Total Station question:
I back sight to a point. Then, I'm looking for a pin 450' along a line. There's the remnants of a fence, so I know the approximate course of the line. I've done ZERO stake out so far, so am not really familiar with how to do it yet, but this seems like it would be a stake out problem. Is it? I've read about the PTL (point to line) capabilities too, but that seems to address a point perpendicular to the line.
I could try dragging a tape through the brush, or sight a mark approximately perpendicular to the line and do the trig, but thought there might be a way tto see if I can do it more easily with the instrument.
Strategy advice welcome.
Take a shot on the backsight point, and a shot about where you think the 450' point is. Inverse between the two points to get the distance, and adjust up or back accordingly.
A forester's hip chain is pretty useful. Tie the string at baksight and walk 450' on the line.
Do you know the bearings of the lines?
If you only have your BS point, and no information on where to project this point 450' from it, staking to a line wont help (you need 2 points, or a point and direction)
To "get close, shoot the backsight, store it as point "x"....shoot a ffurthest point on fence, store as "y"... stake the line "x-y" and go 450' up that line staying as close to 0 offset from line to look for your point
I should have put all responses together....
Remember that the fence may be off line a good bit...depending how close your shot on fence is to your BS...If you project that line...you could end up really far from your look for point
What kind of total station are you using? I know most topcon instruments have a MLM function. It is a missing line functions. I think this is what you want but I have not used it in about 15 years.
Matt
> What kind of total station are you using? I know most topcon instruments have a MLM function. It is a missing line functions. I think this is what you want but I have not used it in about 15 years.
>
> Matt
It's a topcon and I see the section on MLM. That looks like it would work perfectly. Thanks! I'll let you know how it works, in case your DC fails in the next 15years.
Bingo!
Shoot your backsight point and then stakeout to your backsight point using azimuth and distance (not the forward/back, left/right). Walk up the fence until your stakeout routine tells you that you are 450 feet from the point it thinks you are trying to stake.
James
Lots of ways to do this, especially since you know approximately where you want to be.
Me, I'd shoot the BS. Then I stake out to that point and walk along my somewhat known line until I was 450 ft away. Then start looking around, all the while keeping yourself 450 ft away. You may be on your fence, you may be 75 ft off. So what.
This is not really a "stake out to line" problem. It is more of a radial stakeout problem. Don't over think it.
$0.02 & good luck
Follow up. No pin, but found some tape
I ended up doing a combo thing. Back sight to the corner; turned and shot a spot on the line that was easy to see. Did a little trig, to find that the spot was 40' shy of the mark. Set up on that point and shot up the hill another 40' to the right spot.
Couldn't find anything that looked like re-bar, but found some old survey tape tied to some barbed wire buried in the rubble of the stone fence, almost exactly at the distance expected, and no where else along the fence.
I analyzed the tape in my PVC isotope carbon dating machine 😉 and found that it dated to may of 1983, the exact date of the survey that subdivided the property.:-D
You seem to be done with this now, but your original question was about how to get the software to do it. Since these fine folks have correctly advised you how to do it the right way, I figured I'd chime in with how to make the software throw out something half assed.
You can take your shot on the backsight,then use a shot on the fence that's a good distance away from the backsight. use the stake to line function, then when it asks for the bearing, you can define it as the bearing between those two points, by entering the backsight point (let's say 1) minus the fence point (let's say two, so it reads 1-2). enter that you're staking 450 feet along the line, use your head to make sure that I don't have the and that should get you a fairly accurate distance to beep around in along the fence. If the fence has disappeared, beep a wider area.
It's not as accurate of a method, but it's relatively quick and you can teach it to practically anyone, even the ones Paden was reviewing.