Been giving Carlson a trial run converting from LDD. I typically work in a ground-based (6500' above msl) local coordinate system with known relation to State Plane (or Lat/Long). I need to set up Carlson so it will know the proper translation, rotation and scale to SPC. Ultimately, I need to download imagery from state website with images published in UTM.
How's the best way to set up a LDP projection in Carlson dwg setup?
Do I need Carlson GIS to import the imagery with a world file?
Thanks for any help offered.
JBS
http://update3.carlsonsw.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=375 4">Look at the last reply in this thread. Good luck!
I don't think you need the GIS module to add photos. I know mapiinsert works in Civil3D, I am not sure what the equivalent ICAD command is.
I had to purchase the GIS module to get the maps and photos to locate to the coordinate system. The Carlson module defaulted to meter units so I had to edit something in the GIS module and change the units to feet because the world file comes in meters. I haven't loaded another photo lately so I don't know if the module defaults to meters every time or not. I'm just converting from LDD myself and probably aren't much help, but I have the email of the Carlson Guru and I haven't been able to stump him with a question yet. It seems to do everything LDD did, you just have to search for the right menu.
Just try typing "GEOTIFF" in the command line. That works in Carlson Survey 2015 OEM.
I'm surprised that the Intellicad version does not have GIS capability. That's something they need to add. The 2015 Survey OEM version comes with the GIS tan. I really thought all the versions had the same features.
Getting the Intellicad version and then having to purchase the GIS module makes it cost as much or more than the OEM version? Not a good thing.
> Just try typing "GEOTIFF" in the command line. That works in Carlson Survey 2015 OEM.
The GEOTIFF command works, however, I can't find any way to inform Carlson that the world file is in UTM Zone 12 meter format. It doesn't seem make the proper conversion from the world file to the current drawing projection. The image file inserts out in space.
Using the GIS module, I tried inserting a Google image file and it seemed to orient it just fine. Apparently, they are properly equating the projections from Google to the dwg projection.
There seems to be a disconnect between the world file units and the dwg projection units. Apparently Carlson assumes the world file is in the same system as the dwg projection?
JBS
It doesn't reproject the image from one system to another. It simply inserts the image at the coordinates of the world file and scales based on the world file pixel size. The user must be aware of what coordinate system and units the source image is in, and translate rotate scale the image to whatever coordinate system you may want.
It would be great if Carlson did do image reprojection. It would save me a lot of hassle.
Setting up the coordinate system is important for being able to label lat/long, for being able to use the geodetic bearing labels, and for import export of Google Earth KMZ/KML files. Probably for other purposes too, but not anything related to images that I am aware of.
> I'm surprised that the Intellicad version does not have GIS capability.
The IntelliCAD version of Carlson Survey has the same GIS menu and functionality as that of Survey OEM.
Additionally, the GIS module (only available in IntelliCAD or as an add-on to AutoCAD) has additional functionality such as the ability to place Google Earth Images and/or data from Esri's ArcGIS Online Services.
> It would be great if Carlson did do image reprojection. It would save me a lot of hassle.
I've remitted a request that would add image frames as entities to be processed as part of the Points -- Adjust Coordinates -- Coordinate Transformation (By Entities) routine.
Until the functionality is added, you could draw polyline "markers" to two opposing corners of the image and perform the transformation on those marker polylines. Then, use the Edit -- Align -- 2D Align routine to map the two corners of the image to the two positions of the polyline markers.
You could try one of two approaches. Under Settings -- Drawing Setup:
Option 1 - Set your desired Projection and Zone. Click on the Define Localization button. In the dialog box that follows, you can click on Add and start to input local coordinates to know Lat/Long or Grid coordinates.
Option 2 - If you know the parameters of your LDP, change the "Projection" drop-list to More Pre-Defined/User-Defined and then click the Define Projection button. In the dialog box that follows, click Add User-Defined and input your transformation parameters.
> Until the functionality is added, you could draw polyline "markers" to two opposing corners of the image and perform the transformation on those marker polylines. Then, use the Edit -- Align -- 2D Align routine to map the two corners of the image to the two positions of the polyline markers.
For small areas this is method isn't bad, however, distortion between two projections can get ugly quick, such as UTM and State Plane. To minimize this, I generally work with a project centric point and calculate the theta for UTM and SPC at that point, then add them and rotate the aerial by that amount (provided I'm trying to use a UTM aerial in a SPC drawing). I then scale from that central point. A quad sized area can really put some distortion at the corners, to the point of being noticeable even at the precision of a quadrangle in the middle.
Thanks Ladd and Shawn. That's disappointing to not translate images between systems. It would seem easiest to simply select the projection system for the World file from a drop down list. It seems that the resources are always in a different system than the drawing. Jumping out to another piece of software to manually calculate the translations for your insertion point, rotation and scale is a real hassle. All of the other import routines must already be doing it. Maybe it will be easier to add the external map server and import it as an esri map?
JBS