Carlson SurvCE creates a raw file (.RW5) that contains various lines of survey data similar to a surveyors' field book.  This data contained in the RW5 file will vary depending upon whether Total Stations, Robotics or GPS is used during the survey. The name of the RW5 file will default to the specified job name. This command enables viewing and editing of the raw survey data, as well as traverse closure and adjustment computations for the survey, for both total station and GPS raw data.  If total station shots are involved, a graphical representation of the traverse can also be viewed using this command.

Total Station and GPS Use

Total Station adjustments are conducted distinctly from GPS adjustments (Process GPS).  If you wish to adjust your GPS first for control, and then calculate your total station traverse, then first select Process GPS.   Then use Process No Adjust, or Compass rule, as desired.

Process Raw File Operations:  Total Station, GPS, Reporting, Editing

There are four “classes” of raw file processing that you can do.  You can process or draw your total station traverse, you can report out the Direct-Reverse measurements, you can Process GPS and you can Review and Edit the RW5 file.

Total Station Adjustments

If you wish to adjust or draw a total station traverse, you would choose any of the following:  Process No Adjust, Angle Balance, Transit, Compass, Crandall or Draw Traverse Lines.  All of these commands have the same 4-tab menu system, oulined below.

• Total Station Tab:  Reduce to Grid Coordinates would do a “ground to grid” calculation based on your GPS projection used, viewable in the projection tab.  The Scale setting would multiply all distance measurements by the entered scale factor.  Apply Curvature and Refraction would compute curvature and refraction distinctly on all raw measurements and adjust accordingly.

• GPS Projection Tab:  This tab, critical for GPS calculation, only applies for total station work when “Reduce to Grid Coordinates” is set on within the Total Station Tab.  To change the active projection, go to Job Settings, GPS Tab.

• Redundancies Tab:  This screen covers the handling of multiple measurements to the same point, or “redundancies”.  There are three method options:  Use First, Use Last or Average.  For example, if you shot point 10 a total of four times, you could choose to use the first reading, the last reading or average them all.  If you select Average, then the “type” of average becomes available.  Options are:  Coordinate or Distance Measurement.  If you shot point 10 four times, twice from two different setups, then if you chose “Average by Coordinate”, then the 4 northings and eastings computed would be averaged.  If you chose “Average by Distance Measurement”, then the two measurements would first be averaged, and then the two distinct coordinates calculated for point 10 (using the averaged measurements) would themselves be averaged. 

The Backsight Reciprocal options treat reciprocals “special”.  A foresight to point 15 from a setup on 14, followed by a backsight from 15 to 14, makes a pair of “reciprocal” readings.  The backsight “reciprocal” reading can be ignored (for its impact on recalculating the occupied point), or the Elevation component of the reciprocal measurements can be averaged, or both the Elevation and Distance can be averaged, to recalculate the setup (occupied point) coordinates.  The program will calculate reciprocals for backsight direct (BD) records.  First set Backsight Reciprocals to Average Elevation.  Then if you foresight from 2 to 3, for example, then occupy 3 and backsight 2, the stored BD record will lead to an averaged delta Z calculation for point 3 within Process No Adjust or any of the other adjustment options.  If the Tolerances entered above are exceeded, then warning screens appear during the processing.

Note:  If there are significant redundancies in a traverse (reciprocal readings, D&R sets, multiple measurements to the same point from different setups, multiple tie shots into control) then it is recommended that the raw file be processed in a Network Least Squares program back at the office, such as SurvNet which is an add-on to Carlson Survey or SurvCADD.

• Other Tab (for D&R Measurements):  This tab sets how to use direct and reverse (D&R) measurements.  For the vertical angles, you can balance the direct and reverse measurements or use “Direct-Only”.  When you have Foresight measurements and Backsight measurements (eg. slope distance/zenith angles) between the same points (eg. reciprocals) in Direct and Reverse surveys, you can Balance Foresight-Backsight measurements (apply reciprocals) or use the Foresight data only.  For purposes of warning screens, you can also set the Angle Tolerance and Distance Tolerance for Direct and Reverse measurement processing.

Process No Adjust

This command processes the RW5 file and computes coordinate values for the surveyed data. No angle balance or traverse adjustment is applied. The Process Raw Data Options dialog shown below appears after selecting Process No Adjust.

