Leica Viva

i have tested the viva for a weekend. looks like it was a modification of smartworx. having said that, you might want to look up some leica technical manuals for both.

yes, there is a bit of a learning curve, bit i do like smartworx. viva is on our upgrade 'to do' list in the very near future

howdy ken,

as a leica user i found there was hardly any learning curve at all. you know exactly what you want to do with it and how it was done in the other systems you used. you should be able to sniff out pretty quickly where the equivalent command and menus are. hop in and fiddle around.

last things first. what i've learned about the viva interface, which is important for 1200 users to know, is that it is just a new look to the tried-and-true smartworx. at first meeting i turned my nose up at the interface because it seemed to be a dumbing-down job to get less skilled and cheaper labour to be more productive. well it is exactly that, but everything is still there and the graphics are far better. this paragraph is probably an endorsement of viva aimed specifically at system 1200 users who may be um-ing and ah-ing about viva. everything is still there. jump into it. (no i do not work for, or profit from leica).

firstly i will assume you have gotten a GSI or CSV file containing your job onto the controller. you now create the control job by making a fresh job. go to 'jobs and data' menu and select 'new job'. move through the tabs and assign the desired codelist, coord system, job name etc. once this is done accept the job by selecting [F1]'store'. now back in the 'jobs and data' menu select 'import data' then 'import ascii data'. select the desired file and file format and import points to your newly created job. you now have a job full of control data.

now for the measuring. take my advice: make your life easier come translate time and record the control observations under the same number as the uploaded fixed control. the leica can handle this. it stores points as different classes. so for example point number 9001 can exist as 'control' and 'measured' classes at the same time. this will make the translation almost automatic. now, start measuring. in the main menu select 'go to work' then 'survey'. you are ready to measure all your site control. measure with same number as the corresponding fixed control number.

now you have all your site control it is translate time. escape to the main menu. select 'go to work' then 'survey+' then 'determine coord sys'. assuming the site is sufficiently small use the 'onestep' method. on the next screen give your new custom site coordinate system a name. make the WGS84 points and local points jobs the same. 'ok' to next screen. check next screen and 'ok' to move on. select geoid model if appropriate and 'ok' to move on. now you are at the 'matched points' screen. press [F6] 'auto' and the controller will drag up the measured control points and match them to the uploaded control points. toggle them to match for pos&height, pos, or height only. once you are satisfied press [F1] 'calc' and you will be presented with a list of point residuals from the transformation. you may decide to alter the results by 'escaping' back to the 'matched points' screen and deselect points as you see fit. once you have a result you like then follow your nose and accept and store the transformation.

now you have your own custom coordinate system you can select it as a property of the job. once this is done, from the main menu you can 'go to work' and 'stakeout' marks native to this coord system from within the job.

also most leica manuals are easily found on the internet in PDF format and you will be able to find a more thorough/complete description of what i just gave you with nice screenshots.

cheers.