new total station to work with cad applications

Hi everyone, After a recent investment in our business we are looking to upgrade our rather aged survey equipment fleet soon and I've been tasked with finding out what the options are for new total stations which can export to CAD applications.

Does anyone already do this and if so, what make model do you use? Do you have any issues? Do you wish you would have looked at a different make or model yourself?

Cheers

David

Every total station is going to be able to get the data from the card and into a software package of some sort. Do you have any software in mind that you are interested in using?

I hope you have a large budget also

Most modern Total Stations can now create fieldbooks which can be read into various CAD packages. But with AutoCAD you need AutoCAD Civil 3D to import the fieldbooks.

We use Trimble and Lieca Total Stations and GPS receivers and all can export DXF/DWG files, which makes life easier in AutoCAD. You can also, through your coding, place points lines and symbols on their appropriate layers and do automatic joining of feature lines, with the ability to join random points on the instrument's display panel. Moreover you can upload DXF/DWG files into your instrument and pick points in the display panel to set them out. If you are working on a complicated or large survey it is also helpful to see what has already been surveyed and what needs to be done.

Bluetooth connections are possible on all modern instruments and they all now have a USB slot which can be used for data transfer.

From our experience the guys out on site prefer the Trimble instruments and Survey Controller software to that of Leica, but its all a matter of taste, both are very good. You might also want to check out a few other instrument manufacturers for features and price. But go for reliability if you need your instrument to work on a daily basis. An instrument that's in the workshop is not earning any money. Okay you can get replacement instruments for when yours is in the workshop, but it always fails in the middle of a job, then you have to drive back and wait for the replacement to arrive before you go back on site to carry on with the job. Some of the replacements are free of charge but others are extremely expensive and don't forget the cost of the repair.

We are extremely pleased with our set ups and only regret not making the step to robotic one man stations and GPS earlier.

GO ONE MAN & GPS

I am biased I used to work for TOPCON but Sokkia Wild Leica Trimble and others all make good total stations it really comes down to which suits your needs best make sure you get to test in a real world situation not just the dealer impressing you in the office, if they wont give you one for a few days look up the phone number of another brand.

Where are you in the world ?

Do a search in the internet for distributors of the various manufactures mentioned previously by myself and BIGAL.

You can certainly hire them in, but it can be expensive, especially when you need to learn how to use them, both in the field and in the office. I have always been able to get the dealer to let me have one free of charge when deciding which instruments to buy, both here in Germany and in the UK. A friend of mine in the UK regularly gets his Leica dealer to lend him new instruments so he can evaluate them and he very seldom buys anything. If they seriously want to sell you something then at least you should be able to get one demo project from start to finish and when the dealer accompanies you you get the benefit of a bit of free training.

How many sets of equipment are you looking to buy? and how much surveying work do you do? I con only endorse what BIGAL said ONE MAN & GPS.

What are you using now DBriggs? How do you currently export for CAD applications? You don't sound technical (apologies if that is insulting!) so I take it you have just been asked to source the information on the surveying products available which fit the requirement? Have you considered contacting Leica, Topcon, Sokkia and the rest to ask for a demo of the latest kit? One-man GPS type systems will save you time (and mistakes) but you need to do a decent amount of good-sized / well-paid surveys to make the cash back. You could try to hire the equipment - private message me if you want some contacts for survey hire - although if you do go down that road, try not to use a general tool hire company as you wont get the support. GPS / one-man / high-end requires good knowledge of the products and an understanding of how they work, so a specialist hire company is an option.

FYI - DBriggs is banned because he kept editing his posts to include links to equipment rental places.

I use a Trimble SPS710 with LM80 for the handheld I do most of the point editing and creating with the nomad handheld though a Pocketcontroller so I have a bigger sreen. I make my starter point files in cad and export with LISPs. I than export a dxf background from cad so I have a good file to work with on the nomad.