Well, this is my first post on here. I was registered in 1983 so I am not exactly new to surveying. I recently bought the professional edition of TPC when they had it on special. I am very disappointed & feel that I have wasted my money as well as my time. I wasn't looking for something to re-invent the wheel, just something to do the job efficiently. Obviously, it will perform some surveying functions fairly efficiently but yet some of the basic functions I need, it will not perform efficiently or not at all. They want you to create a traverse for everything you draw. I thought, well if that is what has to be done, I'll learn to do it. I soon found that has severe restrictions & limitations. It works for boundaries & simple structures but it is very slow or doesn't work at all for complex as-built drawings. It has no tool for drawing parallel lines that I can find & you can not lock the cursor on a line for drawing. They tell me TPC doesn't draw lines. I find that absurd. It's just a play on words, of course it draws lines, how else can you produce a plat or drawing. Word games are not a help. I have to create numerous off set lines at both regular & irregular intervals. The concept of creating traverses for all these is simply not practical. Tree surveys are another problem. I have to draw all the trees to scale & label them as to species & size. The trees will all be dead before I could finish the drawing. The most important things any comprehensive surveying package needs to have is a strong cogo program, a good CAD engine & a complete help index. TPC has sort of a cogo program but it is weak, has no CAD engine & no comprehensive help index. It is more or less a specialized spread sheet.
It is of no use to me.
I want to be fair & see what other surveyors think before I complain to the BBB. Am I overlooking something? Do surveyors in other parts of the country have these problems or are my problems unique? I have used a number of different CAD & COGO programs & was drawing plats within a couple hours with all of them. I spent many hours with their support & more with their manuals trying to create a plat. I gave up & drew it with my old software.
Should there be anyone that can use this software out there, I will sell it cheap. It is the latest 2014 update. I could master it but it is not worth my time or effort as it still won't do what I need it to do. They won't return my money but if I can not sell it, I intend to seek relief through the BBB & or legal remedies.
Also, if anyone has a recommendation for surveying CAD & cogo, I would like to hear it. Preferably something that I can start with the basics & add contouring, least squares, state plane, etc. as I need it. I have looked at Carlson, Micro Survey & PC Survey. Money is tight as I was hit with the depression & a divorce at the same time. One or the other would have been manageable but both at the same time is tough. However, it is more important that I get something that works than what the
cost is. The most expensive product is the one that doesn't work.
Carlson Survey is the best I have used. It has very powerful F2F capability.
Sorry about your troubles . I think you summed up the limitations of the software quit well. Some people swear by it though , it's manly used for boundary surveys . It's a bit buggy for me and I had enormous troubles using it on engineering surveys , topos and big subdivisions.
If you do just boundary it's probably fine .Keeping up with all those traverses is crazy . It's a good idea but it's limited in application .. I think they over hype it a bit .
Carlson does everything you need and won't let you down...
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I guess when they say you are in the "No CAD Zone" they mean it. I use Carlson Survey running on IntelliCAD. Great price with great functionality.
Bang for the Buck?
Carlson on intellicad, hands down
:good:
Iive always wanted to try Traverse PC for its geodetic comps specific to BLM.
Not sure how much you need. But I've been using Foresite for quite sometime now. Several versions of it. I really like the drafting abilities without using an addon cad engine. But it may not be as Autocad compatable as Carlson. It will produce a dwg, but needs some sort of translate file for Autocad to get the line and point styles right. Price is reasonable at about 1 thousand I believe to start. They don't update it anymore, but it works fine like it is; very stable. Works on my Windows 7 machine fine. Just had to update a file to read the USB lock.
> Not sure how much you need. But I've been using Foresite for quite sometime now. Several versions of it. I really like the drafting abilities without using an addon cad engine. But it may not be as Autocad compatable as Carlson. It will produce a dwg, but needs some sort of translate file for Autocad to get the line and point styles right. Price is reasonable at about 1 thousand I believe to start. They don't update it anymore, but it works fine like it is; very stable. Works on my Windows 7 machine fine. Just had to update a file to read the USB lock.
They don't make or sell it anymore. Foresight DXM was about 3-400 USD, Foresight was about $1500 without all the add-ons. Carlson Survey is about that much with a full blown Cad Engine, least squares adjustment, dtm contour and a whole lot of other features I'm not even aware of. The Drafting Engine used by Foresight was actually Terramodel, which is now owned by Trimble and from what I understand is also no longer supported.
What was once TDS is now Spectra Precision, and it looks like they've replaced Foresite with a Quasi TBC type of product called "Survey Office", which appears to be some type of Post Processing software.
