Might Need a little help fun exercise maybe

Yes that should work.

You dont need TBC.

Just take your dxf(s) and use the Geolocate function on the Access Cogo Adjust menu.

The image will move and rotate to any two points you specify.

If your DXF is already to scale, you can fix the scale factor at 1 so no resizing occurs.

You could calculate a couple of the setback lines and position directly to them.

Then you can use the Cogo functions like 'Project point to line' to check you have sufficient clearance on the other side.

Hey thanks Jim. I thought it would work. But since I no longer have the equipment to play with and test for those things that might arise like the scale. Of drawing etc. I could only work through my pea brain lol.

Flipping the garage could cause a problem with the driveway so the chief needs to be reminded to check the driveway percentage before any staking.

Yes very true. Thank you. Especially in hilly subdivisions for sure. See when you work only in your head you miss things. I reckon one would need to know as a chief which is not the norm now days some of the minimum requirements. This makes me also think of site line as well. Which is something that should be taught to the chiefs. Sharp curves or hilly roads could also affect the flipping of the garage. Things to ponder. Might even have to flag certain lots for those situations much like we use to have them flagged on paper of the only house plans that would be allowed on certain lots. Guess adding text to the lot dxf could be done pretty easily and or the background dxf. That would help. Oh sometimes I just miss the stamped paper plans as that was the gospel. Red ink pens to mark up a milk crate that kept all plans organized in the floor board of a suburban. Take plans to design engineer so they could make copies of all field adjustments or shall we say found blunders for them to know about lol.

I'd be more worried about orientation to the sun and view if any. Then stuff the garage/access in around the other two.

lol. That’s funny. I have a drive on some back country roads and this time of year there is a small stretch that is almost blinding by the sun. I mean it’s a bear. There is an elderly gentleman that walks about 5 miles. Every morning along this path. When I hit that stretch I drive like 15 to 20 mph no joke. It’s a 45 and 55 mph stretch. But it scares the heck out of me that I could so easily hit him. So I tick off the zooming cars. But it’s that bad at the sunrise.

I know nothing about any Trimble product but as somebody who has the knowledge posted, yes, it can work, the question is, should it work?

You already have the drafted templates of the various house layouts, as well as the plans for the subdivision in a CAD format. Crew time in the field is more expensive than a survey tech in the office. It would seem to me that the set up time could be accomplished quicker in the office than in the field and if you stake "option A" and the client decides to look at "option B" of the same unit, you are trusting your PC to get everything correct when the grading options will likely significantly different between the two options.

I don't know if things work the same where you are according to building code but where I'm at, if you have a garage, you also have to have a minimum of an 8" step up from garage floor to finished floor, and it could be two or three steps depending on the topography of the lot. Would you feel comfortable allowing your PC to essentially make design engineering decisions on the fly?

Well that does bring up a question. See when I was doing this in the 90’s we made a lot of these types of decisions. We changed pipes for storm as we checked plans and found that minimum cover was not going to work crossing a waterline or even worse hit the water line. We didn’t rely so heavily on coordinate’s back then. However you are correct it is a different time and what I am learning is an office tech does most of the and I don’t like saying this but comps. I don’t see it as comps really as it’s more selection an end point or line from a design file and adding a point there. Heck where I am they don’t even allow a crew to write cut/fills on any stake. They simply set the hubs or nails a stake horizontal and then in office a cut sheet is made long hand in excel then sent to an engineer for approval then sent to client. This blows me absolutely away. I am all about making money and weighing liability. But this sort of thing does nothing to help the people in the field learn problem solving and let’s face it. If you are not making a mistake then obviously you are not Learning or moving to the next level. Me it seems if we have time to do cut sheets and send to engineers then we have time to word a contract that crews will mark stakes and cut sheet will hold. I mean if you pre comp the grades the cut sheet is automated I am sure in almost all software I would think. Check the work and move on. Yes this scenario would be based on crew chiefs that can do this. Also rely on Managers and the LS mentoring and teaching.

