Learning curve for land surveyor

[ESchomberg]

Dear sirs, just a random question but an important one to me. I am a land surveyor learning this program. There are so many aspects and capabilities of this program, but for my field I don't believe I have to learn them all. I feel that some of the functions on here are more geared to design for Engineers, and perhaps architechs, and so on. I know that I have to be able to draw 2D for mortgage surveys, boundary surveys, subdivision design etc..... I know I need to be able to be able to draw topographic surfaces and as-builts. Can anyone tell me if there are any other aspects of this design that a land surveyor needs to learn???

[Joe-Bouza · Accepted solution]

All yor need to learn is how to leverage the software to economize your work.
That may mean all or some.

My suggestion stop worry where to begin and get under the hood and scrape your knuckles. You may be surprised by how much you learn

[Joe-Bouza]

Label styles. Learn and master. Get your template solid. And get to work

[Pointdump · Accepted solution]

ES,

Map Projections, like State Plane, UTM, Low-Distortion Projections, etc. It's especially important when mixing GPS and Conventional Total Station points.

Assigning a Coordinate System to your drawing is necessary before you can use Bing Live Maps or bring Shapefiles and GIS stuff into your drawing. 

Dave

[rl_jackson]

@ESchomberg

Civil 3D is not easy to tame, but this may help with things somewhat, and is basically the method I use. I have all my styles and ambient settings set to layer 0. With this setup, I can change the layer of objects as need, and it limits the number of styles I need to create. It make C3D easier to learn as well. And things can be adjusted later as needed.

Interesting reading attached.

[jjfuller]

Your typical workflow will dicatate the functions you need to learn and in what order.  Just take the time to understand each step as you go through the process.  To reinforce Dave's point, as a surveyor understanding the map functions are the foundation of the project - a blunder in datum can take a while to recover from.  Then move to description keys and linework, importing data, surfaces, parcels, etc.  Styles are the key, wether object or annotation and your template will evolve as a better understanding of what is required develops. 

[ESchomberg]

Thanks Joe. I actually seem to learn much more by fumbling my way through the program than I do by reading about it. Although research is an essential part of it.

[Joe-Bouza]

No Doubt. Using this forum has been immeasurably helpful to me. Ask questions, read post that superficially ,to you, seem unrelated to what you do as well as those that relate. Trust me on this: you will be solving questions soon.

Empirical Data is you best teacher

[ESchomberg]

Yeah Dave, I think I pretty much have that down. I have learned how to look up coordinate zones online. I also found a coordinate calculator on civil3d where I translated assumed coords to a rough lat and long that I got on Google earth just to get my project close to reality. I did that so I could use the Geolocations/ aereal map function. It was pretty awesome. That coordinate calculator was awesome, I wrote down where it is located, if you have never used it I would be glad to look up where it is??

[ESchomberg]

Thank you Jackson. I will look into this.

[Pointdump]

ES,

The Geodetic Calculator is definitely cool:

And so is Coordinate Tracker:

Dave

[ESchomberg]

Thank you.

[ESchomberg]

Coordinate tracker???? Hmmm.... I am trying to figure out what exactly that does and how it would be beneficial( I have never used it). Is there a function on here Dave that you can look up all of the coordinate zones and UTM settings in the US? or the world? I would not doubt it from what I have seen in this program.

[Pointdump · Accepted solution]

ES,

Here's a pretty good video that cuts to the chase on the Coordinate Tracker. One nice feature of the Tracker is that you can view, all in the same window, an unlimited number of CS's, i.e., State Plane, UTM, LL, etc...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hU6-hk6m0U

To access the Coordinate System Library, switch to Map Space, then Map Setup >>Coordinate System >> Library:

To search for a particular Coordinate System, type in something to narrow things down. (There are hundreds of CS's in the Library.)

If you hit the "Assign" button, you can see what Coordinate System has been assigned to the drawing. You can also change it there.

Dave

[ESchomberg]

Omg, that is awesome, I can't wait to get on my computer and check this out. So you mean all CS's, and zones can be found on civil3d? As well as a coord calculator? No need to Google phone apps to try and find these things??

[Pointdump]

ES,

I wouldn't go so far as to say ALL Coordinate Systems, just most of the "standard" ones. Keep in mind that you can create a new, unique Coordinate System, like a Custom Low-Distortion Projection. Many Cities and Counties now have their own "official" Coordinate System. For instance, Las Vegas, Nevada, has two "official" CS's, one for the higher and one for lower elevations. And North Las Vegas, a suburb of Las Vegas, has its own CS. Kinda nice because you don't have to worry about the difference between Grid and Ground distances, like you do with State Plane. Also makes GIS stuff from those entities a little "tighter".

You'll definitely want to check out your local GIS data sources. Things like Parcel Maps, complete with Assessor's Parcel Number, ownership history, zoning, and Book-and-Page number of the plat that created the Parcel would definitely make your work easier.

Dave