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The CEC: what the Control Stations Certification asks for

Last reviewed: September 7, 2026 — VerifiedOGPe

In short

The Control Stations Certification, the CEC, is the digital form where the professional records the equipment and methodology used to georeference the project. It is not a separate sheet: it comes inside the seed file of the Plan Drawing Standard as an attribute block, and it can be seen both from model space — located at coordinate 0, 0, 0 — and from paper space, by selecting the tab CEC 8.5 x 14, from where it is exported and printed on legal-size paper. Data is entered from model space, through the block properties panel or the Enhanced Attribute Editor, and in both cases you write over the examples it carries. Compliance is mandatory and has three hard rules: no space is left blank, no example data may remain in the certification once filled, and every field that requires no information is filled with N/A. The professional’s signature and seal are subject to the laws and regulations that regulate the profession, and both must appear on the CEC submitted in PDF. The standard’s table lists the fields: the professional’s and the project’s information, the georeferencing methodology, five sets of fields for the controls established or used and four for the controls of the National Reference System. The PDF file is named with the SUI case number followed by a hyphen and the acronym CEC.

External link

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docs.pr.gov

What is it?

It is Section 2.8.2.2 of Chapter 2.8 of Joint Regulation No. 9473, within the Plan Drawing Standard. The CEC is the part of the plan that answers a single question: what it was measured with, and from which controls. Without it the plan’s coordinates are numbers with no provenance; with it, the agency can trace where every point came from.

Who can do it?

It applies to plans submitted to the permit process through the Unified Information System. The CEC in PDF is signed and sealed by the licensed surveyor who certifies the project’s georeferencing, under the laws and regulations governing the practice of surveying in Puerto Rico.

Requirements

Documents you need

Cost

Check the current cost with the official agency.

Step by step

  1. Step 1: Open the CEC inside the seed file

    The CEC is not downloaded separately: it comes inside the seed file as an attribute block, and the standard also provides a digital copy in PDF as part of the complementary files. It can be seen from model space, where its location corresponds to coordinate 0, 0, 0, and from paper space, by selecting the tab named CEC 8.5 x 14. The printed version’s dimensions correspond to legal-size paper, 8.5 x 14.

  2. Step 2: Enter the data from model space

    Data entry must be done from model space, not from paper space. There are two routes. Through the block properties panel: on reaching the properties menu, in the attributes section you find the fields the CEC contains with their examples; write the information requested for each field in the space where the examples sit, and the information updates automatically in the CEC.

  3. Step 3: Or through the Enhanced Attribute Editor

    The other route is the Enhanced Attribute Editor. Identify one of the examples in the Certification located in model space, preferably the one you want to change. A window opens automatically where you can replace the example with the project’s information. Make sure what you enter belongs to the field you are writing in. When you finish you must save the information so it updates in the CEC.

  4. Step 4: Fill in the professional’s and the project’s information

    The table’s first part asks for the professional’s full name, the name of the company they represent — and if there is none, N/A must be written — the type of procedure or certification the plan is made for, the plan’s filing date, the email, the telephone and the licence number. Of the project: the case number assigned by the SUI, the cadastre number, the date and serial number of the EDE, and the Open Location Code according to the coordinates of the project’s centroid.

  5. Step 5: State the georeferencing methodology

    The second section is what gives the certification its meaning: the method used in the project’s georeferencing — GNSS, GPS or conventional — the date it was carried out, the type of controls established — horizontal, vertical, or horizontal and vertical — the horizontal reference datum including its revision and epoch, the vertical reference datum and the geoid used.

  6. Step 6: Record the controls: five sets and four sets

    The third section has two distinct blocks. For the controls established or used, the CEC contains five fields of each of these attributes: control name, north, east, elevation — orthometric height — and description, which is the physical type of the mark. For the National Reference System controls used, the CEC contains four fields of each attribute: the PID_NGS identifier, the north, the east, the height and the height type, orthometric or ellipsoidal.

  7. Step 7: Not one blank, not one example left

    Compliance with the certification and the information it contains is mandatory. No space may be left blank and no example data may remain in the Certification once it has been filled. Every field that for some reason requires no information must be filled with the abbreviation N/A. It is the check that prevents the most returns: a plan arriving with "Ej. Juan del Pueblo" in a field is a plan that was not finished.

  8. Step 8: Sign, seal and submit the PDF through the SUI

    The incorporation of the professional’s signature and seal is subject to the laws and regulations regulating the profession, and both must appear on the CEC submitted in PDF format. Section 2.8.4.4 repeats it: the CEC is required in PDF format with the signature and seal of the licensed surveyor who certifies the project’s georeferencing, the document must comply with the information required in Section 2.8.2.2, and it must be submitted using the SUI. The file is named with the same SUI case number followed by a hyphen and the acronym CEC at the end of the numbering.

  9. Step 9: Read the certification clause yourself

    A note on the source. The Regulation reproduces the CEC twice as scanned images — one from model space and one from paper space — and inside those images sits the certification clause the professional signs, with the positional-accuracy tolerances relative to the National Spatial Reference System controls and the numbers of the statutes behind it. In the copy we read, the two reproductions do not agree with each other on those figures, and the statute numbers do not read cleanly. So we publish no tolerance and no statute number from that clause here: whoever signs it must read it in the seed file.

Where to do it

The CEC is filled inside the seed file and submitted, as a signed and sealed PDF, through the OGPe’s Unified Information System alongside the plan’s other files.

How long it takes

Check the current processing time with the official agency.

What to do if something goes wrong

If a field does not apply to your project, do not leave it empty or delete it: write N/A. If you open the block and do not see the fields, check that you are in model space and not on the CEC 8.5 x 14 tab, which is only for exporting and printing. And if the PDF certification comes out without a signature or seal, it is not complete even if every data field is filled.

Common mistakes

  • Leaving fields blank instead of writing N/A.
  • Submitting the CEC with the example data still in place.
  • Entering the data from paper space instead of model space.
  • Delivering the CEC in PDF without the licensed surveyor’s signature or seal.
  • Naming the file without the hyphen and the acronym CEC at the end of the case number.
  • Recording the Open Location Code of any point on the lot instead of the project’s centroid.

Frequently asked questions

Where is the CEC inside the file?

In model space, at coordinate 0, 0, 0, as an attribute block. From paper space it is seen by selecting the CEC 8.5 x 14 tab, from where it can be exported and printed at legal size.

How many controls fit in the CEC?

The CEC contains five fields of each attribute for the controls established or used — name, north, east, elevation and description — and four fields of each attribute for the National Reference System controls used.

Which acronym goes in the procedure type?

The standard’s table of procedure types lists twelve: API, ARC, CCO, DEA, DIA, LOT, LOTM, PCE, PCI, PCO, PCU and REA. A note on the source: the example row of the other table also cites CUB and SSI, which that list does not define, and omits ARC, CCO, PCE and PCI. We publish both lists as they stand.

Does the CEC go separately from the plan?

It goes inside the DWG as an attribute block and is also delivered as its own PDF, signed and sealed, named with the SUI case number followed by a hyphen and CEC.

Official sources

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

Last verified

September 7, 2026

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