How many people on this forum are "Leica"

I mostly deal with my 1102 through SurvCE, which substantially insulates me from the Leica interface. But I keep the Leica manual on my phone, and even then I've had many head-scratching moments in the field as I tried to figure out where they hid one function or another.

nate, i 'get it', but it takes a long time to do, AND be comfortable. the way i see it, the leica way is a different approach. for some, it is cool, for others, it's Swinglish.

now that i am comfortable, i'm not going back

I am. We use Leica exclusively. All three of our guns use a Nautiz 7 DC with Field Genius. The software really works well with Lecia, is idiot proof and we love it. I'm not quite sure what Leica is up to with this "convention" they are promoting but I'm not in the market for a Hammer yet.(at least until they correct the software bugs).

Have a great week! B-)

We have a Leica gun and my biggest complaint is when changing from prism to reflectorless and back the first shot is off by the old prism constant.

I've been a Wild/Leica surveyor from way back in the "I'm a WILD Surveyor" days. I've been through various set ups and am very happy with my 1105 reflectorless. I use TDS onboard software so I'm not struggling with the old leica software any longer.

We went through this back when the first data collectors were released by Leica. Man that was a beast to learn how to use, but once we "got it" it wasn't bad at all.

then the 1010 came out and that was a fine instrument!

Thanks everybody for replying

That proves that there are some out there who have been through the fires of "LARNIN SOMPIN NEW".

Somehow, I think that is the BANE of surveyors!

Nate

Nate,

I get it and I got it.

There are always allot of negative posts about Leica on this board. Occasionally someone one will ask a specific question and the users will come back with explanations of how to fix an issue or how to accomplish a needed task with Leica. Most of the time it is just the general Leica bashing.

My question is... Did anyone give you training with your purchase?

Did someone just drop it off and run away with your check?

Please post any questions you have. I try to monitor the Leica questions and answer them the best I can. The gear is the best on the market. Leica has made huge improvements with the new Leica Viva version of their SmartWorx software. Every system has good things and some missing items.

Please let me know if you have specific issues and I will try to help with an answer.

> ...There are always allot of negative posts about Leica on this board. ....Most of the time it is just the general Leica bashing.

No offense, but some of the general Leica bashing is from experience. It is good to have good support, and it sounds like you provide that.

I, for one, liked everything about Wild-Heerbrug, as well as Leica equipment from the get-go. We still use the Leica digital levels and it is my recollection that Leica "invented" them and came up with the barcode reading technology. I wish I still had an old T-2. What great machines.

However, Leica has been notorious in the past to have hard-to-work-with software. It steered a lot of surveyors away from their equipment. Many, like me, have been big wild supporters for a long time. From my experience Leica has been resistant to any criticisms of their negative aspects and somehow blames the user if the user finds certain aspects difficult to work with.

If that has changed with Leica, then kudos to them. But they may have lost a lot of customers who now are entrenched in a software that they have already spent a lot of time learning and getting familiar with.

Just some thoughts. Like Nate, it is not fun pushing a lot more buttons than you should need to. If Leica would take feedback like that and work on improving their software and/or firmware to their customer's recommendations, they might find even higher level of sales.

Just some comments for whatever they are worth. Not meant as a Leica-bashing rant, but meant more as a constructive criticism. My apologies if it comes across differently.

Mr Surveythemark,

Thank you for your answer.

I am not "Leica".

I bought mine used, from an individual, and learned enough to get done what I want. I still wish the 3 items above had their own button, to quickly use it.

ZERO
Horiz R/L
Ft Meters.

Then, IF and when I have the time energy, and presence of mind, to larn sompin, I could move forward. Learn and use more features.

My point is, Leica forces us to be IN or OUT.

If you add a few little things, so idiots (like me) can use it, then we can all go to the bank happy.

My 2 cents.

N

My understanding is that things are done different in Europe and for that matter most of the rest of the world from the USA. Leica sells worldwide and I would venture to guess the USA, while a big market isn't their biggest. My understanding also is that 3rd party data collectors are pretty much a USA thing.

I have been a Leica user exclusively for 23 years and previous to that used a T-2 in the early 1980's. I sometimes don't get it either, BUT I have found that there is usually a very logical explanation as to why something is done a certain way, having said that there has been a culture of "this is the way it is and pound sand if you don't like it".

Leica has always had very good hardware, and very much improved firmware / software over the last 10 years or so, once you learn it, very powerful stuff, it is just different, not necessarily wrong. I think Geodimeter used to be hard to learn too before Trimble Americanized it. That leaves the Asian brands which all pretty much work similar and I think that is because (IMO) they have historically been bigger imitators than innovators and some of them are even merged now so the difference is even less.

