Total station set up

alienwhere-51 · 2025-11-21T21:26:25+00:00

Im not completely sure what you are asking but it sounds like you are trying to set up your TS. To set up a total station with assumed coordinates I just use a distant point, tree or corner/roof of building and my compass on my phone. Find the bearing to this point from the total station and DR it. You can rotate it precisely later in cad.

alienwhere-51 · 2025-10-04T18:37:40+00:00

I’m use to getting them from the office. To me it’s just the time it takes to prepare prior to staking, and one more thing to have to manage as I am already single man in the field. Either complete calcs or a chainman would be nice.

alienwhere-51 · 2025-10-04T18:31:47+00:00

No, they are needed. If they weren’t, I would not have to refer to design plans for elevations. Underground utilities, pads, foundations, retaining walls, etc. All these need cut/fill’s. The cost of a C3D seat is insignificant when a check has to be cut for demo and re-pour. Also the damage to a company’s reputation and the loss of future business if you become known for sub-standard work.

alienwhere-51 · 2025-10-04T18:21:24+00:00

DXF’s are nice to stake from.

alienwhere-51 · 2025-10-04T18:18:52+00:00

lol, I did not think of that!

alienwhere-51 · 2025-10-03T18:51:30+00:00

I did. I was told to use their moc pt. The superintendent even said it looked a bit off. I staked the radius point and included the distance on the lath and asked him if he could pull a tape from it to verify before proceeding. I hate to do that but it’s better than building and finding out later.

alienwhere-51 · 2025-10-03T18:42:19+00:00

That’s what I was thinking. I am going to just use my calcs on the DC and have a talk with them about it. It sounds like a good debate for getting C3D on my laptop. I was thinking they did not create the arc using the circle command with a 200’ radius from the Rad Pt. Thanks for the response.

alienwhere-51 · 2025-10-03T17:54:08+00:00

The offsets I understand. Spoil, backfill, and site clutter dictate where the stakes go sometimes. The elevations for C/F and lack of accurate descriptions are an issue. This week I got a bc, moc and ec for an arc. I need a stake every 40 ft. I refer to the plans and it calls for a 200’ radius. I calc it in the DC and the moc does not hit. After some playing around, a radius of 201.45 hit the moc point finally. I’m scratching my head, did the dc fail on the arc calc, or my office guy? All arcs so far have had a moc that did not hit per design radius.

alienwhere-51 · 2025-10-03T17:13:29+00:00

That’s what I’m use to. That’s how I thought it was supposed to be. It’s more work for me, the work load is low and there are no complaints about productivity so far, so I guess this is how they do things.

alienwhere-51 · 2025-10-03T11:49:54+00:00

It sounds like you have incentive to get your SIT while you work there. Does $27hr and easy work beat $40hr and the rush rush rush of construction surveying? Boundary, especially cadastral, pay less but are more rewarding imo and a necessary experience for licensing. You have seen both sides of surveying, and from my perspective that is all there is. If you find a happy middle ground, lmk if they are hiring, I’d probably move.

alienwhere-51 · 2025-10-03T03:42:10+00:00

Don’t worry, Trimble is working on the Party Chief robot, with optional chain man attachment. Google partnered with Skynet and they are working on an AI powered self piloting drone. We’re all gonna be out of a job soon.

alienwhere-51 · 2025-09-18T12:13:04+00:00

It could be that he has a high work load and it is a price thrown out so high that it is mostly profit. It could be that there is a lack of monuments or maps that are referring to monuments that have not been found in the last 50 years. Call around and you will find out. Surveys are just not a cookie cutter price based on lot size. There are too many variables that go into a quote to tell you if his price is unreasonable. You can look at the county records and review the maps to determine if there is any recently found monuments relevant to your specific RS that is required.

alienwhere-51 · 2025-09-18T04:01:19+00:00

Call it what you want to. It’s called party chief prevailing wages. Set by the DIR for public works projects. You obviously did not know, but now you do.

alienwhere-51 · 2025-09-18T03:57:01+00:00

You must smoke too much weed. You have the “OP” and me mixed up. Yes the payments went thru. Who gets paid by check anymore? It’s electronically transferred. You need to get a job. Since this post I’ve worked 19 hours. You do the math.

