Topic: Importing Points - Duplicates (C3D)

[surveyor_randy]

How are you guys dealing with duplicate points being imported from your survey crews.  I do not see a 'Skip Point' option in the duplicate point detected dialog while importing points from an ASCII file.

[sinc]

We don't allow duplicates.

Field crews have logs in each job folder, and they are supposed to record what point numbers they have used for field data collection.  When the next crew goes out, they are expected to check the log, and make sure they don't reuse points.

For those times where duplicate numbers happen accidentally, we renumber the points in Excel before converting the CSV file to an FBK that we dump into C3D, since duplicate point numbers cause FBK import to fail.

These days, our field crews pretty much universally use linework codes, so we basically always use FBK import, and not direct CSV import.  However, since we do a lot of GPS stuff, we don't really use the Autodesk-provided stuff much.  Instead, we use a Perl script to convert a CSV file with linework commands embedded in the descriptions into a FBK, which we dump into C3D.  Using this method, we basically cannot use any Survey Networks or any of that, but we've found much of that functionality to be superfluous in C3D.  For the most part, we find that C3D's Survey Database is useless, since most of our jobs these days end up being a mix of conventional and GPS, and the Survey Database is GPS-clueless.

[surveyor_randy]

Thanks for the reply, Sinc.  We are still exporting points from the data collector as ASCII PNEZD (comma) files.  The problem with this, is that the points that I've sent to the collector in the morning are still in the job file at the end of the day.  So I am constantly having to edit the ascii file and remove the existing points.  I am quite suprised that C3D doesn't have an option that would allow you to skip duplicate points.  Maybe I'll code a VBA app for our import procedure.

[sinc]

So are your field guys using a single job file per project, and just continuing to use the same job file every day?

We found that to be a bad idea.  If you ever need to go back to the raw data and sort through a problem, it can be a nightmare trying to even find the "problem area" if your job file contains everything the field guys have done from day 1.

We now tell our guys to create a new job file every day, although they can get away with going two or three days in a row if they are in the middle of a large task.  Those job files are then dumped to a dated folder on the server (since the Windows file date stamp doesn't always stay), and if we need to go back and sort through the raw data for anything, we can just check the date on the field notes, and go right to the correct job file.

[surveyor_randy]

Our current method is to export out points file out of C3D (ASCII format) into our TDS Rangers.  The crews then layout and record what we need done that day and then we import back into C3D.  The control points are usually the duplicates and also any traverse points they've checked into.  So if I tell C3D to import and renumber, then I end up with a bunch of duplicate points which then makes the drawing a real mess.  I don't like to overwrite points, especially known good control points.  If my control points get tampered with, then the following day the crews will be using inaccurate data.  So essentially, I am looking for a way to not have duplicate points (ie. points on top of each other) and the ability to skip points on import.  Again, I think that I may have to go with a VBA solution.  We haven't even attempted to import .raw files into C3D so I don't really have a clue as to that.

[sinc]

We manage that by having all our control points in the 1-300 number range.  Data collected in the field uses point numbers >10000.

In theory, the field guys then only dump out the data they collected.  The control stays in a separate csv file, which is linked into the job.   But sometimes they dump the control with their field data.  In that case, I simply strip all the points <10000 out of the file before I convert it to FBK.

We also use a special point code for backsight checks.  So if they shoot a backsight and store the point, they save the shot as a point number >10000 and use the backsight check point code, and that causes C3D to treat it as a backsight check during import (it goes onto a special layer with a color that fades into the background).  That means we can still see backsight checks if we want to, but can also turn them all off easily and ignore them.

[Dinosaur]

I do something similar with a simple asci file.  All of the new points are contiguous in the surveyor's download file.  I just copy that section into my clipboard and paste it into an empty text file, name it appropriately and use THAT file to import the new points.

[mjfarrell]

Optionally when one imports the points from ASCII file , choose the ADD OFFSET option. Thus all duplicate points will have the OFFSET number added to them for easy identification and deletion from the file after import.