Great Minds...

In a similar vein, last week I was doing some topo work at an elementary school, and noticed faded paint dots at all the typical topo shot locations, as well as control points here and there. Someone had mapped the site within the last year, which makes me wonder if the administration knows that they're buying the same product twice in a short span of time.

Hey that will save you money. Control point already set. Paint markings man you should be ringing the cash register a lot. lol. I have got in the habit and telling crews as well to look and swing the mag locator before setting control. A job this past year two of my crews were sent on. Not a job we had done. Well they had to do a lot of checks to figure out which control point to set on. Like 3 to 5 in a 10’ area. I guess multiple crews had been to the job and also a few different companies as well. Every one was using the same cut line but setting their own control. Some distances were so close without a third point check you could be in big trouble. Glad my name is not associated with that one. My crews were like what in the world.

Have fun in the coming 2024 year for sure.

faded paint dots at all the typical topo shot locations, as well as control points here and there

I've seen this jere and there...always makes me cringe. Can anyone shed any light on why this is done?

My first boss did not like getting calls from property owners asking why their sidewalks, parking lots, and intersections were now polka-dot. Also did not like the waste ofpaintt, so we were all taught to avoid painting up anything but control points and monuments.

"Can anyone shed any light on why this is done?"

To keep track of what has been shot, and what hasn't. I often do it. I use white and make the smallest possible spritz, which keeps the exploded clown car look at a minimum..

The polka dot look on property is something I try not to do. Maybe on earth if multiple crews. We use to use paint a lot doing Topo mapping for DOT ROW . On everyday commercial or residential I keep it minimal like if I am at the stopping point of some line work and know a different crew is meeting me the point number a t line so they know what to connect to. I used the marking keel a lot so someone knew I located it . I had a boss here that preached painting every shot. I couldn’t do it. I had a tsc7 with map screen I didn’t need all of that . I do like to dip man holes paint directions of pipes and use paint marker on rim so when I walk up to locate I have all the size inverts etc and everything can be coded correctly. So I always try and do control sketches and the inverts before mapping starts. Not how it always gets done but does make for a cleaner mapping file. All lines are drawn at correct elevations etc. plus the walking the site seems to give me a chance to identify hidden items and set up extra control points on the front end if needed. I received one of those calls from a land owner of a commercial property that looked like it caught the chicken pocks. Daycare center and a bank next door. Thank goodness they had water based paint for that owner was not happy and really did keep is properties tidy. Every couple years parking stripes repainted kept fresh looking. Re sealed the asphalt.

I've said repeatedly that if you are working efficiently you will know what you just did and have no need to polka dot the world. I somehow manage to do a lot of data collection, and I mean a lot, without pink dots. It just looks awful.

Wouldn't it be more surprising if everyone was able to visualize space in exactly the same way? Aphantasia is the inability to visualize things in one's mind and about 1% of folks have it (roughly 79 million people). So in a room with a hundred people, one person can't close their eyes and imagine their child's face or even something as simple as an orange. Some folks can use the data collector to keep track of things, others need a small bit of paint, and some don't need either.

Some folks here do this and they did it all over some brand NEW sidewalk, brick, landscaping and needless to say, the owner was NOT happy. We spent more time cleaning it than doing to initial survey work.

I was taught there was no need for this. We used keel, something that would wash away with the first rain and is not nearly as noticeable as spray paint. I can't believe it when I see paint dots everywhere for a topo. I mean, "you" don't remember shooting that whole side of the street/parking/site without painting every shot with paint? I don't get it.

Put me in Bruce and the Squirl's camp. This is one of my pet peeves. It's not about spatial visualization but workflow. Most, if not all, of today's DCs have the ability to show you a map of what you have collected. If that is not enough then use keel, chalk sticks or even chalk paint to mark out were you ended and not every shot. Something that is going to wash away quickly. Marking paint can last for years on hard surfaces that see little traffic.

Once upon a time I worked for an engineering firm where a crew, at a different office, put pretty paint dots at every shot taken on a just completed and yet to be opened business complex. The owner was more than a little pissed and firm lost a good client over the incident. I live a couple of blocks from a small, expensive private college. Several years ago (before the pandemic) they apparently had a design survey done and the crew left huge pink paint dots at every shot. The paint is only now starting to completely disappear on the hard scape. Some trees had six inch diameter dots at the base. Even five foot radius curb returns had three paint dots. If you can't remember, or be bothered to look at the DC screen, where you took a shot in on a five foot radius curve, then you are in the wrong vocation.

If that is not enough then use keel, chalk sticks or even chalk paint to mark out were you ended and not every shot.

That's sort of where I was going with this. Dotting every shot that I take would be painfully slow; I've used sidewalk chalk in the past to mark out where I stopped or started at the end of the day, or when taking a lunch break. If I didn't I'd just use the DC to pick up where I left off.

Painting trees (except for forestry purposes) is a hard NO. That never fades out. 6" spots anywhere is vandalism. And a waste of paint.

I collect 300-500 shots in a day of topo'ing. Picking out one from another on a 4" screen is not so efficient.

I do this, but I am conscious of the situation. Don't do it within the curtilage (look it up). Keep the dots as small as possible. Use white, not florescent anything.

I'm amazed companies allow this to happen. It looks atrocious. It puts the company in a bad light. Something is definitely wrong if one is unable to know if they have completed an area or not. Even in the instances where you might be unsure, the extra effort used to shoot somethings twice is immensely better than the consequences of the unprofessional, ugly paint all over the site.

I finished a topo today. 3 days in the field on 1.45 acres with a robot. Heavy brush, about 1/2 coffee farm (with banana, guava, citrus, pineapple, mountain apple, lots of avos), 200+ year old dry stack rock walls (one a cattle channel), steep slope, loose rock, got my left eyeball whipped twice - the 2nd time wearing shades after learning my lesson on the first. Cuts. I got a wad of fire ants in my pants after finding a perfect spot to leave a part of me... seriously. These aren't African fire ants tho, just sub mm guys that seems to jump on in a mob very quickly; hard to kill and for tiny things they really annoy. What're they thinkin? "We got this!!"

Anyway, I was tying flagging all over at key shots and especially at radial end shots so I could pick up from a future setup. I hadn't wanted to that in the past - waste of time with a map on screen, but here I felt my spidey sense tingling (maybe it was the ants though) and spent the time. I think it saved me some in the following days. Amazing how I forget on such a small property.