Phase Spatial is the Phase Ultra workspace for building, reviewing and exporting zone maps and prescriptions. It can combine supported soil and yield data, create management zones, add rates, repeat a setup across eligible paddocks, and send an area-weighted rate back to a planned product line.

Always check the source data, paddock boundary, zone geometry, rates, units and equipment compatibility before using an export. Phase does not choose agronomic rates or replace professional advice.

Spatial is included with Phase Ultra. Phase Pro users see an upgrade explanation instead of the workspace.

The header is one row at every width: the paddock with its area and season, the three steps (the current step dark olive, done steps ticked, a locked step showing a padlock), Save, and an Actions menu with Import layers, Export and Quick walkthrough. On a phone the steps show only the current one's name, and Save is in Actions as Save zone map. Each screen has one main button, the step's own, such as Set rates or Export prescription. On the web the agent sits in the right-hand column (iPad landscape included); on a phone the map has a dock with Layers, Zones, Tools and Ask agent tabs.

Spatial works in three steps, shown on the step rail:

Each step opens with a Next line that reads the map and tells you the one thing to do now, such as switch on a layer, build the zones, check them and set the rates, choose the product, or which zones still have no rate. When the step is done it becomes a Ready line with a button to the next step, for example Build zones or Set rates.

Spatial currently supports:

A yield map copied off the header or a USB stick can go straight into Spatial. On the Layers step select Import layers → Upload, choose the shapefile or CSV, then choose the season and crop it belongs to. Phase saves it to the paddock's yield record for that season, the same place a John Deere import goes, so it is there every season and in Yield Centre too. Tonnes already entered for that season are never changed. You no longer need to go to Yield Centre to import a yield shapefile first.

Every paddock's Data layers list has an Elevation layer marked OpenTopography. Until the farm's ground has been fetched it reads "Ground height, 30 m. Switch on to fetch it". Switching it on, or adding it to a zone map, fetches the ground for every paddock on the farm at once, the same as opening 3D in Yield Centre → Maps, and the layer appears switched on in the height colours with its legend in metres. From then on it is there on every paddock, for everyone on the farm, and can be shown, re-coloured and used to build zones like any other layer. A paddock with its own elevation survey or RTK layer keeps that as well.

Fetching needs permission to edit the farm; anyone else sees the layer once it has been fetched. The old Elevation sample layer marked Dev is development data. It now shows only to someone who can't fetch, on a paddock with no real elevation yet, and must never be used for a real prescription.

Spatial needs a paddock with a mapped boundary. A saved yield layer needs at least three usable cells. A soil layer needs at least three numeric results for the selected metric linked to sites with latitude and longitude.

Add or repair a boundary in More → Farms & Fields. Import soil results in More → Data Centres → Soil Centre → Actions → Import.

A soil test matched only by paddock name, without coordinates on its soil site, can appear in Soil Centre but cannot form a Spatial surface.

When soil was sampled by management zone instead of GPS point, import the zone boundaries in Soil Test Import and link each area to its matching soil result. Those area results can then become a Spatial layer.

On the Layers step, switch a layer on to see it over the paddock. Layers open in the same colour scale the zones use (viridis, dark to light); the colour button on each layer says which scale is on, and pressing it moves to the next one. Layers you had already coloured keep their colour. The map carries a scale bar, and the paddock's name moves off the data once a layer is on. These view settings do not change the source data.

Saved zone maps for the paddock are listed under Zone maps on this step.

Step 1: Open More → Data Centres → Spatial and confirm the paddock.

Step 2: On the Layers step, switch on the layer or layers you want to build from, then select Build zones in the Next line at the top of the panel. (Create zone map, shown beside the saved zone maps and on a phone, does the same.)

Step 3: On the Zones step, the two choices every map needs sit on their own: which layers to build from (tap a layer in the list and Phase builds the map from it straight away; two or more blend together) and How many zones, chips from 2 to 12 that wrap so every count is in view.

Step 4: If needed, open a layer's Adjust this layer to answer which readings make the top zone: High readings on top or Low readings on top. The top zone is the last one, the one a quick fill gives the highest rate, so lime on pH puts low readings on top and nitrogen on yield puts high readings on top. The same fold holds Leave out readings for headland zeros and impossible spikes, and depth settings where the data has them. With more than one layer, each also has an Influence slider; a layer on its own has none, because it counts for the whole map.

Step 5: Review source coverage, zone ranges, hectares, small patches and unzoned areas before editing or setting rates.

Everything else is folded under Fine-tune the zones, with the current settings written on the fold so you can see what the map was built with without opening it. Inside are the cut method, custom cut points, smoothing, smallest zone, cell detail, tramline direction and layer matching. On a phone, Fine-tune the zones is in the Tools tab. The cut methods are:

With one source layer, custom cut points use that layer's units, such as pH. With several blended layers, cut points use the combined 0–1 score.

Zones are relative: zone 1 is the bottom zone and the highest-numbered zone is the top zone. This ordering is not an agronomic recommendation. Use one layer with Custom cut points when the job genuinely needs boundaries such as pH 5.2 and 5.8.

The agent is the right-hand column on the web and the Ask agent tab on a phone, where it opens with example requests. It changes the visible workspace controls. Useful requests include:

“Make a zone map” works on its own. The agent uses the layers you have switched on; if none are on, it picks the newest yield map, then the newest soil test, and says which it used. A layer saved to the paddock but never opened is fetched first rather than read as empty, and every layer the agent uses is switched on in the Layers step so you can see what the map came from. Topsoil means 0–10 cm and Subsoil means 10–30 cm; an explicit range such as 10–30 cm uses that range.

Agent cannot choose agronomic rates, act on a described corner of a paddock, or use an unavailable layer. Review every control it changes before building or exporting.

