@Anonymous wrote:What exactly does a surveyor for a topo of my property mean? It could mean many different things.
What does into an iPhone app for GPS coordinates. It could mean different things.
If you want coordinates, such as points defined by X,Y or Lat/Long, then that's entirely different from a survey map created to display ground elevation.
A topographic map displays ground elevation typically with contour lines. Coordinates, on the other hand, are typically used to pinpoint the location of a single spot, or many individual spots, i.e., a fire hydrant, a tree, the corner of a property boundary, a building corner, etc.
When you use topo shapefile and GPS coordinates in the same sentence, it's confusing because topo typically refers to elevation of ground whereas coordinates describe the geolocation of a spot on Earth.
So what do you really want? A map that displays ground elevation or a map with points? Or a map with both?
If I were to stick my neck out and guess, I'd say you want points so you could put them in an app on your phone. You could then put aerial imagery underneath the points displayed on your phone so you'd be able to physically walk with your phone in hand to the spot on your property. If you want lines or boundaries, you could put stakes in the ground based on the points displayed on your phone then tie string to the stakes to represent those boundaries.
If this is correct, a topo shapefile is not needed. All you need is a spreadsheet in xsls format, a spreadsheet 'saved as' a csv file or a list of points in whatever format the app on your phone can consume.
Chicagolooper
So you want 'LINES' and not 'POINTS' as you alluded to in your opening post. The only reason I'm questioning is b/c the surveyor may already have coordinates of POINTS (or can easily provide you with lat/longs of points which will allow you to skip the LINES in shapefile format). If needed, you can simply connect-the-dots on your own with very little effort.
Points can be delivered to you in formats such as xlsx, csv, and txt, which are common and are easily consumed by widely used apps and programs.
Your surveyor may not know how to move from AutoCAD dwg to ESRI shapefile using C3D but he certainly knows coordinate systems and datum, afterall, he's a surveyor and he's more experienced in coordinate geometry that 98% of anyone on this forum, at least he should be if he's a licensed surveyor. If he's indeed licensed and can't provide you lat/longs points then you've been scammed by pseudo-surveyor.
BTW, if you have Google Earth Pro on your desktop, you can go to File=>Import=>Open to view your shapefile (or csv file). Once your shapefile is in GE Pro you can zoom, pan, even draw lines, and print your map.
Chicagolooper
Ask him to send you an xml file of the surface. You can import the xml and do what you need.
John Mayo
That's why you want lat/long in degrees. Skip the feet, meters, international feet, chains, yards, miles or whatever linear distance you want. Lat/long uses degrees. Any surveyor should be able to convert from projected linear to geographic lat/long.
Chicagolooper
Whoa!! Hold on.
I'm not saying his current drawing is meaningful AND tied to the real world, I'm saying the data collected by his Trimble, or whatever equipment he used, is. That data, that you nor I have, but he has stored on his hard drive, can be used to determine Lat/Long. Afterall, he collected the data and he created (or used) a specific format.
This is akin to dimensioning a building. It may be dimensioned in decimal feet, as in 60.5 feet, but you want a format in architectural nomenclature, as in 60'-6", which is the same length but expressed differently. It would be odd to say "I can't give you feet and inches b/c I measured the building in decimal feet."
Just because he has the 'data' and you don't doesn't necessarily mean it can't be done.
Chicagolooper
OK, I understand.
Just like C3D users who don't assign a coordinate system to their drawings even though they're creating surfaces, alignments and profiles using Survey Grade Data (from a licensed surveyor), that is tied to the real world. Got it.
Chicagolooper
There a multiple parts to a shapefile and you need a minimum of four parts. Each part has a different extension: shp, shx, dbf, pjr. They have different extensions b/c they perform different functions in you map. Of course, you'll have to add them to your map in order for them to perform.
At this point, it's better to ask for all parts. You can filter, or discard, the unneeded parts on your end.
Saying the GPS isn't correct is risky. He could've exported with geospatial accuracy without him, or you, not even knowing it.
What city and state is the site located.? Are you running Civil 3D or vanilla AutoCAD? Or something else? Or you don't know for sure? What you're running makes a difference. What program are you using when you open the shapefile?
Chicagolooper