Center of Utility Pole

If you don't have a routine for recording a separate distance and angle or on offset shot, record a location on both sides of the pole and place the symbol between them.

Yes, distance offset. There is also horizontal angle offset but if I'm by myself distance offset works best.

You have to change to standard edm mode then the drop down which defaults to angle & distance has a lot more choices. After you choose distant offset you can go back to tracking mode.

right or left is facing the total station. You can go in or out too.

I haven't used offsets in RTK so can't help you there.

To use offsets with RTK you go into COGO and go to Create Point. You can do Bearing / Distance, Distance / Distance, or Bearing / Bearing. They have a nifty routine where you can use the sun as your bearing reference, but personally I find Distance / Distance to be the easiest and most accurate.

Just shoot the face measure the diameter eyeballing with a tape and add half of that to the distance your shot. Been doing it that way for years without any problem. ?????ÿ

If I know the diameter of the pole I shoot it reflectorless and do a distance offset by the radius. The only issue is that you have to remember to put it back to Angles and Distance when you're done!! (From experience... lol)

Hz Angle Offset works fine also you just shoot distance to the side then angles to the center. I like that for trees because I don't need to worry about what the diameter of each tree is.

Interesting that there are two different approaches to what needs to be recorded - is this a cultural thing? I've always been asked to record the diameter of the tree/pole which enables the symbol to be scaled to size, so my normal approach is the same as FL/GA. If it is being done remotely I shoot the centre line and then record angles to either side so as to be able to calculate the width. Better than just a standard sized symbol.

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We keep ours always in Distance Offset mode but set values to zero for non offsets. However in Distance Offset Mode the S6 won't change to Face 2 automaticaly if you need that. (We don't)

Three or more points and a regression to make a circle. Use reflector-less mode or prism with zero offset. I assume all survey equipment, regardless of the brand can do this. I do at least three observations with the laser for coordinates of all trees or poles that require a fussy location. Then again, is the pole plumb? Do you have any requirements for the height at which the data is required??ÿ

The risk of this method is that the 3 points are going to be close together so there is a real chance of ending up with a significant error in the diameter, far greater than the actual measured error.

Any distances taken close to being grazing rays (which is what you need for getting a good centre direction) may be very poor, depending upon the pole surface. Method works well on larger diameter objects, say over 4' diameter, where yuo can keep away from the visible edge and get a decent footprint to the spot.

I think it is partly cultural, but also project-dependent. For a the more intense transportation design surveys, we make sure to tie the center of the pole and note a typical size, or scale our symbols accordingly, since design can hinge on the exact location and size of some of the improvements in the right-of-way.

However, I am doing some drainage improvement/culvert replacement projects for a county, and they don't particularly care about the size or the exact center of the poles unless they are transmission line pylons or similar. Tagging the face of the pole is enough, it lets them know there is a pole within a foot or two of the symbol, which is plenty of tolerance for the designers.

Also, to the OP, Access has a "Circular Object" Measure Method - shoot the center face of the pole, then align crosshairs with tangent/edge of pole as you are looking at it. Or observe both tangents.

It creates the point at the center, then computes and notes the diameter in the point code attributes, which then can be exported as part of the code. Can then be used to scale symbols in cad software. No taping or hand entering radii necessary...

Not in my experience. It may be good to get more than three observations in case of a poor reflection.

I never thought about using Circular Object for trees and poles... it works great for storage tanks.

Thank you for the information I look forward to using these techniques.

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As Rover83 said, Trimble Access has a "Shoot a Round Object" offset routine, which is just the thing for poles, trees, and the like. With that function you aim at the center of the pole and shoot distance to the face of it (typically using reflectorless). You then turn angle to one edge or the other. The radius is computed (and displayed) and then added to the distance measured.?ÿ A really slick function, unique to Access I think.

This is different - the exact opposite - from the angle offset method where you shoot a distance to the side of the pole or tree (simulating the distance to the center) and then turn angle to the center. Every dc software I've ever used has some form of this routine.

"Shoot a Round Object"... geez. Didn't know about that one!

After many years of being a TSC/Access user I've been shackled to SP/TDS Survey Pro since 2014.  As you know, Spectra Precision is a Trimble company. The local salesman brought some SP corporate types into the office one day and I was asked how I liked the software. I specifically mentioned the shoot a round object function to them and asked why it wasn't in Survey Pro. They knew nothing of it. Four years on and it's still not in there.     

When I use the circular object routine reflectorless,  I put the vertical crosshair on the left edge, take a reading, then put the crosshair on the right edge, and take another reading. Access then bisects the angle and takes a prism less  shot on the center face of the object. 

Even better. It's been several years since I've had the opportunity to use that function, perhaps they have upgraded it since then.