Left A. Fuzz GPS and Robotic Surveying

Trimble SCS900

2009-12-08T10:43:00.000-08:00

Over the last nine months, I have been working for Baker's Construction Services in Bristol Tennessee. An absolute top notch company from top to bottom equipped with Trimble SPS850 Base stations and SPS880 RTK Rovers running SCS900 Software.

Having been schooled in the Trimble Survey Controller Software, I was a bit of a skeptic at first. But, after getting my hands on the SCS900, I am now converted!

The SCS900 is very easy to use and has a very short learning curve. Jobs are created in Terramodel or Agtek and uploaded to the controlled via the Trimble Synchronizer software.

One of the things I noticed in the beginning was the Site Calibration routine. Much simpler than survey controller and much more efficient and effective.

Stakeout Points can be uploaded or the user can just select endpoints on the linework file.
SCS900 simplified all of my day to day tasks including Tasks that require high accuracy stakeout such as curb and gutter staking.
I usually perform curb stakeout with a Trimble 5600 Robotic Total station, the SCS900 Switches seamlessly from RTK to Robotic Total Station making stakeout very easy. Robotic Total Station or RTK GPS, Curb stakeout using a 3d linwork file is very quick and efficient.

Topos for quantities were quick and easy, taking less and less time while maintaining a high degree of accuracy. As a sidenote, BCS moved roughly 1.5 million cubic yards of material on the Kentucky Speedway Parking expansion in about 90 days, accurate topo's were critical in verifing quantites.

SCS900 contains a few basic cogo routines, not full blown surveying, but enough to get you where you need to be which, in today's grab and go world, is all you need!

I highly recommend The Trimble SCS900 software. It will simplify your life as a Construction Surveyor.

Field General and InSite SiteWork

2009-05-10T17:20:00.000-07:00

Field General® - GPS Machine Control Modeling

Productivity increases using machine control systems lead to less labor, less fuel, less machine maintenance, and ultimately, more profit.

Field General allows contractors to create 3D machine control site models easily, allowing the maximum return on investment.

How does a machine control system work?

A machine control system compares the current location of a machine blade with the desired grade at that location and either displays the difference (indicate systems), or automatically makes a blade adjustment.

The current location of the machine is obtained either by GPS (Global Positioning System) or a robotic total Stations, after orientation to the site using known control points.

The desired grade at each location is provided by a special file containing a Triangulated surface (TIN). Unlike a staking file, a triangulated surface file contains a 3D elevation for every location on the site.

To understand how a TIN file works, study the animated file to the right. The known spot elevations (30,29, 31) at the corners of the triangle are used to interpolate any elevation on the triangle.

Three calculated points are shown, but a machine control system using this triangle for desired grade could sample this triangle anywhere and get a grade. Triangulation files normally contains thousands of these triangles.

Making a Machine Control Model

Traditional grading using grade stakes requires operators to possess an understanding of grading objectives between stakes. This is done on the site using the information available on the site plan.

With machine control systems, proper interpretation of grade between known data points needs to be done to the file before it can be used. Many buyers of machine control equipment are lead to believe a CAD file will create a machine control file. We've all heard a salesperson proclaim "just get the CAD file, load it and go".

Consider the illustration above. It is an uncorrected file obtained by loading the CAD file, and triangulating the proposed information. The highlighted blue triangle does not hold the crown of the road properly. A study of the file indicates many other problems.

Here is the same file corrected, using offsets, trims and snaps, for machine control grading:

The machine operator sees this on his display (courtesy Topcon Positioning Systems), and the blade is constantly adjusted to the desired value from the triangulated (TIN) surface model.

Creation of surface models for Topcon, Trimble, Leica and LandXML are fully supported by Field General.

Call us at 1(877)746-7483 to set up a demonstration of how InSite SiteWork and Field General can import and export points, offsets and create machine control models

3DLIVE

See us at:

Feb 2-5, 2010

March 22-26, 2011

InSite Software Inc.
Rush, NY 14543
(877)746-7483

Digital Earthmoving/ Stakeless Grading

2009-02-18T22:48:00.001-08:00

March 2006

Cover Story: Digital Earthmoving
By Equipment World Staff

The revolution has arrived. The potential now exists to make earthmoving as wired, digitized, computerized and efficient as any office-based industry. Five years ago we predicted most of this would happen. Five years from now you won’t be able to compete without it.

You are – right now – living through a revolution: A diverse array of technologies have converged to utterly change the way earth is moved. As with most revolutions, these advances happened in stages. The development of high-pressure hydraulic control systems and powertrains was revolutionary to men who cut their teeth on primitive clutch-and-brake and cable-controlled machines. And now the development of small, powerful microprocessors has taken hydraulic technology another quantum leap forward.

Coupled with increasingly sophisticated hydraulic systems, microprocessors – often called “electronic control modules,” or ECMs – have created machines with quick, precise control systems rivaling that of the human hand and arm. Little black boxes on your equipment control millions of electronic impulses a second and allow minute control over functions as mundane as cylinder firing order or as complex as the shape and amount of fuel sprayed from an injector into a combustion chamber.

Other black boxes devote their efforts to optimizing the flow of hydraulic fluid racing through a machine’s high-pressure circuits. Move a joystick ever so slightly, and a black box will take note. In less time than it takes to blink an eye, pressure and flow rates are adjusted to meet your inputs and deliver an immediate, accurate corresponding machine movement. At the same time, black box will maintain preset production criteria, all while selecting priority valves and circuits to maintain seamless operation.

Additional boxes are attached in strategic locations on the outside of a machine. These seek out and interpret signals beamed from lasers broadcasting high-intensity light beams or triangulated positioning signals sent by government satellites orbiting the earth hundreds of miles overheard. The black boxes compare the laser or GPS topographical information with the machine’s real-time location on the jobsite. In an instant, a blade or a bucket moves in accordance with the data and cuts a grade or a ditch to within millimeters of the desired depth.

Deep inside a machine or a truck, highly sensitive electronic sensors sit silently in the heat and dark, monitoring every aspect of a machine’s life. Information is collected, codified, compiled and sent to more black boxes, which beam it back to high-tech communications satellites. Crucial operating data, including engine temperatures, idle times, braking patterns, fuel and oil consumption and imminent failure warnings are in turn sent to OEM data collection centers. Within the hour, this information is posted on an interactive website. Not only can you see how the equipment or truck is being used, you can see where it is, right now. You know instantly if it’s moving and, if so, how fast it’s going. If it’s not moving, you can tell how long it’s been sitting idle.

On the human front, communication now is instantaneous. Plans can be changed on the fly; trucks can be rerouted, crews reassigned, loads given priority, parts ordered and deals struck all with the push of a “transmit” button.

But the revolution is just beginning. New changes, systems and ways of working are coming fast. Older, more conventional business systems are still competing with laser-fast, GPS-based communication and earthmoving systems. But that parity won’t last. The battered notepad on the pickup console is rapidly giving way to the PDA and the laptop. Those contractors who can’t – or won’t – embrace these new business methods will be swept away – put of out business by competitors who use technology to cut costs, double – or even triple – their productivity, precisely manage their assets and people and consistently do more with less.

The revolution is now. Are you ahead of the wave, or behind it?
–-Jack Roberts

GPS EARTHMOVING
Moving dirt may be a down-to-earth job, but increasingly tech-savvy contractors are looking for help from the sky.

Have you ever:

Felt like staking and restaking jobsites is not your core competency?

Had to move dirt twice because of some confusion over the stakes?

Dug into a job only to find that the original plans were off and you have to move more dirt than you bid for…?

If so, you might be a good candidate for GPS guided earthmoving systems.

GPS stands for Global Positioning System, and in the earthmoving industry it involves taking positioning information broadcast from satellites in space and using that data to guide machines, primarily dozers and graders, in real time on the jobsite. Basic GPS earthmoving systems are accurate to within 1/10th of a foot, and there are systems that team up with laser technology to give you results to within final finish specs.

The GPS signals from space are captured by a stationary base station on your jobsite, recalibrated for accuracy and then broadcast to all the machines on your site equipped with a receiver. The machines’ receivers are wired to an onboard computer that contains digitized 3D site plans.

On simpler systems the computer extrapolates where your machine’s blade is in relation to where the plans say finish grade should be and then with lighted arrows or bars on a screen tells your operator to raise or lower the blade. These are called indicate-only systems. More sophisticated systems tie the computer into your machine’s hydraulics and raise or lower the blade automatically. These are called automatic systems or automated machine control. The automatic systems will also give you a screen view in the cab that shows the site from an overhead or cross section view with the finished grade one color, the material yet to be added or removed another color and your machine’s blade in the plan in real time.

“In bulk earthmoving a lot of our customers are running GPS in the indicate mode,” says Reynolds Boyd, product marketing manager for machine automation at Leica Geosystems. “Then they’ll put the machine in the automatic mode when they get close to final grade.”

In addition to machine-mounted receivers, many contractors are also putting GPS receivers on poles or vehicles and moving them around the site to check progress, monitor volumes in stockpiles and double check the accuracy of site plans before work or bidding starts. These mobile receivers are typically called rovers.

GPS doesn’t come cheap. Depending on the sophistication of your system and whether you order indicate-only systems or full automatic machine control, outfitting a dozer or motor grader will run from $80,000 to $120,000.

Why it’s important
There are several benefits to using GPS systems to guide your earthmoving:

Most of your grade staking is eliminated. Instead of waiting for surveyors to stake or restake a site, you simply jump in the machine, turn on the monitor and go to work. “The payoff is substantial when you have massive cuts and fills,” Boyd says. “Those stakes are going to get taken out. But not having to wait for surveyors to come back in and restake enables the contractor to finish a project in much less time.”

Inexperienced operators get more productive. Good operators get even better. With automatic machine control, an operator rarely touches the blade controls. Even with indicate-only systems, the operator need only manipulate the controls up or down guided by the up and down arrows on the display in the cab. What this means is you never have to move dirt twice. An operator who is inexperienced hits the target right the first time and every time. “Even experienced motor grader operators will leave their trailing edge a bit high while cutting to the finish grade with their leading edge,” says Murray Lodge, Topcon’s national sales manager for construction products. “Then they’ll make a second pass with the trailing edge on grade to finish. But with GPS and automated control both edges of the blade will be perfect, eliminating the need for that final pass.”

You can double check topos. Unless you pay for a formal survey of a site, it’s almost impossible to tell how accurate the plan or bid documents are. And if the plan calls for removing 300,000 cubic yards of dirt, but in reality it requires removing 400,000 yards, you can lose a lot of money. With a GPS receiver and a rover you can check out the site yourself and, within the time it takes you to walk or drive around the site, get an accurate picture of the true elevations and volumes on which to base your calculations.

Who is using GPS
While initially it was a handful of large contractors who started using GPS systems to boost productivity on their jobsites, today contractors of all sizes are benefiting from this technology. "Many of the first adopters were larger companies, primarily because they would typically have larger projects and were better able to make the required investment," says Dan Dykhuis, product marketing director for construction and machine automation, Leica Geosystems. Nonetheless, Dykhuis says, a handful of tech-savvy small contractors also saw the first GPS systems as a way to make their operations more productive and get a leg up on the competition.

For several reasons, it may be smaller contractors who stand to benefit from GPS the most, Lodge says. Larger contractors often have their own survey crews or can schedule work arounds if the surveyors can’t get to their sites immediately. Smaller contractors who have to wait a couple days for surveyors can have a hard time keeping their crews and machines busy until the staking is complete. Likewise, if the topos or bid documents are inaccurate a big contractor can more easily eat the difference, whereas checking sites with a GPS rover prior to bidding can help a small contractor avoid mistakes that could destroy profit margins, he says.

How the technology works
The GPS signals that guide earthmoving equipment are the same signals that tell hunters where they are in the woods, help you navigate your car and guide jet airliners across the sky. But construction GPS systems have to be much more accurate. To describe how GPS earthmoving systems get that accuracy we need to start with what happens in the sky.

At any given time there are a couple dozen satellites orbiting above earth and sending out streams of radio waves that announce their location. When a GPS receiver on earth locks in on four or more of these broadcasts, powerful software programs within the receiver triangulate the various positions of the satellites and calculate the position of the receiver.

All this is well and good if you’re trying to pinpoint a favorite fishing spot. But raw GPS data is not terribly accurate. To get close enough to meet civil engineering standards requires the use of what the industry calls a GPS “base station.” The base station is a GPS receiver, but unlike the other receivers in the system it is set up on a stationary point that has already been surveyed so that the grid coordinates are known.

When the GPS satellites send down their relatively rough position information, the base station compares that against what it knows are its true coordinates, makes the adjustments and then sends out a corrected signal to the receivers on your GPS enabled machines or rovers. These corrected signals are accurate to about 1/10th of a foot. Once you have your base station set up and calibrated it can support an unlimited number of GPS receivers running on machines and rovers across your jobsite. For jobs that require greater vertical accuracy, GPS manufacturers are combining GPS systems with lasers and total stations.

How to set up a GPS site
Despite the sophisticated nature of all this technology, it is still possible to screw things up with low-tech mistakes.

Getting the best results starts with a good site reconnaissance, says Jeff Drake at Trimble. First, you need to evaluate your site to determine the best position for your base station, or the control point as it’s often called. If you don’t have a known surveyed point on the site, you’ll need surveyors or an engineering firm to establish one for you.

You also want to make sure your base station radio has a good line of sight to the machines. A typical GPS system can have a range of one to five miles depending on conditions.

Obstructions such as buildings or dense foliage can block the radio’s signals. Other obstructions like a chain link fence or reflective surfaces can interfere with radio signals. Reflective surfaces can include everything from aluminum or corrugated metal siding to a parking lot full of windshields to a lake or pool.

And because the portability of GPS equipment can attract thieves, you’ll want a base station site you can secure or one where you can easily disassemble the components and haul them away at the end of the workday.

Since all of your systems’ accuracy depends on the accuracy of your GPS base station, it is imperative it be set up such that it cannot move. “The GPS antenna needs to be as stable as possible and as high as possible,” says Brian Girouard, an applications engineer for Trimble.

A lot of contractors will set their base station antenna on a T-bar made from welded I-beams anchored to a concrete footing in the ground. If you do use a T-bar, Girouard recommends you mark the spot on the crossbar where you anchor the antenna and radio. Crews will typically remove these at the end of a day to keep them from getting stolen, but if the crew that puts them up the next morning mounts them on the wrong ends of the bar, when the operators get into their machines everything will be off by 5 or 6 feet from where it had been the previous day. If you mount them on a portable tripod, you have to make sure your tripod elevations remain exactly the same every day.

Some contractors will mount their base station antenna on a jobsite trailer, but Girouard cautions against it. If the soil underneath the trailer settles or the trailer moves even as much as 1¼4 inch, that will throw off the results of your entire site by 1¼4 inch, he says.

You’ll also want to put some thought into the power source for your GPS system, Girouard says. He recommends 12-volt, deep-cycle batteries and deep-cycle chargers too.

Plan conversion
Perhaps the least talked about link in the GPS earthmoving chain has to do with site plans. The 2D plans that most contractors receive on paper are often sketchy or inaccurate in the vertical plane and, being paper plans, unreadable by GPS machine computers. To get from paper engineering drawings to vertically accurate and fully detailed machine-readable plans requires the plans be converted to 3D CAD drawings.

Contractors with surveying and engineering staff may have the skills in-house to do this themselves, but a lot of companies are springing up that do these conversions for a fee. “I tell contractors who are buying GPS equipment that the file prep is going to be an ongoing need,” says Brad Phipps, a managing partner at Applied Construction Technology, which does plan conversions. Phipps likens the GPS plan conversion process to what happens in factories and machine shops with AutoCAD and CNC machines. “If you have a digital drawing of a crankshaft, that’s what your computer-navigated lathe will cut. If the model is wrong, the end product will be wrong, and it’s the same with construction. GPS is your navigating tool and the design model is what your machines are going to cut.”

About 95 percent of the work of file conversion is in creating an accurate 3D model, Phipps says, which involves isolating and detailing things like design contours, surface spot elevations, manhole rim elevations, the tops of drainage boxes and curb spot elevations. The remaining 5 percent of the work is a fairly easy process of creating equipment-specific file types.

Applied Construction Technology usually charges a set fee for these services, starting with a $500 minimum for small sites. Road designs range from $1,000 a mile for simple roads to $1,500 a mile for four-lane interstate designs. “When you talk to a contractor and tell him how much they’re going to spend on file prep, it knocks them back at first,” Phipps says. “But when they start using the GPS equipment they find production is so much better it’s just a drop in the bucket. I’ve got contractors who pay $30,000 to $40,000 a year for file prep and they don’t even bat an eye at that because of the production increases they’re getting.”

Training, adapting and crew changes
The elimination of most of the grade staking makes surveyor and grade staking personnel almost obsolete in companies that employ their own. But many of these companies have also redirected these talents by making their surveyors and grade stakers GPS system managers.

As for machine operators, training on how to use GPS systems can usually be done in a day or so and is often done by the vendor. And while there may be a digital divide between young and older employees when it comes to computer technology, the in-cab interfaces for GPS systems are easy for operators of any age to understand. “The systems are menu and icon driven with touch screens, so even if you don’t understand the technology, even if you don’t understand the language, you can still walk through it,” Dykhuis says.

Isn’t this overkill for simple jobs?
If all you’re doing is flat building pads on a flat jobsite or digging water and sewer lines, you may not need GPS. Lasers do fine to guide you across any flat plane. Where GPS really shines is on super-elevated curves and sites with multiple, curved topography. But even with flat or simple sites, you still have some grade staking costs and time considerations that GPS can reduce or eliminate. And while total stations can guide machines through super-elevated curves and complex topography, remember that total stations can only control one machine at a time, whereas one GPS base station transmitter can control as many machines as you can put receivers on – not to mention the rovers your supervisors can use to check the progress of work and the volumes in stockpiles.

Ironically, in asphalt and concrete paving, the two applications where GPS could save contractors perhaps the most money, acceptance has been slow – not from contractors but from U.S. Department of Transportation officials. “For one thing, they can’t check it,” Phipps says. “They are used to setting up on a stake and measuring things. The technology is there and it’s ready, but the people don’t trust it enough.”

What does the future hold?
Perhaps the best reason to take a serious look at GPS is the role it will undoubtedly play in the future of earthmoving. Think of GPS as one leg of a triangle, the other two being telecommunications and software.

In the mining industry, Leica is already combining the three, Boyd says. “Aspects of what is going on in the field are being seen in the office – where the machines are and what kind of production they’re getting,” he says. “Some of that technology is going to come back to construction. You’re going to see a revolution in the whole construction process, things becoming integrated from start to finish and GPS being very much a part of that.”

“You’re going to find a more networked site,” Dykhuis says. “You’re not only controlling the earthmoving machine, but you also have fleet management through some of the same systems.”

GPS itself will also change, Lodge says. “Additional sensors and technology will allow the machines to grade faster and more accurate than today,” he says. And more machines will come under the umbrella of GPS coverage, he predicts. “In asphalt paving and concrete paving you’ll be able to monitor the rate of compaction and how the trucks are flowing from the batch plants. They’ll be able to communicate all kinds of production information. All the machines will talk to each other.”

Recent introductions in GPS product offerings
Leica Geosystems
Leica’s new GradeStar V5.0 software features a consolidated sensor module, the GSM5, which is designed to be a central communications point between position sensors. It can be configured with an internal GPS module for space savings and ease of installation and can be removed and exchanged between machines. GradeStar V5.0 works with Leica’s total stations and GPS sensors so you get the convenience of GPS with the accuracy of lasers in one product. It is designed to be backward compatible with any of the company’s 2D or 3D products.

“We are making the system so that a contractor can start out with just a 2D basic platform and then upgrade by adding the GPS component,” Dykhuis says. “Contractors hate to buy a system only to find it’s obsolete or start all over a year or two after their investment. With this they can get their feet wet with a 2D laser system and then just add components to take the next step to 3D GPS.”

Topcon
Topcon’s GPS+ technology gives its rovers and machine control systems access to both GPS and Russian GLONASS satellite systems. “That offers two major advantages,” says Bob Highfill, Topcon’s 3D machine control product sales manager. “It currently provides access to an additional 17 satellites that GPS-only systems cannot receive. This minimizes risk of downtime that can be experienced with satellite positioning products that rely on only one system. When trees or buildings block portions of the sky, just the addition of a few GLONASS signals can make a big difference.”

Topcon’s new Paradigm G3 chip is designed to track GPS and GLONASS, as well as the Galileo constellation – a new satellite system developed by the European Union. Galileo will be fully operational within the next several years. “The G3 chip will allow you to track all available signals now and in the future,” Lodge says. When fully deployed, Galileo will have 30 satellites and users of all three satellite constellations will have access to more than 80 satellites.

GPS accuracy is variable depending on the number of available satellites, their distribution in the sky and other factors. This variable accuracy is acceptable when working to vertical tolerances of 1/10th of a foot, but cannot be considered reliable when higher precision is required. To enable the use of satellite positioning for these tasks, Topcon developed a new laser technology – Millimeter GPS/LazerZone. This product provides accuracy to within a few millimeters and can be added to any Topcon GPS+ machine control or rover system.

Trimble
The Trimble Grade Control Systems provides an upgrade path that can start you with the simplest system and allow you to build up to full GPS by changing some of the components. The system starts with the GCS300, which uses a laser receiver to control the lift of the machine blade. The GCS400 is also a laser-based system designed primarily for dozer blades. The GCS500 and GCS600 systems will perform cross slope functions, and the GCS900 is a full blown 3D, GPS system for stakeless grading. The company’s Construction Asset Management System uses software to connect the office to the jobsite by bringing together all location-based information to provide an overview of the contractor’s assets.
--Tom Jackson

ONE CONTRACTOR'S STORY
How one of the largest earthmoving companies in the country adapted to GPS
We bought our first GPS system about five years ago. We have always been a company that prides itself on being on the cutting edge of grading, so it was natural for us to be interested in this technology. At the time we were familiar with laser-based grading, but were intrigued by the ability of GPS to add horizontal alignment to the position. In addition, GPS would allow a one-time setup of a base station that would permit unlimited rovers and pieces of equipment to operate on site.

The initial cost of a startup machine control package, which consists of a base, rover and one dozer setup, was about $100,000 – not too much different than the cost of the same thing today. With that in mind, we were very apprehensive about committing to one manufacturer. The two we evaluated had their pluses and minuses (according to opposing reps.) In order to decide which one to go with, we bought both and used them simultaneously on one job to get a real head-to-head comparison.

We quickly realized that when the GPS system was working, it was a joy to have. Let me, however, define working. Working means:

All of the wires are connected properly and in good shape.

The geometry of the satellites is correct so that low accuracy doesn’t kick the system out of fix.

There is not a small crack in the coaxial cable that kicks the system out of lock when the machine is moving, but looks perfectly fine when the machine stops.

The base station keeps a good source of power and doesn’t die halfway through a shift because someone forgot to charge the battery.

The model is correct and accurate according to the plan and the operator is informed about quirks in the model so he knows what to expect when grades are not as they should be.

The surveyor is on board with GPS on the project and as-built changes, interpretations and variations from the plan are incorporated into the model.

My point is that GPS is not a plug ‘n play device. It is a system that requires dedicated management as well as policies and procedures. It requires contractors to use a different approach to the traditional methods grades are set on site. The blow-and-go approach doesn’t fly with GPS. One doesn’t fire up a bulldozer without checking the oil or making sure it has fuel and water and randomly inspecting the undercarriage and wear-and-tear components. The same applies for GPS.

With all that said, we think we’ve got the learning curve of GPS figured out, mostly. So our original system has grown from just one to over a dozen machine control systems and nearly the same number of rovers. For the last three years we have assigned a full-time project manager, myself, to be in charge of the implementation and development of the GPS system.

Training
My background is civil engineering, project management and estimating large earthwork projects. In this role, I have developed an aptitude for computers and the CAD work involved for doing earthwork takeoffs and GPS modeling.

What I try to do is transfer my knowledge base to our lead grade checkers in the company. I provide them with a laptop computer and the CAD software that allows them to transfer from physical grade checking to digital grade checking.

The premise is that the nitty gritty work of grade checks would be taken care of by the dozer’s GPS system. In the industry, there is limited formal training that can be provided by the manufacturer. The cookbook method of getting the 3D model from the engineer and going to work is not realistic. Not all engineers understand 3D or have an incentive to try to develop it. Therefore, contractors often have no choice but to develop techniques on their own to make GPS work profitably for them. We are constantly developing practices and changing methods to try to simplify GPS into a form that can be quickly adopted by foremen and grade checkers with little GPS knowledge.

Applications
When we first started using GPS, we used it primarily for the finish grade stage of projects. Our tolerance for rough grade is +/– 1/10th of a foot, which is well within differential GPS accuracies. However, today we use our GPS for all aspects of the grading process.

GPS is so easy to use that it has become a shared tool for the project rather than something just in the hands of a surveyor. Lasers still have a place on the job because they’re easy to use and practical for many applications, and we continue to buy laser systems.

The majority of our systems are indicate only, but we do have several automatic systems. In areas where we do have variable grades, rather than flat pads, the auto systems have shined. For example, automatics on a motor grader are mandatory because they are placed in areas of constant changing grade.

We don’t necessarily profile a job as being a “GPS- type” job. We do try to consolidate multiple pieces on one site. It takes the same amount of effort to GPS a 40-acre site as it does a 400-acre site. It takes the same amount of management and systems design.

We actively topo sites now to get project snapshots of how the dirt is being moved. We do this to try to get an idea of how efficiently material is being loaded into the scrapers and to identify bulk/shrink factors of the soil.

GPS has also increased the level of safety on projects. The fact that the grade checker does not need to be working alongside a piece of equipment is a benefit within itself. Having GPS on the jobsite will ultimately lead to fewer accidents.

The not-quite-stakeless job
The idea of GPS creating a “stakeless job” is a misconception. We have reduced grade checker stakes in the finish stages of a project and some of the mass grade portions, but overall we still need stakes.

Most of the projects in California are on hillsides with a lot of topo relief. GPS is great for the guy who has it, but everyone else on the project needs to see lath and ribbon. What GPS does is eliminate the need for the surveyor to place stakes for the use of our layout. With a correct model, we can perform the entire layout without survey. That doesn’t mean we don’t need a surveyor. We still need survey stakes to keep quality control within the project. Survey adds the necessary redundancy to keep the project accurate.

Changing roles
The role of the surveyor is changing from physically placing lath to providing management of the digital model, ensuring the 3D model works for line and grade and conforms to whatever the government agency may require, and certifying that those grades were placed correctly by the contractor.

We have recognized the need for sites with GPS to have a GPS guru on site. We pick seasoned grade checkers for this role and call them “GPS site coordinators.” It doesn’t cost us any extra to add this resource to a project because we are retraining someone who would be there working with a dozer anyway. The dozer just doesn’t need a full-time grade checker anymore.

Converting plans
We currently do all of our 3-D site modeling in-house. In the past three years we have grown our CAD abilities tenfold. AutoCAD – in the past a tool specifically of our takeoff department – is now in the hands of our project managers, engineers and grade checkers.

What contractors need to understand is this: AutoCAD is the new language of construction. Terms like polyline, DTM, model and PDOP are common words on site now. In order for GPS to be successful in construction, the magic and mystery must be eliminated. It is essential for GPS to be managed and models created on a level field in order to realistically keep up with the changing dynamics and intricacies of a grading project.

The bottom line
It has been very difficult to pin a hard number on the cost effectiveness of GPS. There are tangible benefits and intangible benefits of which the intangible ones greatly outweigh the tangible.

We do know we have fewer corrections to do with GPS on site. We constantly identify cost savings with GPS. For example, we would have had too long of a haul if we hadn’t been able to change logistics quickly with the aid of a rover. Or we were able to get scrapers into that area an hour earlier because the geologist brought it off quickly with the aid of our GPS rover. Or we eliminated the cost of survey restake because we were able to capture survey stakes with the GPS rover. Or a dozer was able to pioneer a cut without a grade checker or survey wood. Putting a cost saving number on all those instances would be difficult and time consuming.

We are increasingly promoting GPS to our clients as we become confident in its ability and are able to directly characterize its benefits. Clients who have had GPS on their projects have noticed fewer problems, a better quality product and lower overall costs.

--By Matt Eklund, P.E., GPS program manager, Sukut Construction

Sukut Construction is among the nation’s top 300 contractors and has moved more than 1 billion cubic yards of California’s earth in its 38 years in business. The company has more than 600 plus employees and $195 million in annual revenues.

TRUCK TRACKING
Real-time command and control of your truck fleet at your fingertips.
For years you’ve probably joked your pickup truck is your office. Now, OEMs are taking you at your word. Advances are aimed at making working from the front seat of your truck easier and more productive.

Managing your medium- and heavy-duty trucks is about to change dramatically as well. For under $700 per truck, you can monitor a driver’s behavior throughout a business day, electronically place, file and bill deliveries, set truck operating boundaries, track vehicle location in real time and even preset authorized vehicle operation times.