Set layers, direction, depth, zone count and fine-tune settings before editing. Regenerating the map clears manual Paint and Erase changes.

The brush floats on the map at every screen size, with the zone swatches under it while you paint. On a phone, choosing Paint closes the panel so the swatches are in reach.

Use the smoothing setting only after reviewing how it changes small patches and edges. Independently verify areas and totals before ordering or applying product.

Rates are optional. Leave every rate blank for a plain zone map. The Prescription step explains what a prescription is, orders the zones by the main layer, and shows the readings each zone covers (for example "4.8–5.2 pH"). Its sections are numbered:

Count rates in units of N, P, K or S. When the product is a fertiliser Phase knows the analysis of, a Count rates in row lets you enter each zone as units of a nutrient (kg N/ha, kg P/ha, kg K/ha or kg S/ha) instead of product. Phase works out the product rate the spreader needs, each zone shows both figures, and the total at the bottom shows the product to order and the nutrient it puts on. The exported file always carries product rates. A liquid quoted weight-for-weight needs a density on the product before nutrient entry is offered, and the screen says so. A saved map reopens counting in product until you choose a nutrient again.

For a prescription export every zone needs a rate, with 0 (Skip) for a no-apply zone. Check each value after using Agent. Spatial does not recommend rates.

Open Spatial from a selected paddock and product line in Crop Plan Studio to carry the product and base rate into Spatial. Every zone starts at the flat base rate so you can adjust the distribution.

When the zones and rates are ready, select Use in crop plan (one of the small buttons under the export on the Prescription step). It shows the Average rate and the total over the rated area, then the plan's lines: tap a line to choose it, then press Update plan line. Choosing a line no longer writes it straight away. Phase writes the area-weighted average rate to that planned product line, scales its cost per hectare and adds a [VR] note; Undo average update takes it back. The zone geometry remains in Spatial; it is not copied into the crop plan.

Save version (under the export on the Prescription step, or Save in the header) stores a version in Phase and requires active farm access plus permission to edit crop plans. While you are on the Prescription step, the side column shows what the map was built from with a Change zones link back to the Zones step. Saved zone maps appear in the paddock's Spatial Zone maps list on the Layers step. Turn a saved map on to view it, or select Edit to reopen it at the zones stage. Generated zones, rates and manual Paint or Erase changes are restored; saving later changes creates another version instead of silently changing the earlier one.

When exporting, first choose what the file represents:

Then choose a format:

ISOXML, direct John Deere prescription transfer and other direct-to-machine transfers are not currently implemented. Always check the controller's supported format and import steps.

Export is blocked when prescription zones use mixed units, contain invalid rates, or are only partly rated. Give every zone a valid non-negative rate—including an explicit 0 for a no-apply zone—or clear all rates for a plain zone map. Exported files include applicable warnings; they still require compatibility and safety checks before field use.

For a prescription, select the rate column shown in the export instructions when importing to the controller. Check the product, rate column, units, paddock and every zone value on the machine before application.

In Import layers, the John Deere and Satellite tabs have a scope switch at the top: This paddock, or All paddocks in the season shown, with a Season picker so last year's maps can be brought in from this year's screen.

The same season-wide fetch is also in Yield Centre → Maps → John Deere maps. On the John Deere tab, All paddocks first finds the season's harvest maps: Phase matches each paddock to Operations Center by name (or by the linked paddock where the boundary came from John Deere) and lists every paddock as Ready, In Phase (already has a yield map for the season), Not matched, No harvest or Failed before anything is fetched. A paddock shown as Not matched needs the same name in Operations Center. A Harvest from / Harvest to window starts at the season's own dates; widen it to the end of January to catch a canola stripped after New Year, because every map is filed under the season chosen, not the year John Deere labels it with. One press then asks John Deere to build all of them; each map is saved to its own paddock as it finishes, usually within minutes and up to half an hour for a big paddock, and you do not need to keep the screen open.

On the Satellite tab, All paddocks pulls the ticked dates over every paddock in the season and saves each as its own NDVI layer, skipping any date a paddock already holds. The single-paddock path is unchanged. Colour choices are remembered with a saved map, and Save and Export wait until the current map is ready.

After building a zone setup, select Apply to other paddocks (under the export on the Prescription step).

The batch carries the current source choice, filters, zone count, method, cut points, patch cleanup and rates to each eligible paddock. It still calculates each paddock from its own data. Check the results individually before using them.

A multi-paddock export uses the FIELD attribute to separate paddocks in one file. Confirm the controller or mapping software can filter that field correctly.

The preview uses an approximate 20-metre grid. Zone edges can extend around half a grid cell beyond the authoritative paddock boundary. Inspect the export in a compatible GIS or review tool before use.

If Soil pH does not appear, check that the selected paddock has at least three numeric pH readings and that each linked soil site has coordinates.

If no paddocks appear, add or repair a boundary with at least three points in More → Farms & Fields.

If no zones appear, check the Next line first: it says what the map is waiting for. Then select a layer, keep at least one influence above zero, check that depth settings or Leave out readings have not excluded every sample, and confirm the boundary is valid.

If the agent says there is no data, switch the layer on in the Layers step and ask again. If a soil result cannot be used, the Layers step says how many soil results "can’t be mapped yet": those sites need a location.

If Count rates in is missing or a nutrient is greyed out, Phase does not know the product's analysis, or a liquid needs a density on the product first.

An unzoned area is outside the reach of the selected data. It does not mean a zero rate.

If export is refused, either clear every rate for a plain zone map or give every zone a valid, non-negative rate in the same unit.

For a save or build problem, open More → Help chat and include the farm, paddock, project name, exact error and a screenshot.