I do see your point for sure. I think some good communication would be in order. Now with that. I know with Trimble I am sure others are doing something similar. The crew stakes it and pushes the sync icon much like a one drive cloud. It’s uploaded then not at end of the day not lost in email. I or another office tech could simply sync on there end for a check in a few minutes 90% of the time. I think he will try this in a more controlled environment and I have already told him that he needs to go through many what iffs for sure. This one I will pass along as well. We thought of the issue of being close to a flood zone for sure that would be handled differently. You could help with this by having the surface in the data collector. Now I am thinking out loud. That could be of great benefits in making that decision along with slope of driveway etc. I have staked house so many ways over the years. One of my favorites and a lot of builders I know that know what they are doing is to just stake the box. The pin there own footers and all the corners. I remember setting up on property corners or offset to that line setting two house corers then set on that turn and flip the angles and steel tape. Pulling diagonals and checking and squaring it all up. Also setting up rough corners for batter boards then tacking them. Now I see just set robot and start setting everything radially. I have not seen one crew in last 4 years actually measuring to the property lines for a check. If it’s in the data collector it must be good. Things have changed drastically for sure. I hear all the time we don’t want the liability everything is driven by liability. I can’t help but think well when did liability out rank responsibility. It’s not are problem to bring that to the attention to contractors. Things like hey there is x in the way here or your site supervisor asked for curb but a drop inlet is along that line running under it. I am told they asked for it just comp and we stake it. I have several friend and mentors in construction earth work side and home builders some who changed my diaper or there wife did. They know what they need and it has become harder. Now crew chiefs say hey we will let office know we don’t have that today in are file. Yes I know there are some that want something else for free and if they can get a young naive chief to stake a little extra then it cost us and we have the liability. I have had that happen and my old boss back then said well next time he wants x just smile and say you burned me once not again. Most would pay or we didn’t want there business anyway.

I guess I see all this power made in these data collectors these days that make things very simple. Heck on the data collector when you offset something it shows an arrow to where it’s going. I screwed up many times doing it all on paper. Of course when we turned the calculated angle we figured it out lol . Why not teach them to use that power and it can be checked in office. I learned to be a crew chief by calculating things as the crew chief did them plans graph paper scale protractor and calculator. Heck with today’s stuff what can the office do i cannot in field. I can do bearing bearings intersects compute points from a number of ways the list is long . Vertical curves slopes heck even do a surface. Saw a guy I know that is in the field and he creates a surface after every Topo just as a check he didn’t have a rod height blunder. Or to see if he collected enough data in a weird area. Those data collectors can do way more than inverse and stake a point and record the raw information.

I grew up in a world without electronics and you are seriously missing my points. The only electronics that I had was a scientific calculator that did not have the ability to run cogo routines and my data collector was my mechanical pencil and field book. You didn't just become a crew chief, you had to prove yourself in calculating a foundation stakeout based on manual calculations and that's a lost art these days.

When we went into the field to stake a house, if we were told in the field to flip it or rotate it, we never, and I say never did that for the reason that we were handed an approved plot plan that involved approved grading. Never was it a case of build what you want if it fits because what might fit might not accommodate driveway and walkway slopes. Surveyors are not qualified to make those decisions in any state that I am aware of, unless they are licensed as a civil engineer. If they did that and things went wrong, wouldn't that be practicing without a license?

There are other things that you are not even considering when it comes to the location of curb cuts. The location of the curb cuts proposed are dictated by ordinance and approved by the land development board. You cannot randomly change them without prior official approval to alter them. A change of plan or orientation is not in the wheelhouse of even a PLS to make in the field.

And that is when rolled curb came into use on a lot of our flatter subdivisions which eliminated the curb cut problem.

I agree with Chris. Once the Planning Board approves the subdivision plans any changes need to be approved by the Board or the Board's Agent. In the end maybe the PE and PLS who stamped the plans refuse to sign off that the project was built as permitted. A the very least I would have the contractor sign a change order to ensure it is clear who did what and why.

