TPC Desktop 2024 R0
We’ve added photos for survey points and traverses.
Why Add Photos?
Points
It can be advantageous to add a photo to a point so you can visualize exactly what that point looked like in the field. Some examples being: survey monuments, aerial control points, utilities and as-builts.
Traverses
It can be advantageous to add a photo to a traverse so you can visualize the area or feature associated with that traverse. Some examples being: building or other structure, lake, river, fence line.
Survey Point Photos
You’ll find lots of neat photo tools, like the Photo tab shown here in the Point Properties.
Survey Point Properties Photos tab
One of our favorite new photo tools is the ability to insert a photo into a drawing. Since TPC already knows which photo is associated with each survey point, you just tell TPC to insert the photo then place it next to the point.
Inserting Photos Into a Drawing
Traverse Photos
Traverses can have photos also. In the photo shown here, we’ve staked out a foundation and taken a picture to send to the contractor. So why not attach that photo to the traverse with the stakeout points? Done!
Think of all the possibilities for your site/topo surveys where you survey a rock wall, a retention pond, a driveway cut, and all with a photo to provide that extra documentation.
Averaging GPS/GNSS
Beginning with TPC Desktop 2024, when you take multiple GPS/GNSS observations of a survey point, TPC can average those observations to improve the accuracy of that point’s position.
NGS User Guidelines
In their User Guidelines, NGS says “RT positioning of important data points cannot be done reliably without some form of redundancy”. They provide guidelines on how to create these redundant observations.
Specifying Redundant GNSS Observations
Beginning with TPC Desktop 2024, TPC provides four ways to specify redundant GNSS observations. Each way relies on raw GNSS observations being stored with a traverse point.
Specifying Redundant GNSS Observations
Depending on the data collector or GNSS receiver you are using, you can tell TPC how to identify redundant observations.
Editing Redundant GNSS Observations
The GNSS Averages dialog display the selected GNSS points to be averaged, along with their redundant observations.
Its easy to select outliers and reject them from the average computations.
Then, just update the survey points with the computed averages.
Individual Survey Point Averages
In the Survey Point Properties dialog, you can bring up all the GNSS observations for that point and the computed average.
Updating a Survey Point’s GNSS Average
Available in Professional Edition. Compare Editions
GNSS Traverses
The Traverse View now displays GNSS observations. For RTK, you’ll see the base station and each rover position as a new RTK point type.
And in your drawings, BASE points plot like Control points and RTK rover points plot like side shots. So you can reuse all your customized Traverse Drawing Settings to draw your GNSS survey.
Traverse View GNSS Data
The Traverse View now displays raw data for all your GNSS observations.
In the picture shown here, we’ve turned on RMS, PDOP and count so you can double check your results.
Rejecting GNSS Observations
When you tell TPC to compute GNSS averages, TPC can help you identify any observations that are outliers. You can then choose to reject those observations. TPC does not use rejected GNSS observations for GNSS average computations.
You reject observations by UnSelecting (untagging) them in the GNSS Averages dialog. or by rejecting the raw GNSS data in the Traverse View.
Conversely, you accept them by Selecting (tagging) them.
Emlid Point Code Table
We’ve added a pre-defined Point Code Table you can use with your emlid Flow data. Each point and line in emlid’s default code library has a Point Code in TPC
Plus, we’ve added dozens of new point symbols to support emlid default code library.
How TPC Renders emlidd’s Default Codes
Coming May 2024
Without a Hot Spot
Once again, we’ve done the research, so you don’t have to.
If you are in the field and don’t have a hot spot to share data via the cloud, we provide step-by-step instructions and videos on how to share data via your Android or iOS device.
Google Earth/ESRI
The EPSG-3857.prj and EPSG-4326.prj projection files now ship standard with TPC so you can more easily coordinate your surveys with Google Earth and ESRI.
These are defacto standard projections used by their mapping software.
Transform with PRJ
You can now use prj files to specify a CRS to transform coordinates to or from.
In the example shown here, we are transforming to a NAD_1983_HARN… projection.
System Beeps
Beginning in March 2024, you can now disable system beeps for Information, Warnings and Errors.
Retaining Edited Table Items when unTagging Traverses
Beginning in March 2024, TPC retains edits to table items when their traverses are untagged. Even when a survey is saved and opened.
Editing Table Item Survey Data
Beginning in June 2024, TPC retains edits to table item survey data like bearings and distances. Even when a survey is saved and opened.
Categories
With so many point symbols, line types and file filters to choose from these days, lists can get long and tedious.
Categories change all that.
We’ve also worked hard to do a better job of explaining how to edit your own Point Symbols, Line Types and their Categories. Check it out here.
Coming April/May of 2024.
Exclusions via Traverses
Adding surface exclusions via a traverse now gives the option to add those traverse points to the surface if they aren’t already in it (as shown here) or if the surface triangles don’t include the traverse lines.
TPC recomputes the TIN so the exclusions exactly match the traverse.
You could do all this manually, but we just saved you the steps and the time.
Exterior Triangles
Excluding a traverse from a surface now properly handles the triangles in the concave, exterior sections of the traverse. We added a new routine to determine if these pesky, concave TIN triangles are inside or outside the traverse.
They are the ones highlighted in yellow here.
Walk Through a Survey
We’ve added more tutorials on walking through a survey.
Each walk through targets the type of surveys you do most.
APWA Colors for Point Codes
We’ve added APWA colors to two of the Point Code tables we provide 1) APWA.pct and 2) emlid Feature Codes.pct.
Plus we’ve added some colors of our own to standardize the point codes you use.
You can see them in use with the emlid Feature Codes.pct.
How TPC Renders emlidd’s Default Codes
Coming May 2024
Latest CAD Drivers
This version includes the latest CAD drivers for DWG, DXF and DGN files.
Time 12/24 Drawing Variable
Some of you have asked to add the current time to a drawing when you plot it.
So we added 2 new drawing variables. TIME12 and TIME24, one for 12 hours am/pm and the other for 24 hour times.
New Add Points to Traverse Option
You can now select multiple traverse points from the current drawingand TPC will add all selected points to a traverse.
5) Select multiple existing survey points. TPC sequences them based on their point labels.
Want to pull a few points from a point cloud? This new option will do it.
Use the selection tools like Window and Cross to get lots of points at once.
Cloud Drives
Many of you are now using cloud drives like One Drive, DropBox, Google Drives and others.
We’ve improved the ability of TPC to work with those drives for your survey and program data.
In the example shown here, we’re saving our surveys to OneDrive and using a mapped drive for shared surveys.
Released January 24, 2024
What’s New – all versions
