Searching for a mini surveyor kit compatible with autocad

[agapimmo]

Hi everyone. 

I have found moasure which is helping us to measure distances, surfaces etc and import them to autocad. 

I am trying to find quite the reverse. 

I have a big construction site where gardens, buildings and a lot of things are being created. 

I have an autocad file made from a surveyor so everything is on scale.

The only thing I need to know in order to gain some time and effort is to import the autocad file in a measuring machine like moasure, give to it a known point A and B so that I could go around on the site and find the real points that I am interested in. Then it would be so easy to construct on site, put a stair where we are supposed to etc. 

 

Is there a way to do that, a machine (that would not cost much more than moasure) or a software (maybe I could use maps and gps localisation ?) 

Thank you so much for your help in advance

take care

Yiannis

[Chopsaw]

I think after 24 hours you have your answer.  I would love to be proven wrong though,   Your heart is definitely in the right place but I don't think the technology is quite at the level you were hoping it would be at this point in time.

 

First I think you can find a few more details and opinions on moasure right here on this forum by searching.  Great tool but not yet to the standards this industry strives for I think would be the general consensus here.  Also most consumer based GPS systems are not there yet either.

 

If you have a reasonably clear and level site it is likely more economical to use the existing reference points and triangulate your new positions.  If there is a missing component to what I just mentioned then it gets quite a bit more expensive and time consuming unless you are ok with a proportional loss of accuracy.

 

However if you have surveyor quality data that you have somehow entered in Chief then you can get " surveyor quality " data back out but then you would require a surveyor or competent total station operator to lay that back out for you on the building site.  I have a macro that collects that data from your CA plan file and will create a text file to be used with a total station if you think you would like to go that direction.

 

 

 

 

[agapimmo]

On 12/9/2023 at 6:03 PM, Chopsaw said:

I think after 24 hours you have your answer.  I would love to be proven wrong though,   Your heart is definitely in the right place but I don't think the technology is quite at the level you were hoping it would be at this point in time.

 

First I think you can find a few more details and opinions on moasure right here on this forum by searching.  Great tool but not yet to the standards this industry strives for I think would be the general consensus here.  Also most consumer based GPS systems are not there yet either.

 

If you have a reasonably clear and level site it is likely more economical to use the existing reference points and triangulate your new positions.  If there is a missing component to what I just mentioned then it gets quite a bit more expensive and time consuming unless you are ok with a proportional loss of accuracy.

 

However if you have surveyor quality data that you have somehow entered in Chief then you can get " surveyor quality " data back out but then you would require a surveyor or competent total station operator to lay that back out for you on the building site.  I have a macro that collects that data from your CA plan file and will create a text file to be used with a total station if you think you would like to go that direction.

 

 

 

 

Ηi Chopsaw and thanks for your answer and effort. 

I would love as well that you are wrong as well. I thought that technology was at that level, it was logical for me that if moasure does what it does, it can be done as well in reverse. I thought more like a google maps thing that gives accuracy to cm not mm. I have a drone that have mapped the whole building site but I do not have the knowledge to put all that on a map and make construction easier for me. 

 

As you said in the beginning of your answer, I really hope that someone gives us a hopeful msg

Thanks so much again for your answer and effort

 

alle the best

Yiannis

[Doug_N]

I have used Moasure and tried using it for a while, but found the rate at which you had to take measurements (the time between measurements is limited or the device loses reference) to be not practical.  I gave up on it.   One very useful but cumbersome device is the Leica 3d disto.  Sort of a poor man's robotic laser distance and angle measuring device.  It will measure elevations of surfaces as well.  It is very accurate and creates an AutoCAD file in 3d.  It measures key points, very good for measuring the face of a building for example.  When I say poor man's, i mean in relationship to a total station for example.  Not cheap as this will set you back just shy of 10k.

[JiAngelo]

Actually the technology is out there.  A couple of years ago we read this, https://www.moasure.com/products/moasure-one

• Single-dimension measurements taken with Moasure ONE – for example a 300ft length or height - are accurate to within 0.5% (plus or minus 1.5ft

• Area calculations made with Moasure ONE – for example a 50ft² area, are accurate to within 2.0% (plus or minus 1ft²).