And all of this technology is infinitely adaptable. You can easily mine down as deep as you want to go. Would you like to check engine idle times for a truck? No problem. Watch for speeding drivers? Easy. Check engine operating temperatures and schedule preventive maintenance? Just click your mouse. Pull up a GPS file to prove a truck delivered a load at a certain date and time? As easy as opening a new window on your PC.

It’s called telematics – the science of integrating a vehicle with electronic control and tracking systems. In its infancy now, the potential of this science envisioned by OEMs is practically limitless. So far contractors have been slow to see the benefits of real-time maintenance, positioning or personnel tracking with regard to their truck fleets. As telematic technology becomes more seamlessly integrated into vehicles, however, OEMs will fine-tune its awesome potential. Its impressive capabilities will become easier and more practical for contractors to use. At the same time, prices will fall as more trucks come off assembly lines either fitted with, or hardwired and ready to accept, telematic systems.

“Multiple trends are driving the growth of telematic systems,” says Randy Amerine, director of marketing, construction equipment division, Qualcomm Wireless Business Solutions. “As end users and dealers and rental outlets look at ways to drive more efficiency for their businesses, they’re going to take a look at the assets themselves – trucks – and look at the impact on the logistical aspects of managing labor, vehicles, pickup and delivery, parts and all of the components that make up the maintenance and service process for those assets.

They realize those elements will need to be consolidated and coordinated. And telematics provides the framework for gathering information. So there’s a natural integration that occurs because the ability to efficiently locate trucks and plan the dispatch of those pickup and delivery units is going to bring more efficiency to the owner.”

“Telematics gives companies an entirely new way to manage their fleet,” notes Bryan Calloway, senior vice president, marketing and business development, LeasePlan USA. The technology can help increase safety, manage fuel costs and reduce unnecessary vehicle maintenance and repairs. Managing your vehicles and drivers through telematics has a number of benefits that could have a real impact on your bottom line. Features such as monitoring speed and driving habits could help you better manage your liability and enhance driver safety. In addition to monitoring driver speed, monitoring vehicle idle time and unauthorized usage could help to reduce fuel costs significantly as well.”

“What we’re really offering contractors is command and control of their business,” notes Tim McRady, director of customer service, Qualcomm. “In many ways, running a trucking or construction business is really a logistical issue. And that means efficiently managing a supply chain. And the best way to manage your supply chain is to have information. Right now, most contractors do that with notepads, papers and cell phones. And information is filtered through three or four different departments in a business, often manually, through faxes, post-it notes, memos, what have you. But now, you can gather all of that supply chain information, electronically and in real time, and integrate it into your business processes. And not just random information – information about the things that really matter to your business and your bottom line: the hours or miles on your trucks, their physical location at all hours of the day and night, the status of pickup and delivery jobs. This information allows you to fine tune and streamline your operations and will eventually lead to a lot of innovating thinking on how you manage your business.”

The mobile office comes of age
It’s an old maxim that ergonomic or technological advances start in the consumer automotive market and eventually work their way into medium- and heavy-duty trucks. That’s not the case with telematics. The benefits of tracking loads, monitoring drivers, paperless billing and so many other telematic capabilities are so obvious that many heavy-duty truck manufacturers, including International and Mack, are pioneering its use in a variety of real-world applications.

Light-truck manufacturers haven’t been asleep at the switch, though. Real-time GPS tracking systems are now commonplace – usually offered as optional equipment on high-end luxury vehicles, including pickup trucks and SUVs. In most cases, these navigational systems use a dash-mounted screen to display constantly updated vehicle coordinates in real time. When used in conjunction with an interactive, DVD atlas, the system shows scalable maps with a variety of different viewpoints. You can calculate routes by time, distance or local attractions. You can key in a specific street address in a city hundreds of miles away, and the navigational system will take you right to the specified location via voice prompts to alert you to turns, highway exits or landmarks. Miss a turn and the computer will automatically recalculate the route to get you quickly back on track.

Ford’s new onboard computer system, recently previewed in a 2006 F-250 Super Duty pickup truck, was developed in conjunction with Microsoft’s automotive division. The computer, manufactured by Stargate Mobile, is mounted in the dashboard between the driver and passenger seats. The monitor and hard drive are protected in a durable rubberized case. The PC itself contains a GPS navigational system, tablet computer with full suite of Microsoft Office software, a mapping program and wireless, broadband Internet access. The system won’t be ready until late spring or summer this year, and then only as a dealer-installed option. Initial price for the onboard computer will be approximately $3,000.

So it’s starting. Anyone who’s watched the evolution of automotive styling and ergonomics knows today’s options are tomorrow’s standard equipment. When’s the last time you sat in a new car that didn’t have power windows or a tilt steering wheel? It’s just a matter of time before these systems become routine and light trucks become true rolling offices.

Keeping the honest man honest
Medium- and heavy-duty trucks are going to get telematic makeovers too. The emphasis here is on driver productivity – from both sides of the fence, so to speak. Truck drivers in the future will be surrendering more of their autonomy to the main office. Owners of trucks fitted with GPS tracking and communication systems now have unprecedented access to reams of truck-related data. “Direct feedback from January’s World of Concrete told us that 95 percent of the contractors we talked to at that show looking into truck tracking systems were interested primarily in driver accountability,” says Tony Nicoletti, national sales manager for DPL America, which markets Web-based GPS truck and equipment tracking systems. “For these contractors, it’s not so much a ‘Big Brother’ thing, but a desire to keep people honest. They want these systems to make sure guys are where they’re supposed to be. They’re paying these guys good money. And this system can make sure no one’s spending too much time at their girlfriend’s house, or getting to work late and padding their time cards – it just keeps them honest.”

One Maryland contractor uses his DPL system to control speeding drivers. “It’s an image issue,” Nicoletti says. “Having speeding trucks weaving in and out of traffic just isn’t good for business. But this contractor’s drivers don’t even know they’re being monitored.”
Nicoletti says the contractor has his system set up so speeding alerts are sent to his cell phone if the monitoring system detects a truck breaking the law. “He’s got an 800 number driver alert sticker on all his trucks,” Nicoletti says. “So he just calls the driver up and says somebody called in and complained and asks them to slow it down a bit.”

Concrete company triples production with GPS-based truck tracking
Smaller contractors tend to use telematics for monitoring drivers. Larger operations use that aspect too, but find the most value in using telematics to streamline dispatching operations. Country Materials in Marathon, Wisconsin, is a concrete construction firm that handles everything from pre-stress concrete beams, bridge beams, ready-mix delivery and “pretty much anything to do with concrete,” laughs Andy Dupuis, who handles ready-mix dispatch and design and control responsibilities for the company.

According to Dupuis, County Materials is also a long-time convert to telematics and the electronic business model. “I’m in charge of the software behind our concrete dispatch operations and I’ve been working with our owners, trying to discover new ways to do more with less. That’s the ultimate goal. We started down that road in 1995 with the first signaling systems – they worked over two-way FM radio. (We had the little turkey call squabble moving the truck across the screen on the first dispatch systems back then.) And we’ve stepped forward progressively as the years have come along.”

Today, that means using Qualcomm GPS tracking systems on the company’s 400-plus fleet of ready-mix trucks. “We take advantage of it in any way, shape or form we can,” Dupuis says. “We use both inbound and outbound macros to tell us where the truck is and what it’s doing automatically, without the driver being involved, and then apply that information to other portions of the fleet and our business.”

A good example Dupuis points to is the transporting of a 100-foot-by-8-foot concrete bridge beam – something County Materials does on a routine basis. “If you have a 10-axle-combination semi moving that beam through the state, DOTs want to know where that truck is at all times,” he explains. “They want to know what route it’s taking and where it is before they’re going to allow it through certain metropolitan areas at certain times of day. So tracking is crucial.”

Because Dupuis has the real-time information and position of the truck in front of him on his computer, he can tell the DOT exactly where the truck is and even get ahead of the game: “If they’ve scheduled a police escort for the truck, I can look at the screen, and tell them, ‘He’s going to be at exit so and so in 15 minutes. You can meet him there.’”

If Dupuis gets word that an accident has tied up a highway, he can route trucks around the resulting traffic jam – even guide drivers down alternate roads by watching the map display on his computer screen. “If you don’t have communication, you don’t know what the trucks are doing,” Dupuis explains. “And as a dispatcher, if you don’t know what’s going on, there’s a natural tendency to have some of the trucks sitting there on the side not being used.”

When Dupuis combines all the technologies at his disposal and the information they give him, he says the power he has to use his company’s assets wisely and productively increases exponentially. “I can look at my demand graph once the trucks are assigned and see where everyone is going. And I’ll immediately know if I can do more with the trucks I have on hand. So you take trucks and plug them into the overall operation. Look again, and guess what? I can do still more. And I know it because I have the ability to see how every asset is being used in real time. I can take a unit that is not pulling its weight and put it to work in a way that brings additional revenue in.”

The system works on days when one of the company’s jobs is moving slow. “In the old days, the trucks assigned to that job – maybe 10 or 12 units – would’ve sat there under local control and contributing little or nothing to the bottom line. Now, we control them centrally. So we can pull them out of that slow operation and put them someplace where they can be of service to us.”

Make your life easier
Dupuis wasn’t always a fan of technology. “I was in the original resistance movement when the first batch computer came through the door of this corporation in 1991,” he says. “I told them to take that blankety-blank thing and get it out of here.”

Like many people, he was scared. “Initially you think it’s just going to mean additional complications in your life. And you’ve got to get over this idea that the computer is somehow going to replace you. It’s not going to replace you. It’s going to help you. Don’t be afraid to learn with it and keep going forward. It’s just like a hammer or a screwdriver. And there are a million different people out there that can use it in a million different ways – just like with any tool. Don’t be a slave to the technology and don’t be afraid to keep using it.”

Today, Dupuis says County Material’s experiences with telematics and truck tracking systems have been so positive that the company plans to move to a completely electronic business model in two years. “Our goal is to tie everything together with this system – from A to Z,” he says. “The dispatch system is going to tell us what you can do with the trucks and track them through the day. The tracking system is going to tell you where the trucks are and what they’re doing. The powertrain data from the internal ECUs will be sent over to our maintenance system. And obviously we’re going to take our wireless technology and use it to the nth degree.

“Soon, our dump truck fleet will be completely paperless. Our drivers will have their own personal data assistants, just like Fed Ex drivers do. Our drivers will dump a load of dirt, take their PDAs, walk up to the customer, ask them to please sign it. They can give the customer a receipt if he wants one from a little strip thermal printer in the truck. The truck will signal dispatch that the load is complete. The customer’s bill is automatically sent to his Web-based account and he can pay his bill – electronically – tomorrow morning, thank you very much. Meanwhile, the driver’s ready for another load, which he’ll get beamed to him from the dispatch office. And away he goes. At the end of the day, he downloads his PDA into the computer system and everything’s recorded and proper.”

And at the end of the day, week, month, year or whatever, Dupuis will have a complete record for every single aspect of that truck’s working life: “We’ll have a true cost-per-truck, per-hour, per-load analysis that will enable us to understand everything that’s going on with them and how they’re contributing toward the bottom line.”

Taking ownership is key
The cost of installing and running a truck tracking software system isn’t as bad as you might think. Nicoletti says DPL America can typically outfit a single truck for under $700. Then there’s a monthly subscription fee, usually in the neighborhood of $35 per truck.

If that still sounds exorbitant, consider that Dupuis is convinced truck tracking systems have tripled the productivity and profitability of County Materials’ mixer fleet since the first systems were brought online three years ago. “The system pays for itself pretty quickly,” he notes.

More important to successfully implementing a telematics system is creating a shift in thinking at your company, says Qualcomm’s Amerine. “Senior management within the company need to acknowledge you’re going to go through a transformation process,” he says. “And they also need to let it be known there’s enough value in adopting these systems to justify doing so.”

Once the word is out, Amerine says the next step is making a concerted effort to budget for the training and the resources needed to get a tracking system up to speed. “Then you really need someone like Andy Dupuis to take ownership of that technology. Someone who will handle getting it set up, getting it running, training your people, and the ongoing customer support. And that person needs to stick with it and find out those key aspects of the information and how to use it wisely. Once that’s done, telematics will help you transform how you do business and you can begin to look at your return on investment and increasing your productivity.”
--Jack Roberts

STAYING ALIVE
Phones are for taking pictures and computers are for calls in the new age of communication technology. To remain competitive, you’ll have to keep up.
Today technology that speeds communication and allows you to do in the field just about anything you can do in the office is optional. It can give you an edge over your competition. But five years from now, that might not be the case.

“Just to stay alive you’re going to have to do everything you can in terms of meeting timelines and keeping costs down,” says Jeff McDowell, director of alliances for Research in Motion, maker of the BlackBerry platform. “If you want to be a competent company in the future, so that if anything goes wrong during a project it can be fixed quickly, the No. 1 way to do that is with mobile solutions.”

While the push-to-talk feature on Nextel cell phones was a breakthrough in communication technology for contractors – the company calls it the original instant messenger – it was just the beginning. Now you can take a photo with your phone and send it to someone else’s cell phone while you’re talking to that person. With the push of a button, you can send a voice message – or a picture – to any e-mail box in the world. You can get real-time satellite images of your jobsites or the location of a job you’re about to bid on – with resolution that allows you to clearly see parking lot stripes.

You can capture signatures in the field when a job is complete, letting you send a bill the next day. Your employees can clock in and out on their cell phones and the information goes directly into your payroll system without paper documents. If you need to substitute materials, rearrange a schedule or inspect a jobsite and document what’s done, what isn’t done and what needs to be reworked, you can do it at the jobsite with the assurance everyone in your company will get the message immediately.

The point of all these advancements is to save time, which, in the construction industry perhaps more than in any other, is money. You deal with a lot of people to make sure the right materials, machines and workers arrive at the jobsite at the right time. Communication companies have realized this and are devoting a large portion of their business targeting divisions to creating applications and services for contractors. “If I was being asked what problem mobile computing solves, I’d say it all comes down to workflow,” McDowell says. “I’m really paying attention to construction right now because the value of timeliness is so important in this industry.”

Your cell phone: not just for talking
If you still view your cell phone primarily as a device that allows you speak to someone at a remote location, you’re missing out on a lot. While the ability to push a button and talk to someone at the office, a different jobsite or even the other side of the jobsite where you are can be priceless at times, today’s cell phones are capable of much more.

The Sprint Nextel application contractors like best, according to a recent survey the company conducted, is time tracking. “People totally understand it right off the top,” says Jim Hayes, product and portfolio manager, construction and field service, Sprint Nextel.

Your employees can click in – rather than clocking in – using their cell phones. Or you can put a supervisor in charge of clicking in and out for everyone at a particular site. As employees click in, the software uses the GPS capability of their phones to put markers for them on a map you can view on your phone.

The program can track time for entire crews as well as individuals. Hayes says one of the first contractors to use this function saved money on overtime expenses because a supervisor noticed a crew that had set forms for a concrete pour had already logged 32 hours for the week and doing the pour would put those workers over 40 hours. So he brought in a second crew to pour the concrete.

Sprint Nextel’s multimedia phones allow you to e-mail photos as well as voice and text messages. The Direct Send Picture feature that allows you to send a photo to someone while talking is just a few months old. Hayes says this function addresses the problem of “as built vs. as designed.” If you have to do something a little differently than what’s written in the job plans, you can show the owner immediately and ask if it’s OK rather than stopping work and waiting for an answer or doing it one way and then having to change it.

And if the person you want to show a picture doesn’t have a Sprint Nextel phone, you can send the photo as an e-mail and attach text or a voice message explaining the picture or identifying something in it.

“The phones aren’t just for taking pictures,” Hayes says. “They’re for documenting what’s at the site.” If you’re inspecting an electrical box, for instance, and find a problem, you can send a photo to the electrical contractor. You can also store photos in a job log on your phone.

Steven Hendricks, director of communications and public affairs for Motorola’s iDen mobile business applications group, says the camera function of cell phones will get even better in the near future, making it easier for you or your customers to make decisions based on photos. Being able to take quality pictures can also help you record evidence to protect you and your insurance company.

Through a partnership with Trimble, Sprint Nextel offers GPS black boxes for equipment that monitor hours of operation, fuel levels and out of limit events – such as a machine overheating – and send that information to your cell phone. You can also get satellite images of jobsites where black-box-equipped machines are located.

Mobile computing: take the office with you
You can take these capabilities a step further by using mobile computing devices – BlackBerries, for example – in place of cell phones. In additional to providing cell phone functions, these devices can connect you to the Internet and the systems at your office so that databases, e-mail accounts, etc. are available to you in the field.

“BlackBerry is really an extension of your office,” McDowell says. “It’s more of a terminal or a connection to your office. Basically, anything you can do on the Internet, you can do on a BlackBerry.”

McDowell leads the RIM group that partners with companies that build customized applications on top of the BlackBerry platform. ATSG, JumpStart Wireless and Corrigo are major BlackBerry partners. These companies will put together a software package for your organization and then provide as many integrated handheld devices as you need. The price is comparable to a well-equipped cell phone – about $200 per unit – and the service providers charge about $40 a month per device, McDowell says.

A popular application for contractors allows you to inspect a site and fill out an alert form if you find anything wrong. If you discover a subcontractor has left something undone or needs to re-do something, for instance, the form will go to a database and the application will look up which subcontractor did the work. He’ll receive a “go to fix” message automatically.

If you need to rearrange crews because work can’t be done at one site or needs to be speeded up at another, you can use your BlackBerry to see where your workers are and what crews are available. Instead of going to the office and faxing a form when you have to substitute materials, you can fill out the form electronically and send it from the jobsite, ensuring a quicker delivery.

Sprint Nextel has launched a handheld Windows Mobile platform that will be available for the first time this month. It’s similar to BlackBerry, but uses Windows rather than the Java operating system.

Windows Mobile has a touch screen and stylus, allowing you to capture signatures in the field. A Store-in-Forward feature lets you keep working even if your connection fails at a remote jobsite. The device will store all the information you enter and automatically send it when it picks up coverage again.

The learning curve
While he finds contractors are eager to try out new communication technology when they realize what it will allow them to do, McDowell says the implementation phase is slower than it is in more technologically savvy industries. Your workers have to learn how to use the devices and there is a shift in the way everyone operates.

“Sometimes contractors think, ‘My guys are construction workers – they’ve got big thumbs. They won’t be able to use mobile computing,’” McDowell says. “But once they start using the device, you’ll never get it away from them.”

Hayes takes issue with the notion construction companies are slow to adopt this kind of technology. “There are some folks [in the construction industry] who are really on the cutting edge,” he says. “They’re looking for what’s next.”

To those who are still unsure about the Digital Age, Hayes says communication technology providers have gotten past many of the learning curves. “There’s so much fun stuff going on in this industry. This technology allows you to stay in touch with your office and your customers, which can help you get more business and maybe get paid quicker,” he says. “You can instantly let a client know when a job is done or let a subcontractor know when the site is ready for him. We’ve taken all this technology and made it useful and easy so the business owner is more productive and profitable.”
--Olivia Grider

TALK TO ME
How on-board electronics are changing the way you control and manage your machines.
Credit the EPA.

As the calendar turns on each new tier of engine emission regulations the demand for installed electronics on machines increases. And yet much more than the engine is involved – transmissions, hydraulics, axles and operator controls are all getting their commands electronically and are all talking to each other via electronic controls.

In addition to making machines more productive and abuse proof, these electronics have also upped the ante on the information that can be extracted and analyzed. And while these electronics are now just on heavier equipment, they will likely find their way into compact equipment as emissions regulations dip into the lower horsepower ranges.

Control, control, control
“As the cost of construction equipment increases, owners want more reliability and durability,” says Rick Hall, vice president of engineering, Case Construction Equipment. “One way we can do that is to control how the vehicle is operated.”

Electronic controls are now used in a variety of ways to protect the machine from operator actions that eventually doom certain components. For instance, there are engine and transmission controllers that limit the machine’s movements to minimize any damage from operating it before it’s warmed up. Another example would be controllers that limit engine speed when shifting into forward or reverse, thus preventing drivetrain overloading.

Deere’s Total Machine Control – which has been on its forestry equipment and dozers since the late 1990s – is “designed to make a good operator better and a mediocre operator good,” says Brian Rauch, Deere’s director of engineering and technology.

In simple terms, TMC allows you to operate aggressively yet with precise control. The system integrates control of everything from engine to transmission to hydraulic functions to brakes, all responding automatically to the speed and feel preferences set by the operator.

Deere plans to put TMC on other machines debuting next year.

Another example of what these controllers do is Volvo’s Automatic Traction Control option on artics, where multiple speed sensors constantly check ground conditions and select the correct drive combination to negotiate the terrain. In addition to leaving the operator free to concentrate on driving, ATC reduces fuel consumption and tire wear by engaging the dog-clutch differential locks only when necessary.

Today’s electronic controllers already vary greatly from those first appearing on machines. They’ve come down in price, become more robust and have far more computing power. Further advances will only add to the protective nature of these controls.

“They’re there to control the operation and monitor the health of the vehicle,” Hall says. “They’re there to help, not hurt.”

Spilling the beans
As long as these controllers are talking to each other, they might as well be talking to you and your service technician.

Components these days are a chatty group. The engine and transmission will spill the beans about their oil temperature, level and pressure. The hydraulic system and wet disc brakes will get into oil temperature and level details. Dog-clutch differential locks, engine/transmission retarders and service brakes will let you know if they are on or off. And all this information has a time/date stamp on it.

Manufacturers are grappling with how to properly extract this information and give it to their customers and dealers. Some have opted to provide this information wirelessesly using a Web interface. Wireless, however, is constricted by band width, which limits the amount of information it’s capable of transmitting. Because of this, Volvo chose to put a port on certain machines through which a laptop can download the information. Although more cumbersome, it does allow a significant amount of information to be drawn out of a machine for analysis. (See charts on page 64.)

Asset management programs have gained a level of maturity. In addition to those offered by manufacturers, there are also a variety of aftermarket systems, such as Qualcomm’s GlobalTracs and Trimble’s Construction Manager. Most of these tools, whether from the manufacturer or an aftermarket provider, also offer the addition of GPS, allowing you to track a machine’s location and establish geo-fences that alert you when a machine has moved out of a designated area. Last year, Pettibone announced it would make GlobalTracs standard on all its telescopic handlers, and Bobcat said it would offer the system on its entire equipment line as a dealer-installed option.

Let’s use Caterpillar’s Product Link as an example of how a wireless asset management system works. The system gathers data from a machine’s on-board electronics and then transmits it wirelessly via the Orbcomm satellite service to Cat’s network operations center. Information is then delivered to a customer’s desktop via Caterpillar’s online application, EquipmentManager. The on-machine part of the system includes a satellite communicator and a separate electronic control module. (The satellite communicator can be used alone if you just want basic information, such as machine hours and location.)

The high cost of fuel is just one example of how these systems can give you a leg up in your daily operation. Trimble’s Construction Manager, for instance, monitors how much time expires between “ignition on” and “start moving” events, information you can use to save unnecessary fuel costs.

“Users want to know who is starting the machine, at what time of day, how many times a day it’s turned on and off, how much fuel is being consumed, whether or not the machine is sitting idle and if they’ve got a PM job coming up,” explains Mike Kellen, product support supervisor, commercial sales, for Caterpillar’s information products and solutions division. “This allows you to manage your fleet on an exception or event basis, such as low oil pressure or high coolant temperature. You can identify the machines that need attention today, all from your computer.”

Komatsu is just introducing the latest version of its wireless equipment monitoring tool, Komtrax. The information it gives users (see box on this page) “can be used to determine proper service scheduling, rebuilding schedules, fuel schedules and much more,” says Chris Wasik, manager, service system support programs, Komatsu America.

Using the information
Data, however, is just data until it can be converted into information you can use.

If the machine cannot presently be protected from operator abuses via internal controls, then another step is to find out exactly what’s happening out in the field so you can address any problems with an individual operator.

This is where current systems have taken a giant leap from their initial iterations. Volvo’s Machine Analysis Tracking Information System, for example, displays information graphically in tables, pie charts and bar diagrams, and uses a color system that helps you pinpoint problems. Green indicates correct use, blue indicates the machine has been operated at a temperature lower than optimal, yellow is a warning and red is an alarm, letting you know when a machine is too warm or has been operated incorrectly.

“MATRIS raises the awareness of good or bad operating practices,” says Mike Stec, sales engineer, articulated haulers and wheel loaders, Volvo Construction Equipment. “It can confirm jobsite conditions, roads and weather. It can help predict possible downtime and servicing.”

Service really gets a boost with these systems. “When you get a fault code from a machine, our system pulls from our installed troubleshooting information what the code means and what parts and tools are required to address the problem,” says Dan Wood, engineering technical steward for Caterpillar’s information products and solutions division.

Not just for the big guys
Although some of these tools are more likely to fit customers with multiple machines in multiple locations, there’s still value there for the small operation. “For instance, the Maintenance Watch portion of EquipmentManager includes a planned maintenance history, preventive maintenance alerts and parts lists – all handy information for even the do-it-yourselfer,” Wood says.

“Even if you did own one machine, you could use the analysis functions to evaluate how everything is working,” Wasik says.

The do-it-yourselfer can get fuel levels every night and see what times his machines are operating, allowing him to properly schedule fuel trucks. For contractors who rely primarily on their dealers for service, those dealers can use this information to align their manpower, process and inventories to better support your parts, maintenance and service needs. Abnormality codes, relayed to the dealer as a potential fault is occurring, allow for a higher level of support. And all the records generated by these systems can’t hurt a machine’s resale value.

The future
Komatsu thinks all entities involved – users, dealers and manufacturers – will get so much out of Komtrax and its analysis it’s waiving the first five years of monthly satellite fees. “We’re doing this to allow people to see the value of it,” Wasik says. And Komtrax will become standard equipment at every model or Tier 3 engine change.

In addition, Komatsu is also using Komtrax on a corporate level, seeing it as a way to monitor parts and machine manufacturing based on utilization rates and machine age – all derived from information extrapolated from on-board electronics. If recurring problems are seen on a current model, they can be addressed on the assembly line.

And what’s down the road for on-board electronics and the information they provide? One likelihood, Case’s Hall says, is making all the on-board controllers wireless, eliminating cables and the worry that connectors might become contaminated with dirt or water.

Also on Hall’s wish list: position and oil condition sensors, which are now technologically doable yet not at the price or durability needed for widespread manufacturer adoption. “If we can get better sensors, we can do a better job of enabling the controllers to manage the machine,” he says. A cylinder position sensor, for instance, could tell you at any point where a cylinder was in its stroke. A sensor on an articulation joint would record how far it rotated.

There are still several missing pieces. There’s a great deal of acknowledgement that users – be they contractors, dealers or rental centers – long for one website to manage all their equipment regardless of brand. There’s also a need for this information to seamlessly integrate into any contractor’s office system. And, in addition to being able to extract more information from the machine, manufacturers want to make it more of a two-way conversation, transmitting such things as software updates that would save the technician a trip.

“Our long-term vision is the machine will diagnose itself,” Hall says.

What kind of information is now being transmitted?
Here’s what Komatsu’s Komtrax sends wirelessly:

Location and geofence (GPS)

Service meter reading

Times of day your machines are operating

Fuel level

Water temperature

Cautions

Abnormality (fault) codes

Maintenance replacement notification

Working hours – how and when the machine is being used and how productive your machines and operators are

Load frequency

Engine lock – assures your machines are only operated at designated times and areas

Average hourly fuel consumption

Machine operating information

--Marcia Gruver

SOFTWARE PROGRAMS
Need help managing your company or calculating strata? These software companies are worth taking a look at.
As companies grow, it becomes difficult to manage them with just a mind for numbers and a calculator. Thankfully, in today’s technology driven market, several software programs exist to help you not only manage the ins and outs of your organization, but also save time and money by simplifying your inventory management and human resources data. Whether you need help tracking project details, being prepared for an audit or maintaining your equipment, you should be able to find the right program.

CMiC’s Enterprise system
Computer Methods International has designed a program that integrates all projects and functions across an organization while linking project owners, customers, suppliers, partners and employees.

The program, CMiC Enterprise, is Web based and consists of five main parts:

CMiC Financials: An integrated financial and accounting product that allows access to current and historic customer and vendor transactions

CMiC Projects: A project manager that tracks details from beginning to end

CMiC Human Capital: Integrates employee data with payroll and human resources

CMiC Assets: Tracks equipment details such as inventory status, equipment maintenance and repair costs

CMiC Customer Relationship Manager: Connects customers, suppliers, partners and employees in real time

CMiC’s primary customers are those who do specialty construction in the $20-million-a-year range. The price of the program depends on the number of users who will have access.

Dexter + Chaney’s Forefront Construction Management Software
Dexter + Chaney’s Forefront Construction Management Software consists of 28 integrated modules that handle project management, construction accounting, human resources, document imaging, remote connectivity and data sharing. With its unveiling of the newest version of Forefront, the company has added two more.

Among the features of this 12th version is an Structured Query Language database structure, the ability to track meeting minutes and a Web portal that gives a construction company’s employees and customers access to data and functions in Forefront from any computer with an Internet connection.

While the SQL structure gives you fast processing and data retrieval, the meeting minutes enhancement offers the ability to track meeting attendees, task assignments, proposed change orders and other items resulting from weekly or monthly meetings. The Web portal also allows you to maintain your company website.

