Has anyone ever used this software? I recently purchased the paper and computer files of a deceased surveyor who used this program. I have his computer but can't figure out how to use that program to open his jobs.
I understand the company that wrote the program is out of business.
They have been gone for a while. I still have it and even when to some effort to make it work in Windows 7/8. Never been a faster calc program, when you are good at it you can fly. Their CAD support was a joke, so, it is calc only.
What version and what are you trying to open it in? Do you need a couple of ASCII files for a few projects? If so it would just be easier for me to make the files. Do you have the parallel port key?
I used the program at a company I used to work for, now out of business, about twenty years ago. True, it was very fast. It was an old DOS program with skimpy graphics, but very fast and easy to use. Maybe someone out there can be of some help. It has been too long for me and my memory.:'(
FYI, Carlson 2013 (and probably its predecessors) will convert PacSoft files. See this page for details.
As an alternative, if you have a lot of files to convert you can probably find a programmer who'll cook up a one-off application to convert them to ASCII or other format of your choice for a couple hundred bucks. The hard part would be figuring out the file format -- I assume it's binary -- but since coordinate files are pretty simple there aren't too many possibilities to wade through.
Carlson, how about Simplicity Survey 3.0 coordinate files
> FYI, Carlson 2013 (and probably its predecessors) will convert PacSoft files. See this page for details.
>
> As an alternative, if you have a lot of files to convert you can probably find a programmer who'll cook up a one-off application to convert them to ASCII or other format of your choice for a couple hundred bucks. The hard part would be figuring out the file format -- I assume it's binary -- but since coordinate files are pretty simple there aren't too many possibilities to wade through.
Maybe someone with Carlson will read this, but I have a number of old Simplicity Survey 3.0 coordinate files from my fathers old company. I know Carlson owns Simplicity now, but it appears that they only support some of the later coordinate files types. I have a converter that still runs in Windows XP mode, but I am not sure how much longer I will have that. It would be great if surveying software companies like Carlson would continue to provide conversion utilities for these legacy coordinate file types.
Carlson, how about Simplicity Survey 3.0 coordinate files
> > FYI, Carlson 2013 (and probably its predecessors) will convert PacSoft files. See this page for details.
> >
> > As an alternative, if you have a lot of files to convert you can probably find a programmer who'll cook up a one-off application to convert them to ASCII or other format of your choice for a couple hundred bucks. The hard part would be figuring out the file format -- I assume it's binary -- but since coordinate files are pretty simple there aren't too many possibilities to wade through.
>
> Maybe someone with Carlson will read this, but I have a number of old Simplicity Survey 3.0 coordinate files from my fathers old company. I know Carlson owns Simplicity now, but it appears that they only support some of the later coordinate files types. I have a converter that still runs in Windows XP mode, but I am not sure how much longer I will have that. It would be great if surveying software companies like Carlson would continue to provide conversion utilities for these legacy coordinate file types.
If you know someone that still has access to Survey 4.0 or has Site Survey 3.0 or later, they can maybe read the disks or other storage media and make an ASCII file of the "corn nuts" for you.
PacSoft was far and away the best number crunching software. I regularly worked with 20,000 points in the software.
Too bad the company is gone.
Best of Luck.
SMI Transfer v7.0 will convert PacSoft files to many other forms.
Most point number files are a text file with a space or comma
The extension can be changed to fit some software needs
Carlson import points has user settings to accommodate many different text files and extensions
If the file can be opened with Word or Wordpad or other word processing software, Carlson will probably load it with the proper settings.
0.02
> Most point number files are a text file with a space or comma
That hasn't been my experience. While most (all?) survey software will export an ASCII file, many applications -- especially those developed for early desktop and field systems, in which both durable and volatile memory was precious -- use a binary representation in order to save space. SurvCE, LLCOGO and TDS are a few that come to mind. I would expect PacSoft to be another, but I have no direct experience with it.
I used it extensively in the mid 1990's and at the time it was one of the best out there. I remember it was not the easiest software to learn how to use, but it could handle large amounts of data and did well with creating contours. I doubt that newer operating systems will be able to load it onto your computer.
> Has anyone ever used this software? I recently purchased the paper and computer files of a deceased surveyor who used this program. I have his computer but can't figure out how to use that program to open his jobs.
> I understand the company that wrote the program is out of business.
We still use it. You can email me at kristopher dot morgan dot 5655 at gmail dot com
> FYI, Carlson 2013 (and probably its predecessors) will convert PacSoft files. See this page for details.
>
> As an alternative, if you have a lot of files to convert you can probably find a programmer who'll cook up a one-off application to convert them to ASCII or other format of your choice for a couple hundred bucks. The hard part would be figuring out the file format -- I assume it's binary -- but since coordinate files are pretty simple there aren't too many possibilities to wade through.
It doesn't work well at all and the descriptors are not what you need. We still export to ascii then import to Carlson.
Yes, it will run on current operating systems. Mine is functional
I poster from this board sent me a file that unlocks all parts of it rendering the "dongle" unnecessary. Then it loads easy on all OS platforms.
I can open the program which is CivilMaster Civil2000/Survey 2000 version 99-1.8. All that does is open a mostly blank screen with two windows that can't be maximized.
All I want to do is view the completed projects because many of his paper files don't appear to be completed surveys.
I made the same file then. I do find that XP was problematic
> I made the same file then. I do find that XP was problematic
We had the dongle for XP but when we made the transition to 7 with no parallel ports, that's when the file presented itself. It did remove command memory but I use it very seldom. My father still drafts daily in it. I had to do some drafting with it the other day, and I used to be quite good with it, but found that AutoCAD and Carlson blew it's doors off and ultimately, I tweaked the pacsoft file and shipped it to AutoCAD and finished the multiple drawings.
Sounds like you're missing the dongle. You're running the latest and greatest with the latest patch. Without the lock though, it won't fire up. It should plug into the printer port.
Carlson, how about Simplicity Survey 3.0 coordinate files
If you are talking about files with a ZAK extension, they are actually Microsoft Access MDB files. Change the file extension to MDB and you can open it in Access and export to a point ascii file.
We read ZAK files directly.
I was always under the assumption that the parallel keys were un-powered and would last forever. This isn't true, I have two and both died
