C&G is also included for free in the Carlson suite and oem versions...I havent used it, but its there.
Hi my name is mike. Wondering if you could help me. I live in michigan and was walking my dog and came across this thing i found out was used for surveying.It lookes like a little space ship. sokklia grx-1. it was kinda stuck in the ground. Would you have any idea on how i could find the owner? They seem to be very expensive. besides a little dirty it seems to be in good order.Maybe somone you know could help me. I dont want to throw it away. my email is mi5veezee@yahoo.com
If you want georeferenced images then you do really need to look at LisCad - it does that very well indeed...
Actually it appears to me what you are trying to do is operate in a SPC with a scale factor, essentially use an SPC in a form of an LDP.
That would be easy to do. Just create a LDP with the same projection parameters as the SPC you are working in (meridian, false northing and easting, projection type etc). Then enter the scale factor you wish to use and all your distances will be reported as ground (actually scaled grid by the factor you chose). I use two software’s to do this sort of stuff, TBC for all the survey stuff and projections and then TerraModel to do the COGO and drafting. I think they have finally got TBC and its drafting to be able to be a single solution but haven’t tried it yet (this winters project). If it works as I expect then only one software will be needed BUT if the use of a really good CAD is wanted in the end it will need to be finished in AutoCAD or MicroStation to have all the really great drafting tools. I'd go with MicroStation because I already have it. Also it looks like Trimble and Bentley have snuggled up and are working together. My guess it that Trimble is about to acquire Bentley so that will be one of the biggest and most comprehensive ways to go. Solo shops will be hard pressed to afford this solution though.
> Actually it appears to me what you are trying to do is operate in a SPC with a scale factor, essentially use an SPC in a form of an LDP.
No, it is too simple to just maintain drawings in the SPCS coordinate system, five of which cover the entire State of Texas. It would be a major kluge to have to generate an entirely different projection just to do something as simple as annotating a drawing with surface distances using an average project CSF and input record data to which a scale factor is applied before entering the drawing. I'm sure that it makes sense for the folks who are mostly doing engineering surveying, but for land surveying, I can't see it as being of any value whatsoever.
I realize you have already dismissed Carlson in your post above, but have you called them and asked if there is a way to accomplish what you are after?
The good thing about Carlson software is, if your idea is a good one, they will more than likely incorporate it in the next release. They are always looking for input from surveyors to improve the software.
Granted sometimes people's suggestions may not be very easy to implement.
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> Well, I have the relatively simple desire to construct survey maps in the SPCS on top of georeferenced images, to annotate them with distances that are scaled from the grid values one would inverse from the SPCS, and to be able to export the whole show as a pdf.
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> I also have the relatively simple desire to be able to input record data to draw parcels, but applying some scale factor (that can be large enough to convert record data in varas to grid feet) without having to lock it in as a project parameter.
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> The last version of MSCAD I bought had the extremely funky feature of wanting the SF(in) and SF(out) to be separate values which were inverses of each other instead of just using the same value in inverse senses within the computations as one would normally do, i.e. multiplying by for input and dividing by for output.
Carlson will do all of those simple desires with ease and grace. We use it daily for those very same desires.
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> Well, take a simple thing like the construction of line and curve data tables, for example. I assume that some survey drafting programs generate tables in a limited number of formats. Otherwise, the funky grid lines that one typically sees on a table wouldn't be on the drawing and the user could construct a more legible table.
Carlson allows the user to customize the table.
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> No, it is too simple to just maintain drawings in the SPCS coordinate system, five of which cover the entire State of Texas. It would be a major kluge to have to generate an entirely different projection just to do something as simple as annotating a drawing with surface distances using an average project CSF and input record data to which a scale factor is applied before entering the drawing. I'm sure that it makes sense for the folks who are mostly doing engineering surveying, but for land surveying, I can't see it as being of any value whatsoever.
Agreed, which is why we use Carlson for those very reasons. Give me grid or give me death.