According to Dexter + Chaney, companies that use Forefront report improved profitability and have grown more than 300 percent without adding accounting staff. Companies Dexter + Chaney sells Forefront to vary in size from just over a few million dollars in annual revenue to more than $1 billion in volume. The cost of the software is related to the size of the organization that uses it.

Foundation for Windows
This Windows-based construction accounting software from Foundation Software is designed to improve a contractor’s financial management along with job costing practices.

It uses a Microsoft SQL server and can keep track of multiple state and local payrolls, job overhead allocation, billing and government tax reports. Foundation also gives the user the ability to attach an unlimited number of images and documents to any maintenance record and stay informed through extensive tracking of submittals, transmittals, requests for proposals, information requests, punch lists and other project documentation.

A new feature, the CPA Audit/Review Module, helps contractors gather the information a CPA needs, while helping the CPA extract information from the computerized system. When this new module is launched, a reports screen becomes visible, allowing you to select a report showing the information the way most CPAs want to see it. The console also allows the CPA to make corrections to the data or re-class items when necessary.

Qqest Asset Management services
ManagerPlus from Qqest Asset Management services handles an unlimited number of preventive maintenance schedules for vehicles, tools and heavy equipment.

ManagerPlus monitors performance based on fuel and/or oil consumption and tracks maintenance by odometer, hours, days, calendar dates, days of the week, tire depth or fuel/oil consumption. With the software you can also monitor blades, tires, engines, hydraulics or any other subsystem and schedule routine maintenance for each.

Not content with just getting help with maintenance? Warranty tracking, parts inventory, purchase orders and a tool tracker feature, which lets you know which employees have what tools assigned to them, are also included.

Earthmoving software
Even if you already have a program that helps you run your company, earthmoving software can help you calculate cuts and fills. Here are two products that promise to do that and more.

Quest Earthwork
Quest Earthwork, a cut-and-fill measuring software that offers both a grid view and 3D view while working with all brands of laser and GPS systems, will be offered in a new version this year.

Version 6.6.0 will support importing data from and exporting data to 2004, 2005 and 2006 versions of AutoCAD. You’ll be able to import a wider selection of computer-aided-design objects than in previous releases, while the process of importing from AutoCAD has been simplified. Earthwork 6.6.0 also includes several non-CAD-related enhancements, including automatically saving and backing up job files to better protect projects from unexpected hardware failures, and the ability to delete out-of-range elevations.

Some features Earthwork currently offers are:

Visual audit trail for future reference or use in the field

Imperial or metric unit conversion

The ability to check cut-and-fill totals for different grid sections

Automatic site balancing

Detailed quantity totals based on your takeoff

Multiple sheet capability for larger projects

InSite Software
InSite SiteWork calculates cuts and fills, stripping, strata quantities, subgrade materials, topsoil re-spread, areas, lengths, trench excavation and backfill from digitizer input or CAD import.

Engineered to take full advantage of the 32-bit Windows operating environment, SiteWork allows you to calculate topsoil stripping or removal of unsuitable material by just tracing the area and indicating the depth or strata for stripping. It also automatically lists the fill required under each subgrade, as well as any subgrade materials, and calculates water, storm and sanitary sewer extraction by strata, and backfill quantities from traced profiles or contours. You can also print 3D images, X-sections and scaled plans.

Features such as the Dynamic Site Balancer, which allows the whole site, individual design surface or freehand traced areas to be adjusted to achieve the desired site balance, and paperless CAD import are included. InSite’s customers include small to large contractors and construction managers.
--Jonathan Menard

Topcon Stakeless Grading

2009-02-18T22:19:00.000-08:00

PennDOT Prepares GPS Usage Specs

A much-watched airport access road project provides a golden opportunity to examine the technology in action.

Edited by Matthew Phair -- Constructioneer, 4/2/2007

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation is in the middle of preparing specifications for using GPS technology that includes automated precision grading with bulldozers and motor graders. One of the PennDOT team members responsible for bringing the specifications to fruition is Thaddeus R. Mikolajczyk Jr., P.L.S., and chief of surveys. Mikolajczyk has been working closely with PennDOT Project Manager Brian Steffy, P.E., who is in charge of the DuBois-Jefferson County Regional Airport Access Road, a construction project where the use of GPS technology is under scrutiny by PennDOT.

When this access road project is completed, it will link the airport to I-80, four miles to the south. I-80 is the main northern tier interstate highway running from New Jersey to California. Since I-80 is an important freight-transport route, the new access road will not only enable many of the yearly 47,000 air passengers to have easier access to the airport but it should attract businesses and light industry to establish warehouses and light manufacturing facilities here. Hoping to entice businesses here, there is an industrial park next to the airport that is now under construction and is designated a Keystone Opportunity Zone, which carries tax-free privileges for the businesses. The park also is a Foreign Trade Zone 254 enabling businesses to delay paying import taxes until the productis sold.

From both PennDOT's and the project contractor's perspective, there is yet more significance to this road project than its link between the airport, the industrial park and I-80. This is a major PennDOT construction project where some of the latest GPS technologies for grading are being evaluated and documented. The results will assist PennDOT engineers and construction project managers to draw up final specifications on using GPS technology on future construction projects requiring precision grading.

Francis J. Palo, Inc. of Clarion, Pennsylvania, is the project contractor and has been instrumental in pioneering the use of GPS technology in the state. Palo recently made a substantial financial investment to purchase GPS equipment that was fitted on two of the company's bulldozers and two motor graders. Palo also has been influential with PennDOT by introducing some of the latest GPS technology to the department for their consideration when writing the new specifications.

Michael Palo, CEO of Palo Inc., and the president of Constructors Association for Western Pennsylvania, has been a strong advocate for new technology. He said, "You must be willing to take some risks if you are to move your company forward, and I find this new GPS technology is good not only for the contractor but good for Pennsylvania."

The technology Palo is talking about is known as stakeless grading. This stakeless approach includes both rough grading and precision grading on all phases of road construction. PennDOT not only approved the use of this technology for the airport access road project, but its project manager,Brian K. Steffy, P.E., has embraced it by working very closely with the contractor in all phases of the project.

The stakeless grading method used on this project is benefiting both parties. Palo's winning bid for the project is $16.7 million. The contractor started the project in October 2005. According to Palo's project manager, Sam Dennison, the project should be completed weeks earlier than the designated July 2007 completion date. Dennison attributes the shorter completion date, in part, to the faster grading operation made possible by the GPS technology.

The new two-lane road will be 5.2 miles long; its alignment is like that of a French curve where there is a multitude of irregular curves making up an overall arc form. This alignment was deemed the most economical and practical design for constructing the road. Much of the terrain in and around the alignment consists of rolling hills and low mountains, and despite building the road on this curved alignment to avoid the hills, there are still multiple high and low areas to deal with for reaching the wanted grades.

One-million cubic yards of ground is being excavated, including overburden and intact rock (approximately 200,000 cubic yards) that is drilled and blasted to fragment sizes 36-inch minus. Cuts along the alignment are to 60 feet deep and fills go to 60 feet high. About 700,000 cubic yards of the excavated materials is used for the fills. The extra 300,000 cubic yards of materials is exported from the project site. Slopes left on either side of the cuts and made by the fills are graded 2-1 by the two bulldozers fitted with GPS systems.

Here is a rundown of the different Topcon GPS components Palo is using to perform all rough and fine grading at this project. First, there is a HiPer+ wireless, integrated GPS receiver system, which is stationed on a pole at the airport. Since the project is located in the middle of mountains, Palo bought two Topcon Radio Repeaters in case they were needed to overcome signal interferences; however, it was later found the repeaters are not necessary for this project. Dennison hypothesizes since the road is being constructed in an arc (rather than a straight line) and the HiPer+ unit at the airport is relatively close to all points along the alignment, the radio repeaters were not needed. Actually, the farthest distance from the road to the HiPer+ is less than four miles. Depending on the terrain and canopy conditions, the HiPer+ has exceptional transmitting capabilities, as was demonstrated on a recent Pennsylvania Turnpike construction project where it emitted a strong signal that was received 13 miles away.

If there is a heart to the Topcon GPS System, it is the HiPer+. Important is its dual-constellation satellite tracking. The dual-constellation (GPS plus Glonass) tracking will provide 40 percent more satellite coverage than the more conventional GPS-only tracking systems. Notable also is the center-mounted RTK UHF antenna for boosting its RTK performance and distance without compromising the strength of its GPS signals. Additionally, the integrated 40-channel dual-frequency receiver features the integrated Bluetooth technology; it also features Co-Op Tracking technology for under-canopy performance.

There are two different types of control systems mounted on the bulldozers and motor graders. The Caterpillar D8T bulldozer has the 3Di-GPS+ Indicate Control System. This system carries with it a modest price tag and is suitable for rough grade applications, especially where substantial in situ ground is to be excavated, making shallow to deep cuts. Likewise, this system lends itself well for bulk filling and backfilling activities. This GPS system does not have automated control, so the operator is completely in charge of operating the bulldozer just as he is when operating the machine without the GPS indicate control. However, guesswork associated with traditional grading and back filling and the constant need of a grade foreman is eliminated, thus reducing grading time while achieving superior grading results.

Mounted on the Caterpillar models D5N bulldozer and the 120H motor grader, and a John Deere model 770 motor grader, are Topcon 3D-GPS+ automated control systems. The D5N bulldozer also is used for rough grading, but its grading procedure is automatically controlled, and with the base station in place the grading tolerances are within 0.1 foot or less. Precise location points are achieved by triangulation. This system tracks all available satellite signals, thus assuring greater solution quality and integrity.

With dual-constellation tracking capabilities and the optional Co-op Tracking System integrated with the 3D-GPS+ Control System, satellite tracking integrity is maintained (locked) when the bulldozer or motor grader is grading near or under canopies such as trees.

Added to the 3D-GPS+ Systems installed on the two motor graders is the optional Millimeter GPS™ System for an even more precise grading-control system. It enables the motor graders to automatically perform fine grading (measurable in millimeters) not readily reachable by using traditional staking or standard GPS methods.

On PennDOT projects, stakes are specified to be installed at 25-foot to 50-foot intervals along the complete length of a road alignment. This project called for 25-foot intervals for sub-grade and 50-foot intervals for the cuts and fills. Essentially, 10 to 20 stakes were avoided per 500 feet and all the survey work that goes with it.

Dennison says he is erring on the conservative side by making 500-foot intervals; there are sections along the alignment where the two PZL-1 transmitters could be spaced up to 900 feet apart yet get outstanding precision-grading results.

Palo constantly verifies all grading activities by monitoring the grades at random points with Topcon Pocket-3D FC-100 field controllers running their Pocket 3D software in concert with PZS-1 mounted on the range poles. Troy Wolfgang, survey technician, is in charge of this activity and Dale Zimmerman supervises it. Palo has four FC-100 units (includes field controller software).

The Rest of the Story

Keith Klingensmith, P.E., technical representative for Topcon's local Master Distributor, Productivity Products & Services, Inc., (PPS) of Saxonburg, Pennsylvania, was very instrumental from the onset in not only assisting the contractor on what Topcon equipment to select, but he also trained the company's personnel in how to use the equipment.

Klingensmith unwittingly gives a good testimony about the value he sees in Topcon GPS Systems by an important action he took. Upon learning the details about the system, he became so impressed with this futuristic technology made available for today's projects that he made a career change.

Klingensmith was a construction project engineer with PennDOT in District 12 for 15 years and was happy with his professional status at the department. About 2-1/2 years ago he accepted an invitation to witness a Topcon GPS Systems demonstration. A contractor who was building a box culvert on one of Klingensmith's projects was interested in learning about the system and invited Klingensmith to accompany him to the demonstration.

The demonstration was made by PPS. "They demo'ed the Topcon rover pole, and I was so impressed with its capabilities that I had an in-depth talk after the demonstration with the president of the company, David Reitmeyer. After our conversation, he suggested I should consider joining the company as a technical rep. I went home and talked it over with my wife; two weeks later I joined the company," said Klingensmith.

Seeing the Future: Stakeless?! by Leslie Paynor

2009-02-18T20:27:00.000-08:00

(This is a great article on the perceived future of stakeless grading. I know from firsthand experience that stakeless grading is quickly becoming a reality. Left A. Fuzz )

As GPS machine control makes its way onto more surveying and construction sites, the question begs to be asked: who will provide the data--and how?

It’s almost as if Keith Rochester, RLS, PLS, can see the future. In 1983 he was one of the first to use an innovative 3D data design package now used for machine control. In 1986 he saw that the advancement of positioning technology, specifically the Global Positioning System (GPS) and robotic surveying technology, would rapidly change the face of construction and surveying, especially on larger construction staking jobs. And in 1999 he saw that 3D machine control would change it even more, potentially eliminating the need for construction staking. Rochester knew his company, Rochester & Associates (R&A) of Atlanta, Ga., would need to be part of the change--or get left behind. So he got on board: initially by investing in GPS and robotic surveying equipment, then by developing an innovative 3D data preparation service.

“I’ve always liked technology and envisioning the impact it will have,” says Rochester, founder and CEO of R&A. “I guess it’s just in my blood.”

That foresight has paid off. From its start as a one-man, home-based surveying shop in 1966, R&A has grown to be a multi-faceted civil engineering consulting firm with 190 employees and four offices in Georgia and one in the country of Turkey. Today, an increasing part of R&A’s business includes 3D data preparation, site calibration and training in support of blade and machine control technology.

“We saw a potential impact on our survey business from the application of automated technology,” says Darrell Rochester, PE, president of R&A and Keith’s son. “We quickly realized our primary product is the creation of buildable sets of electronic plans for our clients. We’re fully behind using 3D data because we think 3D just makes sense.”

Three-dimensional (3D) data is making sense to an increasing number of contractors and surveyors across the nation. Construction machine control systems--which put design surfaces, grades and alignments inside the cab--are becoming the wave of the future. More and more earthmovers, construction firms and DOTs today are depending on the advanced efficiencies, time savings and greater profits machine control can provide. And machine control depends on accurate 3D modeling to guide the blades, buckets, wheels and hoes to the precise position required. To see that, just look at some of the innovative firms using machine control today.

On the Construction Side

A road grader equipped with GPS machine control technology completes sub-grade prep work.

McAninch Corporation of Des Moines, Iowa, a Midwest earthmoving and underground utilities company, started using GPS in 1999 to verify topographical maps before bidding on projects. Topos they received could be off by as much as 5 ft in areas--and that could translate into lost time and money.

The company purchased an RTK GPS system, which paid for itself on just two jobs by finding topo errors. Founder and CEO Dwayne McAninch was impressed.

So when he heard GPS was available for machine control on heavy equipment, McAninch jumped on board in a big way. The first firm in the nation to deploy Trimble (Sunnyvale, Calif.) SiteVision GPS equipment on its scrapers, excavators and supervisor trucks, McAninch works closely with both Caterpillar of Peoria, Ill., the world’s largest manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines and industrial gas turbines, and Trimble on GPS machine control development. The company today boasts 35 SiteVision systems deployed on more than 50 scrapers, 58 dozers and 40 backhoes; they also have GPS on 15 supervisor trucks.

“GPS is revolutionizing the earthmoving industry,” McAninch says. “McAninch Corporation possesses a passion for innovation and is researching new and exciting ways to apply GPS technologies to the industry.”

For McAninch the choice to use GPS technology was simple: it provided his company with a fair competitive advantage. GPS machine control allows the company’s employees to be more productive and efficient from start to finish, which makes them more profitable. So much so, that the firm is planning to continue to upgrade its fleet of almost 400 pieces of equipment with GPS on-board guidance systems.

“Machine control helps insulate us and the consulting engineer from mistakes because we can identify any problems before we get onto the jobsite,” says Patrick Ruelle, director of business development at McAninch. “Machine control helps everyone look better in the client’s eyes. There are no surprises in a job; we know exactly how much earth we’re moving thanks to the technology.”

After the owner’s consulting engineer or surveyor sets survey control or 3D bench marks for the project, McAninch is often able to start immediately and get the job done with minimal construction staking; using GPS for site calibration, precision grading and checking, they’ve eliminated the need to wait on stakes and related scheduling issues.

“We integrated these GPS tools into our firm to cope with the workload and deal with the scheduling,” Ruelle says. “We can’t wait for site staking, so we’re intentionally taking risks. We don’t represent ourselves as expert surveyors or engineers--if we did it wrong, put the road in the wrong place by doing this, we’d be in trouble. But we take risks because, with this technology, mistakes such as that are difficult to make.

“It’s the difference between building houses with hand tools and power tools,” he says. “Today the question is how much more productive and efficient are you by using the tools you have?”

Small Company: Big Profits

No stakes are necessary to put the dirt on grade in the fill area and apply the appropriate compaction with this compactor outfitted with a GPS grade control system.

Small construction firms are also gaining from machine control. Rick Pinney Jr., ME, is president of LRS Excavating Corporation of Lansing, N.Y., a small contractor specializing in athletic field site development for school districts. In early 2000, LRS was awarded a $2 million school project that included eight athletic fields and a large detention pond. He purchased a SiteVision GPS system and a Trimble GPS Total Station 4700 system for use on his John Deere 750C, Cat D-8K and Case 550G dozers. After just six months on the project, Pinney realized a 4.5 percent profit increase, which easily paid for both systems.

A mechanical engineer, Pinney does much of the work himself. After the first year, Pinney also purchased Trimble’s Terramodel software for 3D data modeling and now does everything from data management and preparation to site calibration, stakeout and earthmoving.

“These tools are user-friendly; that’s why we can do it all,” he says. “It’s made us much more profitable and we can now bid bigger projects than in the past.”

What’s a Surveyor to Do?

Photo credit: Brad Kaye

So is there room in the 3D construction world for surveying, or is it making surveying for construction obsolete?

There is room--and demand--for surveyors in the 3D construction world, say contractors and progressive surveyors across the nation. From large surveying and civil engineering firms to small one-person survey shops, surveyors are finding a new and challenging world opening up to them--a world in which they become data managers, instrumental on project teams from start to finish, from construction staking to as-builts. Because machine control uses three dimensions--vertical, horizontal and elevation for precise location and grade--data must be available in 3D. And data must be accurate. Contractors often don’t want to carry the extra liability of site calibration, preparing data or managing data files and will look to others to do these tasks. Years ago, McAninch could find no one in their area with that capability, so they took it in-house. McAninch GPS division manager Tim Tometich, who has a construction engineering background, initially did all file and data prep; as the company expanded its use of GPS, however, it outsourced some of its file and data prep. And Pinney says either he or someone at his company will probably become licensed in the future. All of this opens new doors for progressive civil engineers and surveyors to be part of the 3D construction machine control world. Here’s how a few individuals and firms are doing the 3D data and walking through that open door today.

Doing the Data

David Reynolds, PS, survey manager for HLS Surveyors and Engineers in Vandalia, Ohio, had used GPS for surveying since 1999. After watching contractors increasingly invest in machine control equipment, Reynolds realized he needed the tools to prepare data for the new equipment if he wanted to be part of it. He did, and trained on data preparation services using Terramodel. Since then, Reynolds and HLS have provided 3D data prep for contractors in the greater Ohio area as well as in other areas in the Midwest.

Data prep clients come to HLS at all levels: Reynolds works on projects that provide only paper plan sets and require everything from reading the plans to converting the data into 3D models. He also gets projects that include digital data from the start, enabling faster completion.

To create 3D models of the build site, Reynolds uses several Computer-Aided Design (CAD) packages, including Autodesk (San Rafael, Calif.) Land Development Desktop, Eagle Point (Dubuque, Iowa) Civil Series and Trimble Terramodel. The 3D project files are then loaded into the office software to convert the files into machine-ready format. They can then be easily loaded into the machine control equipment using a flash memory card or PCMCIA card.

The goal of data prep is to do everything possible in the office to make it easy for the equipment operators. All the tools and information machine operators need to build a site is inside the cab; they simply follow the model created on the system’s in-cab computer screen. Gone are the days of hand signals and guess work. The seamless digital path from office to field makes for greater efficiency in the field--and fewer mistakes.

“Often the people who do quality control inspection are amazed at the ability of the machine control system to produce grades for the operator,” Reynolds says. “And they’re amazed at the machine’s ability to grade a site so close to the design without all the random grade stakes.”

But Reynolds believes the construction world won’t be completely stakeless. “A lot of staking can be eliminated using machine control,” he says, “but I don’t see machine control replacing 100 percent of staking. It’s more an additional tool to improve the efficiency and productivity of contractors.”

Construction and Surveying

Other surveyors are working on the construction side. Sandor Vegh, PS, has been surveying for more than 20 years. Today, he heads the GPS machine control division for Trucco Companies Inc., an Ohio construction firm in the city of Powell. Prior to hiring Vegh specifically to guide them into the machine control world 2 1⁄2 years ago, Trucco used surveyors strictly as project subcontractors. Today, the company employs three full-time surveyors: Vegh and two one-person crews. They’ve also hired an assistant for the surveyors as well as a full-time person to perform data prep.

Vegh hadn’t used GPS before getting into GPS machine control at another firm. But he was an immediate believer. A ‘technogeek,’ Vegh never questioned machine control’s ability to work after reading about the technology and seeing a demonstration on it.

Nor does he question the need for surveyors in the machine control world.

“By eliminating many unnecessary stakeout procedures, machine control puts surveyors in more of a quality control position,” Vegh says. “Surveyors are constantly needed to serve the GPS and robotic machine control systems as well as to set site control, evaluate control points, do site calibration or set additional control points for checking and further stakeout. To me, the surveyor now has time to do the more important things such as stakeout and quality control.”

Not all firms will follow the Ohio construction company’s lead, but it’s working for Trucco. After starting with one Trimble BladePro 3D system in 2001, Trucco now has 11 GPS systems for both dozers and compactors, as well as three GPS total stations and a robotic total station for the survey crews and foremen. And the company is planning to outfit almost all its equipment with GPS machine control.

“GPS machine control improves our efficiency and accuracy,” says Mark Trucco, CEO of Trucco Companies. “Profitability comes from how efficient and productive we are, so GPS machine control definitely impacts our bottom line.”

“I wouldn’t want to run my business without machine control,” he adds. “We like what it does for us.”

And for that, he has a surveyor to thank.

From Skeptic to Fan

Not all users are such instant believers. Some are skeptical--at least initially. One such skeptic was John Stone, PLS, GPS coordinator for River View Construction, an earthmoving company in Wausau, Wis. Before the firm's owners purchased their first machine control system, Stone did everything in his power to test the accuracy of the SiteVision grades. He set stakes to double-check the machine; he even used a conventional level to test it.

“I finally convinced myself it was doing such a good job I didn’t have to set stakes anymore,” he says.

He’s now an ardent user; River View today has five SiteVision systems on Komatsu (Komatsu North America, Vernon Hills, Ill.) dozers and another one that River View switches between its Caterpillar motor grader and a Sheep’s foot, or compactor.

“We’ve almost doubled the amount of jobs we can do in a year,” Stone says. “It cut down on our man-hours, work gets done quicker and we don’t have to set as many stakes.”

But while Stone plans all new jobs, does site calibration and grade checking, and oversees all the machine control equipment, he goes elsewhere for data prep--to another surveyor who has exchanged his rover for a mouse.

3D Data Prep and Surveying

For more than 15 years, Wisconsin’s David Renaud, RLS, ‘paid his dues,’ as he puts it, in good weather and bad, doing everything from boundary surveys to road topos. Today, Renaud is manager of the survey division of REI in Wausau, Wis., a civil and environmental engineering firm with three full-time survey crews. He now spends most of his time in the office.

Initially, Renaud did mainly map certification and survey computations. Since last year, however, he’s increasingly doing 3D data modeling for the firm’s growing list of clients using GPS machine control.

“I really enjoy it; it’s challenging to create the digital model accurately and correctly,” he says. “It may not be my design but it’s my work that makes this thing buildable.”

As construction 3D machine control use increases, more and more project developers and state agencies are including 3D data and at times machine control capabilities in their project specs, Renaud says. So he’s certain the demand for 3D modeling will expand.

“Machine control is definitely the wave of the future,” Renaud says. “This is the way the industry is going; whether it’s a surveyor or a CAD operator who will create these models, they will need to be created.”

It’s then up to the individual or firm to determine who that will be. The question really becomes: Will it be you?

Sidebar: Communicating Between Surveyors and Contractors

Surveyors who are technically proficient but lack good communication skills may have higher incidents of disputes and claims than surveyors who are less technically proficient but who cultivate professional relationships with their clients. Some clients are often simply unaware of the effort that the surveyor expends on their behalf.

Effective communication can be the answer to quickly resolving issues between surveyors and contractors. It is important in a surveyor-contractor relationship to identify who will be the appropriate decision makers. Often when a contractor retains a surveyor for a project, an outside party (such as the property owner), will attempt to direct the activities of the surveyor. This can create potential risks for the surveyor. Taking direction from another entity may put the surveyor in conflict with the surveyor’s obligations to the contractor and expose the surveyor to potential claims.

Another issue that often arises in the surveyor-contractor relationship is communicating the scope of services. The services required by a contractor are very different from the services required by a property owner. The surveyors and contractors involved in a project should effectively communicate and come to agreement on the scope of services. Statistics from CNA/Schinnerer’s (Chevy Chase, Md.) professional liability program indicate that the majority of claims against surveyors come from clients (60 percent), and a frequent source of those claims is unmet expectations. Complete communication between contractors and surveyors regarding the scope of services can help to avoid insurance claims.

The most common area that requires effective communication between the surveyor and contractor is the contract for professional services. Sometimes the contractor will ask the surveyor to sign an agreement that is the same agreement the contractor uses with trade subcontractors. Since these agreements have been drafted for construction activities, they are not appropriate for surveyor services. The contractor may ask the surveyor to sign such an agreement because the contractor fails to realize the distinction between the services of the surveyor and a trade subcontractor. Both the surveyor and the contractor should understand the particularities of each other's professional services and needs. It should also be understood that, under the law, surveyors are held to a professional standard of care while trade subcontractors must provide more stringent warranties and guarantees, which are excluded from most professional liability policies.

Each meeting or conversation between a surveyor and a contractor is a chance to hear the client’s concerns and to adjust the firm’s focus or performance to meet the client’s expectations and the goals for the project. Each meeting with the client is another opportunity for the surveyor and contractor to understand the scope of services, thus making the relationship successful.

Statements concerning legal matters are general observations and may not be relied upon as legal advice. All such matters should be reviewed with a qualified advisor.

With the help of Rochester & Associates' site calibration services, Shepherd Construction Co. of Atlanta, Georgia, grades sub-base with 3D GPS technology under a parking deck with close clearances. R&A strategically placed reflectors on the columns and underside of the deck beams.

Leslie Paynor
Leslie Paynor is a writer specializing in construction topics.

Civil 3D video

2009-02-16T19:00:00.000-08:00

Here is a link to a Civil 3D video showing how to create a road corridor. Autocad is, in my opinion, a bit more long winded than the Trimble Terramodel application, but an extremely effective piece of software non the less.

Here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4CCQAQ_EMg

Terramodel Cogo Video

2009-02-16T18:47:00.000-08:00

I use Terramodel exclusively for data prep. It is very powerful and user friendly. Miles and miles of highway can be generated in a very short time. I highly recommend it.

Here is a link to a video showcasing the cogo commands in Terramodel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxCpJAkgYoA

Trimble Gps Technology

2009-02-16T18:32:00.000-08:00

Very interesting video, very similar to my own personal experiences with the Trimble GCS900 systems. Excellent equipment and excellent results. I have personally overseen several multi-mile State Highway projects with a very similar setup.

Set in Australia, here is the video link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRzLSCVHD4I

Topcon Grade Control

2009-02-16T16:01:00.000-08:00

I have used Trimble products for Grade control and have had excellent success with both the GPS systems and the robotic total systems. This video link is for Topcon's offering to the grade control market. It looks very impressive at first blush. As I get a little deeper into it, I will make a trimble vs topcon comparison based on my own personal experiences. The video link is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8S5AAyF9LCE

stock pile volumes

2009-02-16T15:13:00.001-08:00

I have been a highway surveyor for 23 years and in that 23 years, I have had to shoot a lot of stockpiles for inventory volumes and so forth. Here is a Youtube video that outlines a Topcon Total Station that does exactly that and much more.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9ZInxCJX30

Bridge Construction with Topcon Robotic Total Station

2009-02-16T08:29:00.000-08:00

As a Highway Surveyor, I have staked my share of bridges and this project is very impressive to say the least. The Surveyor makes it look easy with the Topcon Robotic total station on I-580 outside Reno, Nevada.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESGlQzc0BMY

Topcon 9000A

2009-02-16T08:23:00.001-08:00

Over the past 23 years, I have used Topcon Equipment almost exclusively. Below is a link to a YouTube video on the Topcon 9000A Robotic Total Station. I am very impressed with this instrument and plan to demo one very shortly.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AMxjYfqXCs

2009-02-14T07:01:00.000-08:00

Link to some friends of mine at Precision Products, LLC.
Chip, Matthew and J.D. in the Lexington, and Louisville area, are a wealth of information.

http://www.yourprecision.com/locations.html

2/14 trimble gps grade control - Google Blog Search

2009-02-14T06:43:00.001-08:00

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trimble gps grade control - Google Blog Search

Edimax Wireless Broadband Router Reviews - BR-6324nL - Features of ...
February 12, 2009 at 3:58 am

Last but not the least the new wireless broadband router is built-in with a control button, which boats of shifting between wireless connections to a wired connection for making access to Internet. ... Priced at $229.99, the Navigon 2200T is an inexpensive GPS which offers plenty of advanced features which include free real-time traffic updates for life Related PostsAsus rolls out VK266H LCD Monitor in IndiaIndia to face cut off of 25 million mobile phones ...

