You are browsing the archive for Surveying Software.

Avatar of EricColburn

by EricColburn

Autodesk Technology Makeover Contest for Small Businesses

February 7, 2012 in Associate Membership, AutoCAD, Business, Geomatics, Land Surveying, Links, News, Surveying Software

Professional Land Surveyor News

Professional Land Surveyor News

Call for Entries: Autodesk Technology Makeover Contest for Small Businesses

Small businesses can gain competitive edge with new software and hardware.

–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Autodesk, Inc.:

WHAT: An Autodesk software technology makeover for AutoCAD® customers using outdated software and hardware is ready to help small businesses gain or enhance competitive advantage. A new contest will award up to five Lenovo® ThinkStation® workstations together with five licenses of the Autodesk® Design Suite software of the winner’s choice. This contest is open to current AutoCAD small business customers (using version 2008 or earlier) based in the United States and Canada (with the exception of Quebec and Puerto Rico) employing 300 people or less.
One Grand Prize:
• Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment »

Avatar of EricColburn

by EricColburn

Geo-Plus VisionPlus Voted 2011 Best Surveying Software for Professional Land Surveyors

August 15, 2011 in Associate Membership, AutoCAD Civil 3D, Bentley, Business, Carlson, ESRI, Geo-Plus, Geomatics, Land Surveying, MicroSurvey, News, Surveying Software, Surveys, Topcon, Trimble

Geo-Plus, Providing Solutions for Land Management Professionals, Voted Best Surveying Software for Professional Land Surveyors for their Geo-Plus VisionPlus Land Surveying Software

Geo-PlusGeo-Plus VisionPlus has been voted the 2011 Best Surveying Software for Professional Land Surveyors on EricColburn.com with an impressive 45% of the votes.

With over twenty-five entries in the Professional Land Surveyor Survey, the loyalty of Geo-Plus VisionPlus users is very impressive.

About Geo-Plus VisionPlus

“Geo-Plus VisionPlus is a Land Surveying Software designed by Land Surveyors for Land Surveyors. The 2011 version of Geo-Plus VisionPlus is the accomplishment of optimization of land surveying process that has started with the first edition in 1987. Its well-adapted features make this software a key to success. Geo-Plus VisionPlus is becoming the most trusted and reliable geomatics software running on AutoCAD®, Civil3D®, MicroStation®, PowerDraft®, Bricscad®. VisionPlus includes VisionCogo.”

Professional Land Surveyor Source: Geo-Plus

 

PROFESSIONAL LAND SURVEYOR SURVEY

PROFESSIONAL LAND SURVEYOR SURVEY

The 2011 Best Surveying Software for Professional Land Surveyors Survey Results:

What is the Best Surveying Software for Professional Land Surveyors?

  • Geo-Plus VisionPlus (45%, 25 Votes)
  • AutoCAD Civil 3D (15%, 8 Votes)
  • MicroSurvey Star*Net (9%, 5 Votes)
  • Carlson Survey (7%, 4 Votes)
  • Pythagoras (5%, 3 Votes)
  • AutoCAD Land Desktop (5%, 3 Votes)
  • MicroSurvey CAD (4%, 2 Votes)
  • Traverse PC Land Surveying Software (4%, 2 Votes)
  • Carlson SurvCE (4%, 2 Votes)
  • Bentley MicroStation (2%, 1 Votes)
  • Trimble Geomatics Office (2%, 1 Votes)
  • Ashtech Solutions (2%, 1 Votes)
  • Autodesk Softdesk® 8 Civil/Survey (2%, 1 Votes)
  • Garmin MapSource (0%, 0 Votes)
  • MapInfo (0%, 0 Votes)
  • ESRI ArcGIS (0%, 0 Votes)
  • Topcon TopSURV 8 (0%, 0 Votes)
  • Surpac (0%, 0 Votes)
  • Bentley InRoads Suite (0%, 0 Votes)
  • Survey Maker (0%, 0 Votes)
  • Autodesk CAiCE (0%, 0 Votes)
  • Topcon Tools (0%, 0 Votes)
  • 12d Model (0%, 0 Votes)
  • BenchMark Survey System (0%, 0 Votes)
  • HP48s w/TDS or SMI software cards (0%, 0 Votes)
  • Army Corps of Engineers application (Corpscon) (0%, 0 Votes)
  • National Geodetic Survey (NGS) Toolkit applications (HTDP, VDatum, etc.) (0%, 0 Votes)
  • STK - Surveyors' Tool Kit (0%, 0 Votes)
  • MicroSurvey InCAD (0%, 0 Votes)

