Registration open for 2010 Leica Geosystems HDS Worldwide User Conference

(Heerbrugg/ Switzerland, 3 August 2010) – Leica Geosystems announces the formal opening of registration for the 8th  annual HDS Worldwide User Conference, Oct. 25-27, in San Ramon, California. The international conference will feature presentations by more than 30 leading users of its High-Definition Surveying™ (HDS™) 3D laser scanners and software and by key Leica Geosystems staff.

Registration is open for the main conference of presentations and exhibits, plus all nine (9) training workshops. Workshop space is limited. Many workshops have sold out in the past, so prospective attendees are encouraged to register early for these popular workshops.

Although primarily intended for HDS users, the conference is also open to those looking for HDS service providers and to prospective users who want to conduct additional homework on how others are using these tools, such as the popular, new Leica ScanStation C10 scanner. Many members of the trade press are also planning to attend the conference. In total, more than 300 attendees from over 20 countries are expected for the 2010 conference.

New Forensic Track
Based on the very rapid adoption of laser scanning for capturing forensic scenes, the conference will feature for the first time a special Forensics Track and a special, all-day Forensics workshop on shooting trajectory reconstruction. This workshop will be taught by Mike Haag of the Albuquerque Police Department, an international leader in trajectory reconstruction analysis, in cooperation with the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Department.

Additional detailed information is available at:
http://hds.leica-geosystems.com/en/Events_6441.htm?id=6896

Leica Geosystems – when it has to be right
With close to 200 years of pioneering solutions to measure the world, Leica Geosystems products and services are trusted by professionals worldwide to help them capture, analyze, and present spatial information. Leica Geosystems is best known for its broad array of products that capture accurately, model quickly, analyze easily, and visualize and present spatial information.

Those who use Leica Geosystems products every day trust them for their dependability, the value they deliver, and the superior customer support. Based in Heerbrugg, Switzerland, Leica Geosystems is a global company with tens of thousands of customers supported by more than 2,400 employees in 22 countries and hundreds of partners located in more than 120 countries around the world. Leica Geosystems is part of the Hexagon Group, Sweden.

For further information please contact:

Leica Geosystems
Geoff Jacobs
Phone: +1 925 790 2317 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              +1 925 790 2317      end_of_the_skype_highlighting
Fax: +1 925 790 2309
geoffrey.jacobs@lgshds.com
www.leica-geosystems.com/hds

Running out of data?

We have all had times where we did or had a survey done for us and just didn’t have quite enough data to do all of the things we wanted to do.  I am not talking about missing a point or two I am talking about acres of topo data, or data in places we couldn’t get to.  We have all been faced at some point with the task of looking to augment the data we already have, or at least find ways to get massive amounts of topo data without re-surveying it.

I remember surveying a large manufacturing plant back in Tennessee and having large areas around the plant we needed to topo.  Walking around with a prism for two weeks was NOT an option.  We “mounted” our GPS rover on the truck and took off.  The topo was crude, but it got us the data needed.  Since that time LiDAR and other types of data have become more readily available.

You often hear people talking about DEM files from the USGS.  These data sets were widely available but not many people knew what to do with them.  Today we even find the National Elevation Dataset, or NED available from the USGS, but again what can we actually do with those files?

Working with data is something I have spent years doing.  Over the last 10 years I have spent time teaching others how to do it as well.  To me data is all the same, I just need to know what format it is in and what the desired output needs to be and from there we can do anything.  It does not matter if you are a contractor with a roll of paper needing points to layout a building, an officer with a crime scene that moves from a residential street inside a building, or an Engineer looking to augment the survey data you have.  Start by determining what you have, figuring out what youwant to accomplish and then figuring out how to get from A to B becomes easier.

Recently for example we had a client looking to use NED data to augment the survey work they were doing.  How could they get profiles from this file that no one knew about?  Bring it into MAP, generate a surface, and then the rest just happens.  Once you know what you have and what you need, overcoming the obstacles preventing you from getting there become easier.  For example now that you know you have NED data and you need to get data out of that into MAP you know you need to be looking for ways to import the NED files into MAP.  Have no fear the video posted below will show you just how to do that!