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Collecting site measurements in dwg compatible format.

10 REPLIES 10
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Message 1 of 11
embolisim
1163 Views, 10 Replies

Collecting site measurements in dwg compatible format.

Hi,

We have a lot of sites & need to measure them fast and accurate, due to the client stuffing around and not leaving us much time.

 

Its been suggested we should use this,

 

http://www.lasertech.com/TruPulse-Laser-Rangefinder.aspx

 

in conjunction with this software

 

http://www.carlsonsw.com/PL_Simplicity.html

 

On an android phone or tablet pc with wireless internet. To get the data back to the office and into our site layouts asap.

 

I'm the lucky sod who gets to make it work.

 

Does anyone have any experience doing this kind of thing with these or similar products?

I'm keen to hear your experiences/reccommendations.

 

Are there any other forums I should post this on?

 

Thanks in advance.....

10 REPLIES 10
Message 2 of 11
OMCUSNR
in reply to: embolisim

NO NO NO NO!  You did say accurate, right?

 

Hire a land surveyor with a total station.  It'll be cheaper and more accurate, with less headaches and do overs.

 

Jesus!  I've got a hand held GPS, why can't I just go use that?

 

Reid

Homebuilt box: I5-2500k, MSI P67A-GD65, 12gig DDR3 1600 ram, ASUS ENGTX460 Video card, WD Velociraptor WD4500HLHX HD, Win 7 64 pro.
Message 3 of 11
Charles_Shade
in reply to: OMCUSNR

Don't worry: On the architecture side its "I own a hammer; I can build a house"

Message 4 of 11
embolisim
in reply to: embolisim

Reid.... its dude with a tape measure accurate, not millimeter perfect. Dude with a tapemeasure is just slow & has to triangulate everything. We are talkng 30 min to an hour per site to lay out some planning drawings, they arent going to construct a building from it. There is no building actually, just comms equipment.

 

And yeah hand held gps has been suggested to.... 

 

Charles.... don't be silly, you need to have a saw and hammer to build a house 😄

 

 

Message 5 of 11
OMCUSNR
in reply to: embolisim

Be willing to bet it'd still be faster, and wind up cheaper too.

 

Remember the hand held GPS is good to 1 meter at best & 3 meters mostly.

 

Reid

 

PS

 

Everyone know that an architect is an engineer that can't add - can't tell you how many times (even with cad) the dimension string doesn't add up to the overall listed.

Homebuilt box: I5-2500k, MSI P67A-GD65, 12gig DDR3 1600 ram, ASUS ENGTX460 Video card, WD Velociraptor WD4500HLHX HD, Win 7 64 pro.
Message 6 of 11
Charles_Shade
in reply to: OMCUSNR

 


@OMCUSNR wrote:

Everyone know that an architect is an engineer that can't add - can't tell you how many times (even with cad) the dimension string doesn't add up to the overall listed.


Come on over to my world. Doesn't happen here.

 

Message 7 of 11
embolisim
in reply to: Charles_Shade

There will not be any architects involved in this project anyway, just struccos and geotechs.

 

Do you know how to tell if a structural engineer is an extrovert?

 

He looks at YOUR shoes while hes talking to you.

 

They can generally count pretty good though. & MY drawings always add up too, but I wont be doing the drawing or collecting the data. Just cracking the whip.... bwah ha ha haaaa...

 

We are now looking at trialing a TOPCON GMS-2 Pro which claims to be +/- 5mm on its laser measure & 1m on GPS.

We wont be usinmg the GPS as its not accurate enough and relating everything back to 2 known points on site will give us all we need.

 

This one runs ArcPad or TopSURV-GIS as satandard, but we can load 3rd party software on to it if needed.

 

I'm REALLY keen to hear from anyone who has actually done this kind of thing before. Mainly on the data transfer end....

...that is transfering the captured data points into an AutoCAD file.

 

In particular;

Do we need to trip the data through 3rd party software, or can it be brought straight into AutoCAD?

What do we get in AutoCAD?

  • Microscopic dots that are impossible to find?
  • AutoCAD points that can be set to display nice and big?
  • Text description of the point such as EastingNorthing & point number?

Any problems I haven't though of???

 

Message 8 of 11
OMCUSNR
in reply to: embolisim

Its going to depend on what your 3rd party software will do.  It will be the thing that generates a "drawing", not acad.  It's been a long time since I've messed with survey software like Carlson or TraversPC, but they relay on total stations or real time GPS units for input.

 

Good luck!  You're gonna need it.

 

Reid

Homebuilt box: I5-2500k, MSI P67A-GD65, 12gig DDR3 1600 ram, ASUS ENGTX460 Video card, WD Velociraptor WD4500HLHX HD, Win 7 64 pro.
Message 9 of 11
embolisim
in reply to: OMCUSNR

We don't need luck, we need proper planning and testing of any proposed set up before we attempt to roll it out.

We have a GMS-2 arriving for testing later this week. At $8k a pop for the pro version (in NZ) we are not buying 4 of the suckers unless we are sure its going to work.

 

As far as I'm concerned, decoding the data and bringing it into AutoCAD is the most important part. I'm thinking the best way is to accept the raw measurement data from site and do the importing/conversion in the office. It seems most devices are supplied with software that will output dwg, or and AutoCAD plug in.

Message 10 of 11
J.A.Mounteer
in reply to: embolisim

Planning and testing before rollout?  What is this, the Twilight zone?  We bought you the software and equipment two weeks ago, why aren't you churning out these plans NOW?!

:facepalm:

 

Message 11 of 11
embolisim
in reply to: J.A.Mounteer

Well it mostly works.

We have trialed the trupulse with both arcpad & topserv & can generate actual AutoCAD points in 3D, complete with dumb text label.

But.... yup theres always a but.... the angle measurement is a bit out.

If I measure points along two things I know to be perpendicular, such as the front of my house & the fence down the side of my property, they come in with the angle looking like its more like 80 degrees.

The trupulse rep says its and easy fix but he wont tell us what that is untill he's sure of making the sale. It turns out we can buy them from someone else, so hes lost a customer. I just need to find the magic setting. Any ideas where I can look for this kind of info?

Thanks....

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