Total Voters: 55

Loading ... Loading ...

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 3 Comments »

Avatar of EricColburn

by EricColburn

Professional Land Surveyor Survey-What is the Best Surveying Software for Professional Land Surveyors?

June 14, 2011 in Associate Membership, AutoCAD Civil 3D, Bentley, Business, Carlson, ESRI, Geomatics, Land Surveying, MicroSurvey, Surveying Software, Surveys, Topcon, Trimble

PROFESSIONAL LAND SURVEYOR SURVEY

PROFESSIONAL LAND SURVEYOR SURVEY

In this Professional Land Surveyor Survey, I’m asking:

What is the Best Surveying Software for Professional Land Surveyors?

Recently, at the Professional Land Surveyor LinkedIn Group I asked this very question, which received 18 comments from land surveyors revealing their ideas on what’s the best surveying software for professional land surveyors.

From their comments, I put together this list of surveying and surveying related software products to choose from.

Take the Professional Land Surveyor Survey:

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment »

Avatar of EricColburn

by EricColburn

Professional Land Surveyor News: Bentley Delivers New 3D City GIS Information Modeling Software to Enhance Design and Operation of Intelligent Cities

February 22, 2010 in Associate Membership, Bentley, Business, Land Surveying, News, Surveying Software

Professional Land Surveyor News

Professional Land Surveyor News

18 February 2010

Leveraging Its Leadership in Information Modeling, Bentley Advances GIS for 3D Cities by Releasing V8i (SELECTseries 1) Versions of Bentley Map, Bentley Descartes, Bentley Geospatial Server, and Bentley Geo Web Publisher

EXTON, Pa. – Bentley Systems, Incorporated, the leading company dedicated to providing comprehensive software solutions for the infrastructure that sustains our world, today announced breakthroughs in 3D geospatial information systems (GIS) software to support the design and operation of intelligent cities. Intelligent cities, and the intelligent infrastructure they incorporate, take full advantage of information modeling best practices. As a result, they are able to provide better performance with respect to safety, energy, lifecycle costing, and operational efficiency. Bentley’s intra-operable portfolio of software features lifecycle support across all classes of intelligent infrastructure, including land management, power generation and energy delivery, water and wastewater networks, roads, bridges, rail, communications networks, and buildings. The just-released V8i(SELECTseries 1) versions of Bentley Map, Bentley Descartes, Bentley Geospatial Server, and Bentley Geo Web Publisher further extend this portfolio to include new 3D City GIS capabilities.

Commenting on Bentley’s new software, Richard Zambuni, Bentley global marketing director, said, “All around the world, city governments are looking for ways to improve the sustainability of their intelligent city infrastructure to deliver a better quality of life to their citizens. Bentley’s newly released 3D City GIS products enable them to adopt information modeling best practices that enhance their ability to perform urban planning, noise simulation, shadow analysis, natural disaster mitigation, public relationship management, and 3D analysis and design.

