A colleague has a layout to do.
The plans sent to him are in PDF form and there are a few hundred piers to stake.
They are on his system, then a 0,0 point was designed and the layout is in N,E, EL format around the 0,0 point, 100' elevation at the FF of existing building and using his grid north.
No big deal, coordinates are given, but they are in feet and inches and they are on sheets with columns and rows separated by lines.
So first he turns the PDF into a text file, but that creates lots of junk in the feet and inches file, excel needs it cleaned up to then make it a decimal foot file. So lots of editing of the few hundred coordinate pairs.
Then he figures out that some of the coordinates are in N, E; but others are in E, N.
AHHHHH, hearing about it makes my skin inch, he doesn't have time to try to get the autocad file that created it all as he has to fly out of town tomorrow.
Computers are wonderful 😉
Except when they aren't 🙁
Yikes!!
Sounds like he needs a thingamajig to do the whatchamacallit stuff to the numbers thingy....that's clear, right? Sheesh!
Why wouldn't there be a layout line and dimensions to the piers so that the contractor could calculate the positions?
Using a PDF for stakeout?!
Why not just call the owner and request a coordinate file?
I NEVER use somebody elses acad file to lay out columns. I stick with S 1.1 or a signed drawing specifically for structural layout. Just discovered a major structure with an exterior wall on one end 0.5 feet long. Steel was already cut. The foundation crew worked from an undated ACAD file.
imaudigger, post: 428036, member: 7286 wrote: Why wouldn't there be a layout line and dimensions to the piers so that the contractor could calculate the positions?
Using a PDF for stakeout?!
Why not just call the owner and request a coordinate file?
They did give him the coordinate file,,,,,,,in PDF format and in foot/inch........
That was all he could get.
They called Wed. sent the file Thurs. he was leaving Friday morning, so he had to get it set up to stake when he gets back, he will have some time to check while he's out of town, but not much I presume.
My favorite was the designer who set 0,0 at center of structure then provided coordinates in all four quadrants without using a sign convention or preferred order of NE or EN.
Just a waste of days and days.
Some people are glutton for punishment.
Scott Zelenak, post: 428046, member: 327 wrote: My favorite was the designer who set 0,0 at center of structure then provided coordinates in all four quadrants without using a sign convention or preferred order of NE or EN.
Just a waste of days and days.
I had one similar. But the coordinates were North and East on one side of the baseline and South and East on the other. No problem if you're careful and keep up with the negative for south, but it sure kept me on my toes.
Andy
All I hear is Profit, Profit, Profit.
Tight time line, lots of work = big money.
MightyMoe, post: 427889, member: 700 wrote: he doesn't have time to try to get the autocad file that created it all as he has to fly out of town tomorrow.
Run Forrest, Run!
I am in situations at times that the PDF is all we have in relation to the schedule. I simply have a report documented referencing the PDF and signed by myself, the client, the superintendent, etc.
Also, even with a CAD file, i request PDF plans as well. You'd be shocked at the discrepencies you'll find the first couple times but then you get used to it and expect it.
Remember, back when a blue line print with dimensions, centerline stations and offset - through curves - is all there was? And a T2 with a top mounted AGA and HP41 for stake out? And radial stake out was still sort of new? And you calced the coords in the front seat of the truck and handed ray out sheets to the guys/gals to stake WHILE calc-ing more ray outs?
When the client didn't provide any coords?
Remember those good old days?
One crew chief was strictly bearings, and you were strictly azimuth?
Larry Scott, post: 428368, member: 8766 wrote: Remember, back when a blue line print with dimensions, centerline stations and offset - through curves - is all there was? And a T2 with a top mounted AGA and HP41 for stake out? And radial stake out was still sort of new? And you calced the coords in the front seat of the truck and handed ray out sheets to the guys/gals to stake WHILE calc-ing more ray outs?
When the client didn't provide any coords?
Remember those good old days?
One crew chief was strictly bearings, and you were strictly azimuth?
Then I got my Topcon total station (maybe 1983) and it would read offsets, I would set on centerline and stake out with it using it as a station/offset tool, I thought I was at the apex of technology.;)
MightyMoe, post: 428370, member: 700 wrote: Then I got my Topcon total station (maybe 1983) and it would read offsets, I would set on centerline and stake out with it using it as a station/offset tool, I thought I was at the apex of technology.;)
Around that time we were "toying" with radial topos with theodolites and top mounted EDMs. Data was recorded in a book and reduced to coordinates at the office.
What I thought the "apex of technology" was the LISP routine written by our CAD tech (AutoCAD Release 5 or 2.0?) where he could tag an alignment, then a data (topo) point, and it would label the point with a station and offset. A world of wonderment fer sure....;)
paden cash, post: 428373, member: 20 wrote: Around that time we were "toying" with radial topos with theodolites and top mounted EDMs. Data was recorded in a book and reduced to coordinates at the office.
What I thought the "apex of technology" was the LISP routine written by our CAD tech (AutoCAD Release 5 or 2.0?) where he could tag an alignment, then a data (topo) point, and it would label the point with a station and offset. A world of wonderment fer sure....;)
We had a total station hooked to a HP and a printer, you would take the shot it would process it and print out the shot. Then you could take the printer tape and glue it into the field book. I had thousands of pages of it, but the gun, even in coarse, would take a while to get the shot, when doing a job with about 50 reservoirs it was too difficult to hold the rod steady enough in the boat to get a good reading. So we used the T2, read stadia and wrote down the three wires, it was still faster than the gun, if you can imagine. I had this young guy, who ended up being an executive in a large Multi-national corp. I never caught him making a mistake in all those readings or the calcs. We topod all those reservoirs by hand that way to fill in void areas for a large photo mapping project.
paden cash, post: 428373, member: 20 wrote: Around that time we were "toying" with radial topos with theodolites and top mounted EDMs. Data was recorded in a book and reduced to coordinates at the office.
What I thought the "apex of technology" was the LISP routine written by our CAD tech (AutoCAD Release 5 or 2.0?) where he could tag an alignment, then a data (topo) point, and it would label the point with a station and offset. A world of wonderment fer sure....;)
HP86 and VisiCalc, Lotus123! A calculating marvel. LISP and ACAD 12. The better good old days. Getting the draftsmen/draftsladies to enter field notes into acad. The office elders didn't think that'd even work. So the LSIT/EIT would start the CAD drawing, boundary control, pass that to drafting, and the topo would be entered from notes and annotated. Bunches of LISP routines. saved a lot of time, but short lived. Then the survey ACAD packages came along.
Now RTK this, data collector that. Opus is now the free lunch, (but still requires a lot of understanding when depending on it for vertical and relating to existing surveys).
I just got my first Invar chain only last summer. And that is or was an apex of technology. T3s on Ebay! What's the world coming to?
