Video for Collecting Points by Offset in J-Field

[Shawn Billings]

I had a request for a video for Offsets in J-Field, so I put this together:

If you have any requests for a particular video, feel free to post a request and I, or other members of the PLS Team, will see what we can do.

 

[Nate The Surveyor]

I'd like a video on how to index the compass, and tilt sensor, on the t2, using bluetooth... And setting it all up, so the base notifies you, if it gets moved.
One for dummies....
N

 

[Nate The Surveyor]

And, this request is tongue in cheek...
How a step by step on how to delete, and recover the base session....
(to keep "unity" between base session, and sideshots.
Mine looses this still.
I was on pte release, until this morning. I've moved over to the user version. We'll see if it works tonite.
I still have a dis connected one.
N

 

[Jim Frame]

Nice video, as usual. Thanks, Shawn!

 

[Brent Newton]

Great video, Thank you Shawn.

 

[Steve Chatelle]

Thanks, Shawn.

I always watch your videos even when I think I have the feature mastered. Then, I “upgrade” my normal procedure.

I really appreciate the two point and resection offset routines for those points you got to have, but can't occupy. Far ahead of collecting three points/distances, then plotting in the office.

The Direct routine works for collecting a row of trees or building corners from one P1.

But, (whine) there are a lot of button pushes for a single utility pole or tree where a foot is close enough.

We could often use a quicker pop-up offset routine that would automatically populate the azimuth box with the current compass reading (as the LS is pointing), and the P1 box with the current position of the LS. Then the user could enter the delta H and distance, and store when ready. We don't always need the accuracy of the camera when we are 3 feet away. And I can never remember what the azimuth was when I switch to offset direct.

For those general, water line engineering type of topo surveys.

 

[Shawn Billings]

Maybe long press on the direction button could populate the direction...

 

[Matt Johnson]

@Andrey Zhiganov

I think it is also reasonable to add a "Current" option to the select point coordinates screen. It should display the current solution type and how many fixed engines:

This would save some button presses.

 

[Shawn Billings]

Current could be configured by Long press...

 

[Shawn Billings]

Better yet, make the long press on P1 access the Get From screen. Make normal press of P1 do the current position. This would reduce the key strokes for the shortest point collection and add only one key stroke for the longer by Survey method.

 

[Adam]

I think long press for current position would be more consistent with other screens that use the short press to access the get from screen. I can see me forgetting and trying to use long press in the other screens. Also if you did long press for current position and long press for compass bearing the workflow would be similar and easy to remember.

 

[Shawn Billings]

yep. great point. I think that's a great idea.

 

[Matt Johnson]

Better yet, make the long press on P1 access the Get From screen.

A long press is already used to prompt the user to enter a point number.

 

[Steve Chatelle]

We use the Offsets white box on our quick-topo profile. A white box to jump directly to Direct would only save 1 poke.

The biggest time saver for us would be if all the values on the Direct screen could default to the values that already display on the Collect action screen, including the point name, description and code for P2.

We could edit them normally, or just hit create to collect the offset point (but not P1, I guess).

 

[Shawn Billings]

A long press is already used to prompt the user to enter a point number.

I understand. Unfortunately you must know the point number (remember it). We currently don't have access to the Get From screen you showed above. If I had to pick, I'd rather have the Get From rather than the keyboard in offset. Maybe instead of changing the behavior for a quick single epoch, the start button could be pressed automatically when P1 is selected. It would save a key stroke. If you only want one epoch, switch to a one epoch profile...

 

[John Thompson]

Thanks for producing these videos, Shawn. They're really helpful.

As for future topics, you could keep going with all the goodies under the COGO menu. There is a lot of functionality there, and I'm not using it because I'm not even aware of what's available.

I'd be interested in seeing a video on how to use some of the drawing tools.

Under Calculator there are a bunch of tools that I don't know how to use, but they look like they would be handy if I took the time to poke around in there.

How about a video of an example of how to calculate a single proportion. You found a couple block corners and need to calculate and stake proportionate points for intermediate lot corners, with maybe a street thrown in between them. I'm sure there is more than one way to do this with the LS, and I'm also sure that the way I did it the other day is not the fastest and simplest!

Good ideas in this thread about making the software more efficient and user-friendly. I love it that this equipment continues to improve. Thanks for making it happen.