So I am wondering which commercially available office software can do more for me on the office side of surveying than just my Civil 3D can do while working with both Trimble Access & Carlson SurvPC? Could Carlson Survey office software potentially work with Trimble's raw files for conventional surveying? Or is there a file converter or report style that I need to download from Trimble's website to make Access more user friendly with any office software? Could Starnet, Microsurvey or TraversePC do this? I've heard a lot of people rave about Trimble Business Center and it seems awesome (despite their price) but I recently purchased a BRX7 GNSS setup with SurvPC 6.xx as the price on the BRX7 was less than half the price of the Trimble R12i and I still use my older Trimble S3 robotic total station with Trimble Access 2017 whenever needed - especially for construction staking gravity utilities & curb. And before somebody says "just buy a new robotic setup" please realize that I enjoy my S3 and am comfortable with how Access 2017 is laid out, nor am I related to the John Rockefeller (I do not like to finance equipment - if I can't afford it then I try to do without it)
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I do love my Autodesk Civil 3D software for topo & base-mapping needs, engineering & design but I will admit I'm not fond of how it handles office side of surveying - especially the analysis and adjustments. I have had issues trying to get their required .fbk exports from Trimble Access to work properly on Civil 3D though I do realize some have had success with this. And I'd REALLY like to find a better way to produce cut-sheets for construction staking than just having to create them in Excel and manually reference the cut or fills via text file point imports.
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Any information is greatly appreciated & if you mention the software brand, can you tell whether it requires an annual subscription or not? I would prefer something that is a one time purchase but I do realize the software industry is setup on a royalties system these days. thanks guys
And I'd REALLY like to find a better way to produce cut-sheets for construction staking than just having to create them in Excel and manually reference the cut or fills via text file point imports.
Access has a number of cut sheet reports.
But because they are translated into different languages, they get installed in the 'language' folder and only then if you choose to install the Language & Help files, which is not compulsary
You should see 'Stakeout report' and?ÿ 'Survey Report' in the list of export formats. If you dont - reinstall the language pack.
I think they might help.
As jim stated you can get lots of different cut sheets and reports for access and even make your own. Trimble website has many you can download for free. For stake out reports or cut sheets etc.?ÿ
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I love TBC more and more as I use it. But you bought a carlson and nothing wrong with them either. A good friend ran carlson cad and never had a issue downloading into a format from Trimble Survey Controller ?ÿor Trimble Access for traverse adjustments etc. On Trimble website somewhere there use to be a free download of something called Trimble ascii file generator. This will take a job file or dc file etc and convert it to other formats and also run different reports like jim said as well. Style sheets for cut fill stake out and job reports etc. ?ÿCarlson folks are usually pretty good people maybe give them a call and get a demo version and such and see if you can get the Trimble access into a format it will accept.?ÿ
Traverse PC another friend uses it and he has Trimble Access and Magnet topcon field software. He seems to like what he has.?ÿ
starnet will take about anything if I remember correctly. But mainly for adjustments.?ÿ
I just got my first taste of civil3d fbk issues today. Arghhhhh what a pain. ?ÿIt was not even raw data just a csv file of points. Same file brought in 3 different times and all different results. I was ready for target practice. If I have points with point number northing easting elevation and code why can??t the most powerful drafting software in the world civil3d auto draw from codes without creating a fbk file. I bet it can but I have no idea how nor anyone i ask. I can rotate an object 20 different ways with civil3d but draw from a code in points nope. My instructor today said it is horrible the fbk thing. Lol.?ÿ
Oh that brx7 is a nice set up. Not a bad piece of gear at all. Carlson also has a least squares package as well I believe. I have never used it but heard good things about it and such.?ÿ
I would in your situation look at the carlson if you are looking at getting rid of civil3d altogether. If you just want something to adjust a traverse and do cut sheets for access only then look at the different style sheets free. You have any xml knowledge you can customize them along with your stake out settings in access and get what you need. Heck send me a spreadsheet of what you want it to look like and I might can get a style sheet made up for you to place right in your data collector and also the ascii file generator. Try the freebies first and play with your stake out settings like as staked name point code etc. that will change how each report draws the information from and displays it. ?ÿ
Hopefully some of this helps. If I don??t confuse you. ?????ÿ
thank you sir - yes I have struggled with the language side of things whereas others probably consider these tasks simple. I know there's ways to work around these output formats but I did what I could to get thru the computer portions of highschool & college. starting to regret that now - wish I had paid a lot more attention to that course on excel too haha
As jim stated you can get lots of different cut sheets and reports for access and even make your own. Trimble website has many you can download for free. For stake out reports or cut sheets etc.?ÿ
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I love TBC more and more as I use it. But you bought a carlson and nothing wrong with them either. A good friend ran carlson cad and never had a issue downloading into a format from Trimble Survey Controller ?ÿor Trimble Access for traverse adjustments etc. On Trimble website somewhere there use to be a free download of something called Trimble ascii file generator. This will take a job file or dc file etc and convert it to other formats and also run different reports like jim said as well. Style sheets for cut fill stake out and job reports etc. ?ÿCarlson folks are usually pretty good people maybe give them a call and get a demo version and such and see if you can get the Trimble access into a format it will accept.?ÿ
