Open Traverse Report & Traverses Export

You can get an angular closure by making a celestial absevation on each end of the traverse, and check the angles taking into account the convergency of meridians. The old K&E Ephemeris has the formulas to use for this. I used to check my angular closure on route surveys for pipe lines or buried telephone cable?ÿ surveys this way and would then adjust the angles between these observations. Took solars when x-ing Range Lines and Township Lines or in areas where we encountered a lot of shorts legs due to terrain or other limitations for longer legs of the route.

This is a very interesting solution to keep in mind for future field traverse measurements where fixed points are not available for observations and the need of an angular closure is required for high precision.

However, I am looking for a workaround about the case of the "open traverse" itself where only the start point is a known point and the backsight of the first point is known, where no additional field observations are made in order to be able to give it an angle closure for example.

I know that this is the worst case of traverse because no adjustments can be applied, however it can be used in surveys where not the maximum precision is required which was the case with me.

So I would like to know if anyone is able to generate a report of an open traverse with SPSO (for example by using a specific stylesheet through the job generator report which the program provides).

The report would show the coordinates of the stations that the open traverse is consisted of (which are computed from the program though the backsight and foresight observations between them), the computed azimuth and the computed mean distance?ÿbetween the pair of stations with backsight and foresight observations.

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There should be a routine to simply reduce raw data to coordinates. Print the solution out and there's your report.

Dear Alan, thanks for taking the time to answer.

I selected the points of an open traverse of my project and opened their point derivation report. The azimuth, the horizontal distance and the vertical distance are all presented for each observation.

By having both the forward and reverse observations of each pair of stations I can compute the mean azimuth, the mean horizontal angle, the mean horizontal distance and the mean vertical distance and insert them into a template that I will create manually in word.

However, if there was an automatical routine that could perform all of the above it would be something very helpful.

I think the way of doing this would be if TBC/SPSO had the Traverse Adjustment Report as one of their templates (which is the case for the Network Adjustment Report for example) so as we would be able to edit it in order to add/remove/edit fields and make it possible to be generated for an open traverse too and/or:

• add the mean horizontal angle and the mean vertical distance to the already established report.
• add another angular and horizontal tolerance for the dependent traverses (if I am not mistaken TBC/SPSO only offers one value for angle misclosure per station, minimum horizontal and vertical precision etc.) which have less precision

Maybe it is possible to do this through:

• editing the Network Adjustment Report template (or maybe some other template) and adding the suitable data fields but as of now I have not found a solution
• creating a stylesheet which would create a report for all the traverses of the project

If anyone knows a way to do this it would be something very helpful.

In my last post I wrote that the mean vertical distance is not included into the already established report, which is wrong because it can be found as "Meaned Forward Distance" under the "Reduced Vertical Distances Before Adjustment" heading of the Traverse Adjustment Report.

Additionally, a trick that I have found in order to include Open Traverses under the "Traverse Networks" in Project Explorer?ÿis to follow the process of creating a new traverse by clicking on the ƒ??Adjust Traverse" icon and after you define the Stations (and the observations) that include it you change the Status from ƒ??Enabledƒ? to ƒ??Disabledƒ? and then clicking ƒ??Applyƒ?.

However, I still have not found a way to:

- Include the Meaned Horizontal Angle to the already established report

- Create a report for the Open Traverses which would include the following:

• Horizontal Adjustment: Station #, Meaned Horizontal Angle, Meaned Azimuth, Meaned Horizontal Distance, Easting coordinate, Northing coordinate
• Vertical Adjustment:?ÿStation #, Meaned Vertical Distance, Vertical

How does one "adjust" anything to an unknown? I don't see how that is possible and neither does your software. The closure and adjustments are based solely on your surveyed coordinates vs the known coordinates. What you seek is mathematically impossible. There is no reference coordinate for the software to use to establish any closing point that you did shoot.

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@cptdent First of all thanks for taking the time to reply.

As I stated in my above posts I know that in this case of traverse no adjustment can be implemented. I will use an example of what I would like the program to be able to perform:

Let's say that S1, S2 are two control points.

Total Station (TS) Occupation Point: S2,?ÿTS Backsight Point: S1, TS Foresight Point: S3 (which will be the next point that the TS will be placed on with unknown coordinates of course) with computed horizontal distance 85.075 meters

TS Occupation Point: S3, TS Backsight Point: S2 with computed horizontal distance 85.068 meters, TS Foresight Point: S4 (which will be the next point that the TS will be placed on with also unknown coordinates) with computed horizontal distance 72.345 meters.

TS Occupation Point: S4, TS Backsight Point: S3 with computed horizontal distance 72.339 meters, TS Foresight Point: You know (or you realize) that you are neither able to foresight a control point nor perform?ÿcelestial absevations on each end of the traverse (S2 and S4) and check the angles taking into account the convergency of meridians in order to get an angular closure (as stated by?ÿ@charles-l-dowdell)

When you import the above data in TBC and select both S3 and S4 and open their "Point derivation report", the program states that the terrestrial observations used for the calculation of the:

- S3 coordinates are S2->S3 and S4->S3

- S4 coordinates is S3->S4

However, what I would like the program to perform is to calculate the coordinates of:

- the S3 point by using the S2->S3 (85.075 meters) and S3->S2 (85.068 meters) observations and those of

- the S4 point by using the S3->S4 (72.345 meters) and S4->S3 (72.339 meters) observations.

The only way to perform this is by making the program read S3 and S4 points as part of a traverse.

In order for anyone to understand better what I am saying is to try the following:

1) Before applying the traverse adjustment of the stations which consist of a traverse, select those with unknown coordinates and open their "Point List" report.

