GPS Tree Survey Systems

[Gary Prentice]

45 minutes ago, Paul Barton said:

On an iPad mate. It’s a simple free CAD app called DWG Fastview. 

This is where I'm currently undecided.

 

I've a Getac Data collector which takes a micro sd card. On that I've an excel spreadsheet with some dropdown lists already set up to ease the onsite data input. The card then goes into the laptop at home and inputs directly into keysofts Keytree. Pretty much asks where do you want to place t1, t2, t3 etc Then because it's excel I can also import the survey schedule straight into ms Word.

 

I could do exactly the same using a toughbook, but after taking tablets onto site their size becomes a bit of a pain. With the Getac, I still need a paper plan of the topo, just to mark which tree is which at the moment. It's coming together slowly, just a pain getting everything to work together. The getac won't 'talk' directly to the laptop because windows ten isn't compatible with windows mobile devices - or something like that, the getac isn't running excel 2016 properly so working between an earlier version on site and compatible mode on the pc. etc etc

 

Why is everything so difficult?

[Paul Barton]

Well the CAD app would save you having to mark up a paper copy on site but not much else. 

 

Just need someone to make a simple app that links a DWG with a survey form....

 

ArbEvolve looked good but won’t work on Mac’s so won’t work for us. 

[daltontrees]

I've decided to keep it as simple as possible. I have a Trimble Geo XT for sub-metre work which works in the foulest weather you can imagine. and a Juno SC in an Otterbox for other things and when I am out with my tech he plots and measures with a Trimble and I assess with the Juno or a Dell Axim x51v. The Trimbles use Pocket GIS, and the Dell is just using Excel which is an incredibly fast way of collecting data. Pocket GIS is pretty fast too if you set up your survey templates right, lots of drop-down menuse and delightful predictive text which remembers whole phrases that you use often.

 

But the real joy of the simplicity is that no matter what you out in it comed out as a.csv file which in a few clicks on the PC becomes an Excel spreadsheet. I have this set up to go straight into a reporting template that prints out with no adaptation in pdf form for the schedule. Areas come out a s .shp files.

 

You do need to have Active Sync on your PC, and I suspect this doesn't come with Windows 10. I keep a retro PC with Vista on it  which is perfect with Windows Mobile and Pocket GIS Connction. My main PC uses Windows 8.1 which supports Active Sync.

 

Mapping is done with PT Mapper (which until you have used it a few times and realise how simple it is will nearly drive you nuts) a stripped back form of CAD that operates on raster maps or dxfs and produces new layers for the designer's CAD drawings. Just open designer's plan, switch off unwanted layers, import .csv and .shp files and all the trees, shadows, RPAs, spreads and tag numbers appear on the plan.

 

I can come in from survey and in the time it has taken to type this message I have downloaded tree data, produced schedule and plotted trees. Naturally it takes longer if there's something non-standard, like adjusting tree positions or RPA shapes. But the secret for me is to get things right in the field, which is easy with predictive text and drop-down pick-lists. No spelling mistakes, syntax errors are impossible. A handheld that is indestructible and fits in your pocket, 12 hour battery life, sub-metre accuracy. I loathe technologies that won't communicate with each other and now that I have got evertything linked and synced, I aint going to try and fix what isn't broken. As long as Excel exists I am sorted. .csvs are standard to the banking industry so they'll be around for a while. CAD aint disappearing anytime soon. PGIS is constantly being updated and is now available on Android, not that I'll be using that version.

 

Hardware and software cost £2,100 all-in. It took  along time to streamline my processes, but I'm there now. It helps to have access to Pear Tech's Survey Designer, which makes look-up tables and conditional tables dead easy to set up and amend. Now ongoing running costs £0. Whole set up paid for itself in a month of surveys.

[Tim Ashburner]

Many thanks for all of your comments I think I would probably want to see one or two systems in action to make an informed decision . I wonder if the AA could organise such an event ??

[Puffingbilly413]

On 03/12/2017 at 13:46, daltontrees said:

I've decided to keep it as simple as possible. I have a Trimble Geo XT for sub-metre work which works in the foulest weather you can imagine. and a Juno SC in an Otterbox for other things and when I am out with my tech he plots and measures with a Trimble and I assess with the Juno or a Dell Axim x51v. The Trimbles use Pocket GIS, and the Dell is just using Excel which is an incredibly fast way of collecting data. Pocket GIS is pretty fast too if you set up your survey templates right, lots of drop-down menuse and delightful predictive text which remembers whole phrases that you use often.

 

But the real joy of the simplicity is that no matter what you out in it comed out as a.csv file which in a few clicks on the PC becomes an Excel spreadsheet. I have this set up to go straight into a reporting template that prints out with no adaptation in pdf form for the schedule. Areas come out a s .shp files.

 

You do need to have Active Sync on your PC, and I suspect this doesn't come with Windows 10. I keep a retro PC with Vista on it  which is perfect with Windows Mobile and Pocket GIS Connction. My main PC uses Windows 8.1 which supports Active Sync.

 

Mapping is done with PT Mapper (which until you have used it a few times and realise how simple it is will nearly drive you nuts) a stripped back form of CAD that operates on raster maps or dxfs and produces new layers for the designer's CAD drawings. Just open designer's plan, switch off unwanted layers, import .csv and .shp files and all the trees, shadows, RPAs, spreads and tag numbers appear on the plan.