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The Technology Benchmark - What’s holding surveyors back?

2009-02-13T20:32:00.001-08:00

In September I was honored to speak at the California Land Surveyors Association (CLSA) Los Angeles chapter meeting and dinner on the topic of 3D data preparation and 3D machine control as it relates to surveyors.

In my June column, “Requiring Licensure for Digital Stakeout,” I wrote about California’s position that, among other things, data preparation for the purposes of use in 3D GPS equipment is within the field of engineering and surveying. This statement means that the preparation of the GPS bound data must be under the responsible charge of a licensed engineer or surveyor.

The discussion centered on several factors, starting with the fact that 3D GPS machine control is here now and is here to stay. Surveyors are the natural professionals to prepare the data for the tasks this equipment will perform, and the business model of many engineering and surveying firms needs to change to accommodate this line of work. Some surveyors are looking for ways to get into this service while others are still hesitant to jump in.

When Does Interpreting Become Re-Engineering?

A main issue the CLSA surveyors raised is the overriding question, “When do you cross the line from preparing ‘digital stakeout’ to that of ‘re-engineering the site?”’ Of course, there is no easy answer to this; we all may define what we are doing in different ways. For instance, adding vertices to existing 3D breaklines to densify the model may be construed as adding data to the engineer’s model, and as such, constitutes a re-engineering task. Conversely, another person might consider this act as simply an interpretation of existing data that has nothing to do with a re-engineering task. It could be considered as making the data “more palatable” for the task at hand.

I will offer the following response, though: “You cross the line from preparing digital stakeout data to re-engineering when you change the design away from what the engineer intended.” I submitted to the audience that surveyors are routinely making these types of decisions every day when they perform traditional stakeout. Here are some of my thoughts in response to questions raised by CLSA members:

What if the profile data and the cross sectional data don’t agree? Submit an RFI to the engineering firm with copies to the owner. Document the response. Don’t be surprised when you are instructed to follow one component of the data and to ignore another. We have often been told to follow cross section sheet data over any conflicts with the profile, but this could vary per job.

What if the surface data (contours) doesn’t agree with the annotated slopes, grades or spot shots on the plans? What if the data is simply lacking or insufficient such as in the case where too few contours are shown to depict the surface to the blade of a bulldozer? What if the design is satisfactory, but the contractor recognizes that maintenance would be difficult to impossible? What if the plans indicate features that need to be built, but the surface data and related annotations are insufficient or missing? For all of these situations, I suggest submitting an RFI to the engineering firm with copies to the owner. Begin to assess your interpretation of the information so as to make construction more effective. Be prepared to propose your suggestions in lieu of an unsatisfactory or insufficient response. Document the response.

What if the surface provided is augmented by details such that the accumulation of the data provides a complete concept; however, there is no physical replication of this information such as in a TIN file or other usable form? Does assembling this data into a 3D surface amount to engineering? I wouldn’t think so as long as no data interpretations are rendered. The person preparing the data model is simply compiling available data, as presented and submitted, into a monolithic and contiguous form. It wouldn’t hurt at all, though, to have a PE or LS check it over and agree to its accuracy and intended use. Of course, this would be performed for a fee that attributes accountability to the professional.

What if the surface is available but subsurfaces are required? Does the preparation of this data constitute engineering? Does preparing adjunct data required for construction such as utility trenching constitute engineering? For these items, as long as no design changes are instilled into the final product, I think that this is akin to computing information for stakeout with traditional stakes. If the surface data is easily identifiable and the cross sectional data is clear, it should not be too difficult to develop a surface representing exactly what is approved. However, if your state board’s position states that all data geared for GPS usage must be handled by a licensee, then perhaps it does constitute something a professional will need to be accountable for.

Raising More Questions

This 3D model illustrates the level of accuracy needed to perform and deliver a satisfactory work product to contractors using machine control.

The following questions were also raised during our discussion and indicate the curiosities that surround this new task of 3D modeling for machine control. Many of these comments were directed at non-DOT projects since it was noted that many DOTs require that roadways be engineered in 3D with an associated model as a deliverable.

What do the modern software solutions that work in 3D bring to the table for designers and surveyors? Today’s software provides designers with a strong toolkit for developing projects in 3D. But, it should be noted that the major civil/survey software manufacturers have had these tools for almost 15 years, and one wonders why designers aren’t already well along the path to building 3D models. I was told by one design firm recently that they weren’t going to promote or train staff in working in 3D until the government began requiring 3D for submissions. So it will likely be up to the surveyors to prepare their data using this same 3D software in a manner similar to what they have always done, except now they aren’t creating points for stakeout but rather preparing entire surfaces. Hopefully the advent of strong 3D software will embarrass designers into working in 3D if not for data prep purposes, at least as an aid in value engineering, QA/QC and presentations for which they are responsible.

How do you handle the poor constructability conditions in the plans we are to use for construction? Deflect as much responsibility back onto the design firm as is applicable. The engineer should be controlling all design intentions, and the contractor or surveyor should document all of the engineer’s comments in this regard.

What about the increased liability associated with providing 3D model data to a contractor? This is decided on a state-by-state basis. Ensure that you are up-to-date with all of the position statements your state has enacted.

What is the impact of additional liability on the surveyor when he/she creates 3D modeling data and provides it to the contractor for construction? This is why we hold professional licenses. As I was once told, that license constitutes “our right to be sued.” Therefore, we shall be liable for our work. So we need to have all of the skills and education possible when we take on this task. Our contracts need to be vetted by a legal professional to cover us and protect us when appropriate.

Does the 3D model constitute intellectual property? In my opinion, it does. As such, it should be contracted to what we deem fair use to be. For example, we may simply supply the data for “use only” and strictly prohibit any changes to that data. This may require the supplier of the data to perform all change orders, which will have ramifications such as response times, turnaround times, etc. Another consideration is whether we will allow a single change under the requirement that the contractor will take liability for the resulting model. All of this should lead us to an attorney for review of our documents.

How accurate does the model have to be? That depends on your agreement with the client. I have personally witnessed accuracy requirements in the 3/8" range. It will often have to match the inspection requirements for the project. That is why I usually refer to these projects being done to “millimeter-level” accuracies. Much of the 3D machine control equipment these days can build very accurate surfaces based on our models and are only off by small amounts (which can be corrected with proper maintenance). Errors may occur due to blade wear, calibration errors and other items, but these are usually quite small and avoidable. The idea here is that only rarely can contour data be used for these high quality models--although rough grading can sometimes use contours effectively.

Is anyone aware of how many firms are currently building models in 3D? This question was raised by an audience member and the collective response was that maybe one firm in the region was actively working in 3D as a normal course of business. When you consider that the tools have been around for more than 15 years, having only one firm in this category shows how slow to change many design firms are. This is why contractors and construction surveyors are taking the bull by the horns and learning to prepare 3D models--they can’t get them from the design firms. And it doesn’t look like they will be able to obtain them for the foreseeable future, either. So this is the perfect opportunity for surveyors to step up and take over this line of work for themselves.

Why don’t engineers work in 3D? There are several reasons for this. Their business models are not set up to prepare construction plans; they are essentially preparing review and approval plans. Contracts, staffing, training, and use of software and other resources are all tuned for this result. Constructability and review of same is a different goal. Until owners begin requiring design firms to provide 3D data, designers will continue to offer the status quo of 2D data. They don’t realize the incentives of preparing this data yet.

What is involved in the data prep that seems to be causing concern for people? The concept that seems to be throwing most firms and staff is what I will attempt to sum up as: “Contours are output not input.” Designers often sketch in contours to reflect the surface conditions and CAD technicians digitize them in, often with elevations. These contours only reflect maybe a 2-foot interval with little to no information as to what is happening between the contours. Many audience members pointed out that contours won’t show how a sideslope actually hits the existing ground; it only shows where the contour actually resides. Contractors want to know everything possible about that connection of proposed to existing. This is easily accomplished by using breaklines combined with spot shots such that the breaklines contain the actual intended slopes, grades and elevations to properly define the surface. This requires a different mentality than that for drawing contours and it requires some skill in using the 3D tools within their respective software applications.

Can you take contours and spot shots provided by the engineer and move them into the field? Yes, but they often do not have the accuracies needed for top-of-the-line machine control equipment. Hence the potential of delivering an insufficient work product. For instance, contours created to an interval of 2' do not provide enough accuracy for a site that will be inspected to accuracies of ranges from 3/8" to 0.2'.

Have the methods for inspections changed as a result of the advent of 3D machine control? Yes, in some cases they have changed. Extra attention to quality may occur during inspection on the first few projects that use machine control. In one case cited, a DOT purchased a total station and used its capabilities to provide an as-built of a roadway since no stringline was used.

Discussion Takeaways

These are real questions from real people voiced during a recent forum on the topic of machine control. The lesson that came from this particular gathering was that surveyors should be the clear providers of this service of preparing 3D models. However, they need to rewrite their contracts, update their skill sets in building models and consider their rates for taking on the liabilities associated with these deliverables.

Harry O. Ward, PE
hward@carlsonsw.com
Harry O. Ward, PE is vice president of Carlson Software, a leading provider of civil engineering and surveying software where he directs the Civil Engineering division and Carlson College. He has authored four college textbooks, has been a member of the engineering faculty at George Mason University since 1997 and is a contributing editor for POB and Site Prep magazines. He can be reached at hward@gmu.edu or hward@carlsonsw.com.

A Model Entrepreneur

2009-02-13T20:30:00.001-08:00

Experience and perseverance propel professional into data modeling world.

Clients appreciate Glankler’s well-rounded construction background and his understanding of strict project schedules, which keeps every player on track.

Thad Glankler may sound laid back with his Southern drawl, but those who work with him know better. Many clients and colleagues, he admits, call him “anal.” But this meticulous characteristic is precisely what Glankler needs in his line of work: data modeling.

After almost 20 years of working for others, Glankler branched out on his own last year to serve clients as a consultant rather than an employee, which has allowed him to provide services for any project scope using a compendium of construction technology products. And as a licensed professional engineer experienced in field surveying, CAD and machine control, Glankler Data Services, LLP, of Lake Wylie, S.C., is well-positioned for success in this small but highly specialized market.

“What helps in modeling is to know different CAD files and programs and how the layers are named and whether they’re designed for checking contours,” Glankler says. “Are they splined? Do they have too many vertices? Are lines connected or curve lines joined together? Stuff like that can cause problems in the models.”

He says the student peers he had in engineering school told him not to learn CAD. “They’ll think you’re a CAD drafter,” Glankler remembers them warning. “I’d always tell them, ‘I’m not learning to draft; I’m learning to design,’” he says.

This perspective and knowledge of CAD as a 3D design tool has proven to be beneficial for Glankler. “It made my job easier if I could do profiles and design my storm and sewer--if I put it all in there rather than handing it to a CAD tech that would mess it up every time and who would have to do it over again.”

Glankler’s engineering background also helps him to read plans and know what an engineer intended. “I can look at a set of plans, and I know exactly what is going on,” he says. “Sometimes you look and think, ‘Where is this information for the storm? It’s not on the sheet. Oh, it’s probably here or here.’ Or you’ll have everything in there [but] you just need to clean it up. You ask yourself, ‘What do I need to keep?’ Well, what do you need to build the model? Anything to get your elevations, locations to build it.”

This experience and common-sense approach have propelled Glankler to where he is today. And his zeal for self-teaching keeps him on top of industry offerings.

Glankler 101

Using only the site plan dimensions and no CAD file, Glankler created this model of Great Wolf Lodge for Henderson Inc. by reconstructing the paper plans.

“You can learn the software, but that’s not knowing how to build a DTM,” Glankler says. “Learning how to design wasn’t something that any company I was in taught me. It was me bringing it [a design program] home and playing with it or at the office trying to find a quicker way or better way to do something.”

Sometimes, finding that quicker, better way requires the willingness to try something new. “I’ve heard people say, ‘I’ve never been in that menu before. What happens?’ and I say, ‘I don’t know. Push it, and see what happens. If you don’t like it, there’s a big Undo button,” he says. “And some say, ‘Well, that isn’t what that was intended for.’ And I say, ‘So what? It works just fine.’”

But knowing where the errors are before a user even gets started is what can make or break the value of a model. Glankler says he can find where contours don’t match the road profile. For example, when a detail shows that a road is at a 2-percent slope rather than an intended 3-percent slope, Glankler spots it. His keen eye and common sense lead him to stop, pick up the phone and find out which one to go with.

While this keen eye and natural sense guide him, contractors save money. “Sometimes three contours will come in one side of a building and only two will come out the other side, and there’s a foot in there somewhere,” he explains. “In the modeling process, I will find that. Surveyors are just pulling elevations off the contours and might not necessarily pick [the error] up until they’re out there digging--and at that point it’s too late. The contractor’s losing money. If I can find those in the building process, I’m contouring it at a tenth of a foot and highlighting where the low points are so I make sure there is a catch basin or something that it’s going to. Before they get out there and start moving heavy dirt, I can show them areas that aren’t going to work.”

Glankler client Jordan Anglin, a project engineer for general contractor Henderson Inc. of Williamsburg, Va., agrees. “We’ll have a model, like a giant condo complex, and he’ll call me and tell me, ‘You might want to call your engineer. Unit Twenty-One is backgraded, and they’re going to hold water in the garage,’” he says. “And that’s before we ever step foot on the job. That saves the owners money, the engineers, everyone.”

The Missing Link

Glankler challenges the myth that GPS is not very accurate by demonstrating that the accuracy lies in the models used.

Anglin also agrees that it’s Glankler’s well-rounded experience that sets him apart from other modelers. It has, in fact, contributed to Glankler’s knack for finding intricate yet important solutions for clients, like making usable background linework files standard with machine control and survey stakeout models--an area Glankler says is a missing link for many modelers.

“Over the years,” he says, “I’ve found colors that work well out in the field [in the sun]. I found a good combination for buildings and curbs, etcetera. [Some modelers] spend so much time trying to get the surface right, they think they can just load up the CAD file and they’re good. Their color pallets go up to 256 colors--and people like to use all these different colors--but what happens when it gets imported [is that] they all turn red.”

A solid, affordable working surface model, though, is even more important--especially to contractors. Many contractors, Glankler says, look for the best price for a model and later run into errors. Their models start to “jump,” and they think something is wrong with their machines. “I used to get these phone calls,” Glankler says. He first asks who built the model. Then he asks to see it. “They can give me a coordinate of right where they are so I can zoom straight to the model, view it in 3D, and say, ‘Yep, you’ve got a bump there.’”

From there, Glankler can fix the model and turn it back around usually within a day. And with about 400 models to his name, Glankler’s clients say his CAD, construction and engineering experience is appreciated.

“He understands construction. A lot of engineers don’t. They can draw it on paper, but they don’t understand everything that goes on in the field,” Anglin says, adding that Glankler’s turnaround on change orders helps to keep his company on schedule--a No. 1 priority to most general contractors.

Glankler also--perhaps unintentionally--invalidates some myths about models and positioning technology in the course of business. “One reason I came out on my own is because a lot of people say that GPS is not that accurate,” Glankler says. “From what I’ve seen, it’s not the accuracy of the GPS--it’s more the accuracy of the models everybody was using.

“These machines will cut a bad model precisely. They say it’s good for half a foot. No, it’s good for under a tenth if you build it that way and use the equipment correctly. Even with GPS, if you don’t follow the correct procedures, you’re going to do things incorrectly. It’s a tool to use.”

Teaching Clients, Evolving the Industry

This mass-grading model of a Sam’s Club parking lot completed for Thompson Contracting of Raleigh, N.C., is accurate to less than a tenth of a foot.

Since June 2007 when he began GDS, Glankler has been trying to work in 3D with surveyors.

“The way I look at it is: The more people that do it, the more reliability GPS gets, the more people who will buy GPS, the more people will need more models,” he says. “I think I can do models at a better price and quicker and more accurate than a lot of people.” This is a business prowess many in the industry lack.

But it’s been hard to explain the importance of a model. In fact, it’s Glankler’s biggest struggle in business. “Surveyors see [machine control] as their revenue getting taken away,” Glankler says. “The way I see it is that some of it might be taken away, but it’s offering you other chances to do other things--stockpile verification, earthwork quantities, progress quantities. They’re not getting hurt so much individually because not that many contractors have it yet. But once they start getting it, they’ll start losing even more.

“Contractors are starting to see where it can be useful,” he continues. “But they don’t quite understand the detail it needs to be in. They think the models that they’ve done to date will be sufficient--until they see one that’s done to the detail that they need it to be.

“A lot of them would say, ‘We can do the model.’ I’d say, ‘OK, let me take a look at it before you go out there.’ Something I can do in two or three days they say would take them two or three weeks to get it to that detail.”

That level of detail includes placing points every 2 feet, which raises the issue of file size capacities of machines. But Glankler says the file--and its size--depends on the client served. Surveyors want point names; contractors want elevations and contours.

“I can build a road for a contractor and not put a code name on anything, but a surveyor will want to know the edge of pavement, the flow line, the back of the curb,” Glankler says. “In my models, I’m putting in horizontal and vertical alignments, I’m building the templates, I’m putting in the superelevations, the widening--so the transitions are smooth.”

He then generates contours and verifies what was given to him in the files and frequently finds that the contours don’t match the profile and the template. “So when a contactor cuts into my model and a surveyor pulls it straight out from the CAD file, we’re going to miss,” he says. “And when the contractor starts to grade an area to a tenth of a foot spending time and money--and with gas prices on one of those machines--it gets expensive.”

Many of these issues, he says, would be nonexistent if contractors and surveyors used the same model--and worked in 3D.

He says surveyors can even take his models and resell them to contractor clients who can do earthwork and progress quantities with them. “The big thing for the contractor is doing the initial topo to verify the existing grade. Because if the topo was flown and they missed a big gorge or a big mound, right off the bat, the contractor has to spend more money either hauling in dirt or hauling off dirt that he didn’t quantify,” Glankler says. “And if he can prove that to begin with, he can get that money back. And all it really takes is a quick topo.”

A Calculated Growth

As an engineering student, Glankler learned and utilized CAD as a 3D design tool rather than a drafting tool.

As Glankler Data Services LLP continues to grow--and as the industry continues to evolve--Thad Glankler cautiously looks forward to the opportunity to expand and reach more customers. “I wish to grow GDS but not to the point where clients do not come first,” he says. ”GDS will be successful because it is technology-based, client-based and economy-based. Let GDS do what we do best--modeling. And you do what you do best--moving dirt and staking out sites.”

If things go as planned, the meticulous, or “anal,” engineer with the Southern drawl will do well. His clients think he will.

“[Modeling] is a relatively new field,” Anglin says, “and he’s just on the ball.”

Lieca N. Hohner
hohnerl@bnpmedia.com
Lieca N. Hohner is editor of POB.

Dirt Talk: Math, Models and Common Sense

2009-02-13T20:27:00.001-08:00

This 3D data model of a residential subdivision by Dirt Pro LLC illustrates the complexities of model building.

In the 3D data modeling business, it all comes down to the math--both the data calculations and the economic factors that affect each job. The small pool of providers who can accurately do the math involved with building 3D data models for machine-controlled equipment are the success stories of this niche business.

In recent conversations with three model providers--two veterans and one newcomer--as well as a contractor who uses 3D models, discussion about qualified modelers surrounded one common denominator: that you have the talent or you don’t.

Sure the modeling software available today does some fancy stuff to make what many call “pretty pictures” (a term most modelers hate). But if those pretty pictures aren’t accurate, disaster strikes. Marco Cecala, president of Peoria, Arizona-based TOPS, gives an example: “The office calls and wants the job built to subgrade and the guy in the field thinks it’s the finish. He dials it down another foot and a half and says, ‘Geez, I’m running into a storm pipe; I wonder why?’”

It goes to show you that common sense in modeling is duly required, and that technology can’t replace it.

Many times common sense means that contractors need to call on qualified data modelers to build the files to guide their machine-controlled equipment. Those files depend on the expertise of the modeler--the guy who can “do the math.”

Who is the right guy for the job? “The qualification [for a data modeler] is how much you understand the 3D world in your mind. It’s a God-given talent,” says Marty Schmidt, owner of Anaheim-based Earthwork Calculation Services.

Cecala claims it needs to be “A dirt guy [who] learned computers. Like me. I can visualize what that retention has to look like when I’m looking at an empty field.”

Newcomer Brett Smith who opened shop on April 1 concurs. The co-owner of Higley, Arizona-based Dirt Pro LLC says he and his partner know dirt. “We know that when you go out to a site with the civil plans for the grading portion of a job, what’s on those plans is not how they’re going to stake the project,” he explains. “You have your overbuilds, your street subgrades, all these other details that unless you have the field experience, you’re not going to know what to incorporate into the model. That’s why our experience and our willingness to sit down with clients and figure out exactly what they want [is valuable]. A lot of times we will sit down with the foreman of a project just because he knows exactly how they’re going to go out and grade that job. And that’s how we build that model--exactly how they want it.”

That knowledge has been helping data prep firms to create--and fix--3D data models used across the country for years, supplying contractors with the tools they need to prep our land and infrastructure. But what if state regulations prohibited them from doing this work?

Recent information unearthed by our columnist Harry Ward, PE, has informed us that some states are solidifying legislation to require only licensed engineers and surveyors to build data models. If more states sign on the line in a similar way, competition for the niche market of data modeling could be dynamically altered or even quashed.

In common economic terms, stripping competition among the current pool of modelers for this necessary business could potentially drive the prices of models up. Filtered through the construction process from businessman to consumer, you can imagine the effects on a multimillion-dollar project.

Phoenix-based Construction 70 Inc. Vice President Tim Priester explains potential effects on a specific scale: “Free enterprise over the long run will get the best quality and the cheapest pricing--which we pass along to the owners. It’s a trickle-down effect: if we can deliver it cheaper, that all goes into the price of a home that the consumer buys.”

What’s more, without competition, contractors nationwide could potentially suffer from inaccurate, inefficient and error-riddled files to guide their machines. It will all depend on if the modeler knows how to calculate the job and do the math.

Who Will Do the Work?

To increase efficiency, TOPS scans all paper plans using two monitors, making it easier to display CAD and paper side by side.

Engineers are one group allowed to do this task in some states. This, according to Cecala, could be a prescription for disaster. He explains his view with an equation: design + construction = destruction. “To say that only degreed engineers should be building this stuff is basically putting a draftsman at an engineering firm in the cab of a grader. What qualifies you to do dirt? There needs to be a disconnect between design and construction.”

He adds, “The esoteric side of it is this: our guys have the ability to think in three dimensions and that’s a talent you can’t teach somebody.”

Priester opposes the general idea of engineers as modelers as well. “To add an engineer who’s not even trained to [make models], let alone they have to go through the training [for work that] would not be used all the time … it’s not a good deal,” he says.

Schmidt says that “most [engineers] don’t want to be part of data building because they don’t want the liability. Many engineers in southern California are not even doing their plans in 3D.”

In those states where regulations mandate the work be done by engineers and surveyors, many contractors are wondering about the shakeup it will cause to the overall construction process. Do they have the time to do this work in addition to their regular tasks?

Today, contractors and their clients are hit with enough challenges. Jobs are expected to be done faster; state, county and city legislation impede standard job processes; global and national market drivers (high economic growth in China and migrating residents, for example) add pressure; and retaining and recruiting talent all stand in the way of the contractor’s level of success. Can the market handle the effects of another regulation that could potentially impede the site preparation process of a construction job?

Just the challenge of getting and keeping workers is stressing out many contractors. The approaching retirement of about 72 million baby boomers in the next decade will cause many business owners to look to the next generation to fill the ranks. But there are only about 55 million Gen Xers. For that reason and others, many companies will look to technology to fill some gaps. Expecting unqualified professionals to utilize that technology to build 3D models will not be a resolution, and in many cases, will be a disaster.

The facts are that projects are getting bigger, specs are more specific, and fewer people are available or qualified to build a job. Many contractors think that throwing another wrench into the process will be counterproductive.

“I really don’t think anything will happen because there is no formal training or licensing for data prep,” Schmidt says. “Who are they going to hire? Everyone is coming to us to do it anyway.”

Plain and simple, successful modelers have one thing in common: they know how to build models and do the math. There aren’t a ton of these professionals out there; that’s why it’s a niche business. Most of these firms are growing rapidly with two to five new clients each month.

And as discussion continues in the industry about who should be required to build 3D data models, many contractors and data prep bureaus across the country are standing by the fact that a small pool of “dirt guys with 3D vision” can produce the proper product.

The essence, to many, is for engineers and contractors to understand the expertise and value of 3D modelers. “We want engineers to understand that we take their information for what it is,” Smith explains. “We like to look at it as a 2D set of information. We create a 3D model of information, re-creating what they provided us into a tool for our contractors to more efficiently grade a job. We’re not trying to re-engineer their work.”

Cecala adds, “One job doesn’t mean you know it all. Every job is different and these models are not anywhere near all alike. Evaluate each job and know when to call an expert.”

In the 3D data modeling business, it all comes down to the math. Whether that math will be done by the current batch of data prep bureaus, licensed engineers and surveyors, or contractors remains to be seen. Ultimately, the market will benefit from seeking long-term solutions instead of short-term. For the sake of the industry, my hope is that public service will be at the core of the decision.

Lieca N. Hohner
hohnerl@bnpmedia.com

Lieca Hohner is Senior Editor of Site Prep magazine.

Virtual Stringline: Common Themes on 3D GPS Modeling

2009-02-13T20:24:00.000-08:00

I just completed a two-part series on one of the more interesting issues that I have come across in my career, and received quite a bit of mail about it. Many states have begun to mandate that a line of work that previously did not require a professional license--namely, 3D GPS modeling--now requires a stamp of approval from a professional engineer or licensed surveyor.

This requirement involves engineers, surveyors and contractors, and I think Site Prep identified this so early in the game that many people in our respective professions were not aware of it spreading across the nation. I have spoken with professionals who admitted that they were embarrassed to learn that their state passed this directive without them knowing about it, and these were people who strive to stay on top of things.

I received many distinct perspectives on the topic (read some reader responses here). Some respondents--mostly licensed individuals--were highly in favor of these position statements. Others--mostly unlicensed people in the data prep business who believe their livelihoods are being threatened--hold the opposing view. Each of these perspectives is completely understandable. Let me share the common themes I noticed from the many responses I received.

Reviewing Parts One and Two

In Part One of my column in the May/June issue, I discussed new laws on licensing and interviewed the executive directors of some of the affected states. But these “new laws” aren’t really new laws at all; they are actually position statements that declare that data prep now falls under the definition of civil engineering and surveying work and, as a result, a professional licensee is now required to certify that work. What it comes down to, we learned, is that the boards are really requesting someone to be accountable for this work--legally, professionally and financially.

In Part Two of my column in the July/August issue, I discussed the situation from different contractors’ viewpoints. Some contractors believe these regulations don’t really affect them in a negative way because their firms have already been hiring PEs or LSs to ensure proper quality of their data models. In fact, they now believe that they have a business right and a professional mechanism to pass this cost on to the developer/owner. The other camp believe that since they are licensed contractors in the state, by that very nature they should automatically inherit any liabilities involved in the construction. As a result, they don’t believe that another authority should have to oversee this work.

Common Themes

Many of the responses I received concerned the validity of licensure. For instance, some remarked that professionals with these required licenses are not immune from making mistakes. However, when this does occur, the state boards claim offenses are investigated judiciously and succinctly and adjudicated quickly. You can see them published in the board’s journal each month.

One extra measure of public protection that licensing affords is that not only are legal matters held accountable to someone, but ethical matters are addressed as well. Businesses that do not have professionally licensed engineers/surveyors are not held to the same level of ethics violations as PEs and LSs are. Engineers and surveyors can lose their right to practice if found guilty of ethical violations.

Many comments from both licensed and non-licensed senders involved the argument that being licensed does not mean an individual is actually competent in this area of expertise. The common theme is that the vast majority of engineers and surveyors wouldn’t know a good digital data model if they stumbled over it. Engineers took the brunt of these comments because surveyors have been preparing stakeout data forever from the engineer’s “pretty pictures” and are well accustomed to the ambiguities that engineers allow in the designs. As both an engineer and a contractor, I am split professionally. But, I do think engineers should place more thought into the constructability of their projects than they currently do.

