> What else are you using? There must be something to resolve coordinates, etc. Or do you just use your dc? Adjustments? Field to finish?
We use a product called 12D ( Twelve Dee ) for reductions, calcs and adjustments, tins and contouring, baseplots etc.
12D takes the data from the collectors, does the linework and a whole lot more. That then goes to Autocad for final tidy up and plot. We probably use only 10 to 20% of its capabilties.
12D also works well with Landonline, New Zealand's electronic title and survey data registry. We use it to extract datasets, and to prepare changes to upload.
Excel is a mainstay for all sorts of odd jobs. We also have Trimble Business Centre, but it gets little use.
Popular with Leica shops Down Under (we're Trimble ) is LisCad. It also plays nice with Landonline.
They pretty much seem to have the NZ surveying market to themselves.
Bruce Small ??
All of my programs were written in Visual Basic 6. Old stuff, but it works.
Bruce Small ??
> I use the Leica screen to collect an ASCII file, and my own F2F program to convert that to a script file to run in AutoCAD. That drawing is almost ready to go with very little cleanup. I also run the data into my COGO program, which again does exactly what I want it to do.
Hah! With just a little more effort you could have written your own CAD and dispensed with buying ACAD Lt.
Most of us who aren't as clever as you need to buy something to augment ACAD.
> We use a product called 12D ( Twelve Dee ) for reductions, calcs and adjustments, tins and contouring, baseplots etc.
So you have made a significant investment beyond just ACAD Lt. I expect that your total investment might be close to the cost of a copy of Carlson w/ACAD (or Microsurvey) which would likely have similar capabilities.
Too true!! The SRP of one seat of AutoCad LT is $1,200. Unless the add-on is FREE, they are in the hole and do not have near the functionality of Carlson Survey, ie Field To Finish, surfaces, etc.
Oh well, you get what you pay for.
I was thinking the same thing... and more add ons means more things to go wrong!
I went through all this a couple months ago.
I ended up with a Dell optiplex (64 bit Win 7 pro)running Carlson w/intellicad. The computer is loaded with RAM and is quite fast. The Intellicad is just a little different than the ACAD version. It was an adjustment. It is a little buggy too, tool bars can suddenly become moved around and you have to redo them, pretty minor I guess.
I tried running my old Carlson w/ACAD in win xp mode and that didn't work at all. Ended up doing a clean Win install after that fiasco.
Got a new DC while I was at it, the indestructible Carlson but I have been too busy to slow down and really learn the DC. It's a little scary to be out in the field with a DC you don't REALLY know.
There were some trying moments but everything has settled down nicely. The best part was that due to a strict and thorough backup plan for the entire c drive of the old laptop, I didn't lose a single file. Whew.
> Well, it appears I have dodged a bullet, my laptop gave me the blue screen of death Friday at 5:15 (I think it had a hot date) but somehow fired back up this morning.
>
> It's a Panasonic toughbook, running XP and my ancient version of Autocad 2000 LDD.
>
> I know, I know, it's stone age software, even compared to some of my landscaper clients!!
>
> I'm currently mulling my options, both INside and OUTside the box.
>
> Inside: get a new desktop monster, and a seat of current Autocad
>
> get a new desktop monster, and a seat of current Autocad LT ?? Anyone using LT for a survey business???
>
>
> get a new desktop monster and "some other cad program"
>
>
>
> OUTside.....
>
> Switch over to Mac (I'm a mac user other than for work) and get Autocad for Mac..
>
> ??? Any thoughts??
>
> andy
I've never seen the AutoCAD for Mac, so I can't speak to that. However, other thoughts outside the box would be Carlson with the OEM engine and not have all of the fluff of full blown AutoCAD. It runs VERY well on Windows 7 and Windows seven is WAY better than XP and I loved XP. There are so many other things we use that I don't think will run on Mac, that until you can truly run seamlessly on either, I think that, in the interim, you should stick with PC vs. Mac.
There are several Carlson OEM users here and on FB so learning curve and tech support should be a non issue.
I'd be happy to help if you need anything Andy.
I have used a number of survey packages over the years.
So far I prefer LisCad.
While 12D is powerful and functional it has a number of quirks and is not actually very friendly. It looks and feels like a grown-up version of TrimMap (yuk)
I have yet to try Carlson. You guys make it sound really good. Around here the telling feature is how well it handles XML data, and in particular the flavour of LandXML spoken by Landonline.
> .... Around here the telling feature is how well it handles XML data, and in particular the flavour of LandXML spoken by Landonline.
They would probably be responsive to a request to make it work with Landonline if any fix was necessary. One of the things they do better than any other is accept input from almost any source and export to almost any output format.