.pyt from the ArcGIS Marketplace. In ArcGIS Pro:

1. Open the Catalog pane
2. Right-click Toolboxes → Add Toolbox
3. Browse to TownshipCanada.pyt and click OK

The toolbox appears under your project toolboxes immediately — no restart required.

Step 2: Connect Your API Key

The toolbox calls the Township Canada API to resolve descriptions. Sign up for an API key at the API portal — plans start at $20/month for 1,000 requests. Enter your key in the toolbox properties; it's stored in your ArcGIS Pro project settings and persists across sessions.

Step 3: Rebuild Batch Geocoding Workflows

For any ArcMap batch geocoding jobs you're migrating:

1. Open Township Canada Batch Convert from the toolbox in the Geoprocessing pane
2. Set Input Table to your well inventory, pipeline table, or land rights spreadsheet
3. Select the column containing the DLS or NTS descriptions
4. Choose an output feature class location
5. Run the tool

Output is a point feature class with GPS coordinates, province, and survey system as attributes. Optional boundary polygons are available as a second output.

Step 4: Restore Search Bar Lookups

After installation, the Township Canada locator appears in the Locate pane alongside Esri's default geocoders. Type any legal land description — LSD 06-32-048-07W5, NE 14-032-21W4, or an NTS reference — and it returns the location with map zoom.

This replaces the browser-based lookup workflow that many ArcMap users fell back on when their locator wasn't working.

Example: Migrating a Well Inventory {#example}

A land technician at an oil and gas company has an ArcMap project with 340 well locations stored as DLS descriptions in a file geodatabase table. The existing geocoding results layer is broken because the ArcMap locator isn't recognized in ArcGIS Pro.

Migration path:

1. Export the geodatabase table to CSV (or keep it in the geodatabase)
2. Run the Township Canada batch tool, pointing it at the DLS column
3. Output: a point feature class with all 340 wells plotted by GPS coordinates

The whole process takes under five minutes. Before the migration, the same task required rebuilding a locator and hoping the .mxd conversion hadn't dropped any table joins.

For teams that need results in formats other than a geodatabase feature class — CSV, KML, GeoJSON, Shapefile — the batch convert guide covers the Township Canada web app workflow.

Common Mistakes {#mistakes}

Trying to import the old .loc file. It won't work. ArcMap and ArcGIS Pro use different locator schemas. The only path forward is a DLS-native toolbox.

Assuming ArcGIS Pro's built-in geocoders handle DLS. They don't. Esri's geocoders are address-based and don't understand Canadian survey grid notation. A query like SE-24-47-6-W5 either returns nothing or maps to a street address in an unrelated location.

Overlooking NTS references. Teams working in BC, the Yukon, or on resource mapping data often mix DLS and NTS references in the same table. The Township Canada toolbox handles both systems in a single batch run — no need to separate the file by survey system before processing.

Try It Now

See how the ArcGIS Pro locator works by searching LSD 06-32-048-07W5 in the [Township Canada converter](/?example=LSD 06-32-048-07W5). You get GPS coordinates and a parcel boundary for a 40-acre parcel near Rocky Mountain House, Alberta — the same response the ArcGIS Pro toolbox returns when you type that description in the Locate pane.