Surveying

AndyF

AndyF

New member
Hi all,

We are about to do a survey, and I'd like recommendations for a good program to use. I know everyone would recommend their favourite, but I have a few criteria to help get the best advice:-

Must be Windows/PC based
Does not have to be "free", we will buy one if that is better
Would be nice to produce some fancy 3D pretty pictures
We don't want anything too fancy, we will be doing very simple center line measurements
Must be suitable for lazy people who are cr*p at surveying

Recommendations/experience invited...

Thx

Andy Foster
 
SamT

SamT

Moderator
Yup - I'd have said Onstation. Not really used it but most people I know who've done any surveying and have transfered it onto pc have used Onstation.

Having said that, John Beck, Peak District surveying Guru uses AutoCAD. Which I have used during my engineering days. Very powerful CAD package which takes some time getting your head round.
 
D

Dave H

Guest
Support you local guys!
Survex is free and cross platform and relatively easy to use.
Wookie and Ollie have been working on it for years and the rest of the Cave Surveying Group get to have a say in its future direction every so often.

John Beck, Peak District surveying Guru uses AutoCAD
Click to expand...
Oh, if only I had enough money to buy it ...
 
F

Fred

Member
There are lots of programs to choose from - Wookey's list, albeit from 2001, is a good place to see just how many there are:

http://www.sat.dundee.ac.uk/~arb/surveying/software.html

Even the pay to use ones may be available on a try before you buy basis e.g. Compass can be downloaded for trial.
 
F

Fred

Member
Should have added that all these programs will only process the basic survey data and plot the survey stations for - some of the programs can also take the LRUD data and use it predict the passage shape. However none of them will produce a finished survey for you.

To do this you need to take the "plot" from survey program and use a drawing progam, e.g. CorelDraw, Adobe Illustrator, Canvas or even AutoCad, to add the passage detail and survey info (key, scale etc.). This is where your highly detailed and accurate sketches come in :!:
 
T

twllddu

Guest
Could try Survex and Therion for doing the entire survey if you're feeling adventurous - just takes a little perserverance to get what you want, again good clear sketches make life easier.

If you just want a centre line try Walls, the interface is very nice to use and it can handle some LRUD data:

http://www.utexas.edu/depts/tnhc/.www/tss/Walls/tsswalls.htm

Have fun and let us all see a copy when you're done !
 
AndyF

AndyF

New member
Thanks for the comments everyone. I've decided to have a go with OnStation, as it seems very quick and easy to get up and running.

We only need center lines at this stage, the survey being initially an aid to digging in the right place....
 
Leclused

Leclused

Active member
What about compass

http://fountainware.com/compass/


dagobert - Belgium
SC avalon
http://users.skynet.be/avalon
 
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