I must be missing a step.
Find some monuments with known but assumed coordinates (local calc'd from record maps).
Localize to 4 of them and they fit pretty good. The purpose is to stake out and find more (I've done this with great success with a TSC1 but Trimble apparently knows what a calibration is actually for).
Stake out first point, it wants me to go 6,000,000 feet, WHAT?
Apparently it moved all the coordinate points in the file, OK this is strange. So I reimport the calc'd points (except the ones used in the localization which it won't let me but they are moved 6,000,000 feet away although they were used to localize). So in the end it worked and we were able to find a bunch more monuments but this really has me confused.
Are we supposed to use a separate control file or something like that?
Topsurv handles coordinates differently depending on what coordinate type they were imported as. When users report this kind of issue, they forgot to change the projection to "none" instead of a state plane zone. Therefore, the coordinates were imported as grid instead of ground. Previous versions of Topsurv would throw an error if you tried to localize to multiple grid points. Remove the localization points and re-import your coordinates after setting the projection to ground. Since Topsurv uses separate point numbers for the WGS84 values, after you have imported simply go back into localization and pair the local and WGS84 back together and you should be good to go.
Sounds like the coordinate points you tried to localize got merged with a lat and long somehow; 6,000,000 feet away. I can see how that happens if the DC is looking at a projection that puts the XY that far away. My life has become much simpler when I stopped calibrating (unless I absolutely have too). I use Trimble but it sounds like Topcon is even less user friendly. What I do now is a little more time consuming than “calibrating” the file. I just decide what kind of system I wish to work in and go to the field with that projection already entered. Then locate some legacy control points. Then I upload the data into my netbook I carry with me. From there I rotate the old control, reimport them into the DC and go find them.
I know it’s not as quick a procedure in the beginning (although from dshearon's post and what you went through it may actually be faster than what Topcon wants you to do), but in my opinion it gives better answers than trying to calibrate or localize to old control-and less headaches down the road trying to make the old control work.
The GPS companies sold the units with the idea of calibrating to older control as a quick way to align the GPS to the control. I used to do it a lot-but the older control never was as accurate as the GPS and it just got too frustrating for me. Unless it’s for something like a coal mine that just can't update their control because of permitting issues, I've quit doing it.
But I feel your pain; many times I've been on the phone trying to explain the procedure with a crew chief that was having trouble with it or one of the engineering companies I work with that had someone out in the field trying to calibrate a file and it wasn't happening.
Trimble to Topcon. I feel your pain brother. One of the joys of working for the Gov't. 🙁
we suspected this was the problem but the field wasn't a good place to diagnose the problem so we used brute force instead.
I almost always calibrate/localize for search purposes only. It's just an easier way to find more points with out shooting some then going back to the office to rotate and translate then go back out to search.
With TGO you could easily dump the calibration when importing the day's measurements into TGO. A calibration on a motley collection various sources of information is OK for searching but certainly not OK for the final product.
