Activity Feed › Discussion Forums › Strictly Surveying › Total Station Skill Heat Map
I started surveying in Seattle in 2001 and started working on tunnel works in 2011. I only recently started using GPS for anything beyond establishing control, what a welcome addition.
Ah, it’s starting to come back to me….
- Posted by: @dougie
Try asking a grade school student to read cursive….
Posted by: @holy-cowSchools are beginning to reintroduce cursive writing. College students are the ones who have missed out on a basic tool they need to have.
Eh, aside from a few studies that show cursive to possibly help with dyslexia (didn’t help the 50% of my family who are dyslexic), there aren’t any real benefits to teaching kids to write it. It can help with fine motor skills, but so can lots of other things, and kids with fewer fine motor skills would get punished by spending extra hours writing cursive over and over.
Is it a good idea to be able to read it? Absolutely. Once kids can learn print, they can be taught to read cursive in a matter of hours, versus spending hundreds of hours of repetitive practice spent learning to write it.
The Palmer method that became the gold standard for schools is not really much faster than printing, which was the main reason it was taught, and shorthand is shorthand, whether it’s in cursive or print.
“…people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.” -Neil Postman The method we were taught was attributed to a Mrs. Kittle, whoever she was. I detested writing as a class subject. It could have been a class in printing and I would have hated it just as much. I now understand why we were forced into a world of standardization but it was extremely boring to a kid who wanted to learn more and more each day. Understand that this was a time when typewriters were used by few beyond secretaries and computers with keyboards were far into the future.
Had a helper a couple of years back who was a Senior in Mechanical Engineering with a 4.00 GPA at the time. I opened a deed book from the 1930’s and asked him to read what it said. It was like listening to a First Grade student attempting to read four syllable words.
As others have stated, knowing the right tool for the job is key.
Deformation surveying of concrete structures where the required error ellipse is 2mm horizontal and 0.2mm vertical requires not only a TS and Level but a significant amount of preparation, calibration, and knowledge beyond button pushing.
Put me down for TS everyday in NC.
- Posted by: @bushaxe
As others have stated, knowing the right tool for the job is key.
100% agree. And to add to this (since all I have done in this thread so far is complain about cursive), both can be used in concert with each other.
Mixing total station and GNSS data is not difficult using industry standard software, but is often misunderstood and either not used, or used incorrectly.
I wouldn’t give up either, and on all but the most unique of projects I am observing with both TS and GNSS. Being able to build a geodetic database of survey data (usually control points and monumentation) which can be stored with metadata and then projected to any coordinate system desired is a powerful tool.
“…people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.” -Neil Postman I’d be interested to see how much a level gets used today. My previous job, our SOP for staking was that all grades were done with a level. Hubs were set by the total station, then leveled for elevation.
I used one 3 days this week.
@mark-mayer
The determining factor will be in the knowledge of legal vs lawful and will have almost nothing to do with measurement, or measurement technology. Every job I have done this year has turned upon a quirk of common law, or occupation, that no measurement-based surveyor would take.
@mark-mayer
Penmap. It’s already here.
I love TS work combined with the GNSS.
I need to get a license before the lawyers take them away!!!!
- Posted by: @mark-mayer
I think otherwise. Operating a GPS receiver is a skill anyone can pick up in a few hours. Knowing where to operate it, that is quite another thing.
While it may be true that “operating” a GPS receiver is relatively simple compared to T2s, Tapes, EDMI gear and such, I continue to see FUBAR’d RTK surveys much more often than I should.
That said, the proliferation of “entry level” Field Crews with little or no direct (on the ground) supervision, continues to plague the “profession.”
Too many “Land Surveyors” get their ticket and trade their boots in for a pair of penny loafers, and then spend their days herding the crews via cell phones and coordinate estimates downloaded to the data collectors.
I also see TOO many Professional Land Surveyors whose GPS training is limited to a couple of hours with a SALESMAN explaining where the FUGARWE button is, and which button combination will create a one time “calibration” that may or may NOT be of value to the next guy who has to retrace, recover, or resurvey that parcel.
I spent 35-40 years in the field after getting my first LS, and since I moved into the office (so to speak) a few years ago, EVERY Field Crew that I had in the field was led by a Senior Land Surveyor, and the last couple of years, the crew(s) consisted of 2 to 3 Senior Land Surveyors.
Surgeons don’t (or shouldn’t) give scalpels to orderlies in the operating room, and when all is said and done, LAND Surveying starts and ends ON THE GROUND (subject of course to proper research and interpretation).
Just my two bits.
Loyal
Log in to reply.