Browse all guides

Docs Handbook

Direction of cut

Save mowing directions for your greens, tees, and fairways, pick the one in play each day, and show the pattern on the Handbook map for the whole crew.

Direction of cut lets you save the mowing directions you rotate through, one set per surface, and pick the one in play each day. The pattern draws on the Handbook map underneath your Handbook entries, so anyone who opens the map sees today’s directions.

Open it from the Handbook toolbar: Direction of cut. The panel has two tabs, Direction of Cut for the daily pick and Settings for setting things up.

Create a surface

A surface is a group of areas that mow together, your tees, your fairways, your greens. It’s built from an area type in the Area Manager.

  1. On the Settings tab, click Add surface.

  2. Pick an area type. Its areas become the surface, and every area carrying that type starts checked. Uncheck any you want to leave out.

  3. Adjust the name if you like, then click Create surface.

The surface stays linked to the Area Manager. Rename an area or reshape it there and the change flows through here on its own. If an area is deleted from the Area Manager, the surface lists it as (removed from Area Manager) with a Remove button, so you decide when to drop it.

Create a direction of cut

  1. Expand the surface on the Settings tab and click Add Direction of Cut.

  2. Name it, something like “Day One”, and choose the pattern: Stripe for alternating passes, 50/50 for a two-half split, or Diamond for two straight passes crossing on the same area.

  3. For Stripe and Diamond patterns, choose the cut width: Wide, Medium, or Narrow. This sets the stripe spacing on the map. A 50/50 cut has no width setting.

  4. Click Start on map. The map flies to the first area in the surface and walks you through them one at a time.

For each area:

  • Straight stripes: rotate the stripes to match the mowing direction, with the slider or by typing the degrees from north. The preview updates live.
  • Curved stripes: switch the toggle to Curved, then click the area boundary to start, click through the area to shape the guide line, and finish on the boundary. The stripes follow your line.
  • Diamond: rotate the pattern like straight stripes, then set the angle between the two passes: 90 degrees is a square checkerboard, and lower values drift the passes toward parallel.
  • 50/50: draw the centerline the same way, boundary to boundary. Two clicks make a straight split; clicks in between curve it. Once the centerline is drawn, Flip sides swaps which half mows light and which mows dark, which is the difference between a clockwise and a counterclockwise cut.

Confirm locks the area in and moves to the next one. Back returns to the previous area, and Skip leaves an area out; it just won’t carry a pattern for this direction. Confirming the last area saves the whole direction, and it appears under the surface in Settings.

Pick today’s direction

On the Direction of Cut tab, each surface lists its saved directions with a radio button, plus None. Pick one and the map updates immediately, for you and for everyone else on the property. The panel shows the date each pick was made, and it stays in place until someone changes it.

Graphics

At the bottom of the Settings tab:

  • Pattern opacity controls how strongly the pattern draws over the imagery.
  • Show on map hides or shows the patterns without losing your daily picks.

Both are shared settings; what you set here is what the whole crew sees.

On your phone

The patterns draw on the app’s Handbook map just as they do on the web. To change the day’s pick from the field, tap DOC in the Handbook toolbar. A selector slides up with a card for each surface. Pick today’s direction, or None, and the map updates for everyone within a few seconds.

Creating surfaces and directions of cut stays on the web.

On the volunteer map

If you run a volunteer event map, its handbook shows the same pattern. Publishing bakes today’s pattern into the event map, so volunteers see the directions as they were when you published. If you change your daily picks afterward, republish to update the event map.