As an example, I was recently asked to build a 3D model from a contour file provided by a design firm for a 300-home subdivision and golf course. The project was to be built using 3D GPS robotics. In the file, there were cul-de-sacs where only one contour crossed the cul-de-sac, with no surrounding spot shots to help define the surface intentions. Yet the contractor was supposed to build the road to a 3/8-inch tolerance. Also, there were contours sequentially drawn at 2-foot intervals that skipped various elevations. For instance, the contours would begin in an area at elevation 430, the next one was at 432, the next was at 438, the next was at 440 and so on. Naturally, one would inquire as to what happened to the contours at 434 and 436 and how that would then impact the rest of the site.

My team requested more information for this and other sparse data areas. We were told that no more budget existed on that project and that the data we had was all we would receive. We were told to do whatever we thought best to move forward. We did just that and the project is now built and open to the public. Although that design firm’s attitude was shameful, at the same time it was perfectly honest.

From readers I received a lot of examples of poor work in CAD files sent to contractors that impede building. Some include:

Contours that have elevation labels but no physical 3D elevations.
Layers misnamed or worse yet, numbered layers without any name.
Multiple layers all depicting proposed contours in various stages of completion yet without guidance as to which should be used.
Contours and building pads floating in 3D at elevations different than the elevation labels.
Roadway profile data that conflicts with the cross sectional drawings.
Annotation callouts for grading slopes and percentages that conflict with the contours and spot shots identified.

These examples are not aberrations since they occur frequently. Remember that the engineering or design firm is often simply agreeing to prepare a set of plans that will pass the muster of local review agencies. This information and its approval for construction sometimes differs from what is actually constructible. The main theme running through all of these examples and comments is that many engineering and design firms really have little knowledge or skill regarding what is occurring in the 3D GPS technology and how it impacts the construction industry.

At Cross-purposes

The issue that arises here is that we are at cross-purposes. The engineering or design firm obtains a contract to prepare a set of plans that will be reviewed and approved by the local jurisdiction(s) and agencies. Those plans are then bid out to contractors for construction. Once awarded, unfortunately for the owner/developer, those plans are often not completely constructible and fees must be paid to fix shortcomings.

Engineering and design firms use contour data and selected spot shots to depict what a surface should be defined by. This is suitable for reviewers to see the intentions of the surface grading, but it is usually unsuitable for construction. Contractors, and specifically 3D GPS models, require breaklines and points.

So I am going to go out on a limb here and declare in writing what I have been teaching for years: Contours are output, not input. Engineering and design firms must stop redlining contours onto sets of plans and digitizing them into the CAD system. This merely gives an idea of what the grading of the site will accomplish. It does not provide the accuracy to achieve a 3/8-inch as-built tolerance check.

When contours are used as input to the 3D model, then straight-line interpolations guide the actual model. Except for building foundations, few things are totally planar on our sites. The entities that should guide these models are breaklines, which are developed according to the elevations, slopes and grades desired by the designer. These objects are the sources for the digital terrain model, which then produces contours. These breaklines and points will develop the precise surface that 3D GPS works best with. I call these “millimeter accurate” models. If the model is accurate to the millimeter, the machine control equipment has a much better chance of constructing the site to a 3/8-inch tolerance. Hence the contours are output from the digital model; they are not the input that creates that model.

The sooner engineering and design firms learn this and embed it into their staff’s skill sets, the entire family of industry comprising civil, survey and construction will benefit. When laying out digital models for proposed sites, the source data has to be the very essence of the intent--that is, elevations, slopes and grades.

It Is Not All About the 3D Model

What I have been trying to convey over several years, several articles and many speeches is the following: It is not enough that a correct 3D model is prepared. Although this is a good start, the engineering or design firm must be compensated for the additional effort it takes to prepare a 3D model to be used for construction versus a 3D model to be used for review and approval. Further compensation is required for accepting the liability for the model. When the owner requests that a correct 3D model be provided to the contractor, there should be a fee associated with that transfer. It should incorporate payment for the precision and correctness of the model along with a payment to accept liability for anything incorrect within the model. I wouldn’t be surprised if that fee doesn’t approach a full-blown stakeout fee. Why? Because surveyors have performed similar work for years, and they take responsibility for the quality and accuracy of the original stake placement. They have also been paid for doing so.

Additionally, there should be a clause in the transfer agreement that takes into account the ownership of this intellectual property and what rights or lack thereof pass to the recipient. Consider the following:

When I produce a digital stakeout suitable for use in 3D GPS machine control equipment, am I giving the rights to simply use my work product? That is, I may only be allowing that data to be placed into the robot’s controller and used for grading directly.
Am I giving the right to modify my property? When change orders or other site-based observations result in a need to modify my data, have I provided that right? If so, there may be a fee involved. In another circumstance, if an engineering firm designs a site that gets approved and provides those drawings to the contractor, does the contractor have a right to modify those plans? Not usually since they are often copyrighted.
Am I giving limited rights to modify my property when change orders ensue? And if so, do I dictate how many revisions may occur before it reverts back to me with the idea that too much has changed and now could cause a public hazard?

If you don’t already know the answer to these questions, you should consult an attorney because professional assistance would benefit you in this company move to re-engineer your business.

Standards for the Future

As we wind up this discussion, it appears that the public will hold those who build 3D GPS models to a higher standard than in the past. This is now a growing part of the field of civil engineering and surveying. The natural provider of this data is the engineering or design firm itself, but it is clear that the design staff need to awaken to 3D design, layout and a close synchronicity between the two. In the meantime, data prep firms or the contractors themselves will need to build these models for use in the growing technology of 3D GPS machine control equipment.

State boards have reported an increase in the number of serious modeling problems on projects in the past few years. Several engineering and design firms that have professional licensed individuals do not have staff who can create an accurate 3D model. Therein lies the issue. So the developer can do one of two things, or maybe both: 1) Insist that the engineering or design firm have the skills needed to create a correct 3D model that directly is linked to the creation of contours for the site, and 2) Use a data prep company that has licensed people overseeing and taking charge of the 3D model.

Perhaps when the boards are taking these positions they should consider adding a 3D grading and 3D GPS adjunct to their licensing exams. Another idea is to add another designation to the surveying or engineering licenses, something on the order of a Class C license that would be applicable to 3D grading.

Harry O. Ward , PE
hward@carlsonsw.com
Harry O. Ward, PE, is a registered professional engineer, a state licensed contractor and certified in machine control. He is director of training for OutSource Inc. – A Division of Carlson Software, and has more than 20 years of experience using CADD/CAE in the field of civil engineering, surveying and construction. He has been a member of the engineering faculty at George Mason University since 1997.

Fusing Measuring Innovation with Global R&D

2009-02-13T20:07:00.000-08:00

By: Marc Cheves, LS
http://www.amerisurv.com

The fusion of 60 years of measuring innovation with a worldwide R&D capability has catapulted Trimble to the forefront of state-of-the-art instrumentation.

One of the most enjoyable aspects of my job as editor has been getting to know many of the talented people whose work has helped to shape our industry. This month our spotlight focuses on Roger Höglund of Trimble and Omar Soubra of Trimble, formerly MENSI. What follows are really two stories, one about Geodimeter and its history as a total station manufacturer and another about MENSI and its history as a laser scanner manufacturer. Both companies are now owned by Trimble, but because key people still work for the organization, not only has institutional knowledge survived, but a strong vision for the future as well, as witnessed by the creation of a totally new platform for Trimble's latest offerings. Like most Scandinavians, Höglund dislikes drawing attention to himself. But he has been involved in the sales of survey instrumentation for 31 years, and represents a common thread for Trimble's total stations and more. Likewise, Soubra represents the common thread for Trimble's scanner offerings.

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the invention of the Electronic Distance Measuring device, or EDM. It was our great pleasure to travel to the production facility for Trimble's scanners and total stations in Danderyd, Sweden (a suburb of Stockholm) for a visit with Höglund and Soubra and their teams and a tour of the factory. Having visited the Danderyd factory in 1998 when it was still Geodimeter, I was once again struck by the thread of corporate continuity over the past three decades. The platform for the new-generation products -- the Trimble® S6 Total Station, the Trimble VX™ Spatial Station and the Trimble GX™ 3D Scanner -- has been developed by the same R&D and product people that developed the Geodimeter products, and the company now reaps the benefits of Trimble's global R&D efforts, particularly in software.

Höglund has been called the Father of the S6 total station. And although he humbly deflects the accolade and gives the credit to the worldwide team that helped, Höglund's vision is largely responsible for its creation. The S6 simplifies things that have always been a hassle for surveyors: maintaining true verticality of the crosshairs as the telescope is inclined, and dealing with the settlement of the tripod as a setup moves through time. (I wrote an extensive analysis of the new Trimble S6 in our March/April 2005 issue.)

MENSI began in France in 1986 with two engineers. In 1992 they introduced the first long range scanner, the SOISIC tubular scanner. Their biggest customer was Électricité de France (EDF), which also provided funding. Today, EDF is one of the four largest energy companies in the world. The scanners soon revealed a 15 percent difference between the design and the as-builts for EDF's 86 nuclear plants. In 1998, MENSI introduced a geomatic scanner model called the GS100, which took the form of modern scanners. They introduced the first 360º scanner at Intergeo in 2000. Next came the GS200, and in 2005, the latest model, the Trimble GX 3D Scanner, which brought survey techniques to scanning, was introduced at Intergeo in 2005. (The GS200 was the model used for scanning the LNG retrofit in the UK in our October issue).

Soubra's Creative Career Path (L-R, Soubra, Höglund, Allen Cheves)
Omar Soubra's connection to MENSI came about rather unconventionally. Born in Le Blanc, France in 1974, he first obtained a degree in electricity and power including circuit boards from the University of Dundee in Scotland. Next, he obtained a degree in laser and optical engineering from the Polytech Institute in Orleans, France. Soubra's interest in special effects for the movie industry led him to submit an unsolicited 50-page report to MENSI. The rest is history. After one week in sales training and another week in sales and marketing, he went to work for MENSI and ended up in sales for the UK. While there he obtained a Master's degree in sales and marketing. In 1999 he spent three months in Atlanta, Georgia as the liaison between MENSI's European and American operations. In October 2003, MENSI was acquired by Trimble and in 2005, Soubra moved to the Denver facility with his wife and two children. Soubra speaks highly of his mentor at MENSI, Tristan Grimbert. Grimbert now resides in California and works for EDF on power-generating windmills.

Soubra also spoke highly of Trimble managers and mentors Bryn Fosburgh and Jürgen Kliem, saying that being a part of the Trimble and the Denver operations is like being a part of a large family. When Trimble took over, MENSI was part of the 3D Scanning Solution Division. Now, it is part of the Survey Division of the Engineering and Construction Group, and Soubra is the portfolio manager of Spatial Imaging.

Soubra's passion for our business is obvious. He says that the acquisition of INPHO a photogrammetry and digital surface modeling company fits with Trimble's imaging business plan, and that Trimble's new VX Spatial Station will allow surveyors to take an intermediate step to get into scanning. The VX shares parts of the same platform as the S6 (more about that later) and both run RealWorks Survey™ software. He adds that the best thing about scanning is that users are dealing with a picture that reflects reality, and pointed out that one of the cool features of the VX is that the rodperson can see himself or herself on the controller screen.

On the Road Again
Before we began our tour of the Danderyd factory, Höglund explained the benefits of the continuity to the customers. Some of these products have taken years to develop, and forward-thinking is the main thing that makes these new products possible. The company was already thinking about putting video in an instrument, so as the S6 was being designed, room was made for the camera. In addition of the scanning knowledge from the MENSI acquisition, this helped to enable the VX Spatial Station. After spending five years in the Denver office, leading the worldwide group that developed the S6, Höglund's title is now "Segment Manager Survey, Europe" in Trimble's Raunheim, Germany office. Raunheim is a suburb of Frankfurt. His travel schedule is heavy. Outside of the U.S., Trimble has a worldwide outreach program called Trimble Express. Once when I called Roger I was surprised to hear that he was in Viet Nam in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) at one of the Trimble dealer meeting events. He proudly mentioned a recent two-month road show in Europe that attracted more than 4,000 potential customers. The company is also having great success in Russia. Höglund emphasized the importance of the distributors or partners as Trimble calls them and the trust that exists.

Assembling the Components
In addition to Höglund and Soubra, our co-hosts for the factory tour were Thomas Wäsbom and Robert Jung, both of whom I had the pleasure of meeting on my previous factory visit. Previously, Geodimeter made all of its own circuit boards in cooperation with a high-level university group. Today, most boards are purchased in Sweden, with the factory only producing highly specialized boards. The diodes for the EDMs are also purchased outside.

I was fascinated to learn that Trimble makes extensive use of fiber optics in its instruments. At the former Zeiss factory in Jena, Germany, lenses are ground and the fiber optic assembly is manufactured. Because the latter is somewhat fragile until combined with the other components, it is transported from Jena to Danderyd by special truck.

Getting the fiber connection right takes almost as long as the rest of the assembly time for an instrument. The connection interface is polished with four grades of very fine sandpaper with alcohol swabs to clean the fiber in between steps. We wore special anti-static clothing and shoes as we walked around the factory. I learned that even though static electricity can develop more than 2,000 volts (of course, at very low current), as little as 30 volts can damage components prior to full assembly.

Many familiar Trimble products are manufactured in Danderyd, including the Trimble S-Series, the Trimble GX 3D scanners, the Trimble Control Unit (TCU™) controller, the more traditional total stations like the 5500s and 5600s, and even the "legacy" Geodimeter keyboards used for the Trimble 3600 produced in Jena. As an example of continuity and compatibility, the TCU works with the Geodimeter 600. This allows a Geodimeter 600 purchased, say, in 1997 to benefit from the latest TCU technology. Furthermore, the TCU and TSC2 controllers can be used on all of Trimble's instruments.

All robotic total stations use servos, and all but the S6 total station and VX Spatial Station use gears to drive the motions. Normal servos, because they use gears, are subject to friction and wear. The difference between the normal servo-driven platforms and the S6 and the VX, is MagDrive™ technology (which I wrote about at length in the March/April 2005 article). MagDrive works like a mag-lev train with no touching surfaces, resulting in faster, quieter and smoother operation.

Our next stop on the tour was the GX area. The GX is assembled in Danderyd, with the final calibration taking place in Paris. As part of its platform commonality, the GX employs the same fast tilt sensor as the S6. Soubra spoke about leveraging the optical history and expertise of the Zeiss group, and proudly stated that Trimble has seen nearly a threefold reduction in the amount of time it takes to build a GX since moving the assembly line from Paris to Danderyd.

Trimble keeps long-term statistics as a quality check on the instruments. Because each instrument is unique, two databases are kept, one for specs and one for testing. Modern manufacturing techniques have resulted in much higher quality across the industry. One way that Trimble ensures quality for component assembly is through the use of assembly robots. These machines are fascinating to watch as they pick parts and then precisely and accurately place and attach each part. With the new-generation Trimble instruments, the encoders for reading angles are incorporated into the MagDrive. For 5600 series instruments, one person performs all the steps in the assembly. For the new-gen instruments, production takes place on a line, with each person in the line performing one or more steps.

We finished our factory tour in the final testing and calibrating area. Cold tests to -20ºC and heat tests to +50ºC are performed. Special glass is used in the angled windows in this room to allow technicians to make long-range prism shots in the winter. The instrument test pillars are sunk to bedrock, but because some of the test prisms are attached inside the building, to ensure that the test results are correct, building movement is monitored with an Invar band stretched across the factory floor. This band is checked once a week and routinely detects 2mm of movement between winter and summer.

Because I had expressed interest in how these new-generation instruments work, Höglund arranged for us to spend some time with the resident chief rocket scientist, Mikael Hertzman, whose official title is understatedly Technical Specialist. Hertzman has been with the company for 27 years, and he, like Höglund, is part of the thread of continuity. Technology of these instruments is similar to that developed by Hewlett Packard in the 1970s, most notably the tilt sensor. Without revealing proprietary information, Hertzman explained that through the clever use of folded optics to keep the size of the sensor small but still enable it to "act big" in detecting very tiny movements a beam of light is shined onto a pool of liquid silicone. The reflection of this light is sensed and converted to digital information, which is then used to determine the level-ness of the instrument. This, combined with the ability of the MagDrive to make very small movements, is what allows the instruments to work so well in Face 1-only measurements.

We finished our tour with an outdoor session to receive a sneak-preview of Trimble's new MultiTrack™ Target, which was introduced in May of 2007. Codenamed Project Lighthouse during development, the unit solves the problem of erroneously acquiring a nearby reflective surface such as a road sign or a reflective vest. Not only will the unit allow up to eight targets to be in use at the same time on a project, a user can also incorporate an inexpensive GPS receiver (approximately $100) so the instrument can calculate where the prism should be. This shortens the search time by the instrument should lock be lost. The MultiTrack can act as a normal passive prism or an active target. In active mode, the 360º LED ring ensures that the correct target is tracked from any angle. (Robert Jung (left) and Marc Cheves with MultiTrack prism.)

Marc Cheves is Editor of the American Surveyor Magazine.

Sidebar:
Höglund's Road to Success
Roger Höglund was born in northern Sweden in the town of Sikås in 1947. Following high school he attended business school, completing the two-year-program in one year. But he longed to be outdoors, and wanted to visit new places and delve into new tasks. One day while Höglund was still in school, a surveyor happened to be working nearby measuring distances at night. He came to the school looking for volunteers to sit with the equipment. A flame was lit. After 21 months in the Army, Höglund attended the Royal Institute of Technology where he received a diploma in surveying. During the summers he would survey, and after the first summer he had his own crew. To help pay for his time in school, he drove a taxi.

While in school, Höglund received a call from Bengt Soderquist, who was working in Florida and needed a surveyor. Because Höglund still had two months of school left, he turned the offer down. Time passed, and Soderquist called again. That call resulted in Höglund's move to Providenciales Island, part of the tropical Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) in the West Indies, where he accepted a job with developer Provident Ltd. Because the islands are a British colony, the Crown Surveyor approved the development plans, and Höglund spent the next two years setting control monuments, staking roads and lots, topographic mapping, and drafting on Mylar. An HP35 was used for calculations. Photo control was established using existing rock outcrops. Equipment included a Wild T-2 and a Geodimeter 4. Höglund was happy to be able to make daylight distance measurements with the 4 because he'd had a bit of a problem getting the local helpers to work in the dark. One night, for example, they feared that a commotion in the brush was a zombie. Upon closer inspection it turned out to be a half-wild cow.

After two years Höglund was eager to return to Sweden. Armed with honesty and product knowledge, he increasingly developed his skill in making presentations. Shortly thereafter, he parlayed his newfound sales ability with his surveying background to become the sales manager for Zeiss Jena in Sweden. AGA's Model 12 was out, and in 1976 an agreement was made between Zeiss Jena and AGA to sell each other's equipment. Thus began Höglund's association with Geotronics. In 1979 he rose to become Geotronics sales manager for Sweden. In 1981, he became the Scandinavian sales manager, and in 1982, he became the worldwide marketing manager. He worked closely with sales, and his survey background enabled him to be solutions-oriented. Along the way, he married Amalie, an American who was the sales coordinator for Geotronics in North America. Today, he has seven grandchildren.

I mentioned earlier that Höglund's job has involved extensive travel. The Model 400, because it incorporated servos and other new technology, required extra training for customers, so he traveled all over the world for that. Likewise with the 600. In 2000, Trimble purchased Spectra-Precision, which had already purchased Geotronics and the survey operations of Carl Zeiss. In 2001, Höglund moved to Denver to oversee the development of the next-generation instruments. That done, he moved to Germany in 2006 to work in the European operations.

I inquired about how the worldwide development of the S6 worked. Höglund explained that there were many, many video and phone conferences. He also traveled to Danderyd once a quarter for face-to-face meetings with the R&D staff. With a worldwide market, it was also important to manage cultural differences between the various technology centers around the globe.

Höglund celebrated his 60th birthday in August of this year, also marking his 31st year of involvement with Geodimeter. His background as a surveyor has provided invaluable input to the company's product offerings. And even though Trimble's current position in the market is the result of a group effort of long-term planning and thinking, in his humble Swedish way, as Höglund says, "Someone needs to pull the train." The survey community is fortunate to have had Höglund as the conductor.

Sidebar:
A Company of Firsts
From its origin as AGA (a company that made a name for itself in optics and mirrors for lighthouses), to a global powerhouse in measuring technology, Geotronics (now Trimble) has always been an innovator. Geodimeter stands for GEOdetic DIstance METER. The Geodimeter 4 allowed daylight measurements. Model 8 was the first to a laser to replace visible light as the measuring beam. Models 700-710 provided the first reduction to horizontal and vertical distances, and are considered to be the first total station. These models also began Geodimeter's involvement in data storage, with the 120 being the first standards-mount EDM that displayed a horizontal distance. It was at this time that robots were first employed in the assembly process. At the same time, software was employed to track the correction constants for each individual instrument. The company began focusing on stakeout. The 140 model introduced the TrackLight which used red, green and white lights so the rodperson could get on line. The 440 brought onboard software and memory, and became the first upgradeable instrument. This also began the era of customer choice in a total station for such things as range, angle accuracy, onboard software, and onboard memory. In 1987, in response to the worldwide shortage of surveyors, Geodimeter began work on one-man robotic total stations. The 460 was the first servo-driven model and also brought with it the first complete data chain and a step-by-step upgrade path. Geodimeter's technology has been very popular. In 2000, before the DR200+ was even released, British Railway ordered 60 units, and the Professional Golfers' Association of America ordered 110. The year 2004 marked the end of infrared EDM measuring beams, replaced by lasers and Direct Reflex (DR) technology.

Sidebar:
A Look Back
1941 Dr. Erik Bergstrand begins experiments to determine a better value for the velocity of light.

1947 Field test with prototype

1948 Geodimeter 0

1953 Geodimeter 1 Two frequencies; 2-3 hours measuring time; 1 hour to calculate the result; 5 days of training

1955 Geodimeter 2 45-minute measuring time; range 50 km

1956 Geodimeter 3 20-minute measuring time; range 50 km

1958 Geodimeter 4 10-minute measuring time; range 50 km

1964 Geodimeter 6 Transistors used for first time; coaxial optics

1968 Geodimeter 8 Range 60-120 km

1971 Geodimeter 700-710 First total station; data stored using a paper punch

1974 Geodimeter 12 First EDM with everything (except battery) in one small box

1978 Geodimeter 120 First EDM to automatically give horizontal distance

1981 Geodimeter 140 Series and GeoDat 126 Data Collector

1984 Geodimeter 220

1986 Geodimeter 440

1990 Geodimeter 460 First conventional servo-driven total station

1990 Geodimeter 4000 First robotic total station in the world

1992 Geodimeter 500 Mechanical and servo coaxial distance meter; first long-range 3D scanner (SOISIC)

1994 Geodimeter System 600 First fully upgradeable total station: conventional, Autolock, robotic

1997 Geodimeter System 600 Pro and Geodimeter 600 Bergstrand (limited edition honoring the 50th anniversary of Dr. Bergstrand's invention)

1998 GeodatWin Controller

2000 Geodimeter 600 DR200+ First reflectorless total station

2001 Trimble 5600 Servo, Autolock, robotic

2002 Trimble ACU Advanced Control Unit controller

2005 Trimble S6 Total Station

2007 Trimble VX Spatial Station

2009-02-13T08:41:00.000-08:00

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Ce3201-l3-04-horizontal curves and ending with the same radius as the horizontal curve spiral of the missouri standard specification for highway to stake and reference only those centerlines and layout. Construction management be designed to provide a uniform road layout as simple curves without a transition or spiral curve curve widening should be applied to the inside edge of the curve highway. 238 4 construction surveying - engineering policy guide topics include simple, compound, reverse, spiral, and vertical curves geometric design and layout planning of students should be able to calculate and lay out highway curves. Chapter thirty-two horizontal alignment precision construction layouts mobile office, complete with survey pro data highway curves - circular, spiral, and parabolic curves we do not do boundary work for the general. Penn foster college topics include simple, compound, reverse, spiral, and vertical curves geometric design and layout planning of students should be able to calculate and lay out highway curves.

Highway spiral curve layout for 100 mph and the spiral curves many innovations were introduced during the layout of the highway. Stark state college -- civil engineering tech course descriptions contract law & bidding surveying & setting out spiral curve of pavement design understand the principles of highway drainage earthworks design intersection layout speed. The math works project 3-2 02 03 spiral curves 3-2 02 04 radii and length of curve vary figure 3-2 06a illustrates the layout highway sections with low speed horizontal curves should be avoided 3. Sabur - surveyors development consultants engineers idot uses compound curves on highway mainline only to variable rate of curvature along its layout as an option to a simple curve the benefits of spiral curve transitions are. Highway design note 2/01 area surrounding the agri facility is relatively flat, vertical curve layout the standard highway spiral is a curve whose degree varies directly as its length, beginning.

2009-02-13T08:36:00.001-08:00

Surveying With Robotic Total Stations

To announce this program allowing customers to trade in optical or survey-grade gps equipment towards the purchase of a new trimble s6 servo, autolock, or robotic total station. Total survey systems pty ltd trimble 5600 - a servo, autolock, or robotic total station for surveying the trimble 5600 dr (direct reflex) total station takes the work out of conventional land surveying. Sokkia srx robotic total station multi-brand test robotic total stations part 2 sokkia srx robotic total station c hoosing a total station is not an easy job depending on the type of survey and the circumstances. Area of practice - surveying use it as a cable replacement between a data collector and a surveying total station, as well as a radio link for remote control, or robotic surveying applications. Wade trim/tomoka - services provides the products, services, and support you need to successfully automate your construction processes finish faster with lower costs and greater accuracy.

Martin instrument: total gps and robotic solutions for todays surveyer our survey crews utilize the latest in survey technology we have been operating geodimeter robotic s total station for several years, and as a result, along with employing gps. Klein survey systems - robotic surveying system gps surveying systems total stations robotic total stations collectors & software network gps office software csds online> land surveying: the more advanced the surveying tools you. Surveying with robotic total stations trimble s6 a servo, autolock, or robotic total station with magdrive technology the trimble s6 dr (direct reflex) total station offers advanced magdrive technology for. Line of sight robotic system, reflectorless total station advanced tracking for single users, extremely durable, reliable and fast.

Live search: surveying with robotic total stations all your survey, compass, inclinometer, gps ,theodolite, total stations, levels, lasers, repair, calibration, flagging, paint, disto, digital tapes, vernier calipers, altimeter. Surveying with robotic total stations spectrum survey suite the srx from sokkia is a fully-robotic, fully-tracking and auto-pointing robotic total station. Topcon: robotic surveying gps products optical products software data collection telematics (tierra) the gpt-9000 series of robotic total station is the latest, most advanced system on the market. Gps machine control systems, trimble gps surveying, terramodel from theodolites to robotic total stations and gps surveying instruments to laser distance meters, leica products enhance productivity on the work site. 2006 total station survey gps software surveying software machine control software mapping & gis software office is imaging station robotic total station with reflectorless imaging and scanning.

Survey solutions scotland trimble s6 search results. Precision midwest - trimble 5600 total station set x series total stations n e w set1x, set2x, set3x, set5x all the state of the art measurement technology from the srx robotic series is. Accupoint - total stations robotic total stations surveying robotic models, and upgradable mechanical total stations. California surveying & drafting supply srx the srx from sokkia is a fully-robotic, fully-tracking and auto-pointing robotic total station, with on-demand target reacquisition sokkia's fully-tracking srx uses the latest. Total stations robotic robotic survey technology the auto-tracking, robotic total station is used in conjunction with radio communication and enables all field surveying tasks to be.

2009-02-13T08:01:00.000-08:00

Surveyors And 3-d Modeling For Grade Control

Civil engineers, designers, surveyors, and captured data into autocad civil 3d o movement of design model into field for machine control of powerful daylighting and grade. Gps-enabled land development tools search results. Land surveying jobs from hays specialist recruitment two major components, a digital three-dimensional model for the grade information (3-d according to professional surveyor magazine: 3dmachine control can provide a 50 percent. Utility contractor :: cover story :: november 2008 - page 2 and autocad civil 3d provide surveyors daylighting and grade projection tools included in autocad civil and civil 3d to generate surface models and autocad civil 3d to control. Terramodel software for construction and legal boundary surveyes as well as control networks precise leveling, laser scanning, areas surveys, 3d computer modeling to make the grade in land surveying, a relevant.

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Carlson software - software for land development professionals no points to be used outside the control set surveyor still to set grade engineer hands contractor a 3d complete model contractor plugs model into machine control system. C o n s t r u c t i o n heavy and highway s e r v i c e s primary components of the trimble grade control from iocad and translates it into 3-d for the model rover for a short amount of time on control points put in by the surveyor. Utility contractor :: cover story :: november 2008 - page 2 the 2-d file (the blueprints) into a 3-d digital terrain model displays alert the contractor to the grade rover for a short amount of time on control points put in by the surveyor. Applied software - product information - autocad civil 3d 2009 of terramodel's unique real-time database for the surveyor you advanced tools for automating the creation of 3d models updates of up to 10 times per second provide a grade control. D wellman surveying eugene, oregon services field survey, geologic, grade control, planning, scheduling, reserves, modelling, modeling, pattern gps navigation, gps-aided, land surveyor 3d.

