Eric D. Colburn, PLS

Professional Land Surveyor News

Professional Land Surveyor News: Carlson EMEA BV Opens in the Netherlands to Serve Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) Markets

THE NETHERLANDS – Carlson Software, U.S.-based developer of technically advanced design software for land surveying, civil engineering, construction and mining industries, established a wholly owned subsidiary, Carlson EMEA BV, this June in the Netherlands to support and expand the Carlson business in  Europe, Middle East and Africa.

Joining Jan Bech in the United Kingdom and Jesus Latova in Spain to make up the Carlson EMEA team are four industry experts who formerly worked for the European Topcon Sokkia group. Bech has been handling Carlson’s European and Canadian sales for the past four years and is a specialist in Carlson desktop solutions and Latova is the director of Data Collection Product Design for Carlson.

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Professional Land Surveyor News

Professional Land Surveyor News: Carlson Software & Transtronic AB Reach Mutual Development & Distribution Agreement for 3D GNSS Drilling Solutions

Here’s an interesting press release that I originally found interesting, but thought at the time that it was  not overly relevant to professional land surveyors. Since then, however, with the catastrophic BP Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion, fire, and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico this may now be very topical and newsworthy.

I don’t know if the 3D GNSS drilling solutions detailed below are even applicable to the type of deep water drilling being used to drill the two relief wells adjacent to the former location of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil rig? If anyone knows, please give us an update below in this posts comments section. Either way, the technology detailed below, and I’m sure the technology being used to drill the two BP Deepwater Horizon oil rig relief wells, is very impressive and shows again how integrated GPS is becoming in all aspects of our lives and businesses. I think this also another example of how machine control is changing our industry and is here to stay.

MAYSVILLE, Ky., U.S.A., & KÖPING, Sweden – Carlson Software Inc. and Transtronic AB recently reached an agreement for international distribution of Carlson’s Drill Grade 4.0 software with Transtronic’s hardware and sensor technology.

Working together, Carlson’s Drill Grade software and Transtronic AB hardware, which includes sensors for length, angle and azimuth measurement, provide a complete 3D Drill solution for all types of drill rigs for OEM considerations or retrofit.

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Professional Land Surveyor News

Professional Land Surveyor News: Carlson’s New SurvPC Data Collection Software Provides SurvCE Power on a Windows® PC

If you currently use a Windows PC, such as a ruggedized laptop and Carlson SurvCE, or are considering switching to or adding either to your surveyor’s toolbox, here’s a good piece of news: Carlson has just released Carlson SurvPC, a full-screen version of Carlson’s popular data collection software, Carlson SurvCE. Carlson says that SurvPC can be used on any standard Windows PC computers, including ruggedized laptops. Carlson SurvPC is a new release following their recent release of SurvCE, version 2.5, which is a free upgrade for those utilizing version 2.0 and forward.

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Here is a nice video showing how to perform a survey resection in Carlson SurvCE. This video, prepared by Carlson Desktop Solutions, walks you through the process of performing a survey resection and the options available to you. What’s nice about doing a survey resection using Carlson SurvCE software is that you can use multiple points to enhance your precision and accuracy of the resected point.

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Twitter #FollowFriday Professional Land Surveyor Recommendations

Here is this week’s Twitter #FollowFriday Professional Land Surveyor Recommendations:

@iPinda – Edwards Twitter bio says “CAD specialist, AutoCAD trainer and Civil 3D addict” and if you visit his Civil 3D Peanuts blog, you’ll discover that he’s also a part-time freelance AutoCAD trainer and full time CAD application administrator for an international AEC company. You can also learn nice tips and tricks like Importing AutoCAD Objects as Surface data points.

@cad_notes- Edwin is from Indonesia, is an AutoCAD and Revit user, and writes the popular CAD tutorials and best practices blog CAD NOTES. Definitely read yesterday’s post on How to: Draw an Arc with a Specific Arc Length?