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , No Comments »

Avatar of EricColburn

by EricColburn

Professional Land Surveyor News: Leica Geosystems and MicroSurvey Extend Software Partnership

February 11, 2010 in Associate Membership, Business, Land Surveying, Land Surveying Equipment, Laser Scanning, Leica, MicroSurvey, News, Surveying Software

Microsurvey's Point Cloud CAD 2010

Microsurvey's Point Cloud CAD 2010

Leica Geosystems and MicroSurvey Extend Software Partnership

(Houston, 8 February 2010) Based on rapid growth of High-Definition Surveying™ (HDS™) in civil/survey mapping applications, Leica Geosystems, the market leader in laser scanning products, and MicroSurvey Software Inc., a leader in mapping software, announced plans at SPAR 2010 for Leica Geosystems to resell MicroSurvey’s new PointCloud CAD mapping software on a global basis.

The new PointCloud CAD software was developed by MicroSurvey using Leica Geosystems’ point cloud engine (pcE) technology to efficiently manage large laser scan data sets from any scanner or aerial Lidar as users process point cloud data into mapping elements in the software’s final deliverables. The product is planned to be available from Leica Geosystems Feb. 15, 2010.

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment »

Avatar of EricColburn

by EricColburn

5 Nice Features of AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010 Parcels

January 8, 2010 in Associate Membership, AutoCAD, AutoCAD Civil 3D, Business, Land Surveying, Premium Membership, Surveying Software


AutoCAD Civil 3D Parcels

AutoCAD Civil 3D Parcels

5 Nice Features of AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010 Parcels

I was recently working on converting an older AutoCAD drawing to an AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010 drawing in order to modify a parcel and add a few new parcels to it. Also recently, I’ve been writing a soon to be released article about whether or not AutoCAD Civil 3D is a good tool for land surveyors. Having both things on my mind, the big picture and the one Parcels feature set of the software, gave me the idea for this article.

As I focused on using the features of AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010 Parcels I realized that there are some very nice features built into this part of the software. Using the Parcels functions and feature set in AutoCAD Civil 3D, for any release, is probably one of the most used functions of AutoCAD Civil 3D. Parcels in AutoCAD Civil 3D give the professional land surveyor powerful tools they can use every day in their land surveying businesses, while not being too much of a burden to setup.

One of the biggest concerns I hear from users of AutoCAD Civil 3D is how laborious and complex it is to setup AutoCAD Civil 3D. It is true that AutoCAD Civil 3D can take an enormous amount of upfront time to get setup and organized. This is expected with a software package designed to be standards oriented. In fact, standards based setup and design is one of the most powerful aspects of AutoCAD Civil 3D.

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 4 Comments »

Avatar of EricColburn

by EricColburn

Professional Land Surveyor News: Trimble Announces Updated Suite of Mapping and GIS Software with New Postprocessing Engine

December 11, 2009 in Associate Membership, Business, GPS, Land Surveying, Land Surveying Equipment, News, Surveying Software, Trimble, Trimble

Trimble Announces Updated Suite of Mapping and GIS Software
with New Postprocessing Engine

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Dec. 7, 2009 — Trimble (NASDAQ: TRMB) announced today significant updates to its entire portfolio of Mapping & GIS field and office software products. These enhancements focus on improved Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) accuracy for data collection under a variety of conditions that deliver additional benefits to users of Trimble Mapping & GIS solutions. With the introduction of a new postprocessing engine, Trimble has further enhanced its powerful set of GNSS postprocessing tools, improving accuracy and consistency of data collected from all Trimble Mapping & GIS equipment, even in multipath and canopy environments. A key addition to the set of tools is Trimble® DeltaPhase™ technology, a revolutionary new technique for improving the accuracy of GNSS code measurements.

With Trimble DeltaPhase technology, results from receivers such as the GeoXT™ handheld and GPS Pathfinder® ProXT™ show 50 centimeter accuracy in good environments and improved yield under canopy and in multipath prone areas. Results are also significantly improved for the Juno™ series handhelds with postprocessed accuracy now in the 1 to 3 meter range.

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , No Comments »

Avatar of EricColburn

by EricColburn

PROFESSIONAL LAND SURVEYOR SURVEY-How Often Does AutoCAD Crash on You?

