February 3, 2009

Public Lands Information on Google Earth

If you are interested in Township, Range and Section locations Earth Point has a great tool for Google Earth available at

http://www.earthpoint.us/Townships.aspx

Check it out.

January 14, 2009

Sending data to Leica support

Updated January 21, 2009

The support emails have been modified to allow any attachments. The passwording of zip files attached to emails is not necessary anymore. However, the guide linked to below may still be of use. In any case, the programs can be used to produce unpassworded zip files also.

Leica has a new spam filter. If the files you sent are rejected, you need to zip them up and password protect the zip files. A guide to doing this with two free compression programs, 7-Zip and Zip Genius, can be accessed at the link below.

sending_data_to_survey_support

July 29, 2008

RTFM

Read the manuals. At least look at some of the applications, even ones that you might not use often. I've had many an "Oh S&%^, it can do that?" moment when looking through the documentation. This is your bread and butter, know what your tools can do for you.

July 29, 2008

New Firmware Released

The new Version 6.0 of SmartWorx has been recently released. Some of the improvements are:

• Export LandXML files
• Field to Office FTP file transfers
• Reference line supports polylines
• Support of RTCM 3.1 Coordinate System messages

There are many more improvements. See the release notes or contact your sales rep for details.

October 04, 2007

New Newsletters

Check at least once a month for new newsletters. There is a link on the Leica page of my site. Newsletters 48 and 49 complete the coding and linework newsletters, adding information to newsletters 39 and 40. Newsletter 50 about the DXF Export application available on the instruments should be ready now.

October 04, 2007

Jobs and files

Keep your files backed up. Use daily job files, don't keep adding points to the same job files in the instrument. When you import the data into LGO, it will duplicate any points with Control class when they are re-imported.

Have a separate control job, and each day create a new "measure" job such as jobnameDate. When this is imported into the ongoing project in LGO, there will be nothing to duplicate, and only the new data will be imported. This is much easier to manage.

When you import your data into LGO, back it up then. Don't put it in the LGO project directory. That has enough files in it already. Set up a separate place for your raw data files. For example,

Raw Data ----Project Name --------Date 1 ------------Base ------------Rover --------Date 2 --------Date 3

Also, when you import data it is a good idea to create a field book report by clicking the icon in the lower-left corner of the assign dialog box and save it in the raw data directory. This is especially important for RTK jobs where a one-step transformation has been created in the field. All the information about the residuals, etc. are put into this field book report.

Finally, don't delete projects in LGO unless you want to delete the project folder and files also. If all you want to do is remove the project from the LGO list, unregister the project instead.

February 14, 2007

National Readjustment - NAD83(NSRS2007)

Click the link below to find the latest information. Coordinates are available.

http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/NationalReadjustment/

July 26, 2006

Firmware upgrades

It is normally not necessary to format the System RAM when doing a firmware update. The Firmware Release Notes now contain full instructions on upgrading firmware. Please follow them.

Jul 17, 2005

Keep your firmware and software up to date

New capabilities and improvements are added to the software and firmware all time. Not keeping up to date is not good business. There are new importers available for the LGO Design to Field tool. Check for the current firmware versions here. If you are not a member of Leica Advantage, join so you can download the latest.

Nov 11, 2004

Upgrading System 1200 firmware

Starting with version 1.52 which will soon be released, instruments or receivers must have an up-to-date maintenance contract in order to load new firmware. If you get a message about out-of-date maintenance and your firmware does not load, you will need to enter a maintenance license key code. If you are not a member of Leica Advantage, please contact your sales representative.

March 07, 2004

Grid north and zone boundaries

Grid north varies from one zone to another. True north stays constant, but grid north is based on true north at the central meridian of the zone. It is zone dependent, and will vary from zone to zone. See the picture below for a graphical illustration. Notice the alignment of the punch rows as the cards come together. (Add picture).

July 03, 2003

Creating a NAD27 coordinate system

Thanks to John Coldrick and Henri Ayers the hard work has already been done.

Go to the Leica Advantage LGO and SKI-Pro FAQ page and click on "How do I create a NAD27 state plane coordinate system to use in SK-Pro?" in the Coordinate Systems Questions section and follow the instructions (read the whole thing).

http://www.leicaadvantage.com/support/GPS1200/GPS_LGO_SKI-Pro_FAQs.cfm

You can download the GPSTRF.DAT file with all the state zone projections in it by clicking on the line below the above link.

02/05/2003

I can't copy my job file. I get a "Write Protect" error.

If you get a "Write Protect" error when you try to copy a job from the GeoDB directory using Windows Explorer, or SKI-Pro doesn't seem to find the job, look in the GeoDB directory and delete any files with the .tmp extension.

01/24/2003

How to convert a scale factor from PPM to a multiplier

To convert a PPM scale value to a multiplier, divide the PPM value by 1,000,000 and add 1. This value will scale up. To scale down, divide this value into one (use the 1/x key on your calculator).

An example would be a scale factor expressed as 352 PPM. (About 0.35 feet in a thousand feet).

The multiplier to increase by this amount would be 352/1,000,000 = .000352 + 1 = 1.000352.

The multiplier to decrease by this amount would be 1/1.000352 = .999648.

01/13/2003

Keep those cards cleaned up.

Pay attention to your housekeeping tasks. Keep those cards clean. A TDS Ranger user discovered he couldn't setup the base receiver with the SET command. He got the message that SurveyPro could not execute the command. The problem turned out to be a full card in the receiver.

01/02/2003

Taking multiple shots for averaging

Take out any pole or bubble errors by rotating the pole 180 degrees between shots in your averaging.

11/07/2002

Leica's excellent newsletters

Don't forget about Leica's excellent newsletters. Click on Newsletters in the Contents panel to the left, and click on the top link. Some very good information within.

07/01/2002

Buying New Computers

Before buying a new computer, make sure that your software will run under the computer's operating system, and that the computer has the necessary parallel and serial ports required by your software and hardware devices.