I have the most basic version of TBC, and all of the drafting functions are disabled. I see that there are a lot of the same commands as CADD, but I don't know how well it works. Does anyone have experience using the Drafting/CADD menus in TBC? I'm wondering if one could use it as their primary drafting tool, given that I only draft boundary stuff, no topos, no subdivision plats.
You can check out the Trimble TBC videos on Youtube.
Chr.
It's a good survey tool....not a good drafting tool.
If you've got basic, I think it costs extra to get the drafting module. That might be why it's disabled.
I use it for post processing and combining and adjusting terrestrial and gps data, maybe exporting a kml file here and there, but drafting? No thanks
Just because I'm paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't out to get me.
Have fun.
Zapper, post: 411712, member: 6470 wrote: If you've got basic, I think it costs extra to get the drafting module. That might be why it's disabled.
Even if you have Survey Advanced it's disabled, it's a separate module you have to purchase. You'd get a lot more bang for your buck with Carlson Survey (standalone).
Similar to Williwaw, I use TBC to process and adjust static and RTK GNSS data, to process conventional data and combine it with GNSS data, to process photogrammetric data, to process digital level data on the very rare occasions that we use one, and to generate reports and export formats. Some of our data techs also process feature codes, which enables field to finish as well as some more powerful options for dealing with features and attributes. It's great for what we use it for, but at some point the data goes to a CAD tech for drafting.
I pretty much use it for quality checks, and combing through the field work to make sure everything's ok before I export it to Carlson for drafting. I just saw all the drafting commands that looked enticing, but I suspect it's not worth paying to unlock those. I thought maybe I'd hear from those who've actually used it, since the Trimble demo videos paint a pretty rosy picture with slick workflows and don't always reflect reality.
I keep a copy of autodsys Intellicad on my other home computer and on a computer at my parents home for emergency use. I believe you can get the standard for about $200 or the professional for about $300, you can go by subscription also.
http://www.autodsys.com
I'm a Trimble guy, but we have a CAD department and are heavily invested in Autodesk, so there's no reason to pay for this, and I would suspect that's the case for most TBC users. I don't like the fact that we're locked into C3D; we donate entirely too much money to keep a product current whose capabilities we barely scratch the surface of. But changing at this stage of the game would be somewhere between extremely difficult and impossible.
If I was going out on my own I'd take a hard look at it, but it's hard to imagine that it could take the place of a mature, robust package like Carlson Survey. My personal opinion is that Trimble would have been better served expending their assets on making the basic functionality in TBC work better; there are a lot of things TBC could do a lot better, especially in the areas of COGO and network adjustment.
After looking at the link billvhill posted, I'd try a 30 day demo of Intellicad with their COGO add-on. For $650 that would probably do everything I need that TBC won't.
I have the drafting module. I would do like everyone else that has posted and use it for processing survey data and sending it to the drafters. Lately I have been using to do more drafting stuff. It's no AutoCAD but to quickly plot something out for the client right away it's not bad.
I don't know ANYONE who uses TBC for drafting.
Actually that goes for all the Trimble products over the years TrimMap, TGO etc. The exception is perhaps Terramodel which Trimble had to acquire (and now they have gobbled up SketchUp)
We just use TBC for calcs, prep a dxf and then export into Autocad