September 21, 2009 in Associate Membership, AutoCAD, AutoCAD Civil 3D, Business, Land Surveying, Surveying Software, Surveys

PROFESSIONAL LAND SURVEYOR SURVEY

PROFESSIONAL LAND SURVEYOR SURVEY

In this week’s PROFESSIONAL LAND SURVEYOR SURVEY I’m asking the question of when you use AutoCAD, How Often Does AutoCAD Crash on You?

Take the survey and please tell us what you think about the issue of AutoCAD crashing, how often it crashes, and how it impacts you and your company.

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment »

Avatar of EricColburn

by EricColburn

MidAmerica GIS Consortium MAGIC 2010 Symposium

July 8, 2009 in Associate Membership, Business, GIS, Land Surveying, News, Surveying Software

MidAmerica GIS Consortium

MidAmerica GIS Consortium

MAGIC 2010 Symposium

The 2010 Symposium will be held at the Westin Crown Center April 18 – 22, 2010 in Kansas City, Missouri.

GIS covers such a broad range of subjects, applications and types of people that use it, that developing a conference program that meets everyone’s needs is a challenging task. Even more challenging is an attendee trying to figure out exactly which sessions or topics will be most interesting and helpful. MAGIC 2010 is intended to focus the content of the presentation options into a program specifically geared to each attendee’s needs.

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: , , , , , , 1 Comment »

Avatar of EricColburn

by EricColburn

Why GIS Needs Professional Land Surveyors Video with Brent Jones of ESRI

April 17, 2009 in Associate Membership, Business, Business Videos, Carlson, Continuing Education, GIS, GPS, Land Surveying, Land Surveying Videos, Surveying Software, Technology Videos, Videos

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!

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , No Comments »

Avatar of EricColburn

by EricColburn

AutoCAD Civil 3D Free 30 Day Trial offered by Autodesk

March 31, 2009 in Associate Membership, AutoCAD Civil 3D, Land Surveying, Links, Surveying Software

If you are interested in learning about AutoCAD Civil 3D, why not try the  AutoCAD Civil 3D Free 30 Day Trial offered by Autodesk.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , 2 Comments »

Avatar of EricColburn

by EricColburn

Mastering AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010

March 20, 2009 in Associate Membership, AutoCAD, AutoCAD Civil 3D, Books, Business, Land Surveying, Surveying Software

Mastering AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010 (Paperback)

Mastering AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010 (Paperback eCampus affiliate link)

Summary

A complete, detailed reference and tutorial for Autodesk’s popular and robust civil engineering software

AutoCAD Civil 3D is the industry-leading civil engineering software, and this guide by a pair of Civil 3D experts is the comprehensive reference for both novices and professionals. It focuses on teaching vital Civil 3D 2010 tips, tricks, and techniques, showing you how to use the software in real-world professional environments.

After you learn the key concepts and how to work with the interface, you’ll explore the best methods for creating, editing, displaying, and labeling all the parts of a civil engineering project.

  • This comprehensive guide to the newest version of Civil 3D features coverage of all the new features, including the intersection tool
  • Uses real-world examples and practical tutorials to teach vital Civil 3D tips, tricks, and techniques
  • Covers the key concepts and software interface and discusses the best methods for creating, editing, displaying, and labeling a project’s elements
  • Features in-depth, detailed coverage of surveying, points, alignments, surfaces, profiles, corridors, grading, and LandXML and LDT Project Transfer
  • Examines cross-sections, pipe networks, visualization, sheets, project management, and Vault and data shortcuts

Mastering AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010 (eCampus affiliate link) is the in-depth guide you need to make the most of Civil 3D.

You can purchase this book by following this link ==>>Mastering AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010 (eCampus affiliate link)

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , No Comments »

Avatar of EricColburn

by EricColburn

AutoCAD Civil 3D 2009 Survey Database issues

July 24, 2008 in Associate Membership, AutoCAD, AutoCAD Civil 3D, Business, Land Surveying, Surveying Software

Just a brief alert for those of you using AutoCAD Civil 3D 2009 survey databases. I’ve encountered a problem where if I try to import a survey field book into a new survey network that uses existing setup and backsight points from another survey network, things go wrong. Please note that I am not using Vault to manage my survey databases, therefore I don’t know if this is also an issue for those of you using Vault.
 
