Data Management
@MightyMoe Have you ever tried shortening the code list down and use attributes to differentiate things. So for Topo Top TOE grade breaks etc line type codes. They are all break lines at the end of the day so Beak Line code one code short. On first string first shot it prompts you what am I you choose from the list Top toe etc that is just an example. I have seen several different codes for a spot elevation ground shot. For different surfaces pavements ground dirt concrete etc. I have used and been exposed to so many code list from numerical to alpha they all run together now days. One firm might gal a ground shot GS the other GND another NG. Doesn’t matter it’s all in how the F2F is set up. And how the software handles different things. I always adapt to whatever and work within those confines for sure. I believe they all software wise have pros n cons. Carlson has some very nifty tools that I imagine were so far ahead of others way back when. Civil3d has some extreme positives as well. TBC has some great things. Terramodel I loved as it was so customizable and that is where I first started integrating attributes. TMOSS those numbers are still in my head to this day. If anyone ever used that and had the bubble sheets to cancel out a line I remember those days 6001 01. Heck Wild soft was not bad at all for its day either. SDRMap and eagle point. I think TDS had foresight or something.
The first coded F2F system I used what was called HASP, not the HASP that you think of today. It used numerical codes (circ. 1985). 100 was breakline and you had to do it twice to start it, take a shot, code it 100, right next to that point take another and call it 1, then it was 1 till you end the line and it was 2, then back to 1 to start a new line. 110 if I remember was a fence line. There was a list of codes to follow. Not a bad way to do it. But that was 40 years ago.
If I'm doing a dirt topo today I do my own thing. B for break, RT for random topo, F for flowline, FL for fence line. To separate breaks I take at least one RT shot so I know to begin a new line. I never do top or toe, why bother, run a breakline and it's clear when you do the contours that it's a top or toe. Really the same with flowline, any two slopes meeting along a low line will create a flowline, but I call them out anyway. I did a 600 x 500 foot relatively flat site the other day in about 15 minutes. Got the two wells, the road coming in, the two flowlines, the fence lines and all the needed topo points, must have been 250 collected points just running the 4-wheeler around. A drone can't compete with it, but then it was very drivable, the hand topo can't compete with the drone for broken ground like the dump we did last week.
But for real dump it into the computer and do F2F we do the coding the enginerds want, which for most of our clients is DOT. Put them in the feature code library and it's not too bad. We do very little actual F2F, but sometimes we have to, normally we send a .csv file and let the engineers do their thing. Mostly for me it's dirt topos and I can connect the breaks in autocad in a few minutes and then run the contours or export a surface for someone to design.
So yeah, I do simplified versions, quick and easy when that's called for. But if it's a complicated site, then it's basically done drawing it in the field with the codes, and the line commands. Or we do a drone survey.
Two things about the coding system I'm using.
First is that I've sought to minimize the number of codes. Many of the systems I've used in the past tried to have codes for absolutely everything that may be encountered in the field, the idea being that field crews needed to positively and uniformly identify whatever they were tying. In a world that includes Google Earth Street views and digital photographs I think that is no longer necessary.
Second, I have defined all the feature codes as both a 3 numeral number and as alpha code. Users may code things as numbers, or as alphas - user's choice.
@Norman_Oklahoma Thats a great way to look at it however be careful with google earth for sure. I just had a hand hole shot and google earth showed it on street view and I could read it from the imagery. But on site it had been replaced from a water vault to fiber and the water had been moved. Here we have so many trees that often cannot see what exactly something is either. From street view or imagery. We still have many back roads that the street view mapping Mobile has not been on yet. I am with you on shrinking many codes down as they all serve the same purpose at the end of the day. In most circumstances for sure. KISS. I am a firm believer in the KISS method keep it simple stupid for sure
Heavy duty to have alpha and numeric codes.
Who uses codes for construction and who uses reporting for construction. I got good functionality out of Leica reporting in the past and have a strong suspicion that trimble access and tbc is even stronger but have not made the steps to get it going.
Sometimes well thought out field notes are the best for construction....