SHG

I used a T-2 in the late 70's and it still gives me a bias toward Leica.
I used a Wild TS with on-board DC in the early 90's and once I learned the Wildsoft (I think it was called) data reduction I liked it a lot. You had to do everything their way or the highway, but their way was a very good way. I got a Leica TS for my own business and my experience is mixed. It has needed too many repairs and I can't tell if it's the gun or the Carlson DC that jumps 18 minutes once in a while.

> As in they "Get it".
> They have bought into the Leica method.
If that is the way you feel you really aught to give the latest Leica stuff another try. Their Viva software isn't nuance free, but it isn't your Daddy's Wildsoft anymore either.

I remember that first data collector now, the GRE3. That was a harsh lesson for sure. But computers were still new, DOS was boss, and I'm horrible at learning new languages, which is what it was. But once Paul figured it out and showed us, it was great.

> ......To change from Ft to Meters is also a bunch of button pushes.

I remember the first Wild EDM we used, it was set to meters; it took us a looooong time to figure out how to change it to feet....:-S Wild DI4 top mount on the T2.

I lika Leica, always have, always will.

Every Leica dealer I've ever dealt with has been more than helpful; always going out of their way to make sure the equipment I was using was doing what it was supposed to.

I have tried to reason this out, apparently I am too stupid to make sense of it. If you like Leica hardware (which generally there is a consensus that it is great) and you hate Leica software (which generally there is a consensus that it is lacking ease of use) why don't you use Leica hardware with third party software - Carlson SurvCE or MicroSurvey FieldGenius. I like both Carlson and MicroSurvey and I am a big believer in third party software...so use that!

Leica is one of the only manufacturers allowing all of their current, as well as future products run on third party software.

I enjoy that Leica is set up in the field in a way that is hard to make a blunder.

Recently, in accordance with what you have said, I have had some bad experiences on the customer service side of things. It seems there are a select few in the U.S.A. offices that know how to handle things, but the vast majority do not.

Thanks everybody for replying

As a company, they apparently bought up Wild Heerbrugg. Wild was the best, in it's day.

Actually it was Wild who bought Leica (Ernst Leitz) along with a bunch of other companies. For a while it was Wild/Leitz and then the Leica trademark was adopted for all of the products as it was clearly the better known trademark worldwide.

I bought the first Leica 530 GPS sold in Louisiana. It was so buggy and the software was so buggy that it was useless. I complained constantly, and I raised Hell constantly. Finally, after about 8 months they got it worked out, and it became the best GPS system I have ever owned. Hardware was VERY well thought out, but the software was severely lagging. If I could get a 530 system that worked at higher speed and longer range with GNSS that is what I'd have right now.

I later bought a Leica 1200 robot and gps, and the robot was great but the firmware at the time was PATHETIC. I went out to survey the second job that I used it for and at random, points in the previous job were getting pulled into the new job. TOTALLY NOT TOLERABLE. Tech support was no help, and I got the feeling that they were making me believe it was me and not them. I sent the systems back to vendor and went to Trimble, and I have S6 and R8GNSS. But the data collection survey from Trimble and TDS won't improve to take what I think is full advantage of the systems, and despite many email and conversations with them, I have come to realize that they are simply not going to expand--probably because my requests may not be that popular. For example, their software won't let you do a surface scan with anything more than a rectangle work area--won't let you outline a polygon, and it renders rough surface scans by S6 useless because of huge number of non-necessary shots.

From input I have gotten from others, Leica got serious about firmware/software and made huge improvements in that arena.

I also found out that if the Trimble data collector breaks, Trimble will not let you move their TDS onboard software to new data collector, and you have to buy a new data collector with new survey firmware. This is something that I am simply not going to put up with, and is a major reason I am going to change.

I found out that Lecia addresses surface scanning polygons, and that they are apparently improving software and being innovative as usual with hardware.

I am moving back to be a Leica person immediately. I hope their new stuff works. Their hardware has always been darn near perfect in my opinion.

This is all simply one surveyor's opinion-obviously. The equipment is great stuff, but it needs to go one step further to be twice as good.

And if you choose FieldGenius, it is now owned by Hexagon and from what I hear it has pretty tight integration, being one of the few to read the native DBX format on all the newer Leica gear. But the new Viva stuff is pretty good, so not sure why you would not run the native Leica collection if you have newer gear?

Hexagon has also purchased LISCAD from Australia, I expect to see some sort of major combining and realigning of the MicroSurvey and LISCAD products and maybe FieldGenius and Viva. From a business perspective I am not sure it makes sense to keep them all going independently?

SHG