Sounds like your guy is doing site review staking and not final staking. It also sounds like there is no need for grading info (a lot of subdivisions are designed to a pad and the driveways etc will work either side....Hence how the plot plan world can do them in mass at $50 per shot). I don't use Trimble but Carlson and Magnet can do it easily so I would think that Trimble can as well. Just give the crew a base file of the lot layout including setbacks and proposed pads and seperate dxf for each house layout....Just import houses as requested and field rotate onto the lot....Easy. My son actually does this with all his lot surveys now but it is just the boundary lines....He rotates the computed deed boundary to his found irons and adjusts as necessary for new search ties.

I grew up on points like most of you and doing all the calcs.....but those day are basically done and the field PC's mainly don't have the ability or time when there is faster solutions. Heck with today's DC's I bet one could bring in a design surface as well and do the comps way faster then we could with our calculators.

I agree that changes need to be made if and when it’s required. In the area my friend does this house staking one does not need a PE to design a subdivision. Here if I am learning and understanding correctly in this state. A surveyor or surveyor B licensed can do most anything an engineer can except for closed pressured systems. I for one understand that there will always be circumstances in some lots or even a whole subdivision that this would not work. For the reasons you stated. This makes perfectly good sense. I am 100% with you. I don’t believe where he is that would be the case 90% of the time. Like mentioned below. A box or a pad area has been approved. The house on what lot has not so when Tom and Jane are on their Sunday outing and stop by the new subdivision being put in and walk into the model home to meet with that realtor representing the developer is sitting there and has a exhibit plat map on the wall and a tv running through all the homes that can be built with donuts and cookies. Tom and Jane drive around and say we like this lot. But it and the house as they go through that process Tom prefers x garage on other side Jane picks the better counter top for the kitchen. These are the scenarios where one most of the house plans have already been checked and converted from inches to feet and just not placed in a particular lot yet. In this situation the method I am thinking of is easier in my head not prodded for concept yet would be an easier less chance of a blunder in placing or staking the house. A lot of times a crew is on site staking other items on 2nd phase or whatever and a deal is closed and now the crew chief can run over stake and get back to the other. I do agree 100% one must know when he or she can and when it’s best for the office. I remember like you a print out being tried from a production standpoint. Some cad tech would send out a paper sheet in the field packet. Set on this point BS this point turn these angles to these points all pre comped . Well that worked until something was in the way. The. We had to do math and figure out how to get around that plus show how we checked ourselves. Now we give a coordinate file and that’s it besides a dxf or dwg or alignment file. And if something is asked for or something doesn’t work. The crew is placed in a spot to look at a contractor and say well this is all the office has given us we will have to call yep that’s if we are lucky. Now cad tech or someone has to stop whatever project they are in go into another dwg get it right correct layers etc and start working on the problem. Now this happens all the time and it happens for easy 5 minute comps in field or office. But it’s not 5 minutes in office. The break of the other job then getting into new job getting head and focus in it is time let’s say an average of 15 minutes x’s times a year. That adds up. If and when the rules standards have been set the crew just gets it done. Like one stated below a change order or something gains at minimum an extra hour billed or whatever way you want to work it at maybe a raised fee like a re stake fee. This can all be set up in the contract at beginning. So for fun numbers are probably not right. Crew build at $100 but re stake is &150 have something like that. I know I am still learning now all the new regulations and requirements here and it’s tough as many of my LS don’t even worry about that it’s the engineers problem. I guess we had a different relationship with engineering side when I was working. Very often we would call from a pay phone them the PE not our LS as we found a blunder on plans. We described the issue our plan to fix and they might take and say sounds good or let’s do this. As they were in their drawing. Heck that’s what a red solo cup was for. Quarters in a cup holder in every survey vehicle just as emergency kit. Lol

Yeah you nailed it. I believe for sure. That’s exactly what gave me the idea as my friend called me one afternoon on my way home. I had told him about the upgrade in Trimble access and how I gave a dxf deed composite to crew. Said look here is a few search coords from google earth. Once you find a couple pins just rotate the deed composite to them for additional search points. So that little thing worked well as they went around they could also see how close to the line they were and look for after evidence visually like blaze trees on line etc. especially in rough thick areas where they were cutting line of the least resistance and sometimes get way off so now they could measure in the dc to the line dxf deed composite and make adjustments on longer lines.