Just wondering if anyone has had a chance to put the software through its paces. So far, besides a few new bells and whistles , it seems the same as my 2.62.
We've done a lot of testing for Carlson in the SurvCE 3.xx; mostly in how It functions with Leica equipment. There are a few great enhancements but Carlson has done an excellent job remaining true to the platform people know and like. There is a list of changes and enhancements on Carlsons web page.
The longer description field is probably the biggest enhancement for me. Eventually, the photo linking will be great, but as I have a Surveyor+ collector with no camera on it, it's not a terribly useful feature for me right now. For those who work with DOT's the ability to direct import dgn files will be a big plus. Direct import/export of shape files will be appealing to some. Eventually (maybe another ten years) we'll eventually see all data collection take the form of GIS database collection with the ability to link images, sketches, audio, multiple attributes to precisely collected points - 3.0 kind of gets that ball rolling. For guys running old robots, the GPS search could be very handy, depending on how you can link a GPS receiver to the data collector. New robots search pretty quickly now, so probably not much of an advantage to users of them. There are probably other improvements I'm overlooking, but those were the ones that jumped out at me.
For the $150 upgrade fee I'll probably bump up eventually. Like you said, 2.6 is pretty good stuff already.
I use the CHC LT30 which has both GPS and a Camera so the two most anticipated features are the camera integration and the GPS assisted robotic tracking! Way cool features.
Hopefully I won't sound too much like a shill for Carlson here, while admittedly I am.
I keep finding new stuff in 3.0, and remembering stuff that was shown at the User Conference (sorry...Bourbon Whiskey tasting event) in Cincinnati.
1. Attaching pictures (multiple) to stored points. (Big deal IMHO.)
2. Support for new instruments, we pretty much were using the BETA on all new equipment. It is nice to drop the BETA warnings...
3. Export KMZ directly (big deal in the cab of my pickup.)
4. Grid-to-Ground enhancements (I am using quite a bit.) Especially entering a G after a distance when projecting to apply the current scale factor. (Now if only I could project in geodetic bearings I could give up my current declination obsession.)
5. Circle drawn by 3-points (I asked for this at the conference and SarahW delivered! Thank you SarahW, you rule!!!) I really needed this for finding the center of a field to place a center pivot sprinkler hub. I used return to office to use irrigation cad functions. (Probably not a big deal unless you do a lot of center-pivots admittedly.)
6. NGS Control Point search from data collector. (I have used this a bit and when it cools off enough for me to head back to the field I will use it alot.)
7. I think the DXF import engine has been enhanced to accept files that used to trip-it-up (but this is not a listed improvement.)
8. "Stake Nearest" (Holy Cow, I have been begging for this for a long.long.long.long time.
9. COGO: Transformation: Align I have been using this when I have multiple OPUS control around a job and need to adjust the first day's RTK to the OPUS. If your interested I made a [ boring movie ].
One word of caution, don't check the RTCM3.1 message box as it will set your scale factor to 0 if there is not a VRS datum being transmitted. (I have had a couple of calls on this already.)
Worth $150? Absolutely!
M