If you went to TBC (Trimble Business Center), you'd be paying more money but you'd have the ability post process. Carlson's Cad Capabilities are still better and it doesn't sound like you're looking to do anything too extraordinary.
If I recall, there are add on packages for Generic Cadd. I believe Paul Plutae (sp?)used it and turned a pretty decent deliverable.
I believe Kent uses some different type of Cadd software also. So, there are other flavors out there.
Ralph
Thanks Ralph. Appreciate the update for that software. I still use it though. At work I use Civil 3D and TBC, but my private stuff is Foresite. For good basic cogo and drafting it works well for me. Wish I had the contouring package. Then I could enjoy less interpolation. But I haven't needed it much. Carlson will be the next move up for me.
The company I work for uses TPC. I used Civil 3D before that and loved it. If I was to start my own business I think from what I have heard I would use Carlson for the money and production. TPC and geodetics still need to work out some bugs. If all you do is simple boundary work then you can make TPC work and like it. If you do more then that you might not like all that much. The technical with TPC is the best I have dealt with I will have to say.
Geo, Sorry your experience with TPC has been so disappointing.
I have been using it since V 2.1 and last week created
a contour map with trees - no problem.
You have to get your field codes set up in TPC and then you can
sort the points into the traverses by codes. TPC will then
do alot of the drafting for you, including plotting trees by size and
labeling the trunk dia. if you desire.
As to offset lines, there are two ways to do this - you can use the offset drafting tool
or use the Right of Way Offsets under the COGO tab to offset left, right or both, this
will create new points in a new traverse for each offset, both labeled in reference to
the original line (traverse).
BTW, You did not mention if you had called TPC for Tech support or on line training.
It has been my experience that Mark Lull at TPC is most helpful and very knowledgeable.
Also, there is a TPC users forum where you may find some answers.
Scott
Edit to my above post - I should have read Geo's post more carefully.
I see that he did contact TPC tech support, I'm surprised that he did
not get the help he requested.
Scott
There are a few around here that use Traverse PC or VersaCAD and claim them to be simple and easy to use without all the bells and whistles.
I use Carlson Survey CES that is an early version and does everything I need and more for my Land Surveying practice.
There as local tech that has full blown 2008 Carlson Suite and he does design layouts with topos and grading plans.
Your CADD program should blend together your budget and cadd needs.
0.02
> Thanks Ralph. Appreciate the update for that software. I still use it though. At work I use Civil 3D and TBC, but my private stuff is Foresite. For good basic cogo and drafting it works well for me. Wish I had the contouring package. Then I could enjoy less interpolation. But I haven't needed it much. Carlson will be the next move up for me.
My pleasure Mapman, one of the things I love about Foresight (I have it with all the bells and whistles) is the ease of creating surface models (based on the terramodel engine), it would create a file with a .dtm extension which was about 1/20th of the size of any other file that could be created for the data collector. This would ensure that the collector was not bogged down when staking in the field.
Of course this only applied to TDS.
Cheers,
Ralph
Aloha, Scott:
Thank you for the positive report! I was watching this post and hoping for a comment form veteran TPC user.:-) I purchased TPC just few months ago. So far I like it. Both Mark and John was very helpful to get me going. I am just beginning to use the field codes and love it.
Sorry to hear about your troubles with the software Geo. I hope you'll find a workable solution.
Thanks everybody. I asked for opinions & I got plenty. Obviously, it works for some people. At my stage of the game, I see no reason to try to learn a new concept of doing things when what I am doing now works fine. What is supposed to be wrong with CAD? A poet I am not but how does it go, "A Rose is a Rose is a Rose & by any other name, is still a Rose"? That is close if not exact. If it creates a drawing on a computer, it is CAD. I have to admit, my problems are mostly my own fault & Mark has been more than willing to give me support. That is what happens when you jump into things without thoroughly checking them out. I tried a TPC demo about 20 years ago & didn't like it then. Should have listened to my intuition & first impression. That being said, does anybody want a deal on a TPC license? I think it is time to cut my losses & move on. The smart money seems to be on Carlson running in Intellicad.
This in no way is intended to mean that TPC will not work for anyone else & if you are using it & happy with it, by no means change anything because of what I say. I do strongly recommend that whatever you decide, don't make rash decisions based on cost like I did, check it out first.
WOW! They won't even let you demo it before you spend that kind of money?
I tried it out demo version back when it first came out and hated it. I remember needing cogo for 3 or 4 points and by the time I calculated them I had over 100 points to weed them out of. Their big selling point back then was "point based", screw that. Give me one well placed line.