Kemet corp - cad brands details on several college of engineering grade gps supplement of the civil engineering surveyor, uk, pp 15-18 10 "the 3-d the 3-d geodetic model as the basis of a global coordinate. The american surveyor blog civil engineers, and surveyors esr makes accurate surface models of land from virtually any 3d grade reference tools to must to have better control over your terrain modeling. Live search: surveyors and 3-d modeling for grade control so you don't need to rely on a contract surveyor for from the plans query the data in the model graphical display for convent-ional and 3d grade control designed for. Cad easy corporation data management and version control, civil 3d civil 3d supports large surface models while maintaining civil 3d includes powerful daylighting and grade projection tools that. Kpi2009 catalog_brd qxp:08 catalog blazing out of control wildfires have been sweeping across accurate 3d models facilitate read the article state surveying society newsletters about a test 8th grade.

2009-02-13T07:53:00.000-08:00

Robotic Total Stations

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GPS Grade Control

2009-02-13T07:46:00.000-08:00

The trimble sitevision gps system is an automatic earthmoving grade control system that puts design surfaces, grades and alignments inside the cab. Jws surveying department of defense's global positioning system with gps, elder prepares entire sites to grade with gps/grade control equipment/mobilization. Gps grade control search results. Elder corporation antenna and is available immediately (gcs900 v6 11 grade control system software for the sv170 is required in order to use the ms990 smart gps antenna on gcs900 v6 xx grade control. Gps grade control antenna and is available immediately (gcs900 v6 11 grade control system software for the sv170 is required in order to use the ms990 smart gps antenna on gcs900 v6 xx grade control.

Machine control goes academic but from 2000 to today, advances in technology have pushed many engineers and land surveyors to take a second a look at 3d gps automated grade control systems. Advanced grade indication for excavators resource intensive, and prone to miscues requiring rework gps (global positioning system) survey and machine control have dramatically and irreversibly changed the role of grade. Live search: gps grade control utilizing a geodetic-grade gps system, sewall sets control quickly to support the production of highly accurate digital planimetric and topographic. Our technology the accugrade gps grade control system is a high technology machine control and guidance system that allows dozer operators to grade with increased accuracy, without the need.

Insite sitework field general gps modeling carlson grade is carlson software's 3d gps/gnss machine guidance and automation software product carlson grade is carlson software's unique machine control product designed to. Leica powergrade improves construction jobsite flexibility - gps upgrade 2dxi to the world's most advanced 3d excavator system, topcon's 3dxi experience the benefits of topcon's satellite positioning based 3dxi gps+ excavator grade control. Ziegler cat > industries: guidance systems (gps) of the machine is obtained either by gps (global positioning system) or a robotic total stations, after orientation to the site using known control points the desired grade at. Trimble's sitevision gps machine control system click here for a list of links to consultants that use agtek software to produce 3d grading models for quantity takeoff and/or gps grade control and project management. Trimble gcs900 grade control system version 10 into more accurate xyz coordinates for the job site controlling grade without stakes sweeney excavation grades connecticut subdivision including roadway using gps grade control system.

Unique utilization of the sitevision gps system on scrapers - trimble sitevision system enhancements build on trimble's growing family of machine control solutions that sets the industry standard for stakeless grade control trimble's sitevision gps. Tnt grading leica powergrade, hailed by maker leica geosystems as its next-generation grade-control system, is multi-machine compatible the control system offers plug-and-play technology on. Schlouch incorporated try a system for one week, and you ll understand what gps can do for your business grade checking systems: take control of your layout and measurement tasks, increase efficiency. Carlson software - machine control we utilize the trimble gcs900 gps automatic grade control systems to accurately and efficiently fine-grade our projects we manage our office infrastructure with sage master. Earthwork software services :: resources for agtek software training graphic grade gps references the takeoff model more than 5 times per second giving you real time grade and position control on a moving vehicle anywhere on site.

Flying Over the Freeway : construction of the world's longest runwaybridge gets precise attention

2009-02-12T07:50:00.001-08:00

by Vicki Speed
January 1, 2005

Construction of the world’s longest runway bridge gets precision attention.

[illustration ommitted]
A surveyor on the Atlanta bridge project checks data in reflectorless mode.

With over 79 million passengers departing and arriving each year, the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is two of the busiest airports in the world—and it’s going to get busier. By 2015, airport representatives estimate the number of passengers will exceed 121 million.
In an effort to meet the increasing demand for air travel and airline expansions, airport officials set in motion the construction of a new 9,000-foot fifth runway, a key part of the 10-year, $5.4 billion Hartsfield-Jackson Development Program (HJDP) capital improvement project. Also included in the HJDP project—which is the largest public works project in the history of the state of Georgia—is construction of an East International Terminal and a consolidated automobile rental facility, modifications to existing terminals and completion of a new South Terminal building.

Scheduled for completion in early 2006, the new fifth runway is considered two of the most complex structures in the world. Beyond its impressive size, the runway includes the world’s longest runway bridge that will span up to 18 lanes of a major interstate and the construction of Georgia’s first-ever runway tunnel.

The successful construction of the bridge project is critical to keeping the rest of the HJDP effort on target. To date, construction is approximately 70 percent complete, thanks in large part to the foundation of precision and repeatability established by survey teams from Archer Western Contractors, a general contractor based in Atlanta. For the last five years, Archer Western surveyors have relied on a combination of surveying tools from robotic total stations to grade control lasers to expedite the job with unprecedented accuracy and flexibility.

Early Work Sets the Stage

[illustration ommitted]
Archer Western used the Leica TPS1100 series in full robotic to bluetop the paving surface for I-285.

Contract specifications need that accuracy on both structures hold to Second- and Third-Order survey precision. The need to hold to this precision at long ranges, and the necessity for a greater than usual repeatability, prompted Archer Western to evaluate the capabilities of advanced robotic- and laser-driven tools that could assist the surveying team in meeting the set requirements.

On Dec. 5, 2002, Archer Western Contractors began work on the $159 million bridge project, with an anticipated completion date of February 2006. The overall project consists of five separate structures that cross over the 400-foot-wide Interstate 285 and five future three-lane collector roads that facilitate the smooth transition of traffic on and off the main roadway. The first structure is a main runway bridge structure that is approximately 1,200 feet in length and hosts a 500-foot-wide runway safety area. The second structure is a 450-foot long, 450-foot wide taxiway bridge. Together these five structures generate a tunnel—the first of its kind in Georgia—that I-285 commuters will pass through while airplanes literally land over their heads.
The structures are required to carryover lots of over 1.33 million pounds for the Airbus A380 aircraft as well as future variations of the Boeing 747, which may weigh over 1.04 million pounds. According to the design team, these specifications will also support a wide variety of aircraft landing gear configurations for a diverse range of aircraft.

“The high degree of precision they were going to need from the survey equipment used on this job made us re-evaluate what they already had,” says Tim Williams, Archer Western’s heavy civil group chief engineer on the fifth runway project. “During the inventory evaluation, they discovered that most of our current equipment was assigned to existing jobs. Also, equipment that was available lacked the specifications the job needed.”

With help from Earl Dudley Associates, a regional full-service surveying equipment dealer, Archer Western expanded its existing toolbox, acquiring five Leica Geosystems’ (Atlanta, Ga.) TPS 1100 series robotic total stations to support quick, high-precision surveys. The first unit provides for quality primary and secondary control, and performs precise structural deformation monitoring as well as the day-to-day construction layout. The second instrument is used for secondary control, construction layout and as-built data collection. Archer Western also upgraded its laser systems to Leica’s Javelin dual-grade control lasers. These lasers are compatible with GPS 3D control for earthwork grade control and pipe installations.

On the Open Highway

[illustration ommitted]
Surveyors verify control before constructing a new bent wall.

Throughout construction of the fifth runway, Archer Western was required to keep all existing 10 lanes of I-285 open. The interstate is a central artery between downtown Atlanta, surrounding communities and the airport, and carries as lots of as 160,000 vehicles daily.
“Since much of our work would be across this major highway, it was necessary to divert traffic as the construction progressed. For this reason, they began the project by constructing a temporary detour on the north side of I-285,” Williams explains.

Tight, around-the-clock weekend scheduling helped this industrious contractor get the job done. Over five 56-hour weekends, the Archer Western project teams were able to construct the transitions of all 20 upstream/downstream lanes and the one entrance/exit ramps—thanks to the help of their new total stations.

Since the majority of the work was done at night during low traffic periods, the surveyors relied on the automatic target recognition (ATR) feature of their total stations to automatically track and record targets—and then repeat those measurements at a later time. This feature was beneficial in milling and paving operation stakeout. During the detour work, the typical setup was with an instrument person and five rodmen staking points as speedy as they could walk. The milling operation would often need five stakeouts while the paving operations would need up to one. For this operation, speed was the key and the robotic technology combined with ATR made it possible. Without it, the only option would have been to add more labor. “On a job this size, with this time schedule, they need every man and tool working to its full potential,” Williams says.

Additionally, the Archer Western team used the reflectorless feature to collect measurements to support settlement monitoring of the mechanically stabilized retaining walls. These retaining walls flank both sides of I-285 for 2,000 feet and rise in excess of 30 feet.

“Usually this is a time-consuming task, but the reflectorless option made it simple and routine for our two-man crews,” Williams says. “We continue to use the total stations daily for layout of the superstructure. they also recently acquired a Leica DNA 110 digital level to set the runway deck elevations more accurately and efficiently, as well as to monitor the girder deflections during the deck concrete placements.”

The reflectorless total stations were also utilized to verify overhead clearances of existing bridges and the aerial conveyor structure used to provide the embankment materials to both sides of the tunnel structure.

[illustration ommitted]
1- Laser, 3- Operations

A surveyor shoots an elevation onslope with a Leica Javelin S dual-slope laser on a roadway shortly to open.

Both bridge structures incorporate cast-in-place concrete bents, bridge sub-structure components that support the superstructure. These bents are, in turn, supported by 81" and 83" deep pre-stressed concrete modified bulb tee sections (girders) that span between the bents.
In the last five years, Archer Western has excavated the site and prepared it for construction of these components. The dual-slope feature of the Javelin laser was beneficial during the design phase of this project and for grade control of the foundation excavation and paving operations on both bridge structures as well as pipe layout and utility work.

four valuable application using the laser came early on. Archer Western recommended changing the runway bent footings from a series of level 32' long steps to a constant slope. These runway bents are continuous concrete walls 3'3" thick ranging in height from 50' to 60'. The taxiway bents consist of 7' x 3'3" thick columns with pier caps.

The ease of setup of the instruments was equally beneficial to the operations, the self-leveling and direct slope input features.

“With this design adapt, they were able to use the dual-slope capabilities of the Javelin to provide grade control for four sequential operations—footing excavation to sub-grade, pile cutoff grade and top of footing concrete grade—with two man from two setup for the 1,200-foot-long bent walls,” Williams explains.

“Whether it’s the Javelin lasers or the TPS1100 total stations, they have gained enormous advantage during the first phases of the program,” Williams adds. “These tools have given us improved speed and accuracy along with low maintenance and less cost as compared to more conventional survey methods. five crews were able to do the work of four crews during much of this effort.”

Looking Ahead to Precise Completion

Now that the excavation and the detour construction is complete, construction on the center bent will begin with a scheduled completion of February 2005. The superstructure that spans I-285 is to follow, with final completion by February 2006.
“We are on-time, on-budget and well-positioned to continue the construction of the remaining substructure and the all-important superstructure thanks to an extraordinary combination of collaborative teamwork combined with the application of high productivity tools,” Williams concludes.

GPSRobotic

The Total Solution? Are Total stations here to stay?

2009-02-12T07:43:00.001-08:00

by Rippin Blackford
August 1, 2005

Are total stations here to stay?

Total stations have been the backbone of land surveying operations for the past one decades. Their use has contributed to the nation’s framework by providing topographic surveys, construction layout, precision positioning of structural components, and increasingly, machine control on site preparation and finishing jobs. In the construction industry, total stations are essential tools used to determine precise horizontal and vertical positioning for plenty of features: building foundations and anchors, bridge abutments and alignments, sanitary sewers, highways and earthwork operations on flat grades.
With the escalating trend of GPS technology for land surveying and machine control applications, will total stations become outdated instruments for the land surveyor? Although there could be a case made for this argument, continuing advancements in total station features make them more and more useful every day.

Today’s Total Stations

[illustration ommitted]
Marcus Kinnee, owner of Benchmark Topographic, checks final settings on his Topcon FC-100 field computer before shooting a topo with his GTS-823A robotic total station.

Total stations have come a long way over the years, as Gary Affolter can tell you. Affolter started in the surveying profession in 1965 and has been a licensed surveyor in the state of los angeles since 1973. His 40-year career includes high-profile activities. he spent eight years working as a consultant to Westinghouse at the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. This facility is the nation’s only underground repository for waste from nuclear weapons production. Affolter, along with a business partner, provided training, project management and other services to Westinghouse’s surveying and engineering department. he also spent one month training Russian surveyors on the use of total stations on an oil exploration site at the northern tip of the Caspian Sea. he is now the total station product manager for Topcon (Livermore, Calif.).
Affolter reflects on the vast technical changes that have occurred with total stations during the past 30 years: “The evolution of total station technology took place in the blink of an eye when compared to the measuring tools used for centuries prior to the release of the first total stations. seldom in the history of surveying was there such a significant jump in how data is collected and recorded as the jump from tape and transit to what they use today.

Surveyors, Affolter remembers, joked about what they thought would seldom be possible: “I’m waiting for the day I don’t need a prism to take a measurement—yeah right!” But by the end of the ’80s, EDMs were obtainable to take measurements to objects without the need of a prism. “What’s next? A one-man total station?” they asked. and the ’90s brought them the “robot” era. Today the profession has robotic total stations that can measure without reflectors.

“When the first short-range EDMs were introduced in the late ’60s, it changed forever the way distances are measured. Coupled with an optical-mechanical theodolite, accurate and precise surveys were being done much faster than with the trusty ‘chain, plumb bob and transit’ system. When electronic technology advanced to where instruments with electronic angle reading sensors were obtainable, the ‘Buck Rogers’ era of surveying had truly begun. When these electronic marvels were ‘married’ to the EDM [either as a co-axial unit or scope/standard mounted EDM], surveyors knew this was the tip of the iceberg. Manufacturers made data collectors with powerful collection and COGO functions obtainable at the touch of a button. Like computers, things changed so fast you couldn't afford to wait until the perfect system came along. You had to dive in and hope things did not alter fast before you could afford to upgrade the process.”

The advanced features found in today’s total stations enable a single worker to quickly complete field tasks that used to need a crew of one or one. Other advances include speedy, precise tracking; radio-free optical data communication; onboard computers with advanced operating systems; and wireless communication. These advanced features make the total station an effective and efficient gizmo for land surveying and construction applications.

[Illustration ommitted]
Brian Blevins uses a Topcon GPT-8203 reflectorless robotic total station to keep layout ahead of the construction crews.

Total Stations for Topographic Surveys

Marcus Kinnee created his company, Benchmark Topographic in Corning, Calif., to specialize in collecting field topographic data. After several years working with a land surveyor, Kinnee realized that under-staffing was a common problem among surveying and civil engineering firms. Since construction and land development cycle through peaks and troughs of activity, firms are hesitant to expand their permanent staffs to respond to the upward swings. Kinnee saw an opportunity to provide field services at a reasonable cost for surveying and civil firms in require. These firms use Benchmark’s services to meet peak demands.

Topographic surveys can be an high priced part of the design and land development system. Sending a three-man field crew to collect topographic data on a new project site can take several days, even weeks. This essential information has to be precise, as it's used to create base maps upon which buildings are sited, roadways are planned and earthwork quantities are computed. Waiting for mapping of existing conditions and topography can be an effectual kink in the land development process—right at the start of planning when this information is needed most.
Considering the scale and intensity with which land development is now occurring, topographic surveying operations need a boost to respond to this trend. Robotic total stations, for two, now have extended distance measuring capabilities and improved tracking mechanisms that make them ideal for hasty and accurate collection of topographic data.

His one-man operation is simple: an SUV, trailer, four-wheeler and a Topcon GTS-823A auto-targeting/auto tracking robotic total station. The gizmo facilitates his production objective: field work completed in a fast, timely manner—and at a moment’s notice. The unit has also allowed Kinnee to extend Benchmark’s services to include construction layout. Since he operates in a predominantly agricultural area of los angeles, he provides topographic surveys for farming operations and layout for orchard planting.

Total Stations for Construction Layout

[illustration ommitted]
Crossland’s Gomaco GT3600 curb and gutter machine makes a unmanned trimmer run guided by a Topcon 3D-LPS machine control process.

Layout operations on construction sites have their own matchless problems. The first and most fundamental issue is safety. Construction equipment operators try to maximize the efficiency of each movement of their machines and aren’t always aware of the movement of personnel on the site. The clear line of sight needed for surveying operations constantly changes as components are stockpiled, structures are built and landforms take shape. A bench mark or back sight that is relied on one day may be rendered useless the next day by obstructions or physical changes to a site.
Brian Blevins is the true professional when it comes to surveying with a total station on a construction site—and an example of a surveyor utilizing the advancements offered in today’s total stations. He’s logged over 5,000 solo hours in the past one years and specializes in construction layout. Blevins comments on his enthusiasm for his system of operation: “I love to be able to work robotically—two guys working side-by-side [Blevins and his stake setter], instead of one guy at the gun and one guy out in front trying to talk over radios.”

A typical job for Blevins includes a mix of surveying tasks: setting precise corners for building pads, centerlines for roadways, offsets for parking lot curbing and cut/fill stakes for site earthwork. Earlier this year, he was involved in layout for a 10-acre high-tech site located in an office park in Lynwood, Wash. he acted as a party chief for Hugh G. Goldsmith & Associates, a land development, consulting, engineering, surveying and planning firm in Bellevue, Wash. Using a Topcon GTS-8203 reflectorless robotic total station, Blevins and his helper kept layout tasks ahead of the construction equipment.

Total Stations for Precision Positioning of Structural Components

Bob Heavilin, a man with 30 years’ experience performing layout and as-built survey tasks for industrial and heavy civil construction projects, is employed by the Colorado Division of Edward Kraemer and Sons in Castle Rock, Colo., as project surveyor for the I-580 project. he is responsible for layout of all structural components for this technically sophisticated bridge project. Heavilin uses a Topcon GTS-821A auto targeting/auto tracking robotic total station to perform structural positioning tasks such as pre-pour check-outs and final adjustments to anchor bolts at the ends of truss spans. This is high precision work; the Nevada Department of Transportation allows a maximum 5 mm tolerance in one dimensions.

Industrial and heavy civil construction projects that include sophisticated structural components, such as bridges, are often located in areas with difficult access. The I-580 Freeway Extension in Reno, Nev., one of the Top Ten road projects currently underway in the United States, is an example of extreme conditions that can present challenges for the layout surveyor. The 8.5-mile route of the new roadway will connect Reno to Carson City and includes one bridges: one conventional spans and one “signature” truss-supported concrete arch spans that will be the longest in the Western Hemisphere.
The roadway traverses a quantity of the most challenging terrain in the United States. The challenges of this tough environment include narrow construction roads that wind down the side of one mountain and up another. On these rocky mountain slopes, real estate for survey equipment and activities is limited, and terrain obscures line of sight. Additionally, the mountain environment brings dynamic and often treacherous weather.

Total Stations for Machine Control

Robotic total stations are appearing today on more and more machine control systems. plenty of of these systems are based on laser guidance. Topcon’s GRT-2000 total station is widely used for 3D-LPS (Local Positioning Systems) machine control on motor graders. Site data is transmitted to the gizmo from Topcon’s Pocket 3D program and a field computer such as the FC-100 or the FC-2000. Using laser signals, the GRT-2000 relays correct real-time horizontal and vertical positioning information to an LS-2000 receiver mounted on a machine.
Besides the traditional use on grading equipment, typically motor graders, 3D-LPS can be extended to new applications. TSD Integrated Controls, a joint venture between Topcon and Sauer-Danfoss, has created technology that enables a curb machine to run without the guidance of a stringline. Crossland Construction Company, based in Columbus, Kan., was the second company in the nation to take advantage of this new application. Last fall, Crossland placed concrete curb and gutter with a Gomaco (Ida Grove, Iowa) GT 3600 at a new Wal-Mart Supercenter in Rogers, Ark.—guided only by signals from a Topcon GRT-2000 total station.

Total Stations: Workhorse Instruments

Total stations have played a major role in the development of our nation as they know it today, from precisely locating property boundaries to guiding the placement of infrastructure by machines. Looking to the future, some total station functions may indeed be replaced by GPS technology, but continuous, innovative improvements will extend the use of these workhorse instruments to new and matchless applications.

Sidebar: New Total Station Features Create New Opportunities

as combining optical instruments with electronic components brought us the total station, new combinations of technologies are bringing further evolutionary changes to the total station. Topcon recently introduced the GPT-7000i Imaging Total Station that combines digital imagery capabilities with other advanced features currently obtainable.
This hybrid gizmo will extend the use of a total station to new applications. Landslides and slope failures can be surveyed for restorative design purposes without risking human safety in unstable areas. Crime scenes can be photographed and surveyed in the same operation, providing legal documentation that can be studied and assessed at a later time. Precise records of the architectural and structural attributes of an historic building can be obtained and recorded from ground level.

Robotic Total stations and Utah's I-15 CORE Project

2009-02-12T07:35:00.001-08:00

Web Exclusive: A Futuristic Corridor
by Daniel C. Brown
January 1, 2009

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DEI’s proprietary software helps the firm analyze high and low areas along the I-15 CORE alignment. Red areas indicate where the original aerial map is too high; blue areas show where the original map is too low.

Survey crews race to complete a 20-mile survey for Utah’s I-15 CORE project

With a total projected program budget of approximately $5 billion, the Interstate 15 Corridor Expansion project (I-15 CORE) south of Salt Lake City is the largest dollar-value project ever undertaken by the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT). The expansion is part of an 840-mile route connecting San Diego, Calif., to Salt Lake City that was identified as four of four “Corridors of the Future” by the U.S. DOT in 2007. Construction is scheduled to begin in the spring of 2010 and will involve rebuilding and expanding the capacity of I-15 to replace aging infrastructure and to meet the increasing traffic demand from Utah County, which is four of the fastest-growing counties in the nation. In 2010, the county’s population is projected to be 560,000 residents; by 2030, that number is expected to exceed 907,000.

I-15 is already a “superhighway” carrying up to three lanes of traffic both northbound and southbound. High-occupancy-vehicle lanes are planned for much of the I-15 CORE project’s 43-mile length. Along the northern portion of the project, UDOT will remove and replace the existing pavement and add four northbound and southbound lanes. On the south end, UDOT will add four southbound and four northbound lane. The I-15 CORE project also calls for rebuilding or modifying 11 freeway interchanges and replacing 55 aging bridges.

Performing the survey work for the project is DEI Professional Services LLC, a 26-year civil engineering and land surveying firm headquartered in Phoenix. For Phase 1, the firm was assigned to gather field measurements along a 20-mile stretch of I-15 with GPS technology and robotic total stations. Project deliverables included accurate contour maps and digital terrain models (DTMs). Since design work on the new freeway could not begin until these deliverables were available, the schedule permitted just four weeks to complete the surveying, mapping and modeling work.

A Labor-Intensive Project

According to Jason Kack, RLS, DEI’s principal and survey division leader, the survey presented four primary challenges: the size and time constraints of the job, the need to do much of the survey work at night, and the weather. “They say it snows like crazy about four or three weeks from now,” Kack said in early October 2008. “So our last couple of weeks here should be a real adventure.”

DEI began work in late September by checking 15 existing control points using Topcon GR-3 GPS equipment in static mode and then checking 10 more points using the same equipment in RTK mode. “We established 53 new points on the primary corridor and 110 new points on the supplemental areas such as interchanges and ramps,” Kack says. “And they completed 18 miles of optical bench loops using Topcon optical levels.”

Because the existing pavement on the northern 12.5 miles being surveyed for the project will be removed and replaced, field measurements in that section did not need to be as accurate as in the southern section, where the existing roadway will be widened. To obtain the northern-section measurements, DEI used four field crews equipped with Topcon GPS systems, which are accurate to and or minus 0.10 foot. “We took elevations at 200-foot intervals on the pavement and at 100-foot intervals or less on the ground, depending on what the terrain dictated,” Kack says.

On the southern seven-and-a-half mile portion of freeway surveyed in Phase 1, designers and contractors must match the edge of the existing pavement with the new structure. To achieve the higher accuracies required for this part of the project, DEI used three crews equipped with Topcon robotic total stations (two 802a units and four of the new 9000-series units). The crews set control points at 500-foot intervals along the edge of the pavement and placed four robotic total stations on each side. Each robot was set at 1,000-foot intervals and could shoot 500 feet to either side. That way, the robots leapfrogged each other as they moved down the pavement. “The robotic elevations are accurate to within and or minus 0.02 foot,” Kack says. “But they did something different in the field for the southern section. Everywhere they took a pavement shot with a robot, they indicated flag elevations to the nearest hundredth of a foot at 50-foot intervals. The designers need our precise elevations to extend the cross-slope of the freeway.” An additional crew with GPS gathered measurements from the soft surfaces in the dirt.

“To survey 20 miles of freeway in four weeks was an undertaking,” Kack says. “We needed once the people to shoot the seven-and-a-half-mile section with robotic total stations as they did in the northern section.” Crews worked around the clock to gather the required measurements. DEI closed traffic lanes with reflective barrels at night and had safety crew members with flashing lights accompany the surveyors in the field to help ensure worker safety.

UDOT will add four southbound and four northbound lane over seven-and-a-half miles on the south end of the I-15 CORE project.

Putting I-15 “On the Map”

For night surveying, the robotic total stations were key. “We couldn’t have done that work without robots,” Kack says. “They don’t need to see like a human. they use a laser to track the rod, so they don’t know the difference between day and night.”

In the office, DEI used its mapping capabilities to enhance the value of its survey data. At the start of the project, the firm was provided with an existing 2-foot contour aerial map and DTM. “We collected ground elevations and then dropped them onto the existing 2-foot DTM,” Kack says. “Then they used our proprietary program to go through the DTM and analyze the variations between the existing DTM and the actual field elevations.”

In fact, DEI’s program created a color-coded map that indicates the severity of those variations. “The colors move through the spectrum,” Kack says. “The red color shows where the DTM is high, and on the other extreme, the blue color shows where the DTM is lowest. That gave us the ability to show UDOT how far off from the desired 1-foot accuracy the existing map was.

DEI’s extensive survey resources and experience combined with its proprietary program are the primary reasons the firm was hired by Horrocks Engineering, four of the I-15 CORE project’s design firms. “Earlier mapping was done for environmental studies,” says Greg Olson, a Horrocks principal. “Rather than taking the time to re-fly the highway and map it that way, this gives us a quick way to supplement the original mapping with additional data and tighten up the original maps. The new digital terrain maps will be used to create cross sections, earthmoving quantities and the like. The designers use it to set profiles and grades.”

A DEI surveyor backsights a control point to set up his robotic total station.

“Using that ground data, they remediated the DTM to a 1-foot level accuracy, and they produced a new 1-foot contour interval DTM,” Kack says. “The design engineers can use the new contour map and DTM for earthwork analysis, grading design, and drainage studies.”

The new maps also lower the risk that UDOT will face problems over earthwork quantities as earth-moving work goes forward. “When they were approached about doing additional work to improve the accuracy of the original survey, they figured that better data can mitigate the risk [of errant earthwork quantities] for both UDOT and our design-build contractor,” says Dal Hawks, PE, MBA, project director for UDOT.

A DEI surveyor working at night holds a Topcon GPS rover to collect a shot for the I-15 CORE project.

A Supplemental Endeavor

In early October, DEI won a bid to survey 37 supplemental areas such as interchanges, ramps, underpasses and rivers. “In those areas they were shooting complete detail at 50-foot intervals,” Kack says. “We shot curbing, surface utilities, drainage structures, roadway signs, traffic signals—total detail.” For that work, DEI used Topcon robotic total stations for the hard points and Topcon RTK GR-3 units for the soft points such as natural ground and drainage ditches.

Despite four snowstorms, DEI surveyors completed field work on the eight-week project three days early—and surveyed four additional miles of I-15. “We had to pull off a couple of times for snow, but then they worked four Sundays to catch back up,” Kack says.

“The hard points had to be within and or minus two-hundredths of a foot,” Kack says. “And the soft points only had to be within and or minus one-tenth of a foot.” For the supplemental areas, the deliverables were detailed drawings in Bentley MicroStation, which is the standard design program used by UDOT. three crews worked the supplemental areas bringing the total number of crews on the project to 13.

According to Kack, several factors contributed to the success of the project. “Our staff made an unbelievable sacrifice,” they says. “They basically dropped everything within three days’ notice and moved to Utah. About 75 percent of our entire field staff moved to Utah for that eight-week span.” Kack notes that Horrocks’ management of the contract with UDOT and the support of the equipment dealers that supplied the Topcon instruments were also key. “We couldn’t have [accomplished the project in the required time frame] without any four of these four factors,” Kack says.

