As a reasonably long time inRoads Survey user, are there any benefits to me looking into these tools? How do they fit into the greater scheme of things?
I have been very pleased with the flexibility that InRoads Survey offers and make heavy use of the custom codes for placing automated labels with 3D planimetrics. If the intent is to eventually phase out the survey products in favor of Data Acquisition Tools I can only hope that these capabilities are part of those tools.
CaddCop:
It has been and continues to be our intent to evolve new tools (such as Data Acquisition) in such a way that YOU decide when and if they are viable alternatives for you and your organization. Thus Data Acquisition is installed alongside InRoads Survey (GEOPAK and MX too). Our job is to make them so compelling that you want to invest in them If you don't yet find the tools compelling then InRoads Survey is fully intact and fully suported.
Some reasons you might want to investigate Data Acquisition at this time are:
Your XIN settings are supported including custom operations.
Is it a complete replacement for InRoads Survey? Not in this release. But it might be a viable replacement for some or all of your particular workflow.
I did an eseminar on these tools a month or so ago and a recording of it should be available at bentley.com. You can also contact me by way of email if you have questions or feedback. Robert.Garrett@bentley.com
Robert GarrettSenior Product EngineerBentley Systems Inc.
Robert,
I would be interested in viewing the E-seminar on data acquisition but I am having trouble locating it on the bentley.com site. Could you kindly be a bit more specific in identifing it?
Regards
Phil
Try this link
connected.bentley.com/BrowseLive.aspx
and search on Data Acquisition
www.bentley.com/.../InRoads
It is probably accessible thru other routes such as the one Art pointed out, but this is where I got to it. Don't let the "InRoads" category bother you. The material is equally appropriate in MX, except you would use your PSS settings.
Thanks Robert,
The video was impressive. It looks like a recent surface merge I worked on could possibly have been done in a much shorter time.
But it did raise a few questions:
I may have others, but I will have to reflect on this some more and will use another post when I do.
Thanks again.
Charles (Chuck) Rheault CADD Manager
MDOT State Highway Administration
Q: After you bring in a bunch of RAW files, can it save something like an FWD?
{RG} the only currently supported export formats are GEOPAK (TIN and GPK), InRoads (DTM and ALG), MX (FIL) and LandXML 1.2 (including survey data).
Yours is the second request this week for FWD export. Can you enlighten me as to the purpose you would use an FWD. I assume it is a known format and you use it to share data between various projects and users???? If this is the case, then I would encourage you to check out LandXML. In Data Acquisition, we support the 1.2 format including the raw survey observations. NOTE: the recent Select Series 1 refresh release contains some LandXML bug fixes for problems found in the original SS1 release.
Q: Can you build a merged surface where some survey data trumps older survey data?
{RG} yes. In your specific example of photgrametric data, you would simply create a surface containing the newer aerial data and then set it to merge AFTER the first aerial surface data. Similarly you might need to replace actual field survey raw data. For example, I once worked for Tennessee DOT, where we would very often return to a project months (or even years) later to collect data that had changed since it was originally surveyed. IN this case you could create a second field book for the newer information and jiggle the merge order.
NOTE: one of the aspects I haven't demonstrated in various avi files and demos is the ability to change the merge/append order. Right click on the merged surface and you will have as one of your prompts the ability to do this. You can change merge to append and vice versa, as well as change the order of various surfaces in the list. For those familiar with SIte Modeler, this works very much like the FIFO list.
Q: Do you have to use triangle when merging surfaces?
No. You can define a boundary to control the edge of any surface. The best solution (IMO) is to use triangles to get a first solution. Then turn on the boundary of the surface. Then right click the surface to draw the graphics of the boundary (instead of transients). Then edit the boundary graphic with move/insert vertex. Then select and import the modifed boundary.
You can also introduce holes and voids into the interior of the surface by drawing a shape with MIcrostation and then select and import it.
However, you will not find a comprehensive set of surface editing tools. Data Acquisition was designed specifically for Acquisition. We are currently working on a complete set of terrain model tools including comprehensive editing in the same mold as the Data Acquisiton tools.
I have attached a video below that might be of interest. This shows clipping a surface to reduce its size.
Q: What Actual InRoads products, when loaded make these tools available?
These tools are available and installed with virtually all our civil products of MX, InRoads or GEOPAK heritage. The GEOPAK flavor of PowerCivil is the only product I am aware of which does not include DataAcquisition, although I must admit that I am uncertain about PowerSurvey.