Traverse PC another friend uses it and he has Trimble Access and Magnet topcon field software. He seems to like what he has.?ÿ
starnet will take about anything if I remember correctly. But mainly for adjustments.?ÿ
I just got my first taste of civil3d fbk issues today. Arghhhhh what a pain. ?ÿIt was not even raw data just a csv file of points. Same file brought in 3 different times and all different results. I was ready for target practice. If I have points with point number northing easting elevation and code why can??t the most powerful drafting software in the world civil3d auto draw from codes without creating a fbk file. I bet it can but I have no idea how nor anyone i ask. I can rotate an object 20 different ways with civil3d but draw from a code in points nope. My instructor today said it is horrible the fbk thing. Lol.?ÿ
Oh that brx7 is a nice set up. Not a bad piece of gear at all. Carlson also has a least squares package as well I believe. I have never used it but heard good things about it and such.?ÿ
I would in your situation look at the carlson if you are looking at getting rid of civil3d altogether. If you just want something to adjust a traverse and do cut sheets for access only then look at the different style sheets free. You have any xml knowledge you can customize them along with your stake out settings in access and get what you need. Heck send me a spreadsheet of what you want it to look like and I might can get a style sheet made up for you to place right in your data collector and also the ascii file generator. Try the freebies first and play with your stake out settings like as staked name point code etc. that will change how each report draws the information from and displays it. ?ÿ
Hopefully some of this helps. If I don??t confuse you. ?????ÿ
yes the reports are something I need to keep trying on- I downloaded them and tried a couple times before I just got frustrated and went back to creating cut sheets from text files of points. I like the fact that star*net has a ton of flexibility in manufacturers but I will admit its user interface and output looks intimidating haha. but I think that just means I have a false sense of security in the GUI & output of other programs and I'm just fooling myself there
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dude this BRX7 (just on the RTN network) is the heat - and I have ran a Trimble R12i (also VRS/RTN setup) on multiple occasions at the same project locations as well as Topcon Hiper VR base rover setup that struggled to compete with the other two I mentioned. Granted Topcon has the local grading contractors' machine control market here it seems but yea this new Carlson receiver can't be beat at the price it sells for relative to the Trimble. But I can't knock either receiver's performance and I think Trimble Access has a better user interface than SurvPC but that may change the more I use the software
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As for the point stuff in Civil 3D - message me with your email and I'll share some stuff that might be super helpful for survey data import (linework and coding). I'm far from the brightest but I was able to figure this part out with some trial and error and got C3D to render some decent looking base-mapping that works well for my needs
Could Carlson Survey office software potentially work with Trimble's raw files for conventional surveying?
Yes, Carlson can work with the raw files exported from Trimble DC's with Access.?ÿ
Well, unless they've done something recently to make it more proprietary, it should be just renaming it to rw5 and opening in Carlson Survey
Could Starnet ... do this?
Starnet will read data from all those sources, and others, and simultaneously adjust it. But that is all it does - least squares adjustments.
@mark-mayer gotcha - thanks for the clarifications. I would prefer something that will do a little bit more and it seems like Carlson offers that
Could Carlson Survey office software potentially work with Trimble's raw files for conventional surveying?
Yes, Carlson can work with the raw files exported from Trimble DC's with Access.?ÿ
Well, unless they've done something recently to make it more proprietary, it should be just renaming it to rw5 and opening in Carlson Survey
I can't remember the last time I seen an .RW5 file. Access files are all .JOB files now.?ÿ Not sure how they work with Carlson.
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Don't bother with FBK files, that is old out of date format that is no longer needed. Just export a properly coded .csv or .txt file and you're good to go.?ÿ Sounds like @ncsudirtman has you covered on that front.?ÿ
You can export rw5 from survpc and import that file in TBC also.
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@wa-id-surveyor Thank you I figured it had to be easier lol. I took the data that was messing up in civil3d fbk and just wrote a quick feature code library in tbc on the fly and got my job out the door. Had to clean up a few code issues from the field but its so easy in tbc just edit the code hit recompute and it redraws. The cad folks were like uhmm that was easy. Lol.
Most DC software outputs a cut sheet anymore.?ÿ They, largely, just differ in how "pretty" they are.?ÿ I know Carlson SurvPC does it without much bother.?ÿ If you make a simple company Excel template, you can just copy in the Excel data.?ÿ Hide the columns you do not want, print to pdf, and kick it out.
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PM me if you would like some basic help in setting one up for Carlson exports.?ÿ To be fair, I can almost guarantee Access has something real pretty for this.
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If you want to do it "fancy" in the office with Carlson:
https://files.carlsonsw.com/mirror/manuals/Carlson_2021/source/Survey/Survey/Cut_Sheet/Cut_Sheet.htm
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Honestly, the excel template way is basic, but Q&D.?ÿ You can make this as easy or as complicated as you want.?ÿ Cheers.
