I'm looking for some different viewpoints between Carlson Survey and Traverse PC. At work we have both. I just started getting into Traverse PC a little more. I was wondering if anyone has made a switch? What I'm really looking for is if TPC is a little easier to use?
Perhaps switching software is not the answer to your problem. I have been on Carlson Survey software for 3 years now and find it VERY easy to use, but then I spent the money to get trained on the software via Carlson College. Any software is easy to use if you know how to use it. Going to Traverse PC without any training on its use will result in the same problems.
I have looked at both products in the past and Carlson was the only one that met my needs and my client's needs. Traverse PC may be a good product for many peoiple but it does not have all of the tools that I have in Carlson Survey with embedded AutoCad.
If you are doing mainly boundary surveys and limited topos, it may be ok, but if you are running major projects and doing government level work Traverse PC comes up a little short.
My suggestion would be to take the funds that you are going to use to purchase Traverse PC and apply that to some training on the Carlson Survey package that you already have. Another alternate is to find someone that really knows how to run Carlson and see if you can get together with them for some informal training. I have done that with folks in my area for simply the price of a home cooked meal and a cold beer. A lot of survey types will do most anything for a good, cold beer.;-)
Don't know if TPC is easier to use, that is all I have ever used except for the COGO program on an IBM 1130 and an HP desktop using a tape for programing and data storage, don't remember what model it was, never liked the thing because only one could use it at a time and the tapes stretched over time and data could be lost, when using the IBM and keypunch, more than one could use the computer at once, just debug your program, retype a few cards and throw it all back on top of the stack in the card reader. Started using TPC and Generic Cad before AutoDesk bought it and stopped support, That move by them is what has kept me from buying any of their products. Now use TPC with General Cad, mainly from habit but do some simple drawings on TPC, could do it all using TPC if I wanted to. Started out with Trig Tables, Logs and hand drafting, I always did my comps and plotted the results on grid paper as a visual aid in detecting errors, thought the HP 35 was about as good as it gets, when done I had a worksheet with the coordinates noted at each point and that worksheet would be traced by the draftsman. My choices of TPC and Generic Cad were the result of me paying for those programs and the computers to run them on long after using the tape HP or IBM which were company owned. When I first bought those things I was working for a man using an Auloviti ,"spelling", with tape for his comps and I needed to get current the only way I could at the time by buying my own software and computer, that first computer was a Packard Bell 385 and when I found out that the math co-processor cost more than the machine, it was replaced by an IBM clone assembled locally. TPC has served me well and is improving and expanding at a constant pace, learning and using TPC will do you no harm.
jud