You can report the traverse only or compute all measurements by clicking on Report Sideshots.  If you click on Report Closure, then you need to specify a “Reference Closing Point ID”, which is the point that the last traverse point is closing to, or trying to match.  The “Reference Closing Point ID” is not a point in the traverse—it is the point the traverse is trying to close on.  It can be entered as a point ID or a coordinate.

Note:  To preserve coordinate values of the initial setup and backsight, particularly with D&R measurements involved, it is recommended that Redundancies by set to Average by Distance Measurement, if averaging is used.

Pressing OK leads to the calculation and the report screen for Process No Adjust.

Angle Balance

This process method applies an angle balance to the traverse lines when calculating the coordinates.  The angle balance takes the angular error divided by the number of traverse lines and adjusts the angle of each traverse line by the calculated amount.  The angular error is the difference between the angle balance shot and a reference angle.  The program will prompt for the traverse shot to use as the angle balance shot.  The measured direction between the occupied point and the foresight point in the specified angle balance shot is then compared to a reference angle.  The reference angle is specified as a bearing, azimuth or by a traverse line defined by entering a “from point” and a “to point”.  The angle balance process is initiated by selecting the angle balance option from the process raw file menu.

The Angle Balance Measurement dialog shown in figure appears.  Say our traverse started at 24, traversed up to 25, then around a loop and back to 24 (point 45).  If point 45 was the end point or closing shot, the traverse leg from 45 to 46 could be the angle balance shot in this case.  It is very common, for example, in closed-loop traversing to take a closing angle shot from the closing point (45) by measuring the angle along the first traverse leg (24 to 25). That is what occurred in the case of this sample traverse.

Next, the Reference Closing Angle dialog appears. Enter the bearing or azimuth of the reference angle, or by defining the reference angle with points by entering in the desired point numbers in the From Point and To Point fields.  If using bearing or azimuth, enter in the bearing in DD.MMSS format and then selecting the correct quadrant from the format field located at the bottom of the dialog.  Once the reference angle has been defined, then the angular error display will update with the calculated angular error.  The measured closing bearing and measured closing azimuth is displayed at the top of the dialog box.  If the reference angle has been defined by point numbers, then the reference closing angle field will update and display the defined angle.  There is no need to select a format from the format field if point numbers are used.

Pressing the OK button, or the enter key, will execute the angle balance process and the process results will be displayed.  The results display shows the closure results before angle balance and after angle balance.

The angular adjustment applied to each traverse leg is also displayed along with unadjusted angles and adjusted angles for each traverse leg.  The adjusted coordinates are written to the coordinate file replacing the unadjusted coordinate values.

Transit, Compass, Crandall Adjustments

These methods apply the selected rule to the traverse lines when calculating the coordinates.  After adjusting the traverse points, the sideshots can also be recalculated.  The closure error is calculated as the difference between the specified ending point and a reference point.  The ending point is specified in the initial dialog.

You can change the ending point to correspond to the point in the traverse that closes back to the existing reference point.  In our case, point 26 is our final shot, and is closing to an existing point 10.

The reference point is specified by point ID or by entering the northing, easting and elevation of the reference point.

The process results show varying information depending on selected options from the Process Raw Data Options dialog box.

• Reference Closing Point ID:  The desired closing point number must be entered into this field.  If the closing point does not exist in the coordinate file, the known coordinates can be entered into the North, East and Elevation fields on the dialog box.
• Apply Angle Balance:  This option performs an angle balance on the traverse lines before the selected adjustment routine is processed.  With this option checked, the Angle Balance Shot must be chosen from the Angle Balance Measurement Dialog box.  The adjustment method is applied without angle balance computations.
• Vertical Error Adjustment:  The vertical error between the starting and ending points will be calculated and displayed in the results screen.  An adjustment value is determined and applied to the traverse points proportional to their measured distance.
• Report Point Adjustment:  The adjusted point coordinates and the original point coordinates will be displayed in the results display under the adjusted point comparison section.
• Report Unadjusted Points:  Displays the unadjusted points in the results screen.
• Report Sideshots:  Displays sideshot data, original and adjusted, in the results screen.

If Angle Balance is clicked on, you will be asked for the “closing angle” shot and the reference closing angle screen will appear, which you complete as described in the Angle Balance section above.  The closure method will be applied to the coordinates before or after angle balance, depending if angle balance is clicked on. 

