To all mailbase members who have expressed an interest in 3D computer
modelling.
The BCRA Surveying Group has very good page on surveying software @
http://www.sat.dundee.ac.uk/~arb/surveying/software.html
This has gives the details of much of the software available plus links to
their home sites.Generally you will find further links from there to other
goodies.
There is a bewildering array of software available and the hardware and
operating system requirements vary greatly. My approach has been a little
different to Keith Russ who if i remeber rightly is using a high power sun
workstation. I was looking for software that was;
1. Free.
2. Would run on a standard PC.
3. Has a nice friendly windows interface.
So far i have tried COMPASS which shows the most potential but tends to find
round about ways to do things and will only work on a Pentium class
processor. Winkarst which has displayed a tendency to crash. Finally
On-Station which has been the easiest to get to grips with but has limited
output options at the moment. The best thing about On-Station is that is
will run quite happily on an old 486-DX66.
They all accept standard compass and tape data so it is dead easy to build
surveys from your old survey books. You will find though that you have to
tinker with the data format a bit. What is really needed is a program which
will accept the coordinate data which can be produced from paper plans.
Failing that a method of converting coordinates into compass and tape data
i.e. direction and bearing. This is what i am attempting to do at the moment
but i have not had much time to devote to it over the summer. It should be
an excercise in 'O' level geometry and as that was never a strong point of
mine it has resulted in a bit of head scratching.
COMPASS works on the same lines a GIS (Geographic Information System)and
acts as a complex data base to which you can add pictures as well as
integrating the underground survey with a digital elevation model. I have
not quite got that far yet but should do in the next few months, the DEM is
built but i have not put the two together yet.
If any of you would like any more information or has any advise to offer
feel free to contact me. It would be very useful to compare my experiences
with others.
Martin Roe
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