How long does it take?

One place I worked was one hour drafting for every four in the field.

We did start from a good basemap, made extensive use of field to finish coding, and the drafting was largely removing extraneous data, formatting text, and adding linework

@jimcox Thanks Jim. I have a ways to go but I am getting there.  I could get close and have done it using TBC on my own time. Not even close yet with civil 3d.  So many commands to learn with that. But I reckon before i kick the bucket i might get it all figured out. Its a different way of thinking in civil vs tbc for me. My mind has not fully developed the civil way yet.

Do yall have a rule of thumb that is a ratio or multiplier of say a topo or mapping or even a boundary survey

Its not that simple. The time it takes in the field does not correlate to office time for every project.

@norm Yes sir I believe that and understand i am asking a question that is not easily answered based on many unmentioned factors. Just figured that someone has tracked it over the years and had a decent estimate. I have heard what Jim stated. Also 1.75 times but that is not an exact as cutting line all day vs locating is a different story as well. All I truly know is i am not anywhere near where i need to be or want to be.  I reckon it takes time on drafting and I thought i would be further along than i am at this point but civil 3d is a long ways from terramdel where i had most of my time and auto cad 10. I am basically teaching myself the civil 3d and its not fun at all.

As a newbie to drafting I already know I am slow as molasses on a cold day.

I'm certainly no expert with only six months of full-time drafting experience, but I think that organization and automation are key. Organization meaning making use of a block library unique to your business. Automation meaning making use of AutoLISP, or something similar.

@olemanriver

Might be worth noting our workflow was Access to 12D or TBC then to Autocad LT. We did not use Civil3d. We could have skipped the TBC but used it for extra QC over and above what we did in Access

@field-dog well that is some of my biggest hurdles. They assumed i know where they keep everything and that i knew they have certain standards. Like the different blocks and even early on i didn’t even have the correct layers loaded and had a little bit of a rump chewing on that. Of course i took it and asked where is these standards located. X drive. Which I didn’t have access to for 4 months. IT finally got that part done. I am also not just drafting either. I am out banging on doors for business and meeting clients organizing reports qa/qc teaching crew chiefs how to run our equipment etc.  i have not used the lisp commands yet at all. I do have some of our blocks saved not all yet but some. Thanks man. I will ask about those.

@jimcox gotcha.  We have my boss and i done some comparisons of TBC to civil 3d from our expert civil folks. TBC is not shabby and everytime i find and discover something new a little trick or way to save time he likes what he sees.  Now he is a cad guy but he likes the way i can answer most any questions he has as i manage my projects through tbc and even the simple things like who shot that point and what day is easy in TBC as it is shown what Trimble access job or jxl file in the properties. I can turn on the vectors from rtk or robot when he is asking questions. Of course some of the other things for reporting and such he loves that.

There is no clear answer to this question as every project is different in complexity.  I estimate that for every hour spent in the field, 2.5 hours will be spent in the office between my time to prepare a proposal, set up the research for the job, resolve the boundary and passing it on to drafting, then there the QA/QC process.  Not every job is a winner, estimating is just that, you never know if you have to return to the field to dig deeper to resolve issues that may pop up.

@chris-bouffard Hey thank you.  Dig deeper. Love that saying. Reminds me of when I first started surveying. The RLS would say i don’t give a da&&&& how deep you dig just find the darn pin. I know its there.  We do have to make money but I am one that tends to spend more time looking than not. Honestly i could look and scratch and dig all day. I have a lot to learn and as always enjoying every moment of it. This site is  perfect for gathering information and then figuring out what works in your own situation. Thank you.

The time killers can be reviews and edits, or a client not knowing what they actually want.  And delays by the clients, jobs get put on hold and then resurrected months later, and you spend time trying to get back into it

@jph oh i have been in that situation on client changing his mind over and over again lol. Thank you. Always great gathering knowledge.

My starting point is an hour of office time for every hour of field. This can easily vary by a factor of 2 in either direction. 

Also - my estimate spreadsheet includes a column for PLS Professional Supervision of 1/10 hr per hour of staff time. This is completely separate from my estimate of time to complete the task at hand.  

Until it's right....

Seriously, though, I would have a hard time putting a number on the drafting time too.  I find it varies greatly, but I do a lot of different kinds of work.  As field dog and jim cox alluded to, standard blocks and layers, field to finish, and like stuff really makes the work more efficient.  I've known surveyors who made believable claims of field to finish pretty much drawing the map in the field.  If all you have left to do when you get to the office is putting a title block on, it goes pretty quickly...

Still learning!

I've known surveyors who made believable claims of field to finish pretty much drawing the map in the field.

This is 2023. A good party chief should be equipped with a COGO-CAD program running on a tablet. Any simple 2-D survey should be 90% completed while in the field.

A good party chief should be equipped with a COGO-CAD program running on a tablet.  Any simple 2-D survey should be 90% completed while in the field.

I'm not understanding what a "simple 2-D survey" is. 

Aside from the fact that every survey I do is done in 3D (recording vertical data is just too easy not to do it), if it's just a boundary that will ultimately be mapped in 2D there's nothing to draft that's worth looking at while in the field, and I rarely attempt to reconcile all the boundary evidence while in the field anyway -- I much prefer to deal with adjustments and boundary analysis while in the comfort of my office.  And if it's a topo, there's way too much detail to fuss with while in the field.

No tablet in my truck.  If that makes me a bad party chief (of a 1-man crew!), so be it.

I've known surveyors who made believable claims of field to finish pretty much drawing the map in the field.

This is 2023. A good party chief should be equipped with a COGO-CAD program running on a tablet. Any simple 2-D survey should be 90% completed while in the field.

Then I am not a good party chief. Doing CAD on a tablet, in a truck, on a field site has to be the least efficient and less desirable thing I can think of. 

I'm not understanding what a "simple 2-D survey" is. 

I'm thinking a mortgage, or boundary and improvement, survey. Find the property corners, tie the house to the boundary, and draw the house. If you use line work, simply connect the dots.

Find the property corners, tie the house to the boundary, and draw the house.

No wonder I didn't understand it - that kind of survey pretty much doesn't exist here in CA.