I wrote a short description of OPUS Projects for 'The American Surveyor' a while ago. It has made it to the amerisurv website and will be in the next printed magazine. (A first for me.)
OPUS Projects is pretty dang nifty, I have used it a couple of times recently. The internal, short-baseline processing makes for decent solutions in difficult places. The price is pretty darn good too (free.)
I really do think that it will change the way we ground surveys in the West, determine positions for RTK network stations and more. There has been a lot written about OP in the past, hopefully my take is a bit more nuts-and-bolts'y.
The article is, well ... not horrible:
[ OPUS Projects ]
I also did a step-by-step video showing the high points of a project. There is a link at the top of the article page to the video on YouTube and as a 'flash movie' (what ever that is.)
m
Great article, Mark. It sounds like a great utility. The ONLY issue I have is trying to put together two days for training. I can understand the reasoning, but a person will have to really want it to commit the time, I think.
The improvement to the results using the site vectors is a very good argument in favor of Projects over single point positioning from OPUS.
I got the email this morning with the link to your article. We just finished a job that had two different consultants do the preliminary and control that would have been perfect for Opus Projects.
"A" started it, "B" finished it and changed the control. Then our contract started, I work for the contractor. A year into the job they fired "B" and hired "A" back.
Excellent article. I'm ready for a class in Texas. Hopefully with Shawn so he can explain to me the parts I don't understand. 🙂
James
Nice article Mike. The real problem here is getting a class without having to travel to Corbin. Rumor is there is some political posturing from some higher-ups in the way of getting more classes here in the NW.
I have been using OPUS Projects quite a bit. When they put in production it will be a great tool. I have 2 science projects in it that are going to be a challenge to adjust. I have been through the training and it is very good. I have been told that. NGS will be offering the training as a WEBINAR in the future. The training could be done in one day, if you keep your training project small.
If you have a state Geodetic Advisor, they should be able to put on the training.