The routine will conclude, for all three closure methods, by displaying the final, adjusted angles, distances and coordinates. The coordinate values in the CRD file will change as a result of the closure adjustment.

Draw Traverse Lines

This command employs the same 4-tab screen as Process No Adjust and the other adjustment routines.  It displays a preview of the traverse configuration by drawing lines between the traverse points.  To start the command select Draw Traverse Lines from the Process Raw Menu.  Enter in the beginning and ending points to draw on dialog and press enter. An example of the results is shown in this next figure. To exit the preview screen, select the menu button at the top right of the screen.

Direct-Reverse Report

This command creates a report of direct and reverse shots along with the resulting averaged shots.  The residuals are the difference between the measurement and the final average.  Shown below is a direct and reverse report for a shot taken from point 1, backsighting point 4 and foresighting point 100.

Direct-Reverse Report

Observations

Type Setup  FSight HorzAngle Distance  Vertical

BD      1            4      359.5958  279.8760  89.4827

BR      1            4      179.5945  279.9490  270.1114

FD      1          100    336.1603  211.2160  75.0056

FR      1          100    156.1601  211.2150  284.5848

BD      1            4      359.5948  279.9500  89.4824

BR      1            4      179.5942  279.9500  270.1111

FD      1          100    336.1608  211.2150  75.0052

FR      1          100    156.1601  211.2170  284.5850

Reduced Sets

HorzAngle Residual  FS Diff. BK Diff.

336.1610     0.0004    0.0002   0.0013 

336.1619     0.0005    0.0007   0.0006 

Vertical  Residual  Diff.

75.0104   0.0004    0.0016 

75.0101   0.0004    0.0018 

Distance  Residual  Diff.

211.2155  0.0002    0.0010 

211.2160  0.0002    0.0020 

Means

HorzAngle  SD       Distance    SD        Vertical     SD

336.1615  0.0004   211.2158  0.0002   75.0103   0.0001

Process GPS

If GPS measurements are detected in the RW5 file, then the Process GPS button becomes available within Process Raw. The main dialog appears.

• GPS Tab: Displays the scale factor, which can be modified.  If you process the GPS coordinates with a scale factor other than 1, then the coordinates will be calculated at a scaled distance from the first point in the localization file, for example.  The Localization File and Geoid Files are shown (above, Market12.dat), but can be changed by tapping the appropriate buttons, leading to a file selection screen.

The Transformation Types are Plane Similarity (recommended default) and Rigid Body, No Scale and for One Point Localizations, north can be defined by State Plane Grid or Geodetic North.

• Projection Tab: Displays GPS grid system projections that you can select from.  This projection list is created in Job Settings, GPS Tab.

• Redundancies Tab: For multiple GPS measurements on the same point ID, you can Use First, Use Last or Average all Readings.

When all settings are correct, select OK.  The results appear in the Review File dialog.

Edit Raw (RW5) Survey File

The Raw Survey Notes can be reviewed and edited by clicking Edit Rw5 File.  A fairly typical application is to edit or add rod height records, when changes in rod heights were not recorded.  The editor allows changes to virtually all measured data, but will record the original data as a note (that cannot be deleted).  Entries can be Added, Edited or Removed, but even if removed, original data is retained in a note.

To Edit, just highlight the desired line.

Click the Edit button, and the line appears in a specially formatted Edit dialog, tailored to the type of data selected.

You can change, for example, the foresight point to 101 by clicking into the Foresight Point dialog box, entereing 101, then pressing OK.  The data is changed, with a note showing the original data and indicating when it was edited.

       

If you click Add, you get to select from a variety of record types.

The Network Least Squares tab is a special option that let’s you designate measurements for eventual processing in the Carlson SurvNet program (office network least squares software).

If, for example, you pick Measure Standard Error, you can enter errors appropriate for your instrument, and reduce the entries required to process the network least squares adjustment when back in the office.

The Find option let’s you globally change any set of characters in the raw file.  It is useful for changing a series of descriptions to a new description for purposes of “field-to-finish” drawing.  It is also useful for finding a particular shot that you recall by number or description.  Here’s how you might change all 4.700 rod heights to 4.833, in case you learned that the rod had an extra attachment measuring 0.133 in length.  Direction “Up” would replace all occurrences of HR4.700 prior to the currently highlighted line in the raw file.  You can limit the search by use of the “In Field” option by selecting only Descriptions, Notes or Points, or search All records.