Getting Started With Carlson Survey

Carlson is pretty awesome. We converted about 2 years ago and I love it. Has a robust toolbox for you to play with, but it does have a steep learning curve and can be intimidating. Check out That CAD Girl on Youtube, she's a Carlson reseller & has a ton of instructional vids for it. Also does monthly webinars at thatcadgirl.com.

Carlson also has training classes, you can look at the locations and calendar on their website under Training.

Microstation Geopak daily, Civil 3D when I am forced by the evil empire.

Carlson has a youtube channel with plenty of videos to choose from

Just open it up and use it.

It is intuitive for a surveyor.

Think what you call what you want to do and that should be the command name. Start by picking every pulldown and reading the options. Then many options have options.

Start with gross commands, DRAW.

Draw what?

EDIT, etc.

Carlson is your drafting package.

Paul in PA

Print the manual.
Just about everything is explained in there. Learning how to make new lines and points and customize them is priceless. I have to read and go thru theprocess every time and it is still priceless when I complete one.
I had no class or film, just the manual years ago with Softdesk AddCADD and only got answers to a couple of questions I had ask others. It was like Fight Club. Nobody would talk about how to CADD.
The same with Carlson. Had to learn from the manual and pick and poke thru the tabs and see what they did......

A Harris, post: 347159, member: 81 wrote: Print the manual.
Just about everything is explained in there. Learning how to make new lines and points and customize them is priceless. I have to read and go thru theprocess every time and it is still priceless when I complete one.
I had no class or film, just the manual years ago with Softdesk AddCADD and only got answers to a couple of questions I had ask others. It was like Fight Club. Nobody would talk about how to CADD.
The same with Carlson. Had to learn from the manual and pick and poke thru the tabs and see what they did......

Agree with "Print the manual".

The Carlson manual is rather clever. It basically takes you from deed plots to boundary survey, to topo, etc. On and on. Each lesson builds on the last. It's basically a class in a book.

The only complaint I have with Carlson is that it is very " file happy". Almost nothing is stored in the DWG file, it is all tied to external files: (.crd - coordinates, .cl - centerlines, .pro - profiles, etc..). This isn't a very strong complaint, though, because about a third of the time this is the better approach. I wish Carlson would remove some of the options of where to name/store the files and just do it for you.

I have used LDD, MicroStation/inroads/geopack, Civil3d, Terramodel. Carlson on ACAD is by far the best solution.

If a firm spends the time to fully develop a workflow for the MicroStation route it is pretty good for a few things, and for a few uses the fastest offering available. For probably 90% of cases, though, it's a dog. The same goes for Terrible-model, just up that to 98%. 🙂

My learning curve from LDD to Carlson in 2011 was NOT steep. I just grabbed my first real job and leaned heavily on tech support for about two dsys.

I do imagine that it will be steeper from C3D though. You are getting good advice here.

Paul in PA, post: 347154, member: 236 wrote: Just open it up and use it.

It is intuitive for a surveyor.

Think what you call what you want to do and that should be the command name. Start by picking every pulldown and reading the options. Then many options have options.

Start with gross commands, DRAW.

Draw what?

EDIT, etc.

Carlson is your drafting package.

Paul in PA

I'll add to Paul's comment that most drop down menus should be worked from top to bottom when multiple steps are necessary. The same goes with their dialog boxes, just read your way through them top to bottom, left to right.

Thanks everyone for the advice. I'm surprised so many here use Carlson. It really does look slick to use.

The only things I will struggle with (from what I've used of it so far) is the way the points on the screen aren't necessarily the same as the CRD file (or what the computer sees), and how it insists on creating points on everything you do, like if your sketching a deed description off to the side or something. I don't know, maybe these can be changed in the settings somewhere once I really get into it.

Don't be shy, e-mail their tech support staff, that is what they are there for. They are top notch too.

Aloha, I second what Brad said! Very helpful tech. support.

Allen Wrench, post: 347298, member: 6172 wrote: Thanks everyone for the advice. I'm surprised so many here use Carlson. It really does look slick to use.

The only things I will struggle with (from what I've used of it so far) is the way the points on the screen aren't necessarily the same as the CRD file (or what the computer sees), and how it insists on creating points on everything you do, like if your sketching a deed description off to the side or something. I don't know, maybe these can be changed in the settings somewhere once I really get into it.

It doesn't have to draw points when you're drafting a deed. Go to POINTS>POINT DEFAULTS and turn point numbers off (uncheck it). You can also use the I or inverse>Traverse command from the command line to plot deeds. Go to COGO>Line On/Off before invoking inverse and it'll plot lines as you traverse. It's very flexible software and allows multiple ways to perform a task.

Your problem is nothing compared to moving from PacSoft to Carlson with AutoCAD. I'll tell you like I told every one of my guys who drafts for me that knew nothing about it, the manual is on the shelf (I printed it out and put in a binder and it took two reams of paper) and I was self taught so look it up.

Now, to be fair, I answer questions a lot of times for my guys and I'm happy to help but after you ask me the same question a few times, I say look it up. I kept the phone lines to tech support hot in 2005 until I got it down. Took me about 6 months of regular use to understand the scales and I had help from some friends here but I had no idea what a layer was when I got into it. Now, I make it sing. Put the time in and print the manual out and use the tutorial and that will help a lot in getting into it. Since you have used AutoCAD before with Civil 3d, then you'll at least have that learning curve down on me.

Allen Wrench, post: 347298, member: 6172 wrote: Thanks everyone for the advice. I'm surprised so many here use Carlson. It really does look slick to use.

The only things I will struggle with (from what I've used of it so far) is the way the points on the screen aren't necessarily the same as the CRD file (or what the computer sees), and how it insists on creating points on everything you do, like if your sketching a deed description off to the side or something. I don't know, maybe these can be changed in the settings somewhere once I really get into it.

cogo pull down menu-
line by angle-distance

no points created 🙂

Allen Wrench, post: 347298, member: 6172 wrote: Thanks everyone for the advice. I'm surprised so many here use Carlson. It really does look slick to use.

The only things I will struggle with (from what I've used of it so far) is the way the points on the screen aren't necessarily the same as the CRD file (or what the computer sees), and how it insists on creating points on everything you do, like if your sketching a deed description off to the side or something. I don't know, maybe these can be changed in the settings somewhere once I really get into it.

cogo-
line by angle-distance

no points created 🙂

If you go to survey, enter deed description, and change it from complete points to descriptions only, it will draw a node at the corners but it does not store coordinate values.

I use enter deed description and check none. Carlson will just do the line work. Then go to auto annotate and set it up with bearing and distance. Then make it a polyline of the boundary using pedit. Get a polyline report. It'll give a report on coordinates of each end point, and bearing and distances of each leg of the deed. Then go to polyline file and make a KML file to import into google earth for viewing. And with that same polyline you can use deed writer to compile a description. I bring the description into Word, then into deed plotter. I'm no expert by no means. Just trying to give a simple thought process to get started.

Jules J., post: 347415, member: 444 wrote: I use enter deed description and check none. Carlson will just do the line work. Then go to auto annotate and set it up with bearing and distance. Then make it a polyline of the boundary using pedit. Get a polyline report. It'll give a report on coordinates of each end point, and bearing and distances of each leg of the deed. Then go to polyline file and make a KML file to import into google earth for viewing. And with that same polyline you can use deed writer to compile a description. I bring the description into Word, then into deed plotter. I'm no expert by no means. Just trying to give a simple thought process to get started.

In the enter deed description you select to make it a polyline as well as annotate the line work as you enter the information, that may save you a couple of steps.

You can tell it to only draw the line in the options. Look under points defaults.