2) Save somewhere their coordinates.

3) Perform the traverse adjustment by setting Adjust angles: None (No angle adjustment is performed), Adjust vertical: None (No elevation adjustment is performed), Adjust horizontal: (No horizontal adjustment is performed).

4) Open the Traverse Adjustment Report and save the Adjusted Easting, Adjusted Northing and Adjusted Vertical coordinates.

The only "adjustment" performed in this traverse is the use of the foresight (forward distance) and backsight (reverse distance) observations for the calculations of the Easting, Northing and Vertical (Elevation) coordinates of the stations with unknown coordinates.

5) Compare the coordinates of the Traverse Adjustment Report with those you saved before the Traverse Adjustment. You will notice that they are not the same and their difference is dependent on the difference between the foresight and backsight observations performed at the field.

So, my point is that the program should be able to perform a Traverse Adjustment when the last station is uknown with an unknown foresight, where the only "adjustment" performed would be to take into account the foresight and backsight observations for the calculation of the coordinates.

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I agree that it should be able to give the requested report by simply running the traverse and selecting the "No Adjustment" option. Especially if you already have common points in your coordinate file. I believe Carlson Survey can do this, but I have not run Spectra or any of the other less costly programs. Not trying to be ugly or anything, but when it comes to computer software and hardware especially, you get what you pay for.

Maybe if you run over to theswamp.org, someone over there can write you a routine that you can add to your computer that will add this feature to your program. Lot of good people over there that really get off on a solid software challenge.

I agree with your assertion that regarding computer software and hardware, quality comes with price in most cases, however Spectra Precision Survey Office is essentially the same with Trimble Business Center and they cost around the same with Carlson Survey after I brief search that I made.

It's just unfortunate that this type of Traverse is not able to be run with the current version of the program and I hope it will be corrected with the upcoming versions. Thank you for providing me with a place to look for a solution.

Have a nice day.

Just a different guess ... ?ÿand some more options.

I do not have acces to this software but think it originates also from the old Trimble Geomatics Office software.

That software had a lot of reports that build html sheets.

There are also the export options ... a lot of the report titles could also be found with the same names under the export menu which was dividend in multiple sectioƒ??s (survey, CAD, ..., CUSTOM,...)

under custom one could easily build his own export, selecting and formatting fields from the different tables that are there behind the scene. The result is an ASCII (simpele text) file.

This file can be imported in Excel, If needed you can average there, do some more calculations and build your custom report from there.

Another option may be to explore the export options on your data collector. If you can export to some xml format (land-xml, job-xml) you will find all RAW data there. However, this is the hard way since you have to filter the data yourself by writing some code in Excel or do some real programming.

greetz,

Christof.

Thanks for your answer Christof.

Yes, TBC/SPSO has the option of creating a custom report, however there is not a template provided for the Traverse Adjustment Report to add/remove/edit fields and make it possible to be generated for an open traverse for example.

I am using Survey Pro as my field software which enables me to export my data to land-xml, job-xml and various other formats. I have done what you said. I exported my data to "Nikon raw format". This is a very useful format which ends with .raw and can be opened with every text editor and be saved as a .txt file in order to be inserted into excel, which I did before importing my data into SPSO.?ÿI attach a .jpg file in order for everyone to see the format of the "Nikon raw format".

I filtered my data so as to have for each Traverse the raw data that will be used and wrote a code in order to produce the results of their Adjustment. I did this before inserting my data into SPSO because it would be my first time of adjusting traverses using SPSO so I wanted to have the results ready for comparison (and yes this is the hard way haha). From there I realised the problem with open traverses.

One tip for everyone in order to save time of writing a code to filter the raw data included into a land-xml or a job-xml file.

If your field software does not have the ability to produce a "Nikon raw format" for your raw data, SPSO/TBC can do it using its "Job Report Generator" option. If you have a .job file, a .jxl file or an .xml file of your field data and want to convert them to the "Nikon raw format" you do the following:

- Open the Job Report Generator

- Choose the file you want to convert under the "Job file" option

- Choose the "Nikon raw format" stylesheet under the "Style sheet" option (ends with .xls)

- Choose the name of the .htm file that will be created under the "Save As" option

- Click OK

Your default browser opens the .htm file created from "Job Report Generator" and from there you can select them all, copy them and paste them into an empty .txt file which you can insert later into Excel or another program you want.

The "Nikon raw format" stylesheet file is available from the official Trimble website along with other very useful stylesheets which you can use on your field data. You can find them at the following address:

http://www.trimble.com/globalTRLTAB.asp?nav=Collection-32914

Greetings,

Greg

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Hi Greg,

i had a look at your screenshot and noticed

meters,

gons

NEZ ...

and after checking your profiel noticed you are from Europe - Greece!

Hi from Belgium! ƒ?«‹?

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Is Greg a common name in Greece?

What software are you coding with?

Be carefull with open traverses and sideshot traverse points! itƒ??s better to avoid them or be sure to have check shots at your detail points.

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grtz,

Christof.?ÿ

Hello again Christof,

Greg is not a common name in Greece but the English translation of my greek name.

What I wrote in my previous post regarding coding in Excel was not correct, I simply wrote the proper formulas in order to produce the results of each one of my traverses using my raw data.

The screenshot I uploaded is not from my data but from the official Trimble website which uses it as an example to show what is the format of the "Nikon raw format". I know that Open Traverse is the worst type of traverse, however sometimes is unavoidable due to terrain limitations. All of my open traverses are dependent on others which are mathematically closed.

Best of luck to Belgium in the ongoing World Cup!

Greetings,

Greg

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