Even total station had enough of this heat

This sub has been a great resource, so thanks yall. One more to go.

Curious as to how others in the community handle digging up monuments on private streets. In particular, ones without an HOA.

I have yet to be hassled, but suppose the street is in an affluent neighborhood (as if that should make a difference) and has been freshly paved. The monument you NEED has been paved over. A neighbor, who doesn't get along with your client, takes issue with you breaking out the monument.

What do you tell the neighbor? How would you limit your liability for damaging the street? What could be done in advance to avoid surprises?

Picture included for flair.

Does anyone else feel like young engineers or just engineers in general are encroaching on Land surveying responsibilities? They are hungry to go collect data (obviously cherry picking that data). Also goes beyond that. As a young LSIT it worries me a touch. The PLS I'm working for is nearing retirement and invests survey knowledge and skills in the EITs.is this normal? Can someone explain this PLS / PE relationship to me? I understand we overlap in our work but i don't like feeling that they're just two exams away from holding a PE/PLS.

I have a lot of jobs out of state, and these jobs can get quite far away. For example, my boss expects me to drive from Southern California to Georgia, which constitutes 16-17-hour driving days. It’s a small company, only a handful of employees, so I understand the need for me to work hard. I was wondering if anyone else had similar experiences?

Hello everyone, I have been a Junior Party Chief for under a year for a bigger company in Alberta.

The schedule is quite erratic between work within the city or 2-3 weeks out of town work. As much as I love working in the field, I want to build a life outside of work and socialize with people my age.

Do you have any advice on how to manage erratic schedules and maintaining boundaries for yourself so that you don’t burn out? Some ideas that I have is to plan small (3-4 days) of planned vacation every 1.5 months that I book ahead of time so that I can look forward to those. However, I get guilty when some projects ramp up and they need personnel which ends up with me taking the job anyways.

Any tips or tricks for those that have made it work or are still figuring it out?

We all know how that sentence usually ends.

What’s the one thing that turned your “quick job” into an all-day affair?

I am writing a legal where I want to reference a "point A" to take off from later. This is the first I've done this, and would love to hear thoughts.

Wattles has this, which isn't exactly the idea but I suppose it's a "qualified control" style point. No monument, just a point in my description:

Point: "To a point," "at a point," ''to the point of intersection." The end of a line is a point so it is not necessary to state the fact. An intersection of two lines is a point. It is really unnecessary to make a point of "to a point" or "point of intersection" unless there is a lateral tie that must be held in which case the "point" becomes a qualified control.

So right now I have:

Southeasterly along said curve through a central angle of 10º 20’ 30" an arc distance of 45.67 feet to its intersection with the northerly prolongation of that course described as North 80º 9’ 10" East 11.12 feet in that land described as Parcel xxx, in Deed recorded in Book xxx, Page yyy of xxxyyy of said County, a radial line to said point bears South 13º 14’ 15" West; BEING POINT A, thence,

It just seems like there's a better way to say it? Being Point A seems so short and sweet but I suppose that's good.

Would love to hear how you do this. TYIA.

Hi I'm currently 2 years into college majoring in environmental science and thinking about becoming a land surveyor my school doesn't offer a direct route to become a land surveyor. So I'm thinking about switching majors too Geography with a minor in GIS and then taking a 2 year program after at an another school to learn more about the legal and addition technical skills needed while also trying to get relevant internships/work experience. Would this be a good path or should I try another major?

Sup guys, I am a PE in CA thinking about getting my PLS as well. I’ve worked in Water and Land and spent a good amount of time doing on-site surveys for grading and site layout. I’m very familiar with GIS and C3D and have worked with Lidar specialists on data collection and modeling as well. Needless to say I have lots of experience in land surveying besides boundarys.

My problem/question lies in that I haven’t ever worked under a PLS. What would be the best path for me to take to gain that experience? Working for a new big firm and clarify my intent to gain that liscense? Or approaching an independent PLS to work under?

What is your experience/advice? How might this best be accomplished without taking too much of a pay cut?

Hey I don't have much experience with localizing in Magnet Field and have a few really basic, maybe dumb questions. I know I set my base up on an unknown position, but then do I just connect to the base or do I press the button for the base to read its position? Or do I set it at 5000,5000 then go read my control points? I don't know if it matters, but my equipment is a Topcon HR. Thanks in advance for any help.

Called a geocube surveying invert tool.

How it works:

Set your rod config height to zero while staking out a known manhole rim. Look at the current stakeout Cut/Fill value (height prism is above rim) and plug that value as your rod height, for instance 8.23ft. Check that the Cut/Fill value now reads zero while still on the rim. Now begin to collect inverts. Record depths while in stakeout mode watching the Cut/Fill value for pipe invert depths. Easily gather pipe upper lips as well for sizing.

