Made by who?

I get a lot of questions and often times I get the same ones over and over. One of my favorite things is to hear a myth or a misconception on a topic about which I know the truth, or at least more of the story. In this small industry it is so easy to have a piece of information disseminated to the public only to have it interpreted incorrectly. Often times this is done unintentionally and is simply a breakdown in communication or a simple misunderstanding.

One of the latest bits of confusion is on data collectors. While the questions and the answers have little impact on what I do, they are questions that I am getting more of lately so I wanted to push this out there to try to help answer the questions, dispel the myths, or simply shed new light on the topic.

Many of us are familiar with the Allegro line from Juniper Systems.  The Allegro has been around for a long time and has been a recommendation for Field Genius and SurvCE over the years.  Leica also had a radio built in to the Allegro so users could power their Robotic Total Stations with SurvCE.

We were next introduced to the JettCE from Two Technologies.  This unit was branded and labeled for various companies so you saw it around in bright colors such as orange and blue and yellow and black.  Over the years we saw variations on that box with new names and new layouts, but essentially they were all JettCE devices from Two Technologies.

Now, here is where the confusion seems to come in.  We have been introduced to the FC2500 from TopCON and the Surveyor + from Carlson Software.   The Surveyor + line is produced by Juniper Systems and the FC 2500 by Two Technologies.  Both companies went to the manufacturers and designed these units from the ground up with their own specs for ruggedness, durability, function, and performance.

You will still see forms of the Allegro and the JettCE around and available, but it is hard to compare those models to their newer relatives the FC2500 and the Surveyor+.  As I said before, this really does not affect or impact what I do on a daily basis but it is something that has come up more than a few times recently and worth getting out there.

For more information on any of these products including specifications or where to buy visit the websites listed below.

Two Technologies
Juniper Systems
TopCON
Carlson Software

I lost what??

I have had a few calls about this in the last 2 weeks and while for many of us who have been using AutoCAD for a decade or longer it is easy, for new folks this is an important topic. “FATAL ERROR. THE PROGRAM HAS CAUSED A FATAL EXCEPTION AND MUST CLOSE.” Whether I get an error like this, or the battery on my laptop dies the end result is that the program is terminated abruptly and abnormally (in some cases catastrophically).

It is not always the end of the world. The first thing to do is grab your horseshoe, 4 leaf clover, rabbit foot, and jar of salt….

In the video below I am documenting steps for recovery when we are talking about Carlson Field with the IntelliCAD option. Much of the same information works when using AutoCAD or other Carlson programs such as TakeOff or Survey with the Embedded AutoCAD engine. Because my most recent and most urgent call involved Field and IntellICAD that is where I am focusing.

First let me explain a little about the data. Carlson stores the graphics in a DWG file and this applies to AutoCAD, AutoCAD OEM, and IntellICAD. For each drawing file created you should have a BAK file which is stored in the same location as your drawing file and should be current up to your last save. Beyond that there is an AutoSAVE file being stored based on the AutoSAVE settings specified in the program. This is not always good news for us old guys because one of the first things we often change is the interval of those AutoSAVE files. First check the time interval and make sure it is set to something reasonable (5-10 minutes perhaps, if you are a belt & suspenders kind of person go with every 1-2 minutes).

Now after the graphics we have the data. In Field we have both a CRD file AND a RW5 file. The CRD file contains all of our coordinates and the RW5 has all of our angles and distances and setup information. The video below shows how to verify where this is stored and what you can do with it.

The reality is that upon a fatal crash it is not always bad news. Often times much of what we were doing can be recovered. Take a deep breath, rub your lucky rabbit foot, toss some of the salt over your shoulder, and begin looking at the recovery options shown below.

GIS and Surveying

Are G.I.S. and Surveying and Engineering moving closer together?  Should they move closer together?  If you follow the old joke about what G.I.S. stands for you may not think so.  If you look at what G.I.S. actually stands for and what it is capable of you might ask yourself why we have not been taking advantage of this more than we have.

Geographic Information System.  Surveying is Geographic so that is good right?  Information is good right?.  A system is good right? So why then such the push back from combining GIS and Surveying?  For so long GIS has been used as a general representational location as opposed to an exact location and I think that has been the big hold up.  Surveyors are trained that close enough is not good enough (except in the old adage of close enough for government work, but that is a topic on my other blog).