@wkfd – WKFD is the Twitter account for the Kung Fu Drafter blog. They are drafters and geeks trying to share information with people with similar interests. I highly recommend visiting The Kung Fu Drafter blog, as it is a fun site and full of information too! This week I enjoyed reading Review: Kung Fu Drafter Reviews AutoCAD Freestyle … blog post.

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Twitter #FollowFriday Professional Land Surveyor Recommendations

Here is this week’s Twitter #FollowFriday Professional Land Surveyor Recommendations:

@JoshNelson – Josh is a Civil Engineer and current President of the Civil CADD Consortium. The Civil CADD Consortium, or C³ (s? thr?), was founded in 2000 by a group of Southern California civil engineering professionals, mainly comprised of local office, as well as corporate-level, CADD Managers.

@ryanpconnolly – Ryan is a civil engineering student, CAD user, and CAD learner (aren’t we all though). He occasionally refers to me as “mr. colburn”, which makes me laugh. In my mind I’m his age, or younger, but the years do tend to add up after awhile.

@cad_notes- Edwin is from Indonesia, is an AutoCAD and Revit user, and writes the popular CAD tutorials and best practices blog CAD NOTES. Definitely read today’s post on How to: Set Local Help File as Default in 2011 Version, which I thought was well done and helpful.

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Professional Land Surveyor News

Carlson SurvCE 2.5 Data Collection Software Just Released

MAYSVILLE, Ky. — The newest version of Carlson Software’s popular data collection software – Carlson SurvCE 2.5 – has just been released. Two years in production, with incremental updates along the way, Carlson SurvCE 2.5 is a free upgrade for Carlson customers already using SurvCE 2.0 and newer.

Featuring hundreds of additions and improvements, Carlson SurvCE 2.5 works with more brands of Total Stations and GPS receivers than any other data collection software on the market. New instrument drivers added for Total Stations and GPS receivers include: CST Berger, Foif, GeoMax, Hemisphere Crescent and Eclipse, Javad receivers, Leica Flexline, NavCom 2110, Ashtech ProMark 500 and ProFlex 500, Sokkia GRX1 and Stonex S9 GNSS and Orion.

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Summer is finally here and after a long, dark and rainy spring in New England. The economy has also remained dark and turbulent.

I had some hope that in late March and early April business would pick up a little. And, that’s just what business did – It picked up a little, very little.

Life and business has as its ups and its downs, like the weather and the tides. I am still hopeful that the economy will be improving soon. It’s only a matter of time, but the 64,000 dollar question is who will be left standing when the relentless tide of this recession recedes?

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PROFESSIONAL LAND SURVEYOR SURVEY

In this week’s PROFESSIONAL LAND SURVEYOR SURVEY I am asking how you would rate the cost of your CAD software. As ubiquitous as it has become, your CAD software expenditure is certainly not something you can afford to take lightly, particularly in these difficult economic times.

Whether you’re a professional land surveyor, engineer, architect, or designer of any kind, I bet that you have a strong opinion on this subject. I do too, but I’m going to hold off telling you my opinion for now until mostly everyone has had a chance to vote and leave their comments.

So, please vote on the PROFESSIONAL LAND SURVEYOR SURVEY-How Would You Rate the Cost of Your CAD Software? below, and leave your comments telling us what you think about the cost of your CAD software.

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If you’re a professional land surveyor, regardless of whether you own your own company or work for someone else, you must see this informative video of the presentation that Brent Jones of ESRI gave at the recent Carlson Users Conference 2009. It is a little long (all good), so grab a cup of coffee, sit back and learn how GIS needs professional land surveyors and how professional land surveyors need GIS, too.

I think that the ideas presented by Brent Jones are right on target and present a road map for professional land surveyors to incorporate GIS into their professional practices and survive and prosper in the post recession economy.

I know that a shiver runs up the back of many professional land surveyors at the sound of that word, GIS. But now is the time for us, with all of the talents and knowledge we posses as professional land surveyors, to help make GIS better and raise it to a level where GIS is survey grade in positional accuracy and quality!