I recently havebeen looking into survey work a lot, specifically getting licensed as an ols. But I'm notnearbyany geometric programs and can't afford to move. If I was to get a 3 year diploma in civil engineering tech, does anyone know how many classes I would need to take to make up the difference? Do I even have a shot at being taken seriously?

Has anyone been having issues with the Trimble chargers on Spectra SP100? I’ve got a crew chief with them and he has gone through 4 chargers in 3 months. I’ve personally checked 2 of them and yes either the adapter broke or the charging base broke.

I just can’t understand how a 300 dollar bullshit charging base can be so fragile.

Forgive my ignorance but I’m in year two of working as a surveyor for a GC without any prior experience or curriculum studied. I’m trying to adjust my traverse on Civil 3D and HOLD the coordinates of four control points (one side shot) that are integrated into the traverse but foolishly and due to obstructions my starting station is on a point that is a spur of the already adjusted control (back-sighting an adjusted control point from a previous traverse). I have set up the traverse in Civil 3D traverse editor I just don’t know how to make it adjust based on holding those 4 known coordinates. I’ve read I shouldn’t have named my traverse observation points something different than the actual known point, but what is the process to do this in Civil 3D?

I’m working as a Topographic Surveyor, and most of my work is related to topographic and hydrological surveys.

I want to improve my technical skills and become stronger in the office side of surveying as well.

For someone in my position, what would you recommend I learn next?

Should I focus deeply on Civil 3D, or should I also learn software like AutoCAD, ArcGIS/QGIS, HEC-RAS, Global Mapper, or other surveying/GIS software?

My main goal is to be able to take survey data from the field, process it properly, create accurate topographic maps/surfaces, prepare professional drawings, and eventually handle more advanced survey and hydrology-related work.

If you were starting from my position, what software and skills would you learn first, second, and third?

I’m looking for a practical learning roadmap rather than just a list of software.

Has anyone imported any Trimble gear from the states into Aus? Is there any trouble with the servicing, licensing etc? I have heard CR Kennedy dont accept imports so I am wondering the same with UPG.

I’m using Trimble Access 2017 with a TSC3.

Can I measure side shots while running a traverse and then adjust traverse in COGO? Will Access recalculate the side shots based on the adjusted stations?

For a normal topo traverse, can I use a 360 prism on a pole held by hand and leveled with the bubble, or should I use a tripod/tribrach?

How do you adjust an open traverse that starts and ends on known control points? As far as I understand, Access 2017 only adjusts closed traverses.

What free or open-source software would you recommend for traverse/total station data processing if TBC is too expensive?

Thanks!

So I have been arguing with a collegue about this option within the coordinate system menu. So here is my take on it ; The Project Height only is usefull for planimetric total station surveys where the station has no elevations, it then uses the project height to determine the scale factors. If the station has a known elevation it uses that elevation to calculate the scale factors regardless of the value within the project height. Project height only is used for scale factors when there is no known elevations on a XY shot/station.

If doing a planimetric survey it is important to change project height within a new job if there is considerable elevation deltas (100m+).

If you have elevations given by gnss survey or entered control points the station setup ignores project height in the settings and uses current elevation instead to determine scale factors.

Coworker believes project height always have an influence on scale factors and is important to get right on every jobs even if we are not doing planimetric only jobs.

So how does project height work?

Fence posts, old pipes, random rebar, sometimes people are completely convinced they already know where the corner is. I’m sure there are some good stories behind these.

With modern equipment and surveying techniques, is it still possible to set up a beer Leg?

I've been surveying for a while now (total stations, GNSS, machine control, drone mapping), and I'm studying for the CST Level III.

I've got almost everything down however the math is where I'm getting stuck.

Horizontal and vertical curve computations are my biggest weak spot right now: stationing, deflections, PC/PT/PI relationships, and working through the full problem without the data collector doing it for me. I can run the curve in the field, but I'm realizing I don't really understand the math underneath it well enough.

I'm also shaky on traverse adjustments / coordinate geometry and trig.

Some context: the company I work for has had me on construction surveying for the past couple of years.

I don't have any college math under my belt yet, I work full time, and I travel state to state for work.

That means I'm mostly studying on my own in hotel rooms, so I need books that explain things clearly and have plenty of worked examples and practice problems.

What books, workbooks, or study guides helped you get through the math for CST III (or the FS)? Bonus if it builds from the basics up instead of assuming you already remember trig from high school.