One of the things I think has kept  this natural merging is the lack of ability to easily combine the data source and the data.  Meaning there have been few methods over the last few years to move data from our survey platforms to GIS platforms.  Or perhaps they have been there and we just didn’t know about them or how to take advantage of them.

We were given dxf as a means for moving CAD drawings from one program to another, and xml to move data from one package to another, but what about GIS data?  Enter the SHP file.  The problem is, many of us know so little about the SHP file.

Shapefiles store primitive geometrical data of points, lines, and polygons in coordinate formats of x and y (or most often latitude and longitude). These primitives are of limited use without any attributes to specify what they represent. Therefore, a table of records will store properties/attributes for each primitive shape in the shapefile. Shapes (points/lines/polygons) together with data attributes can create infinitely many representations about geographical data.

While the term “shapefile” is quite common, a “shapefile” is actually a set of several files. Three individual files are mandatory to store the core data that comprises a shapefile: “.shp”, “.shx”, “.dbf”, and other extensions on a common prefix name (e.g., “lakes.*”). The actual shapefile relates specifically to files with the “.shp” extension, but alone is incomplete for distribution, as the other supporting files are required.

The mandatory files include the .shp, the .shx, and the .dbf.  The optional files are the .prj, .sbn and .sbx, .fbn and .fbx , .ain and .aih, .ixs, .mxs, .atx, .shp.xml, and .cpg.

Now that we know the details of the files how do we get them in and out of our Surveying programs and in to G.I.S. applications?  Watch the short video below on how to export a SHP file out of Carlson Survey.

Licensing Schmicensing…

We have all installed software at some point in our lives right?  I would be willing to bet there is a very small number of people who have actually read through the End User License Agreement (EULA) when installing.  All EULAs have the same clause, “Break this contract and we will take all of your assets (present, past and future), we have rights to your first born, your name, etc…  Only install ONCE!”

They can’t do that, can they?  No, they can not take your first born child, and in fact they may not even want your children, but they do want THEIR money.  Software companies are really pushing hard to prevent software piracy, and with U.S. losses in 2008 estimated by the B.S.A. to be around $9.1 billion dollars it is easy to see why.

The typical EULA states that you are granted use of a license of software and are permitted installations for only as many computers as you have licenses, anything outside of that is a breach of the EULA/contract and can put you in a pretty tight spot.

There are some exceptions to this though with programs like Carlson, Autodesk and others offering “laptop” or “home use” installations.  Do not mistake this to mean that you are permitted two installations per license.  The EULAs are very specific on how this second computer install is supposed to work.  From the Autodesk EULA for example:

You may Install and Access, solely within Your Territory, one (1) additional copy of the Software on a second Computer provided that:

(i) such second Computer is owned or leased by You (and not by another person, such as Your employee, if any);

(ii) such second Computer is either a portable Computer or a nonserver Computer away from Your usual work location;

(iii) the additional copy of Software is Accessed solely for the purpose of enabling You (or Your employee, if any) to perform work while away from Your usual work location;

(iv) the original and additional copy of the Software are used only by the same person, and only one (1) of the Software copies is Accessed at any one time; and

(v) both copies of the Software are Installed and Accessed exclusively with the copy protection device (if any) supplied with the Software.

Software companies understand that we are not all confined to an office or a cube 40 hours a week.  Often times we need to work remotely on a computer that is not our normal computer, and they have accommodated for that without forking over more dough.  But should you step over that line and install your single license on a few of your other computers the penalties can be far worse than the cost to be legal to begin with.

As of December 1999, the U.S. copyright law provides for the recovery of damages for civil copyright infringement. Recovery includes payment of up to $150,000 per infringed work, destruction of illegal copies, and payment of attorney fees and costs. The law also allows the government to prosecute copyright infringers and provides for criminal penalties, including fines of up to $250,000 and jail terms of up to five years.

I will never get caught though, right?  The EULA often times states the right of the software company to audit your licensing.  I have heard various stories over the years about disgruntled employees leaving or being let go reporting companies for piracy.  Like cheating the house in Vegas, software piracy is just not worth it.

Read your EULAs to find out about benefits like the “second computer” clauses, and make sure you have the right number of licenses for every one using the programs.  There are many methods to determine compliancy, and I will be happy to assist in any way I can.