I've never used a field book ... ever. My old boss and mentor used legal pads, tear the sheets off, put them in the job folder. That's how I was taught, and that's what I do now that's I'm solo. Except, now I scan all my folders when I'm done with the job and paid, and recycle the paper. Florida law only requires that we keep a copy, not the original. I could see the usefulness of field books if you are working on a huge project that is going to take months or years to complete, but for the day to day boundary/topos/ALTA, I don't see their usefulness.
We use fieldbooks to supplement our collector data. Mostly for shot mistakes. If the crew makes a mistake in the collector during data collection, they write it in the book so I can modify the fieldbook file in the office. Also just a good way to understand what the guys did in the field when I'm not there.
And sketching.
-V
Last winter, a temporary helper told me that I was violating state regulations in the way I was keeping notes by not writing everything down that was being collected by the data collector.
I've heard may reasons behind many of the lines of thinking on this thru the last 40+ years.
Mine is that electronic data keeping is sufficient when it results in the same information that can be kept by hand.
The reason to keep good information in field books is so your collected data can be used by others, without being translated by the note keeper.
A good field book sketch of what is done in the field is worth the effort.
😉
We use field books but with loose leaf paper. Similar to you we remove all the sheets necessary for that job add a cover sheet and store in a pouch in the back of the file,
Use loose leaf "rite in the rain" paper in a ring equipped field book, leave that legal pad in the office. I have used data collection in the past and except for topog work don't like it or need it for the work I do.
jud
Jerry Broadus years ago told us at an IPLSA Conference that you will in most cases be held to whatever is the general standard of performance in the profession.
If detailed notes in a field book have gone the way of the dip needle, then that's the way it has become.
I still use mine for:
General Site Layout Schemes
Level Circuits
Monument Swing Ties
Almost everything traverse or topo related anymore is digital in both raw and ascii formats.
I can see where field books would be rather handy for survey firms with many employees and frequent changes in manpower and leadership. The same company may be returning to projects from years past or adjoining old projects where having all of the information, not just that on the final plat, would be very helpful.
In my case, as a single crew type of operation, I'm the only one that has to be able to decipher what it was I did on some past project. Notebook with tearout pages works quite well for me. Well, except for that time when I dropped about 50 loose pages in a stout breeze. That was a very educational experience.
I'm talking more about field sketches, level notes, building measurements, MH downs, etc. I let the DC do most of the work, when it comes to angles and distances.
Field books ... why? RAIN!
We use field books to record setup information (not angles and distances collected by data collector, but Occ and Backsite point details, HI's etc) and found monument information. Also sketches as necessary for building locations, topo info, etc. Trying to keep that informantion on legal pads here in the GREAT Pacific NW would result in piles of mush at the end of some rainy days.
I use mine for:
Setup/traverse info
Traverse sketches
NGS/GPS monument obs w/ deltas
Sketches of the subject parcel w/ controlling monuments
Building sketches/measurements
Level info
Invert info (when I forget/run out of invert sheets)
Noting rod height busts
Noting Parole evidence
Screwed up point descriptions
Swing ties
Control info used
Writing down calcs done in the field
Any weirdness that I find that I have to sketch out or describe with more than a few characters in the DC file
In the immortal words of one of my son's Cub Scout leaders:
"Overkill is underrated"
Might be redundant w/ the electronic file, but that's OK. If I come across something especially strange, then I put MTEXT notes in the CAD file on a no-plot layer. Might help 10 years down the road if someone calls and asks what I was thinking. I started doing that about 10 years ago, just in case someone else had to figure out what the heck I was thinking.
My mechanical pencil has yet to run out of battery power.
It's best to be able to reconstruct from ties that are not 'reflectored'.
DGG
Field books ... why? RAIN!
> Trying to keep that information on legal pads here in the GREAT Pacific NW would result in piles of mush at the end of some rainy days.
Rite in the Rain makes letter sized blank sheets, and you could use one of those aluminum portable office clipboard things to keep them out of direct rain. So it could be done. Nevertheless, I use a field book. Both here in Oklahoma and in the NW.
On a site topo, we write down the set-up info, first and last shot of each set-up, changes in rod height, and anything peculiar that is not in our code list.
Every shot is not necessary IMO.
We keep field books for:
Traverse notation
age of fences
age of trees with fences running through them
any issues in the field with lengthy notations
stone recovery note's
levels
mortgage inspections
gps base locatoins with refences
general construction calcs
hard to fit a legal pad in my back pocket
field book fits a little snug but I know it there
also kind of neet to look bach 10 to 15 years in the past and just see what you were
doing and who was suffering along with you. ie blood stains, mud,even a bug or two.
I've been using field books my entire surveying career.
Today, I realized I had used my last page.
I had an elevation certificate today, so I grabbed some old 8.5"x11" graph paper and a clipboard...I loved it!...Easy to handle...lots of room to draw, add notes, etc.
Just like someone else said, I scanned it and put it in the project folder.
I may convert.
Field books ... why? RAIN!
i just gave several sheets to one of the crew to go measure multiple buildings while using the Cad Mat
sweat made the paper crinkle a little, but they held up
:good:
More than 20 years ago I was made a trainer for the somewhat new technology of electronic data collection.
I always carried around a good supply of water resistant field books which I passed out at the end, as there are always situations which need to be recorded which will not easily fit in a data collector.
It's a point that should still be made.
25 years ago, as instrument man, I made the best notes in the county in a field book. Had no DC and someone else was doing the comps and drafting. Took bride in them.
Saw some of my old notes the other day, I even had references to mail boxes and power poles as witnesses to help find the traverse nails later. Made me feel kinda lazy and sloppy in the way I rarely keep notes now. It has gotten so bad, today I wrote a memo to myself on my phone with witnesses to a Government corner. Yes, I will be doing the drawing and filing the corner record so I can read the phone/notes, but I should also carry a field book more often and go back to some of my old ways.
Scott
>I made the best notes in the county in a field book. Had no DC and someone else was doing the comps and drafting. Took bride in them.
You win, no one loves a field book more than you 😛
Okay PRIDE, but
I guess my boss thought so too, had me doing hand drafting after a year or two. Or maybe I was spending to much time with the field book???