I can't see it as being of any value whatsoever.
No surprise there.
It's possible to maintain all your data world coordinates, which convert to SPC. It's easy to switch back an forth. An LDP set up with SPC parameters would do all this and at just a few clicks. Set the scale factor to 1 and you get SPC coordinates. Set the scale factor to get ground (your application of the CSF). If you use a truly geodetic based software all your lat, long & Ht are maintained at the heart of it (actually as ECEF) and that stays static regardless of the SPC zone or LDP you are using.
This is just what all good soft ware does or should do. I'm sure you can find one that works even if it does it how you think it does it but actually does it how I explained it. It appears to me that what you are seeking is a non geodetic based software where only the grid of an SPC is used and then being able to scale by the CSF. So your underlying data is not geodetic and also you probably don't carry height/elevation (or use a geiod model). As far as my thinking goes surveying has use for elevation data as well as engineering. Of course I do have an engineering degree so my view is probably distorted. A 3D world can be viewed as as flatland in 2D.
> It's possible to maintain all your data world coordinates, which convert to SPC. It's easy to switch back an forth.
I guess if you don't use the SPCS for large-scale mapping you'd think having to convert a whole bunch of different projections to some common projection was a cool idea. I think it's so obviously nutty that I can't take the suggestion seriously.
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Carlson will allow you to keep your data and coordinates in SPC format and annotate and compute in surface. You just key in the scale factor that you want to use.
> Carlson will allow you to keep your data and coordinates in SPC format and annotate and compute in surface. You just key in the scale factor that you want to use.
Are you certain of that? The screen shot I've seen is this, with the options for distance types being:
Grid, Geodetic at Mean Elev and Geodetic at Zero Elevation.
whats funny is that by using a CSF on each job, it is the equivalent of creating a site LDP, though not as well-defined. So Kent really uses them, he just doesn't know it and will never admit to it.
> whats funny is that by using a CSF on each job, it is the equivalent of creating a site LDP, though not as well-defined. So Kent really uses them, he just doesn't know it and will never admit to it.
Wow. I can't imagine why any person familiar with the SPCS would think that. The metes and bounds description reports the SPCS coordinates of things positioned by the survey and recites distances scaled by some average project CSF using a stated value that generally will be within a few ppm of what one would measure at surface scale.
So, you provide SPCS coordinates that can be transferred directly to go work with without any intermediate screwing around, completely unlike the Custom Projection approach. And, keeping in mind that some surveyors don't savvy projections, it also generates a record that can be used by used by someone with just conventional capabilities.
In drawing setup, you put in a Report Distance Scale Factor which applies to the 2nd Distance in the annotation settings. You can then set the distance reported to be shown as 1st, 1st and 2nd, or 2nd only.
I've never used Carlson but I'm not surprised that it has this capability. Any software worth paying for at this point should be able to handle this problem in some form or another.
> Hi my name is mike. Wondering if you could help me. I live in michigan and was walking my dog and came across this thing i found out was used for surveying.It lookes like a little space ship. sokklia grx-1. it was kinda stuck in the ground. Would you have any idea on how i could find the owner? They seem to be very expensive. besides a little dirty it seems to be in good order.Maybe somone you know could help me. I dont want to throw it away. my email is mi5veezee@yahoo.com
What do you mean,"stuck in the ground"??? Like on a tripod? Were there any people nearby? You might have accidentally stolen someone's gear. Or they forgot to pick it up and are totally freaking out right now!
> In drawing setup, you put in a Report Distance Scale Factor which applies to the 2nd Distance in the annotation settings. You can then set the distance reported to be shown as 1st, 1st and 2nd, or 2nd only.
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Are the drawing setup parameters things that are locked in once the drawing is begun?
How is input handled in a drawing compiled in a projection with SF other than 1.000000? That is, if you want to input some record data, do you have the option of designating the scale factor to apply to it when generating drawing entities?