 

I can come in from survey and in the time it has taken to type this message I have downloaded tree data, produced schedule and plotted trees. Naturally it takes longer if there's something non-standard, like adjusting tree positions or RPA shapes. But the secret for me is to get things right in the field, which is easy with predictive text and drop-down pick-lists. No spelling mistakes, syntax errors are impossible. A handheld that is indestructible and fits in your pocket, 12 hour battery life, sub-metre accuracy. I loathe technologies that won't communicate with each other and now that I have got evertything linked and synced, I aint going to try and fix what isn't broken. As long as Excel exists I am sorted. .csvs are standard to the banking industry so they'll be around for a while. CAD aint disappearing anytime soon. PGIS is constantly being updated and is now available on Android, not that I'll be using that version.

 

Hardware and software cost £2,100 all-in. It took  along time to streamline my processes, but I'm there now. It helps to have access to Pear Tech's Survey Designer, which makes look-up tables and conditional tables dead easy to set up and amend. Now ongoing running costs £0. Whole set up paid for itself in a month of surveys.

Jules,

 

An old post I realise, but are you still getting on ok with PT mapper (assume you have the pro?) and do you pay the extra for the support element they offer? I like the look of their packages but have yet to try them other than in their free trial version.

 

It's for 5837 work mainly I would be interested in it for (albeit not exclusively).

 

Cheers,

 

Ed.

 

[daltontrees]

On 22/06/2019 at 22:55, Puffingbilly413 said:

Jules,

 

An old post I realise, but are you still getting on ok with PT mapper (assume you have the pro?) and do you pay the extra for the support element they offer? I like the look of their packages but have yet to try them other than in their free trial version.

 

It's for 5837 work mainly I would be interested in it for (albeit not exclusively).

 

Cheers,

 

Ed.

 

Sorry, I have only just seen your post.

 

Yes I have the Pro. I don't pay for the PT Mapper support, on the basis that they're not there to help at 8 at night or 7 in the morning when I'm often doing battle with CAD plans. It means I've had to learn to solve problems miyself (the hard way) and now I have a reallly good understanding of how PTM works.

 

I had an issue with Pear early on when I found 3 fairly major things in the user manual that were wrong and the ordinary functionality couldn't be used without paying for support (which is wrong-in-principle for any product) or figuring it out myself. In this way I have discovered things I can do with PTM that PTM says you can't do or doesn't even metion that you can. I think I have run it to its very limit.

 

There are times I really hate PTM and other times I love it, the best for me is the close integration of the survey writer, Pocket GIS and the mapping system.  Things that really annoy me are that if you're using raster mapping you have to convert them to bitmaps (it won't take jpegs, tifs or pngs or pdfs) and if using vector mapping it has to be dxf (it will not take dwgs). I had to buy a programme just to convert dwgs.

 

Ultimately, if I hadn't had previous experience using AutoCAD I would have given up on PTM or would have had to accept regular delays in my workflow while I got Pear to fix the same problems over and over again.  

 

Without a dwg to dxf converter, I would not be able to ge tthrough an average week with an average architect/topo surveyor plan. It's a serious limitation. I'd recommend getting QCAD, cheap and versatile, if slow.

[Puffingbilly413]

4 hours ago, daltontrees said:

Sorry, I have only just seen your post.

 

Yes I have the Pro. I don't pay for the PT Mapper support, on the basis that they're not there to help at 8 at night or 7 in the morning when I'm often doing battle with CAD plans. It means I've had to learn to solve problems miyself (the hard way) and now I have a reallly good understanding of how PTM works.

 

I had an issue with Pear early on when I found 3 fairly major things in the user manual that were wrong and the ordinary functionality couldn't be used without paying for support (which is wrong-in-principle for any product) or figuring it out myself. In this way I have discovered things I can do with PTM that PTM says you can't do or doesn't even metion that you can. I think I have run it to its very limit.

 

There are times I really hate PTM and other times I love it, the best for me is the close integration of the survey writer, Pocket GIS and the mapping system.  Things that really annoy me are that if you're using raster mapping you have to convert them to bitmaps (it won't take jpegs, tifs or pngs or pdfs) and if using vector mapping it has to be dxf (it will not take dwgs). I had to buy a programme just to convert dwgs.

 

Ultimately, if I hadn't had previous experience using AutoCAD I would have given up on PTM or would have had to accept regular delays in my workflow while I got Pear to fix the same problems over and over again.  

 

Without a dwg to dxf converter, I would not be able to ge tthrough an average week with an average architect/topo surveyor plan. It's a serious limitation. I'd recommend getting QCAD, cheap and versatile, if slow.

Jules,

 

Many thanks for the response - that's useful info.  If it were a case of these packages not costing that much then a few niggles would be ok.  but at the prices they're asking you would hope things would be more straightforward.

 

I don't have previous autocad experience as you do, so I guess I'd be getting pretty frustrated pretty quickly.

 

I'll have a look at QCAD - not seen that one before.

 

Cheers,

 

Ed.

[rck]

On this subject, you may find my free tutorial useful.

 

I show how to make tree plans from start to finish with AutoCAD.

 

ActionCAD's Create Tree Constraints Plans Course

SCREENCAST-O-MATIC.COM