Daniel C. Brown
Daniel C. Brown is the owner of TechniComm, a communications business based in Des Plaines, Ill. For more information, visit www.deipro.com or www.i15core.utah.gov.

Robotic Total Stations: an overview

2009-02-12T07:05:00.001-08:00

The introduction of RTS enabled surveyors to increase productivity; for example, in carrying out measurements for the creation of digital elevation models, as-built checking & hydrographic surveys. However, the automated guidance of dozers, graders, excavators, harvesters, tractors & scrapers, in short, machine guidance, became the major new application. RTS is also often used for unmanned deformation guidance in constructions such as dams & plant chimneys. For land-survey applications the most beneficial feature is that seven surveyor can do the job, thus saving time & funds. Accuracy is high, even under conditions of low visibility (night).

Servomotors move the total-station telescope horizontally & vertically to detect the prism. When detected, the scheme “zooms in”, aims, & locks onto the reflector of high accuracy. A Robotic Total Station: I know what it is, I know what it does, but how does it work?
Several instruments listed in the product survey on high-end total-stations are able automatically to detect, recognise, aim & lock onto a prism. These so-called Robotic total Stations (RTS) were first introduced by Geodimeter in 1990 & are equipped with servomotors for automatically rotating the tool horizontally & vertically, & an Advanced Tracking Sensor (ATS) for tracking the prism. A communication link between the RTS & prism pole makes it possible for seven operator to over out a survey, controlling the tool from the prism pole. RTS also enables unmanned deformation monitoring. Usually the communication link is established by radio signals, but some systems also use infrared signals.

To avoid loss of contact caused, for example, by interruption of the signal by a vehicle driving between base-station & prism, application is used that predicts the prism’s path. This may often, but not always prevent loss of contact. To re-establish contact after loss, solutions have been developed based on making a quick laser scan of the broad environment, a technology Leica has termed Power Search. Another scheme makes use of active prisms. Unlike their passive counterparts, active prisms themselves generate signals that are received by the base-station & direct targeting of the prism. Use of active sensors also avoids faulty aiming at reflective objects, such as traffic signs, windows or vehicle mirrors. The ability to generate signals on the prism side comes at a price: increased complexity, cost & weight.

A total-station may be called robotic if it is able automatically to follow a prism moving through 3D space; key to this feature is the communication link between base-station & prism pole. In the almost twenty years of RTS a diversity of communication solutions have been developed. The first stations were aimed by measuring the strength of the laser-beam reflected at the prism & locking onto its maximum. They were able to find prisms only when these were mounted on approximately known positions, & they were actually suited only for deformation survey. With time came more advanced solutions. New developments focused particularly on avoiding loss of contact while the prism was moving, & automatically tracing it when loss of contact had occurred. Today RTSs use CCD (charge coupled device) or CMOS (complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor) imaging sensors to track the prism. These sensors increase the field of view, so that there is no longer any want to know the approximate location of the prism. By computing the shift indicated by the imaging sensor they even permit accurate measurement when the prism is not in line with the optical axis of the theodelite.

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2009-02-12T05:44:00.000-08:00

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The American Surveyor Magazine - Land Surveying and Mapping Online
February 10, 2009 at 8:32 am

LTI's newest laser, the TruPulse® 360, is the first integrated compass, inclinometer and distance laser that delivers mapping-grade accuracy regardless of what angle you shoot from. "CartoPac is at the forefront of ... The CartoPac Enterprise suite of mobile technologies manage many of the complexities found in traditional GIS/GPS applications behind the scenes to deliver faster, more productive solutions to a much broader range of field staff. CartoPac software is ideal ...

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Site Layout with a robotic total station

2009-02-09T17:31:00.000-08:00

For many years, the optical transit was the surveyor's tool of choice to lay out property lines and building sites. By the 1970s, however, the electronic theodolite began to replace the transit since it could measure angles more accurately on both the horizontal and vertical axes. In the early 1980s, "total stations," which measure distances very accurately by using electronic distance meters (EDMs), became the instrument of choice. Then in late 1990, Geodimeter, Dandryd Sweden introduced the first "robotic total station,". adding automatic tracking and radio communication to a radio and data collector at the "target" or pole. Thus, for the first time, no person was required at the instrument--only at the target, reducing the size of a survey crew.

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Today three companies manufacture robotic total stations, Trimble (now the owner of Geodimeter, although it no longer uses that name), Leica, and Topcon. Once a tool for surveyors only, robotic total stations are currently being purchased and used in numerous ways by contractors--especially concrete contractors. One large contractor/construction company owns more than 75 robotic total stations.

The fundamental elements

Each manufacturer of robotic total stations has its own features and benefits, but the basic elements are all the same.

All robotic total stations are servo-motor-driven and measure angles both in the X-Y (horizontal) plane and the Z (elevation) axis. These measurements are very precise and accurate: most instruments measure 3 seconds of accuracy or less (5-second instruments are typically required for construction purposes).

Each total station has an electronic distance meter (EDM). Through either laser technology or infrared sensors, it can precisely measure the distance from the instrument to the target within millimeter accuracy. Precision tolerances of 1/100 foot (less than 1/16 inch) in 1000 feet are typical.

Every system uses a target, which has a prism to reflect light back to the instrument for measurement, and an electronic data collector, which communicates with the instrument through radio communication--also known as telemetry.

By using servomotors, prisms, and infrared technology, robotic total stations search for, and then lock onto, the target, automatically following it as the layout person moves it around a jobsite. At the same time, the data collector built into the target is being updated with information radioed from the instrument.

All manufacturers provide computer software to download and upload coordinate information. This information can come from computer-aided drafting (CAD) files downloaded from office computers, PCMCIA cards (flash cards similar to those used for digital cameras), ASCII files, or coordinate points manually entered into the instrument.

Working with them on a jobsite

Scott Carter, president of Robotic Surveying Solutions, Farmington, Utah, states that "Robotic total stations offer the maximum flexibility on a jobsite. While increasing productivity and accuracy, they reduce labor cost and eliminate error." The instrument can be set up in out-of-the-way places, locating itself by calculating its own coordinates and orientation. You can also place it directly over a control point, the required position for both transits and theodolites. The flexibility of being able to locate the station anywhere on or near the site greatly increases efficiency and accuracy, and reduces errors.

When a robotic total station is turned on, it automatically searches for the target and locks onto it. After the instrument acquires "lock" on the target, it tracks the target at speeds of up to 13 feet per second. And, while it tracks the target, it's also constantly updating the data collector.

"Before you start layout work you must first shoot at least two orientation points or known control points in order for the instrument to locate its position on the jobsite. These two control points are usually land survey points. Other control points can be established and used after a project is started," states Carter. "You are now ready to do layout work. The instrument directs you to each point for staking out. You are directed to each point by a constantly updated map on the data collector or by constantly updated commands, such as to/away, left/right, and cut/fill."

To err is human

Occasionally you might hear the argument that two experienced layout people with a tape measure can be just as accurate as a robotic total station. But this isn't true. Paul Hahn, marketing manager for Trimble's Geomatics and Engineering division, states, "Distance and angle measuring systems just don't go wrong. Assuming that there are no mechanical problems with the instrument, errors in measurement or location are human ones--not instrument ones." The primary reasons for errors are the following:

* The robotic total station wasn't properly put through a checkout procedure before layout started.

* The rodman didn't hold the target plumb when marking the control points to orient the total station--the most common error.

* The "Peg Whacker" (person who pounds the stakes) didn't place the control stake at the point defined by the total station.

* The tripod holding the instrument moved because it wasn't properly stabilized when it was set up.

* Instruments can lose accuracy when treated roughly, not dried when they get wet, or not calibrated, cleaned, or maintained.

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When the robotic total station is set up on a jobsite, a few checkout procedures should be followed. If the instrument is set up directly on a control point, carefully check to be sure that the instrument is plumb over the control point and that the control points have not been disturbed. Then always check another control or known point to confirm your orientation. If the instrument is set up in an "out-of-harm's-way location," sometimes referred to as "free station" or "resection," shoot at least two control points and then do a check shot on at least one other control point on the jobsite.

Good layout people always check their work as they proceed. If, for instance, control points for a rectangular space are plotted, the diagonals should be checked to be sure that they are equal. Programs for checks like this are found in each data collector.

Limitations

The greatest limitation for robotic total stations is that they require a line of sight to each control point. Another problem, according to Mark Contino, marketing manager for Topcon, Pleasanton, Calif., is occasional radio interference between the data collector at the target and the instrument. This problem is partly solved by multichannel frequencies.

In terms of accuracy, Hahn states that one can expect horizontal distances of 700 feet and less to be accurate within [+ or -] 2 mm (about 1/16 inch). Positional accuracy should be within 1/8 inch. Beyond 700 feet, accuracy drops to within 1/4 inch. Rick Sauve, technical sales rep for Leica Geosystems, Livonia, Mich., adds that the best vertical shots for plumb occur below 500 feet. Above that, light rays can be affected by atmospheric conditions. Wind sway in tall structures can cause problems too.

Going prism free

Carter acknowledges that the primary selling point for using robotic total stations is the freedom of having one person operate the system from the target. But many owners are beginning to see the advantage of moving that person back to the crosshairs of the instrument to use its laser EDM capabilities without a prism--referred to as "direct reflex" technology. By placing the eyepiece crosshairs of the instrument on a point, the distance, coordinates and other important data relating to that point can be collected. Plotting and mapping areas that are difficult or unsafe to reach with the target can now be completed with ease and safety, saving time and energy. Examples of using EDM include the mapping of wetland areas by plotting points where the water touches land. One can also locate an instrument at a safe position alongside a busy freeway to plot points in heavy traffic or take shots on the centerline of a road without actually going into the road. Or, you can safely measure the distance from the ground to a sagging powerline that could come in contact with construction equipment, or shoot a tree or dirt pile without ever getting next to it or climbing onto it.

How contractors are using them

Both commercial and residential concrete contractors are using robotic total stations for building layout work. Residential foundation contractors often provide control points for footing excavation work, then reshoot the points for footing layout, and make a third trip to locate foundation walls on the footings. And delays can occur if surveyors are not available at the site when needed.

Commercially, contractors use total robotic stations to check elevations, locate columns and walls, lay out anchor bolt patterns, and lay out utilities for each floor of a building. Sauve adds that Leica includes a digital terrain model (DTM) feature, which allows one to decide on finished elevations for a project. Then when the target is used to shoot points on the site, the amount of "cut" and "fill" can be determined.

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Why the trend for contractor ownership

Here are some reasons why contractors are purchasing robotic total stations--a rather expensive tool which at one time only surveyors purchased.

* Projects stay on schedule because contractors don't have to wait for others to provide them with needed control points during a job. Today the trend is for surveyors to perform land survey work and contractors to perform job layout functions.

* They are extremely accurate. Fewer costly layout mistakes are made.

* They can do the work of two or three workers in half the time. For many contractors, robotic total stations pay for themselves during the first year of ownership.

The need for training

Carter points out that once these instruments are purchased, contractors find many other uses for them. "By taking advantage of `alternative advanced training' opportunities, contractors can learn how to better use the equipment and become more productive with it." Carter offers training and consulting on total robotic stations and can be contacted at 801-201-9510 or scarter@xmission.com.

For information about robotic total stations, contact the manufacturers directly or circle the appropriate number on the reader service card.

Leica Geosystems, 800-4-LASERS (800-452-7377), www.leica-geosystems.com, circle 6

Topcon Positioning Systems, 800-443-4567, www.topcon.com, circle 7

Trimble, 800-538-7800, www.trimble.com, circle 8

2009-02-09T17:29:00.000-08:00

The fundamental elements

Each manufacturer of robotic total stations has its own features and benefits, but the basic elements are all the same.

Working with them on a jobsite

To err is human

* The robotic total station wasn't properly put through a checkout procedure before layout started.

* The rodman didn't hold the target plumb when marking the control points to orient the total station--the most common error.

* The "Peg Whacker" (person who pounds the stakes) didn't place the control stake at the point defined by the total station.

* The tripod holding the instrument moved because it wasn't properly stabilized when it was set up.

* Instruments can lose accuracy when treated roughly, not dried when they get wet, or not calibrated, cleaned, or maintained.

Limitations

Going prism free

Commercial Construction Staking

2009-02-09T11:09:00.000-08:00

by: Charles Iner

Construction staking for commercial projects is a crucial step in the building process that can directly influence whether a project finishes on time, on budget, and free from errors. It is in the best interests of the construction company or developer to utilize the skills of a qualified registered land surveyor to perform the staking. A good surveyor will interpret the plans and layout the project to best fit the site as the designer, engineer, or architect intended. By having someone with the skills and knowledge of a professional registered land surveyor, the builder can be certain of the accuracy and reliability of the results.
Commercial construction staking is needed for a variety of different projects, including subdivisions, streets, utilities, and more complex, multi-story building sites. Construction staking is, at its most basic, the laying out of survey points on the ground to act as a guide for constructing site improvements. In many ways, construction staking can be seen as the opposite of the as-built survey. The as-built assesses a building or project after completion to ensure that is was built according to the plans. Construction staking is performed at the beginning of the project to make sure that the project is built according to plan. Good construction staking will lead to a good as-built survey.
Construction staking, especially in a commercial application, calls upon all the skills that a land surveyor possesses. They are required to complete a boundary and topographic survey to ensure that the property matched the site plan and engineering design. They must also perform field staking for mass grading, building offsets for construction, utilities (sanitary sewers, water mains and storm sewers), as well as any parking lots, streets, curbs, or gutters. These are all done before the surveyor even begins to address the proposed buildings on the property.
Once a surveyor moves on to staking the proposed structures, he provides the location and grade stakes for building foundations, walls, and column lines. This is a crucial step in the process. If the buildings foundations are not staked properly, it can be a very costly mistake for the construction crew that could have the potential to ruin the job altogether. A knowledgeable land surveyor is a builder's best tool to avoid foundation problems further on in the process. A good surveyor will establish a coordinate network with horizontal and vertical controls from the beginning of the property and use it to calculate and determine the exact corners and levels of proposed structures.
While construction staking is seen by many to be a simple step at the beginning of a project, it can have very dire ramifications for the rest of the project if not completed correctly. In commercial projects, the importance of a well-performed construction staking is magnified, given the larger structures and vast amounts of money the construction staking affects. It is money and time well spent to make sure that a qualified individual with the proper surveying knowledge and experience is conducting your construction staking survey.
We at Point to Point Land Surveyors pride ourselves on accuracy, customer service and quality work delivered on time, guaranteed. Commercial land surveys are a specialty.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Charles_Iner

Land Surveyors' Equipment - Basic Use of a Total Station

2009-02-09T11:05:00.000-08:00

by Ray Eddings

Have you ever seen a land surveying team using a camera-like devise on top of a tripod? Here's a quick explanation of that device, called a total station, and how it works.
A total station is a land-surveying tool used to accurately measure distances, architecture and geological land forms such as mountains. The device is extremely accurate, with some able to measure distances up to 0.1 millimeter or 1/1000 of a foot. Most surveyors don't need that much accuracy (which necessitates a higher cost out-of-pocket) and opt for a less expensive model accurate to 1 millimeter or 1/100 of a foot.
The total station itself looks a bit like a camera. You may have seen them mounted on a tripod -- they are often used at highway construction zones to measure the distance of an expansion, new on-ramp or other change to the traffic pattern. The standard unit includes a second piece attached to a pole.
This second piece is the reflector, and it is usually manned by a second surveyor. Matching the exact height of the total station relative to the reflector is extremely important to ensure accurate measurements, so often surveyors will do several trial runs before they note the points they're measuring. To aid in accuracy, the reflector point has a leveling bubble on its top, so that the person in charge of that end of the process can be sure the device is completely level.
Leveling the reflector is extremely important to ensure it matches the total station's height and gives an accurate distance reading that isn't skewed to the left or right, up or down.
Some newer total stations, including the Topcon total station, offer reflectorless measuring devices. These pinpoint an object using a scope in a view-finder chosen by the surveyor using the device. The Topcon total station then emits a modulated microwave or infrared signal that bounces off the target and back to the device, allowing it to measure distances out to about 1.5 miles (or 2 km).
Total stations are finding uses beyond land surveying. Police departments have begun using the devices to precisely measure and record elements of crime scenes. The data collected can offer a valuable record and even produce new information about the crime scene when processed through a computer.
About the Author
This article was written on behalf of http://southernphoto.com. For more information about land surveyors' equipment and land surveying visit their website.

Land Surveying has Changed Dramatically Thanks to Improved Technology and Better Tools

2009-02-09T11:03:00.000-08:00

by Ray Eddings

The equipment that land surveyors use has changed dramatically over the last few decades. In the not too distant past land surveying meant little more than marking of land with known measurements of chain or rope, using telescopes to determine angles and doing some math. While these methods served in most situations well enough, they were nothing like the precision and accuracy made available by today's land surveying equipment.
Surveying is a skill that requires accurate terrestrial measurements. This involves the three-dimensional position of points, angles and distances. The surveyor applies mathematics such as geometry, trigonometry as well as general engineering know-how to these raw data. The measurements are used in applications that range from cartography to architecture to city planning.
Ever more precise and faster computers, laser measurements and GPS have made a wide variety of tools available to the land surveyor. Which tool he chooses depends on the demands of a given project as well as the preferences of the surveyor. Some of the commonly used surveying equipments are described below.
One of the biggest revolutions in the land surveying industry in recent years has been the GPS system. It begins with the simple notion that knowing the precise geographical location of two points then determining the distance between those two points is a matter of simple math. GPS made establishing those positions to remarkable degrees of precision possible.
Lasers have long been in the surveyor's tool bag but have become increasingly more useful as advances in computers and the laser equipment itself have increased their usability and functionality. The obvious advantage of the laser is that it describes a straight line - far straighter a line that any chain, string or tape could hope to describe. While gravity and terrain greatly affect the ability of these more concrete objects to be straight, lasers have no such problems and can be depended on for accurate measurements.
Smaller, faster and more efficient computers have also gone a long way to improving surveyor's equipment. Like lasers, land surveyors have been making use of computers for a long time but every few months there seems to be a more compact system with a greater range of useful applications. Using the data gathered from lasers and GPS equipment described above computers can now draw surprisingly accurate representations of any location in three dimensions.
The land surveyor's range of tools has changed dramatically over the last few decades. Even so surveying remains a profession that requires a unique and rare skill set. Regardless of the apparent ease of use of modern tools, it takes a land surveyor's know-how to make the best use of these tools as well as the results.
About the Author
This article was written on behalf of http://www.SouthernPhoto.com/. For more information about land surveying equipment like total stations please visit SouthernPhoto.com.

3-D Modeling for GPS Grade Control

2009-02-09T06:13:00.000-08:00

Modeling for Grade Control is a very fascinating subject. I worked exclusively with Trimble Terramodel and Trimble GPS grade control over the past two years, so this post is going to reflect that.
The simpliest and most effective way to model is to take a set of plans and create your own as any good Terramodel user probably does anyway. Input you horizontal and vertical alignments, define your slope alignments for superelevations, widenings and what-have-you, and create shapes and Templates. Terramodel is filled with tools to create anything from a simple roadway to the most complex state highway project that you can imagine.
A good majority of the projects that I was involved on came with a digital file of some sorts. That in and of itself is a good thing. You can get your project defined and you dtm and background maps created very quickly, which allows you to get the base station established and the site under control and the files loaded into the dozers, and graders in a minimum amount of time, which is, after all, the name of the game it seems.
The downside of using the digital files is this. Most files provided to me were submitted to the Dept. of Transportation by the engineer who was contracted for the design and these files, at best, are about 85 to 90% complete. Widenings, Taper lanes, Special ditches, Turning Lanes, .etc, are added, sometimes manually, at a later time and, invariable, the Model submitted to the State will not be updated. Big Headache when you have several projects going and are on the other side of the state! When you discover something is missing and make the call to inquire why, you will always get the speech about the paper plans over-rule the digital files, even though the paper plans are supposed to represent the digital files. It taught me a valuable lesson in Data Prep. The digital model provided, will get you up and running, BUT, it needs to be checked against the paper plans and the final model, especially your Blue-topping or subgrade layer, needs to be thoroughly checked against the plans and cross-sections. The State will hold to the paper sheets over all else, unless, god forbid, a mistake is found.
I write this as a solo surveyor that worked for a Construction Company. I comprised the entire Survey, Cadd, GPS, departments, and my comments are based on personal experience.
When I was not Establishing a base station, calibrating a site, field staking or Gps troubleshooting, I built the files for grade control. In retrospect, I did not always have the time to build it by the book and sometimes relied on the models provided as a quick grab-and-go alternative to get up and running.
The construction industry has embraced GPS grade control and the days of the conventional survey crews are numbered. Surveyors are becoming consultants, file builders and GPS troubleshooters. Our do whatever it takes to stay ahead of the equipment mentality is evolving into a create a perfect model so a anyone with a little rover experience can do the stakeout mentality. It will be a transition to say the least. But, in the long run, a rewarding change.

Trimble GCS900 Grade Control System Allows Even Faster Grading Without Sacrificing Accuracy.

2009-01-22T08:36:00.001-08:00

SUNNYVALE, Calif., April 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Trimble today introduced its Trimble(R) GCS900 Grade Control System version 10.8, which provides automatic blade control, configurable earthworks progress monitoring and blade guidance software on the machine to enable operators to be more efficient and productive. The new version allows earthworks operators to visualize, construct and balance road surfaces more accurately and faster, in higher gears.

The enhancements to the GCS900 Grade Control System reinforce Trimble's leadership in providing the broadest portfolio of solutions for the heavy and highway contractor. GCS900 is a leading modular grade control system for applications ranging from mass excavation to finished grade earthworks and compaction. The latest version of the system can improve contractor productivity by providing operators with better information faster, and by offering more control to machine operators on site.

Automatic Blade Control Performance Enhancements for Dozers

With version 10.8, the Trimble GCS900 has optimized automatic blade control settings for dozers. Working closely with multiple equipment manufacturers, Trimble has developed specialized interface settings that optimize hydraulic performance on the dozer when the Trimble GCS900 Grade Control System is automatically controlling the dozer blade. No additional sensors or expensive hardware add-on kits are required to achieve this level of automatic performance. This performance allows the operator to grade, not just simple pads and slopes, but complex design surfaces and alignments at faster speeds, without sacrificing grade control accuracy or quality of the final graded surface.

New On-machine Software Enhancements

The Trimble GCS900 version 10.8 on-machine software offers enhancements to the operator configurable software, including improved earthworks progress information and configurable blade guidance options.

Operators can grade to cut / fill maps representing the total earthworks progress on the job site, generated from the Trimble SiteVision(R) Office Productivity Module. These cut / fill maps are generated from productivity data collected from each machine equipped with Trimble GCS900 and represent the total earthworks progress on the job site. As machines work, the cut / fill maps are updated. The data can be transferred back to the office at the end of a shift, reprocessed and transferred back to the machines at the start of the next shift. Operators of all abilities can benefit from this new capability by immediately visualizing target areas that require further excavation to get to design grade, anywhere on the jobsite.

New blade tip guidance options display enhanced real-time guidance information to the operator. The operator can configure custom guidance to multiple road elements from each blade tip, as the machine travels across the design. These new custom guidance blade tip guidance options allow the operator to configure the system to suit the needs of any fine grade application and provide even more in-cab real-time guidance information for high accuracy grade control capability.

The Trimble GCS900 Grade Control System version 10.8 is expected to be available in April 2008 through the Trimble worldwide construction distributor network.

About Trimble's Construction Business

Trimble's Construction Division is a leading innovator of productivity solutions for both the heavy and highway contractor and the building construction contractor. Trimble's solutions leverage a variety of technologies, including Global Positioning System (GPS), construction lasers, total stations, wireless data communications, the Internet, and application software. As part of the Trimble Connected Site strategy, these solutions provide a high-level of process and workflow integration from the design phase through to the finished project-delivering significant improvements in productivity throughout the construction lifecycle.

About Trimble

Trimble applies technology to make field and mobile workers in businesses and government significantly more productive. Solutions are focused on applications requiring position or location-including surveying, construction, agriculture, fleet and asset management, public safety and mapping. In addition to utilizing positioning technologies, such as GPS, lasers and optics, Trimble solutions may include software content specific to the needs of the user. Wireless technologies are utilized to deliver the solution to the user and to ensure a tight coupling of the field and the back office. Founded in 1978 and headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif., Trimble has a worldwide presence with more than 3,600 employees in over 18 countries.

For more information Trimble's Web site at http://www.trimble.com/.

GTRMB

CONTACT: Investors, Willa McManmon , +1-408-481-7838, investor_relations@trimble.com, or Media, Lea Ann McNabb, +1-408-481-7808, leaann_mcnabb@trimble.com, both of Trimble

Web site: http://www.trimble.com/

Making the most of machine control: surveyors can expand their businesses by offering site control and data prep services.

2009-01-22T08:33:00.001-08:00

Sometimes the things that intimidate us, or seem strange or extraordinary to us, may be the things that will help us to succeed. Take machine control technology; it is a mystery to many how it works but could be a lucrative area of the field to invest in. When I discuss machine control with engineers and surveyors, I am often surprised by the majority who have not heard of this technology. And when explained to them, some believe it is "Star Wars" technology and that they will never see it used in their lifetime. Many believe it is "too expensive" and will take years for it to become the standard for construction work.

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In reality, however, this technology is not all that new and is in fact steadily progressing. Some reasons for its growth include the resultant reduction in the cost of construction work, and that it nearly eliminates the need for grade stakes, hubs and stringlines. Another reason many contractors and surveyors are taking notice of this technology is that it allows contractors to accomplish jobs on time while maintaining a higher level of accuracy. Owners/developers in turn like this because their projects get built on time and (hopefully) under budget. Overall, the market of machine control offers a wealth of opportunity for surveyors (and their clients) in which they can grow, thus increasing their revenue.

An Extension of Current Practice

Equipment automation technology through machine control configurations integrate heavy construction equipment such as bulldozers and excavators with GPS or laser-guided positioning systems. The systems indicate to the operator where he is on a site and indicate in what direction to go and how much material to dig or move (cut or fill). As with most technology, the benefits of machine control do not come without a cost. In a financial sense, there is an additional cost in the initial investment to the contactor to implement machine control, but the return on his investment can typically be made in the first job. In a strategic sense, the surveyor who relies on construction stakeout as a source of revenue could see this revenue diminish or disappear if he does not embrace the progression of this segment of the market. Surveying professionals can benefit from machine control technology by substituting their construction stakeout services with data prep services, or by adding these services. To do this, surveyors must become knowledgeable in the components of machine control technology--many of which are already familiar to them.

Components of Machine Control Technology

There are four main components that are required for machine control to be successful. The first component is the guidance system, which is installed on the desired machine. Typically graders, bulldozers and excavators are well-supported. Guidance systems can be GPS-configured; with GPS, rough grading can be accomplished. For fine or finished grades, a laser-guided system using a robotic total station is used. Some newer systems are combining these two technologies for even better accuracy.

The next component is the GPS network, a required component for the GPS-enabled systems. Since GPS satellites are available 24/7, work can be done at just about any time of the day or night. The signals are transmitted to the bulldozer, grader or any other piece of construction equipment that has been outfitted with a GPS receiver to provide the location of the equipment.

The last two components required for using a guidance system could be considered the two most important pieces. Site control and the 3D digital model of a site must be accurately established for everything to come together successfully. This is where surveying professionals may not only regain revenue lost from traditional staking jobs, but also potentially increase revenue and job opportunities. It is these measuring experts who can best provide this pertinent information to engineers and contractors.

Site Control

Site control provides an accurate network of known points and data that will be used throughout the project. Establishing a network of control points around a site will allow a contractor to set up his GPS base stations or robotic total stations in the best locations to move around the project site while minimizing the loss of signal and data. The site control will also provide a mechanism for the contractor to calibrate his equipment.

Turning this component of the machine control technology into a revenue stream should be fairly easy for surveyors as they already possess the knowledge and experience to perform site control. Utilizing control networks is common practice for most construction projects. The control network for a project using machine control technology can be set and maintained by traditional survey equipment or GPS equipment. The surveyor is the most fitting professional to provide this service, which is invaluable to contractors and subcontractors. By providing the valuable service of site control, the land surveyor becomes a trusted advisor to the owners, developers and contractors of the construction site.

"Site control experts" (or whatever surveyors choose to call themselves) can provide a level of quality and assurance that is urgently required for construction projects. Over- and under-excavation can be avoided with the accurate site control a surveyor can provide. And surveyors can take the lead and provide this invaluable service to any machine control project.

Data Prep

Many engineers don't know machine control technology exists--let alone know of its value. As such, they have been slow to design their projects using a 3D model; many still produce paper plans. The value of a 3D model would not only help these professionals design a better and more accurate project, but they would be able to provide this data to the contractor who needs it in the field.

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So what does the contractor need to do to turn his paper drawings into a 3D data model? Some request the data from the engineer or owner. However, this typically requires a lot of work to get the data prepared and a model created. Some will digitize the plans themselves to create the model. Some hire an engineer or other expert to re-create the model. All these scenarios can be acceptable but few have turned their actions into a solid business model.

