Every now and then the subject comes up amongst my colleagues about the importance of using field books. I was trained during the era that using field books for documenting a survey was the up most important element of a survey and at that time it was. It was also beat into my head that they are valuable evidence should you ever need to go to court to defend a survey. It was taboo to erase in a field book and you would be plagued with all sorts of evil if you did so. The scare tactics were intense back when I started out surveying when it came to field books. Guess what, I have erased scrivener errors in a field book and no evil came down upon me. We should have Mythbusters put this one to the test.
I have been an expert witness three times during my career and not one time was a field book ever submitted as evidence.
The earlier Field Notes (Books) are very valuable when researching BLM records. There is information in the field notes that are not shown on the plat of record. The field notes are also a matter of public record. The field notes created today are Word documents made from notes in the surveyors field book.
For private surveys, field books are not available to the public so their value is of less importance to the general survey population.
With today's technology such as digital cameras and electronic data collectors the use of field books have diminished greatly. I have not used a field book in the past 15 years EXCEPT for conventional level runs and other similar uses.
The old adage of "a picture is worth a thousand words" holds true today. I take all sorts of digital pictures of monuments and it's surroundings.
I am curious as to how many others have migrated away from using field books on a daily basis. If you are still using field books for ALL of your surveys, my question would be why? I can see using them for level runs and diagramming structures such as box culverts, etc. but to use them for every survey seems redundant given the current technology.
JC
These days I mostly use a field book to record HI and backsite HT, plus the occasional sketch or note. Most everything else goes into the data collector. I record in pencil and have never been afraid of erasing.
I agree 100%. Urban legend and all.
The strict rules concerning recording, dating, listing equipment, etc. and never erasing were applied in EVERY lab course I had in any college subject back in the stone age.
Even if you don't find those rules applicable to your work now, a book can serve to pull together things on a project better than loose stuff in a folder. Take notes that don't fit in the data collector fields. Sketch the traverse to tie notes to locations. Write the file names for your downloaded data in the book. Note what adjustments you applied. List the applicable documents by deed book/page/date/grantor/grantee. Phone numbers, addresses, and lot numbers of the client and neighbors. Anything relevant to the work.
Must be a Luddite.
I use a field book as it's the only way to tie lines into such as masonry structures that you can come back to, years (or weeks) later, see what you've captured and are best able to replicate a la 'picture is worth a thousand words'.
Yes, when it comes to GPS'n, the data collector rears itself in usefulness.
A judge may have ventured on a survey crew in her/his early age (but could not hack it, so went into law 😉 ) and well might ask for your field notes.
So, you produce a pile of numbers on paper.
Credibility ?
Apply:
What you don’t see with your eyes, don’t invent with your mouth (or your 'puter) .
Cheers,
Derek
Field books have their purpose
It would be the BOR that would ask first about seeing one before anyone else.
I would much rather have in hand my field book upon returning to a site than a copy of a drawing when looking for hubs and reference points
Don't make elaborate notes anymore as the data collector holds all the important numbers.
I simply make a relative sketch to show how my hubs and found monuments and other physical fences and such are located with a north arrow and I use both sides of the paper sometimes as one big sketch or as one sketch per page with seperate north arrows
I do not like super small writing to fit too much on one page
B-)
Jim,
You are completely correct. I've appeared many times as an expert and field notes are long gone. Today it's digital and the records you keep digitally if it ever get's to that point in depositions. The only field notes i.e. my hand written notes in a field book or loose leaf are only for my reference to the digital files to keep things sorted.
Pablo B-)
Completely agree. I use field books only for level runs and an occasional sketch. Pictures and lots of shots.
> I am curious as to how many others have migrated away from using field books on a daily basis. If you are still using field books for ALL of your surveys, my question would be why?
I'd agree with others that the field book is the perfect memorandum to create to supplement a data collector record. The stuff that I rely upon the field book for are (a) sketches, (b) *complete* monument descriptions, (c) redundant info on critical measurements such as HI, HT and offsets, and (d) all important observations that don't mash into a data collector very well.
For example if John Q. Adjoiner points out something and makes an important declaration about it to you, I'd say it's foolish not to create a field book record of that fact. If you are locating some object that can't physically be occupied, why would you not want to have a sketch showing the offset points that you did locate in relation to the object positioned?
Relying entirely upon a data collector is what has produced a zillion IPF maps. A field book makes it possible to note the identifying characteristics of the IPF upon which the boundary determination should be (presumably) based.
The big advantage with a field book is the ability to conveniently capture information that can't easily be stored in other ways - sketches, notes, phone numbers etc. I can't help thinking though that there are technological options for this. A rugged tablet computer can be used to record the same notes and sketches plus photos, video, GPS coordinates, level notes, etc.
Has anyone out there tried replacing a fieldbook with something along these lines?
That is what I'm interested in; the ability to carry site plans, Mark them up and have it all digitized!
Field Book WITH A SMART PEN
[flash width=560 height=315]//www.youtube.com/v/rF11--7iN40?hl=en_US&version=3[/flash]
The one I saw; had a grid pad you could copy onto and/or write on.
The one in the video would work for descriptions; you could record audio of what you found...
I've used a camera that recorded video; the trick was to download and file correctly...
