Beginning with TPC Desktop 2024, TPC allows the addition of photos to survey points and traverses.
When first getting familiar with point photos, you may be in the habit of adding photos one by one to each point through the various ways of adding photos. However, this can be tedious if you have many photos to add. Instead, consider using the Find and Add Photos command to speed things up.
Note: you may only use the Find and Add Photos command to find photos for points.
Find and Add Photos (3:39) - This video gives complete instructions for how to use the Find and Add Photos command.
Planning Ahead
If you plan ahead, you can use the Find and Add Photos command to have TPC find photos in a specific folder and automatically copy them to your survey folder and add them to their respective point.
Why do you need to plan ahead? Because TPC needs to know which photo goes with which point based on the photo's filename. There are two ways TPC can identify which photo goes with which point based on the filename of the photo.
1.The "Point label match" method. This means that TPC will search the folder that you specified with the Browse button, and identify photos that have a filename that matches a point label exactly. For example, if you had photos named 1.png, 2.jpg, and 3.jpeg then they would be identified and added to points 1, 2, and 3.
2.The "TPC Photo Filename Match" method. This means TPC will search the folder that you specified with the Browse button, and identify photos that have a filename that starts with a point label that exists in the survey, and that contains at least one underscore. For example, if you had photos named 1_survey.png, 2_testsurvey.jpg, and 3_othersurvey.jpeg, then TPC would see that the filename starts with a valid point label (because we are assuming we have points 1, 2, and 3 in our survey), and that an underscore exists in the filename, so TPC would then add those three photos to their respective points: 1, 2, and 3.
What file formats will be searched for?
The Find and Add Photos dialog will only search for the file formats listed at the top of Using Photos.
When would I use the TPC Photo Filename Match?
If you added photos to a different survey using the TPC Photo Filename Format and you want those same photos attached to the same points in your current survey, you can use this match method to save yourself some time. Just simply browse to that other survey folder in the Find and Add Photos dialog and select the TPC Photo Filename Match method at the bottom of the dialog.
