Does anyone have a preference and why?
Is there any benefit of one over the other?
I don't see a need for a preference.
The dc file is created from the job file when downloaded. DC file is an ascii file. The .job file contains information not found in the dc file, while the dc file only contains a subset of info from the .job file.
No real preference ... but I'm only in TBC test-mode.
What surprised me is when importing a job file you can't even find a dc in the TBC folders (or am I missing something)... so no way to read raw data.
I don't feel comfortable with TBC not being open as TGO was, there you could lookup the different tables in MS Office - Access. Someone know how to read the vce file??
The custom import/export are less flexible then these in TGO ... I think we'll work with the 2 extra description fields in the Trimble Access software, these fields are available in the export and notes entered this way are linked to the points, one of the changes I appreciate.
Chr.
I agree Chris-the one thing I REALLY miss in TBC is the access database format.
If I am just doing topo, I read in the dc file and process it in either TGO or TBC. But, for traverse, control, or monitoring, I read the dc file into a database I developed, and do all the processing and adjustments there (using geolab for the adjustments). I just feel more confident in the results, and I have much more control over the data, like being able to easily see and fix prism offsets, HI/HT, etc. So, I have to use the DC. It would be nice if Trimble would release info about the .job file, but I doubt that will happen.
You can get a lot of info out of TBC about baselines (which is mainly what I use it for-to post process) by saving the baseline report to excel. I have a program to read the excel file created and extract info for an access database. But, there is a bit of a bug. If you change some of the output options (for example do not include residuals), TBC puts the info into the excel file in different columns. Very aggravating if you have a program that reads from a certain columm. No reason for it to happen. I posted that on the TBC facebook page, and they said they would pass it along to the engineers. But, I never heard anything back.
It would be nice if Trimble would release info about the .job file, but I doubt that will happen.
John,
is not all the info available when you convert from job to jobxml (ascii File Generator)? I have no program experience with xml files but it's also ascii.
Chr.
Never tried that, Chris. I will look into it.