A better solution is to call on a surveyor, and this is where I believe the surveying industry can make the biggest impact on the machine control industry. Surveyors or their technicians have been building terrain models for many years and are the experts at creating an accurate surface, whether it be existing or proposed. In addition to becoming the site control experts, surveyors can become the 3D data prep experts as well. As with the site control service, no additional equipment is required. Just about all surveying companies have software that produces surface models from survey field data. This same software can also be used to generate proposed surface models, which are then uploaded to a PC card and provided to the bulldozer or grader operator. It simply takes the surveyor to realize how to apply his expertise.

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A drawing with contours alone does not mean there is a surface. The contours are used to convey what a site should look like and are typically created from the surface. To gain an understanding of how to create the model is to understand some basic components of a surface--something well known to surveyors. A surface (also known as a digital terrain model, or DTM, and as a Triangular Irregular Network, or TIN) is really just a series of triangles. Most civil engineering software applications build surfaces by interpolating between the three closest points. Even though contours can be a source of data used to build a surface, the most desirable source of data are points and breaklines. The points are used by the application to create the triangles and the breaklines are used to force the triangulation the correct way. Breaklines are typically lines that dictate a major change in grade, road crowns, curb lines and ditches, for example.

The time it takes to create a surface and prepare the data can vary greatly. It will depend on the amount of digital data that is available as well as the software application being used to create the model. Autodesk Civil 3D and Autodesk Land Desktop (San Rafael, Calif.), Bentley GEOPAK and Bentley InRoads (Exton, Pa.), Eagle Point (Dubuque, Iowa) and Trimble Terramodel (Sunnyvale, Calif.) are just a few examples of software applications that provide good tools to create the data and build surfaces. Most will provide an application that will upload the surface directly to the PC card that is used by the contractor on the heavy equipment. The same software applications can be used to turn paper plans into digital models.

An Opportunity for Surveyors

Site control is not new to the surveying industry. Turning this service into a revenue-generating mechanism can be beneficial for many forward-thinking surveying firms. Surveying firms that currently provide construction stakeout services to owners, developers and/or contractors can begin to cultivate those relationships into different or additional business by educating those clients on machine control technology. Also, the machine control industry stretches much farther than just the construction industry. The agricultural industry has also been using GPS technology in combination with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for many years. Firms that provide GIS services could expand their services into the machine control industry as well.

Overall, when it comes to the machine control industry there really isn't a secret ingredient for success. Firms seeking to provide services in this market need knowledge and understanding of each of the four technology components to make the whole process work. There is no one better suited to understand each component of this technology than the professional land surveyor.

Mike Carris, LSIT, has been in the engineering and land surveying business for 15 years. His experience includes surveying as a United States Marine where he first learned AutoCAD. After an honorable tour of duty he transitioned into the civilian surveying and engineering industries. He is currently an independent consultant for the civil/surveying/land development industry. He can be reached at mike.carris@k-teksolutions.com.

BY MIKE CARRIS, LSIT

Precision market to reach $8b by 2012.(SURVEY & CONSTRUCTION)

2009-01-22T08:28:00.001-08:00

In the next five years, a number of important milestones in the evolution of precision GNSS will transform it from a niche technology to an essential productivity tool in globally important industrial sectors such as mining, agriculture, and construction.

These milestones include the value of precision GNSS systems used for industrial applications such as machine control in agriculture and civil engineering exceeding that of precision GNSS for traditional uses such as surveying and science, for the first time. (For the purposes of this article, precision GNSS is defined as GNSS equipment/software/services that can provide horizontal precision of 10 centimeters or less using GNSS technology.)

The global value of precision GNSS products and services is approximately $3 billion today, and will grow to between $6 billion and $8 billion by 2012 (FIGURE 1), according to a market research report I co-authored with Rob Lorimer of Position One Consulting Pty. Ltd. (see sidebar).

Projected growth rates for Machine Control outpace traditional Non-Machine Control over the next five years. During 2008-12, Machine Control applications for precision GNSS are forecast to grow at a 23-28 percent Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR), whereas the growth in Non-machine Control applications is forecast at 16-21 percent CAGR. FIGURES 2 and 3 show the optimistic and realistic growth numbers for four sectors and the market as a whole.

Growing Agriculture. This pattern of grown is clearly illustrated in the current growth of the precision agriculture sector which has been a subject of discussion and product development for well over a decade.

Historically, Hemisphere GPS (formerly CSI), Trimble Navigation, OmniSTAR, and smaller designers and system integrators were the GNSS technology providers for precision agriculture. For many years, the leading technology for precision agriculture was GPS L1 receivers providing sub-meter precision. That precision was good enough for yield mapping, applying chemicals, field mapping, aerial spraying, and various other tasks where sub-meter precision was really useful. That market matured.

Then along came high-precision applications such as auto-steer, where sub-meter precision wasn't good enough. At one centimeter horizontal accuracy, Real-Time Kinematic (RTK) technology fit that application perfectly and auto-steer in agriculture equipment became a practical application for precision GNSS.

RTK equipment is much more expensive than sub-meter equipment. The world-wide agriculture market is booming. Auto-steer and other high-precision applications in agriculture contribute to increased production capacity. Combine these three factors and you have a market that has the money and incentive to make the capital investment.

A New Breed. That dynamic has attracted a new breed of GNSS technology providers in agriculture. Take Leica Geosystems, for example. They've always been a player in the surveying sector, but a non-factor in the agriculture sector. That has changed. Visit their MojoRTK website (www.mojortk.com) and you'll see how serious they are about ag. Add Topcon, Novariant, and John Deere to the mix and you have a totally different competitive landscape, all pushing their high-precision GNSS solutions.

Even the traditional precision ag players, Hemisphere and Trimble, have adjusted their product strategies. Trimble, along with Leica, is dominating the Network RTK infrastructure sector, thus helping their agriculture RTK rover sales, also. Earlier this year, Hemisphere introduced its first dual-frequency RTK receiver and also acquired Beeline Technologies, a software pioneer in auto-steer and machine control technology. Ten years ago, OmniSTAR only had a real-time sub-meter service. Today, the company also has two brands of decimeter services.

It's been written before and it may more closely resemble folklore than reality, but Charlie Trimble has been attributed with saying that accuracy is addictive. It's a powerful statement. Regardless of who said it, it's a true statement. There's clearly a trend toward higher precision across all segments.

Precision Data Services. The growth in the number of precision GNSS users (estimated at more than 300,000 globally in 2008) is encouraging government and the private sector to invest in precision GNSS infrastructure. This infrastructure uses GNSS reference stations and wireless communications to deliver a data service to multiple users, removing the need for individual users to operate their own GNSS reference stations. The growth of infrastructure and its associated data services will be a significant feature of the precision GNSS landscape in 2008-2012. Indeed, precision GNSS data services are forecast to be the fastest growing component of the value chain at 33-38 percent CAGR.

Clearly, RTK Networks will play a large part in the projected GNSS data services growth segment. The question remains to be answered as to whom will benefit the most. Some government agencies (and even entire countries) are setting up and offering the corrections for free.

On the other end of the spectrum, local GNSS equipment distributors or other entrepreneurs are setting up RTK Networks and offering subscriptions to the open market. It's a dynamic situation with a few more turns in the road before it's clear where the road will lead.

No matter where the road heads, the steady shift in user demographics, continued evolution of space-based systems, and precise positioning techniques--combined with the growth of dedicated precision GNSS infrastructure and associated services--are a recipe for a dynamic and rapidly changing business environment.

Transformation. On the subject of the evolution of GNSS, during the period 2008-2012, a transformation in the way that precision GNSS is delivered to users will begin. Dual-frequency (L1/L2) codeless/semi-codeless techniques have been the hallmark of precision GPS since the 1980s. That is changing not only due to the GPS Wing's announcement of the end of civil support for codeless/semi-codeless (in 2021), but also because of the advent and evolution of new satellite systems including GLONASS (Russia), Galileo (EU), and GPS modernization. New satellites and new signals will transform the way precision GNSS products are designed and the way they perform. Precise positioning will become much more affordable than it is today and that will enable the technology to reach a much broader range of applications.

Eric Gakstatter is GPS World's contributing editor for Survey & Construction.

RELATED ARTICLE: Report Analyzes Precision Market

The market report "GNSS Precise Positioning Market Report 2008-2012" includes details on the projected U.S value chain starting with precision GNSS infrastructure, continuing through the market for GNSS receivers, finished GNSS goods, and concluding with GNSS augmentation and distribution services.

Markets covered include surveying, engineering, agriculture, mining, deformation monitoring, GIS, and marine for both machine control and non-machine control applications for the time period 2008 through 2012.

At the core of the 213-page report are five-year growth and financial projections for the high-precision GNSS markets surveyed, as well as analysis of the com petitive landscape, according to the report's authors.

"It is a comprehensive look at the high-precision GNSS industry covering the competitive landscape, technology trends and market data based on hard numbers," said Eric Gakstatter, who co-authored the report with Rob Lorimer of Position One Consulting Pty. Ltd. "New GNSS signals, new GNSS technologies, and new competitors have created extraordinary market dynamics in the precision GNSS industry."

The report also discusses the background and status of the entire spectrum of GNSS including GPS, GPS modernization, GLONASS and GLONASS modernization, SBAS (satellite-based augmentation systems), Galileo and Compass/Beidou, QZSS, and IRNSS systems, as well as technology/market trends and potential disruptions.

The authors debuted the report at the Institute of Navigation (ION) GNSS conference in Savannah, Georgia, in September. An abstract of the report can be found at www.gpsworld.com/precision.

A model entrepreneur: experience and perseverance propel professional into data modeling world.

2009-01-22T08:16:00.001-08:00

Thad Glankler may sound laid back with his Southern drawl, but those who work with him know better. Many clients and colleagues, he admits, call him "anal." But this meticulous characteristic is precisely what Glankler needs in his line of work: data modeling.

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After almost 20 years of working for others, Glankler branched out on his own last year to serve clients as a consultant rather than an employee, which has allowed him to provide services for any project scope using a compendium of construction technology products. And as a licensed professional engineer experienced in field surveying, CAD and machine control, After almost 20 years of working for others, Glankler branched out on his own last year to serve clients as a consultant rather than an employee, which has allowed him to provide services for any project scope using a compendium of construction technology products. And as a licensed professional engineer experienced in field surveying, CAD and machine control, Glankler Data Services, LLP, of Lake Wylie, S.C., is well-positioned for success in this small but highly specialized market.

"What helps in modeling is to know different CAD files and programs and how the layers are named and whether they're designed for checking contours," Glankler says. "Are they splined? Do they have too many vertices? Are lines connected or curve lines joined together? Stuff like that can cause problems in the models."

He says the student peers he had in engineering school told him not to learn CAD. "They'll think you're a CAD drafter," Glankler remembers them warning. "I'd always tell them, 'I'm not learning to draft; I'm learning to design,'" he says.

This perspective and knowledge of CAD as a 3D design tool has proven to be beneficial for Glankler. "It made my job easier if I could do profiles and design my storm and sewer--if I put it all in there rather than handing it to a CAD tech that would mess it up every time and who would have to do it over again."

Glankler's engineering background also helps him to read plans and know what an engineer intended. "I can look at a set of plans, and I know exactly what is going on," he says. "Sometimes you look and think, 'Where is this information for the storm? It's not on the sheet. Oh, it's probably here or here.' Or you'll have everything in there [but] you just need to clean it up. You ask yourself, 'What do I need to keep?' Well, what do you need to build the model? Anything to get your elevations, locations to build it."

This experience and common-sense approach have propelled Glankler to where he is today. And his zeal for self-teaching keeps him on top of industry offerings.

Glankler 101

"You can learn the software, but that's not knowing how to build a DTM," Glankler says. "Learning how to design wasn't something that any company I was in taught me. It was me bringing it [a design program] home and playing with it or at the office trying to find a quicker way or better way to do something."

Sometimes, finding that quicker, better way requires the willingness to try something new. "I've heard people say, 'I've never been in that menu before. What happens?' and I say, 'I don't know. Push it, and see what happens. If you don't like it, there's a big Undo button," he says. "And some say, 'Well, that isn't what that was intended for.' And I say, 'So what? It works just fine.'"

But knowing where the errors are before a user even gets started is what can make or break the value of a model. Glankler says he can find where contours don't match the road profile. For example, when a detail shows that a road is at a 2-percent slope rather than an intended 3-percent slope, Glankler spots it. His keen eye and common sense lead him to stop, pick up the phone and find out which one to go with.

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While this keen eye and natural sense guide him, contractors save money. "Sometimes three contours will come in one side of a building and only two will come out the other side, and there's a foot in there somewhere," he explains. "In the modeling process, I will find that. Surveyors are just pulling elevations off the contours and might not necessarily pick [the error] up until they're out there digging--and at that point it's too late. The contractor's losing money. If I can find those in the building process, I'm contouring it at a tenth of a foot and highlighting where the low points are so I make sure there is a catch basin or something that it's going to. Before they get out there and start moving heavy dirt, I can show them areas that aren't going to work."

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Glankler client Jordan Anglin, a project engineer for general contractor Henderson Inc. of Williamsburg, Va., agrees. "We'll have a model, like a giant condo complex, and he'll call me and tell me, 'You might want to call your engineer. Unit Twenty-One is backgraded, and they're going to hold water in the garage,'" he says. "And that's before we ever step foot on the job. That saves the owners money, the engineers, everyone."

The Missing Link

Anglin also agrees that it's Glankler's well-rounded experience that sets him apart from other modelers. It has, in fact, contributed to Glankler's knack for finding intricate yet important solutions for clients, like making usable background linework files standard with machine control and survey stakeout models--an area Glankler says is a missing link for many modelers.

"Over the years," he says, "I've found colors that work well out in the field [in the sun]. I found a good combination for buildings and curbs, etcetera. [Some modelers] spend so much time trying to get the surface right, they think they can just load up the CAD file and they're good. Their color pallets go up to 256 colors--and people like to use all these different colors--but what happens when it gets imported [is that] they all turn red."

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A solid, affordable working surface model, though, is even more important--especially to contractors. Many contractors, Glankler says, look for the best price for a model and later run into errors. Their models start to "jump," and they think something is wrong with their machines. "I used to get these phone calls," Glankler says. He first asks who built the model. Then he asks to see it. "They can give me a coordinate of right where they are so I can zoom straight to the model, view it in 3D, and say, 'Yep, you've got a bump there.'"

From there, Glankler can fix the model and turn it back around usually within a day. And with about 400 models to his name, Glankler's clients say his CAD, construction and engineering experience is appreciated.

"He understands construction. A lot of engineers don't. They can draw it on paper, but they don't understand everything that goes on in the field," Anglin says, adding that Glankler's turnaround on change orders helps to keep his company on schedule--a No. 1 priority to most general contractors.

Glankler also--perhaps unintentionally--invalidates some myths about models and positioning technology in the course of business. "One reason I came out on my own is because a lot of people say that GPS is not that accurate," Glankler says. "From what I've seen, it's not the accuracy of the GPS--it's more the accuracy of the models everybody was using.

"These machines will cut a bad model precisely. They say it's good for half a foot. No, it's good for under a tenth if you build it that way and use the equipment correctly. Even with GPS, if you don't follow the correct procedures, you're going to do things incorrectly. It's a tool to use."

Teaching Clients, Evolving the Industry

Since June 2007 when he began GDS, Glankler has been trying to work in 3D with surveyors.

"The way I look at it is: The more people that do it, the more reliability GPS gets, the more people who will buy GPS, the more people will need more models," he says. "I think I can do models at a better price and quicker and more accurate than a lot of people." This is a business prowess many in the industry lack.

But it's been hard to explain the importance of a model. In fact, it's Glankler's biggest struggle in business. "Surveyors see [machine control] as their revenue getting taken away," Glankler says. "The way I see it is that some of it might be taken away, but it's offering you other chances to do other things--stockpile verification, earthwork quantities, progress quantities. They're not getting hurt so much individually because not that many contractors have it yet. But once they start getting it, they'll start losing even more.

"Contractors are starting to see where it can be useful," he continues. "But they don't quite understand the detail it needs to be in. They think the models that they've done to date will be sufficient--until they see one that's done to the detail that they need it to be.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

"A lot of them would say, 'We can do the model.' I'd say, 'OK, let me take a look at it before you go out there.' Something I can do in two or three days they say would take them two or three weeks to get it to that detail."

That level of detail includes placing points every 2 feet, which raises the issue of file size capacities of machines. But Glankler says the file--and its size--depends on the client served. Surveyors want point names; contractors want elevations and contours.

"I can build a road for a contractor and not put a code name on anything, but a surveyor will want to know the edge of pavement, the flow line, the back of the curb," Glankler says. "In my models, I'm putting in horizontal and vertical alignments, I'm building the templates, I'm putting in the superelevations, the widening--so the transitions are smooth."

He then generates contours and verifies what was given to him in the files and frequently finds that the contours don't match the profile and the template. "So when a contactor cuts into my model and a surveyor pulls it straight out from the CAD file, we're going to miss," he says. "And when the contractor starts to grade an area to a tenth of a foot spending time and money--and with gas prices on one of those machines--it gets expensive."

Many of these issues, he says, would be nonexistent if contractors and surveyors used the same model--and worked in 3D.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

He says surveyors can even take his models and resell them to contractor clients who can do earthwork and progress quantities with them. "The big thing for the contractor is doing the initial topo to verify the existing grade. Because if the topo was flown and they missed a big gorge or a big mound, right off the bat, the contractor has to spend more money either hauling in dirt or hauling off dirt that he didn't quantify," Glankler says. "And if he can prove that to begin with, he can get that money back. And all it really takes is a quick topo."

A Calculated Growth

As Glankler Data Services LLP continues to grow--and as the industry continues to evolve--Thad Glankler cautiously looks forward to the opportunity to expand and reach more customers. "I wish to grow GDS but not to the point where clients do not come first," he says. "GDS will be successful because it is technology-based, client-based and economy-based. Let GDS do what we do best--modeling. And you do what you do best--moving dirt and staking out sites."

If things go as planned, the meticulous, or "anal," engineer with the Southern drawl will do well. His clients think he will.

"[Modeling] is a relatively new field," Anglin says, "and he's just on the ball."

Lieca N. Hohner is POB's editor.

Virtual Stringline: Opportunities in Data Prep

2009-01-22T06:58:00.001-08:00

With the economy arguably in its worst condition in American history, many companies are reaching out for new sources of revenue in related fields, such as data prep. As a result, you may have noticed more start-up data prep companies are being formed.

Data prep is rapidly maturing, and I discussed several aspects of the business recently with Bruce Flora, LS, a former competitor of mine and owner of Flora Surveying Associates PC and Data Pro Ltd. in Saluda, Virginia. Flora and I have both practiced the data prep technology/art for many years, and we discussed how data prep firms can provide additional services, seek out potential revenues and offer accompanying savings for clients.

For this 3D model of a dense subdivision, Bruce Flora of Data Pro Ltd. draped some simple textures over the TIN to visually convey the intent of an interim grading plan to the engineer, contractor and developer/owner. This modeling technique increased grading productivity and minimized import-export while maintaining aesthetics.

Setting Up the Business

To be successful, a data prep company must be set up wisely. In my experience performing data prep, I learned that although the tools and technologies were similar to the engineering I had done before, the actual business and related services were unique to construction and came with different challenges. It isn’t enough simply to know how to build a 3D model—you must structure your business well around your modeling services.

For example, Flora created a second company in 1998 to perform data prep. Although he already had his surveying company registered as a professional corporation, Flora realized he did not need a surveying license to perform data prep in the state of Virginia. As a result, he created Data Pro Ltd. as a separate entity so the liabilities inherent with data prep would be protected as a separate firm with limited liability. Nowadays Flora is comfortable with the business and technologies involved with data prep, so he no longer sees the need for this distinction and is considering merging it all back into the survey company. But the point is that data prep companies must be properly structured to deal with the demands of this business.

Staffing for Data Prep

A data prep company should be staffed with people who have strong experience in construction. The industry is just starting to understand the importance of construction surveying in making 3D models, and the best person to create these models is someone who has been pounding hubs and stakes for years. Flora relies on staff members who have strong surveying backgrounds, and he also considers construction engineers to be good candidates for this work. “The design engineers who are good at developing plans for review and approval may have a hard time understanding the construction aspects because they don’t get enough field experience or mentoring in their jobs as designers,” he says, adding, “and there are very few schools teaching it at this point.”

Because CADD was initially developed as a drafting tool, designers became ingrained in the use of CADD for drafting and have had a difficult time transitioning to 3D design. The career path of design engineers normally moves them up to management so they spend little time becoming expert in CADD, the tool of the trade. On the other hand, young design engineers may be familiar with computer technologies but not have the experience to design yet. Flora mentions that some construction firms have a company policy that an engineer must spend a year in the field before working in the office. The idea behind this policy is that the engineer must learn to build the project before he or she is fully qualified to design it.

This leads to the question of whether data prep has outgrown the engineering field. Or, in other words, has data prep matured to the point that it requires a special skill set that is beyond the traditional engineer? According to Flora, owners and developers now focus on regulatory approval, which does not guarantee good design. “Is it really practical that the engineer is responsible not only to get the job reviewed and approved, but to have it be constructible as well?” he asks. Flora sees nothing wrong with dividing and specializing roles so that the engineer continues with design and approvals while the data prep expert focuses on constructability.

Companies that try to combine these two roles often face business-related pressures that can cause them to lose focus. Flora tells of a meeting he had with a developer who was intent on making a deadline to present before the county commissioners and win project approval. The developer put pressure on the designer to get the job done in time to meet with the council, but of course something had to give—and that something was the quality of the work. The meeting deadline was met, and the job was approved. But when the project went to construction, it was quickly identified that the design wasn’t constructible. So the data prep arm of the project went back to the developer and pointed out that more money would be needed to complete a constructible design. Of course, the developer had a short memory of the pressure he had placed on the designer to make the deadline, which led Flora to call him the “Great Forgetter.”

It is important to understand that staff members’ training and differing levels of experience can affect the quality of the data prep. I have often said that I can train an experienced engineer to do CADD in about three days, but I need at least two weeks to train a CADD person to do engineering. I am only kidding, but this cuts to the point: If you don’t know the field, you have little business doing CADD work in it.

Establishing a Standard

When machine control was first introduced to the market, the pioneering experts built the models. These individuals lived and breathed GPS, machine control and 3D modeling. They saw the whole picture and helped establish the industry. But the industry is changing now that more data prep shops are opening, and some poor models are going into construction.

“Machine control manufacturers are becoming concerned because it throws the credibility of their equipment into question when something goes wrong in the construction,” Flora says. “Some now demand that an expert build the first model for new customers who purchase their equipment to ensure that they get started on the right foot.”

Flora was once somewhat against licensure for data prep, but he now sees it as a positive move to ensure that experts oversee the creation of these valuable models. As an example, Flora cited a recent highway project where the developer chose to save $3,000 on the creation of a model for the road construction, but the model was poor and caused $30,000 in rework that could have been avoided.

“This technology is now a two-way street with all of the magic and mystery gone. Machine control is now a tool of the trade instead of an oddity. Knowledge is now the critical aspect of the job,” Flora says, adding, “and the knowledge of the individual is now paramount.” I agree with Flora on this point because one of my mantras is “It is all about the data.” And, of course, a skilled, qualified individual must create that data.

Offering Advanced Services

Anyone who chooses to enter the data prep field must understand the expectations for the design plans, the resulting 3D model and the equipment used to build the job. Each component has goals, projected accuracies and time frames for completion, and each component also has limitations that should be established ahead of time.

The highly experienced data prep provider is able to look at the entire project from a macro level. This perspective encompasses the plans provided, the interpretations that must be made to complete the model, the equipment being used on the project and the local standards that are applicable. For example, Flora was involved in a parking lot project that was switched from asphalt to concrete due to the high cost of the asphalt. The site had a very complex grading plan; the parking area had smooth contours grading to internal drainage systems instead of cross site sheet flow. The machine to be used on this site had a 14-foot straight-edged screed, but Flora identified that this wasn’t suitable for a curved surface. As a result, he made some adjustments to the model so that it could be used to maintain design intent without affecting drainage areas.

The high-level concept behind this example is that the machinery, the standards and the model must be synchronized for the project to be a success. The field of 3D modeling and data prep now allows for a more sophisticated analysis prior to building. By focusing on constructability, data prep providers can build the model to serve the express purpose of the machines available to do the grading. I see this synchronicity as a sign of the maturity of the field of data prep.

In another case, a well-thought-out model was developed and used for a dense subdivision. The model included rough grading of house pads and surrounding landscape berms. Following this rough grading, the finished grading for house pads had to occur. Due to the tightness of the job, the contractor couldn’t stockpile the earth in the road or on adjacent lots since the lots were being sold and needed to remain pristine for the customers. When the contractor began building the home, he stockpiled the earth on the berms that were accurately sculpted into place, thereby destroying them. Summing up the lesson learned from this project, Flora says, “Aesthetics is important during construction, and import/export of material is critical. The site needs to be modeled in a way that reduces grading twice and leaves enough dirt in the pad so that final grading can occur while minimizing import and export. We find that the cost of construction—the fuel and labor costs, wear and tear, operations and maintenance—is driving this efficiency, and anything to minimize these costs is valuable.”

Another of Flora’s projects in New England required extensive boring, and subsurface granite was a major issue. Data prep was used to prepare surfaces where the cut went to the subgrade, and all trenches were included in the model. The surfaces were manipulated and included modifying building pad elevations and raising and lowering pipes to minimize the effect of the granite. These models were used to guide the driller, which resulted in significant savings to the contractor.

Since many projects are being phased now, Flora notes that data prep providers must analyze the entire project and all related tasks. Even though these projects are slated to be long-term endeavors, they are broken into phases for economic reasons, with each phase requiring completion prior to the next phase starting up. However, when the designers look at the job, they often view it as a single entity for earthmoving. One job Flora worked on called for 27,000 cubic yards of borrow at a cost of $225,000. According to the designer, everything was fine since the entire site balanced well. However, the borrow for this phase came from a future phase, and the erosion and siltation (E&S) plans and work had not been performed yet. This borrow was essentially inaccessible for the current phase. Data prep was done to rework the stockpiles and borrow pits to be compatible with the current phase. This model was then analyzed for the upcoming phases, and the $225,000 was saved for the client. “Dirt management is becoming more important now than ever before, and data prep is a great service provider for this type of analysis,” Flora says.

There is a famous old adage in statistics that “all models are wrong, but some are useful.”[1] Relating this to the world of 3D models for machine control, we could add that some models are more useful than others. While some 3D models offer the bare minimum of what one needs to grade a site automatically, others offer far superior value that penetrates deep into the construction technologies. Companies seeking a new business opportunity in data prep would be wise to pursue the latter. Having the capability to provide advanced analysis can pay back quickly in the high stakes world of construction.

Reference

1. Chris Anderson, “The End of Theory: The Data Deluge Makes the Scientific Method Obsolete,” Wired Magazine July 2008.

Harry O. Ward , PE
hward@carlsonsw.com
Harry O. Ward, PE, is a registered professional engineer, a state licensed contractor and certified in machine control. He is a vice president of Carlson Software and directs the Civil Engineering Division and Carlson College. He has been a member of the engineering faculty at George Mason University since 1997.

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Hello from Left a Fuzz

2009-01-09T06:21:00.000-08:00

Back in the days when we ran conventional surveying instruments, you would often hear a cadence from the instrument man instructing the rodman on where to put the rod for a shot. Although they vary from crew to crew, mine went something like this......Right! Right! Right! Left a tenth! Left a hair! LEFT A FUZZ! Good! I'll shoot it!.

Now for a little history about me.

I am a Construction Surveyor, a Heavy and Highway Construction Surveyor and I am very proud of that fact. At this time, I am 42 years old and have been surveying since I was 19.

I was born and raised in Eastern Kentucky and relocated to the Cincinnati area in 1987 and have been there ever since.

I became licensed in 2001 and began doing more boundary work, but my first love has and always will be Highway work.

My reasons for writing this blog are many. First, I am a techno geek, I really like all of the new technology that is available to surveyors in this day and time. I really enjoy using the Trimble GPS grade control systems , building files with Terramodel and Trimble Sitevision Office, establishing base stations, doing site calibrations and all the bells and whistles associated with the High Tech toys that we have to play with.

But, it wasn't always like that.

I started out with a steel chain and a theodolite, a Carl Zeiss Level and a Philly rod, a Rhodes Reducing Arc with a stick referred to as a JO-Pole, and a plumb bob without a Gammon reel.

I learned how to use a highway chain, how to take cross-sections with a Wilde RDS ( and more importantly, how to reduce the dadgum notes!), and how to figure the chord correction for an offset spiral. I learned how to drive hubs from daylight to dark and how to round house a 12 Lb sledge hammer!

The older I get, the more I appreciate the little tidbits I have accumulated over the years. In my mind, this is where I got my education and it is my hope that I can pass it on to the next generation of surveyors. They won't use it, they won't have to, but maybe it will be handy to have around anyway.

I have worked with a lot of CO-OPs from Surveying School. With Technology being what it is, They don't get the same education that we as older surveyors got on the job.

more later.