Point codes are words, numbers or abbreviations you use to help identify points. They can be any combination of letters and//or numbers but we recommend that you make them short, logical, and easy to remember. The code 'CL' might identify a point as a 'center line' while the code 'OAK' might identify the point as an 'oak tree'. Point codes allow you to perform operations on all the 'center line' shots or all the 'oak' trees and allow TPC to draw these points based on their Traverse Drawing Settings.
TPC includes tools to add points to traverses based on their point codes, then sort them to the nearest neighbor or plot them on a map using different symbols and line types for each code.
Point Code Variants (3:25) - TPC now works with point code variants like SW1, SW2, SW3.
Learning Guides
Point Codes - TPC allows you to automate many of your drawing tasks with the use of Point Codes. The Point Codes Learning Guide is divided into chapters like What are Point Codes, Evaluating Field Data, Managing Point Codes and Sorting Points into Traverses.
Using Point Codes in the Field
In the field, on any data collector, you can use the conventions of your data collector to add point codes to either the description or attributes of each survey point.
The Point Codes Manager manages the point codes in your survey. You can enter codes and their descriptions manually, import codes from other code files, or search the survey points and generate a list of codes used in the survey.
The Point Codes Manager is also where you create traverses from point codes and keep them updated as you add new new points to your survey.
Point Codes allow you to add survey points to traverses based on their codes. TPC calls this Sorting Points by Code.
You can put all the points with the 'CL' code into a center line traverse, then plot that traverse with the line type, symbols, colors, etc that you want to indicate a center line.
Once TPC has created traverses for the codes you want, you can update those traverses anytime, adding any new points containing a code to the appropriate traverses.
If you have a 'CL - Center Line' traverse with all the 'CL' points in it and you import 20 new 'CL' shots from your data collector, TPC can add the 20 new shots to the 'CL - Center Line' traverse.
TPC stores point codes in point code files. Each survey that uses point codes has its own point code file that keeps track of the point codes used only in that survey. But you can also share point code tables via TPC's program data.