And held off until this year when we decided to purchase Stonex's s70g tablet + software and an A15 antenna that's accurate to less than 1.5 inches (left pole image).  It's A45 antenna is accurate to below 3/4 of an inch (right pole image).  The software will actually run on your phone, but a phone's GPS is only accurate to about 12-15ft and it is always jumping around.  (Download GPS Test from the android store to test yourselves.)  Here's some Stonex product information links.

https://www.stonex.it/project/s70g-gnss-rtk/

https://www.baselineequipment.com/stonex-cube-a-gps-software

https://www.baselineequipment.com/shop/images/p.3496.3-cube-a_v6_brochure_eng_cp.pdf

 

There are several other companies out there that provide similar.  This is just the one we settled on for $6,500 including both tablet and pole mounted antennas, tripod legs so that the pole will free stand.  In our state of Ohio, the Department of Transportation provides free access their GPS satellites.  Our surveyors/engineers provide us DWG files of a site drawn to the state plane coordinates.  We import this to Chief and "ignore" the fact that the data points are located far from the origin.  This is necessary if you are passing the file back and forth with your surveyor/engineer.  You can even import as elevation data to create your terrain maps.  We've add our house footprints, tree data, entrance sign data, landscaping retaining walls, detention tanks, etc...  and then we walk the site with the tablet to verify/stake additional locations.  We were even able to interface with Google Earth and provide the City a view of trees we plan to keep (green), trees we plan to remove (red), and street trees we plan to add (purple).

 

We've exported the updated DWG/DXF and given it back to our engineers to update their files several times.  (The tree location data was theirs originally, we just determined which were being removed/saved, etc...)  This past week we relocated on-the-fly our water/sewer/gas tap locations because our engineers keep drawing them in the driveway locations - despite having the building footprint with garage clearly labeled already in the subdivision file... 

 

When we first looked at moasure it was $99/mo subscription based to export data.  It looks like now it exports natively, but I can't find where it allows importing a dxf file.  If this is more cost effective, then to get around this limitation, 

1. Import the dwg/dxf file from your surveyor or engineer.
2. Identify 2-3 fixed points in this file that you can find readily on site and measure with moasure.  A manhole cover, existing building corners, etc..  anything fixed and an agreed upon known.  Manhole covers are great if you need elevation data accuracy.
3. Using the moasure, record those known 2-3 points, plus any others you want to transfer.
4. Import this dwg/dxf into another chief file.  Place everything on a new cad layer.  I'd name it "CAD,  Default-Moasure", -2, -3, if I needed multiples.
5. In your surveyor/engineer chief file,  draw a line between two of the known points and record the distance and angle of the line.
6. In your moasure chief file, draw the same line.  Check to make sure the distances match.  If they are slightly off, determine one end is your primary point.  Just remember the secondary will be slightly off.  Record the angle.
7. Compare the angles and determine the rotation necessary to match them up.  If one is 3d  and the other is 15d  you'll need to rotate +/-12d to get them to match.
8. In your moasure chief file, Place a fixed temporary X point on the primary you chose.  Select the entire file and rotate it the angle necessary to match up (around a fixed point).  Then cut/paste the entire selection into the engineer file - I generally choose to do this off to the side, away from the other data points.  
9. Then while it is still selected in the engineer file, select point-to-point move.  Click A on the primary point from Moasure group and click B on the same primary point in the surveyor/engineer group of data points.
10. Your data will now be overlaid.  Choose different colors for the Moasure layers and it will be easily identifiable from your engineers original data.   

You can later adjust elevation data based on the known fixed point elevation with +/- what moasure recorded at each of its points.  I'm not seeing an example where it knows precisely your elevation is at say 899.10 above sea level.  Every example seems to measure the difference between other fixed points +/- of 0.

 

Unfortunately this rotational manipulation would need to be done every time you use moasure even if on the same site.  The stonex is currently allowing us to view 4 different subdivision dwg/dxf files loaded, all on the same google map (allowing satellite view underlayment if desired), displaying at the same time, so that when we drive to the next site the tablet shows us exactly where we are standing within the subdivision.  We check a manhole or other known survey point to verify x,y,z accuracy, then locate existing points for our subcontractors or even add new points if needed which we can download later into the respective subdivision file and forward to the engineers for updating.   Pretty cool.

 

[agapimmo]

Hi everyone

I am sooooooooo terribly sorry for my late answer.

I have been really occupied.

 

Thank you sooooo much for all your answers, your time and effort to help me. 

I really appreciate your help

I wish you all a magical new year

Best regards

Yiannis

[cbucks]

How about a newer iPhone such as 15 pro max and pix 4d

 

Here's a great video