The program won’t recognize the existing points you are trying to occupy, apparently because they are in another survey network (but within the same survey database of course), and will result in the following error message:

AutoCAD Civil 3D 2009 error message

 

The reason I am alerting you to this, other than it’s not working correctly, is that I have had the field book input into the wrong survey network (the one where the existing occupied point number resided). This happened when I hit “cancel”. Having your data end up in the wrong survey network is one thing, but it’s very difficult to undo this process if this new data is intermixed with your older survey data (particularly if your field data has issues and was not completely corrected prior to being input). Also note that you may get unexpected results even if you click yes or no. And this also seems to create problems with survey figures being created.

The folks at Autodesk are currently working on this problem with me and I expect a resolution to this issue shortly. However, in the meantime I recommend the following:

  1. Make sure your survey field books are edited, appropriately corrected and ready to run. You can check this by setting up a “scratch” or temporary survey database (and drawing file) to test the input of your field book. Common issues are: incorrect setup/backsight points, duplicate point numbers, incorrect descriptions, incorrect rod heights and corrections to survey figure commands and descriptions. Basically, look where there is human input at the data collector prompts.
  2. Before you add anything to your project survey database, make complete copies of all the project files, particularly the survey database itself, so that if something goes wrong you can easily go back in time to where you started.

I will give you an update when I have more information and please leave a comment if you have experienced these problems or if you have anything to offer for a solution.

Tags: , , , 1 Comment »

Avatar of EricColburn

by EricColburn

Book Review: Mastering AutoCad Civil 3D

June 30, 2008 in 4 RODS, Associate Membership, AutoCAD, Book Reviews, Land Surveying, Rated As, Surveying Software

Mastering AutoCAD Civil 3D 2008 is a must read if you are using, or plan to implement, AutoCAD Civil 3D. I bought this book last year and I refer to it all the time.

Written by Dana Probert, E.I.T., James Wedding, P.E., along with Mark Scacco, P.E., and Jason Hickey, this book gives comprehensive information, tricks and tips, and is suitable to be read in its entirety, or chapter by chapter as necessary. The accompanying CD includes tutorial files and third-party utilities and plug-ins. I used Q-Legal for AutoDesk Civil 3D, on the accompanying CD, and liked the way it took AutoCAD Civil 3D parcel data and transferred and formatted a legal description.

I didn’t always use the tutorial files provided, instead mostly using real data and land surveying projects from my land surveying business, but I recommend them to anyone trying to learn to use AutoCAD Civil 3D, as they are setup for each tutorial eliminating any issues you may encounter and think its your data (although you learn a lot this way).

I rate this book 4 RODS out of a total possible 4 RODS.

 

 

Tags: , , No Comments »

Avatar of EricColburn

by EricColburn

AutoCAD Civil 3D 2009 New Network Dialogue Box Issues

June 2, 2008 in Associate Membership, Land Surveying, Surveying Software

A few weeks ago I loaded AutoCAD Civil 3D 2009 and had problems when I tried to create a New Network in a survey database. The New Network Dialogue Box would open but I couldn’t enter anything. There simply wasn’t a space to enter a New Network Name.

The good folks at the Autodesk Support Team found the solution (quite simple if you understood what was happening). It appears a defect in the dialogue box forced the columns to the far right making the data entry part of the form inaccessible.

Where you are supposed to enter data, like the New Network Name, there should be a column under “Value” with red vertical lines on each side. Simply drag the column header line back and then separate the red lines and the input area, under “Value”, becomes available. Enter your network name, description and click OK. The next time you open the New Network Dialog box it should look like you left it, and all should be back to normal.

AutoCAD Civil 3D 2009 Correct New Network Dialogue Box

Tags: , 3 Comments »

s2Member®