Trimble work flow

Question

The company I work for is making a large investment in Trimble total stations, collectors, RTK equipment and software. My background is mostly FDOT design surveys using EFB, Caice and Microstation. I'm reaching out others to see what advice or best practices there are for utilizing Trimble products and file types with SS3 OpenRoads cadd platform. I see the collectors have a multitude of data file formats (.dc, .jxl, .fbk etc.). I have imported a few .dc files into SS3 with success. I have a few specific questions. 
 1. Is the linework coding in the .dc file? 
 2. Are the linework codes the traditional TDS "begin" and "end" type linking codes? 
 3. Does Trimble software support alphanumeric point naming conventions? 
 4. We will be utilizing Trimble Access for processing GPS data. Should I also use Access to analyse total station data before introducing the information to Microstation/Geopak? I'm thinking traverse analysis and vertical closure checks. 
 Any advice or ideas will be greatly appreciated.

caddcop · Accepted Answer

Trimble bought out TDS and now uses a .survey file which is apparently an XML file. They have a free converter that works very similar to the InRoads/Open Roads XML Reports in that they use an XSL file to transform the XML file to other formats. They offer free downloads of a variety of XSL files including TDS RAW format. While it is mostly identical to traditional TDS RAW files except for the attribute records. I was able to easily rework the XSL file to generate TDS files that are identical to the ones we have been using for years. 
 Our office staff know the RAW file format and can easily correct mis-coded shots so we are reluctant to look at other formats and also do not want to need yet another program to reduce the data before creating our topo maps. 
 We are coming from an InRoads Survey world where ST is a Start figure code and there is actually no END code. Some of the new Open Roads codes are different and we are trying to make the case that while the new codes are OK, we would like to see them continue to support all of the codes that originated in FieldWorks which eventually became InRoads Survey. 
 The actual codes used are very user configurable, but one big difference in these codes vs TDS BEG and END is that in OpenRoads, you can code multiple point types on a single shot. This capability is easy to use but also not too easy to see its power without a full demonstration. 
 Consider a surveyor is shooting along a road and there is a sidewalk and also driveways along with other single shot features. He (she) can code shots as follows: 
 
 EPR ST (begin an Edge of Paved Road figure) 
 EPR (continue EPR figure) 
 EPR PWD ST PC (continue EPR figure, start a Paved DriveWay figure with a curve) 
 PDW SDWK1 ST (continue PDW figure, start a sidewalk SDWK figure) 
 PDW PT SDWK2 ST (continue PDW figure, ending its curve, start a second SDWK figure) Note: Since there was 1 shot on the PDW between the PC and PT, the middle shot is a point on curve shot where the curve is defined as a 3 point arc. Had there been more than 1 point between the PC and PT, the software would fit a curve through all of the points. 
 PDW (continue PDW figure) 
 PDW (continue PDW figure) 
 PDW ST (start a new PDW figure - by default, this also makes the previous PDW shot an END shot without the need to use any END code.) 
 PDW (continue PDW figure) 
 PDW SDWK2 (continue PDW figure and continue second SDWK) 
 PDW SDWK1 (continue PDW figure and continue first SDWK) 
 EPR PDW (continue EPR & PDW figures - this can also be the end the PDW, if the next PDW shot is coded with an ST) 
 EPR 
 SDWK1 
 SDWK2 
 TREE 
 FH 
 SIGN 
 EPR 
 EPR PDW ST (continue EPR figure, start a new Paved DriveWay) 
 ... 
 
 Hopefully, this is not too hard to follow. 
 People coming from GEOPAK Survey use a different coding method and OpenRoads can be configured to use either method. Someone familiar with that coding method will have to chime in. 
 We found our crews really like the dual coding capabilities (actually, there is no practical limit to the number of codes on a single point) however, there also are JPT codes to allow you to joint to a point number. Since the points need to be collected in order, on occasion, the use of point numbers is handy. 
 I briefly mentioned attributes - we use attributes instead on notes to gather "intelligent" additional information as we can generate labels based upon attribute values. Doing the same with notes is far less automatic or foolproof. With attributes, you know the purpose of the attribute -such as tree diameter or species, sidewalk finish, curb material. 
 Sorry for being so long winded, but it is not a simple topic.