Yes, this spring I bought a Nexus 7inch tablet. It is the same size as a field book and fits into the same vest or cargo pants pockets. How is it working out? Well lets say today's job is to stake a recorded subdivision lot for building a fence and the client wants a drawing showing his house on the lot.
- Load the Nexus with digital data such as: Recorded subdivision, the drawing of the lot I did next door last year, Tax map GIS, Google Earth image, the email correspondence from the client so I remember what they wanted. Basically the whole digital folder. This is all easy enough because I only keep digital files when a job is done, scan it all at throw away the paper. No more rooms filling up with filling cabinets. Nexus gets "A"
- Jump in the truck and the Nexus GPS App gives me turn-by-turn directions to the job site. "A"
- At the job site it is great to have all that info and no paper. "A+"
- The house has a strangely shaped deck, so I use the Sketch App to freehand draw what I would have used my field book for. It is a bit sloppy, but I am doing the drawings too, so it's okay. Nexus "B".
- In the middle of digging up a monument, another client calls and starts telling me about a parcel he wants staked. I grab the Nexus with my dirty hands and try to keep up on a new page in the sketch App, writing down his phone number and other info. It does not work as well as paper, but some of this is because I am Solo and my own secretary.Plus I am old and still getting the hang of typing with to thumbs. My kids could have taken down all the info with no problem. Nexus "B-"
I am trying to stay with it. It is a great tool, but I still fall back to grabbing the field book and pencil when someone calls or I have a more difficult object to sketch.
Scott
Addendum:
My pencil has yet to run out of battery power !
DGG
jc,
Yes I STILL use fieldbooks. Back in the day, the company I was with had one of them fance data loggers that saved everything to andIBM computer, then did all of our adjustments, and calculations to indicate where the REAL property line should be.
ALL DATA WAS NEATLY SAVE TO A STACK OF 3"X8" CARDS WITH NEAT LITTLE RECTANGULAR HOLES IN THEM.
Now, if only I knew what those cards say today. The software is not readily availabe, and since they have been warped due to gathering some humidity, they are useless and the data is lost. IF ONLY I HAD SAVED THE DATA TO ONE OF THOSE NEWFANGLED 5 1/2" FLOPPY DRIVE DISKS. yeah, try and find something that will read those things, too.
My field books tell the story that ANYBODY can read: I set the instrument at the SW corner (a found 1" iron pipe, up 2" apparently set in survey such and such), backsighted the NW corner (a 5/8" iron rod, flush, with a yellow plastic cap, inscribed "J. CRUME", apparently set in Subdivision plat no. 111, as the SW corner of Lot x, block 3), checked the distance 200.02' (deed 200.00') [sidebar: for anybody who is actually reading the diatribe, YES, I then of course use my trusty 4 lb. hammer to give the iron rod a whack towards the gun to make the distance agree - LOL]
turned such and angle, measured such a distance, set my own property corner marked made of ice [so that nobody would be able to follow MY footsteps after it melted - again LOL} 0.1' South of a steel fence post, which apparently was set to indicate the boundary corner of said deed.
There is just no way to feel safe that I could retreive the data from the IBM cards or floppy disk drives.
thanx,
I emjoyed that!
Geezer
I still use field books...I got lisc in 2007, but learned from an old timer. Everything goes in the field book, dates, crews, sketches, phone numbers, HI, weather conditions...etc. And the Peninsular fb802 is the standard by which all others are judged.
Virtual Keyboard "Typing"
I don't type with thumbs any more since using Swype on my (last year's) Nexus 7 and my Android phone. Took a bit of getting used to but now I love it. It's easy to add words in the user dictionary too. It probably is an installed keyboard option on your Nexus already. There are other apps (like TouchPal) that work in a similar fashion.
>
> I am curious as to how many others have migrated away from using field books on a daily basis. If you are still using field books for ALL of your surveys, my question would be why? I can see using them for level runs and diagramming structures such as box culverts, etc. but to use them for every survey seems redundant given the current technology.
>
> JC
It's not redundant at all. You still need a way to catalog your shots and while field to finish is awesome, I'm not blessed with people who can get every shot descriptor correct nor do I want them spending time connecting line work.
All survey jobs at our office show the sketch, point number, and the proper descriptor. That's standard. Occupy and back sights are noted and when elevations are kept, the HI and HR are noted at each station and in the shots if they changed. All traverse angles and angles and distances to critical shots are also noted (i.e. corners, objects, TBM's, et cetera).
If you've never lived through a raw file being corrupted or something else catastrophic, you live in a charmed world and I will take steps to use the field book for it's intended purpose and while it was evolved since the advent of the DC and GPS, it is just as useful as a shovel.
:good:
my question would be why?
Better question is why wouldn't you keep good field notes? I may do a hundred fifty surveys in a year, many small, but I never know when I'm going to go back, maybe years later, and reuse that work for something else. If I can't pull together quickly exactly what was done and how, that information is of little use to me. Imagine only having a list of coordinates with cryptic descriptors and a raw data file and the amount of time wasted trying to decipher that data into something useful. Also just taking the time to write clear notes forces me to construct in my mind how the survey should go together and aids me in spotting potential blunders.
No, the two work together to make the picture complete. I scribble details into the margins that in a week, month or year, would otherwise be lost to oblivion. The field notes are the Rosetta stone for making sense of the electronic files.
Just my take. Carry on.