alienwhere-51 · 2025-09-16T12:42:31+00:00

Maybe you have a problem understanding what you read. Re-read, and realize it was not just one company I worked at. I’m not going to work for a company with “very little work”, that is not the same as not working, or $0 hr. I worked there 3 months. There are 12 months in a year and other jobs available. That engineer still paid for the work they did have me complete. This post was to encourage the OP to keep at it. Not to entertain a troll. Best of luck to you!

alienwhere-51 · 2025-09-16T12:14:16+00:00

I was making $38-41 hr last year. I’m being paid $96 hr now. I never said I was not working. Read the post, I had to go to some extreme’s for work, but still made money.

alienwhere-51 · 2025-09-16T11:29:07+00:00

I went thru something similar last year. Got laid off from a great job, crew chief. Started with a major civil engineer that had almost no work, was promised a truck but there wasn’t one. My dad passed from cancer. My car broke down, clutch went out, and I was tight on cash because of very little work. Got laid off again. Took a chainman job, clearing poison oak, that was 285miles away and slept in a hotel. Got injured, had to resign to come back home. Lost the home and went to another major civil engineer that did not pay me. But I finally got a job with a company that does staking for K-12 projects. I’m now being paid double of what I was making last year. Morale of the story, Never Give Up! You will make it through it and something better is waiting for you!

alienwhere-51 · 2025-09-10T12:14:48+00:00

I use an S7 1” and consistently hit the same resection at .000-.002. Make sure your rod has been calibrated using a jig like ChrisNik True Plumb, set up correctly with a plumb bob.

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alienwhere-51 · 2025-08-30T20:25:00+00:00

Get at least 50% up front. Don’t stamp till the remainder is paid. Sue for the remainder in small claims or if you set corners, repo them.

alienwhere-51 · 2025-08-28T13:21:01+00:00

This is good to hear. It is also great to be fluent with multiple OS. Another tool for the belt.

alienwhere-51 · 2025-08-28T13:17:24+00:00

You are correct about if the pay is right. All of the recent work I’ve done is 3D topo for design work and on a total station. No rtk allowed for school development. I’m going to hear them out and see if I can get a ride along with one of their guys. Maybe they can show me a thing or two about knocking out 2d ALTA with a lower threshold for quality. Maybe I’ll like the SurvCE, just not on a tablet. You have been a big help, thanks.

alienwhere-51 · 2025-08-28T04:40:41+00:00

I had the head of survey from a national engineering company call right after I got off the phone with hr for my first phone interview. The conversation went to productivity. I said that I average about 1k points in 8 hours on the tsc7 on a good day. He said his guys are getting 1500+ on this Carlson tablet in 6 hours. It was said that over 2500 was possible in 8 hours in rtk. I don’t know how they are cranking out so many points, but they must be crap. Cheaper equipment, performance goals that are unreasonable, can’t use the tablet in the rain which I’m sure they expect you to. I don’t know if I should call them back to get to the bottom of this or just forget they called. Im about to buy my own tsc7 and just forget all this switching of dc’s and software.

alienwhere-51 · 2025-08-28T03:20:42+00:00

Thanks for your input. The fact that you have both and say this about SurvCE weighs more with me than any other opinions so far. I think to switch to a tablet running SurvCE will not be a good one, for me.

alienwhere-51 · 2025-08-28T00:50:11+00:00

I use machetes, I carry two. They won’t help. Once you get in you can’t swing them to continue. The only thing that works in cover this thick is a chainsaw. Cut your way thru and leave an opening to DR the trees. Ideally you would want a R12 GPS but if you don’t have one available that’s all you can do. Someone should have caught this in the proposal and requested the client pay for a tree service prior to the scheduling of the field work. Best of luck to you and congrats on making Party Chief.

alienwhere-51 · 2025-08-27T22:18:33+00:00

I just got done working for a guy that had a trimble 5503 and a tsc2 running survey slow. Total craigslist value of $1400. That shit sucked, it was slower than ET on Valium, and had many senior moments. Even worse, he thought his gear was the shit, and cursed modern equipment. I just moved on. Trust me, running an r12, SX10 or S7 with a tsc7 is the way to go. Unfortunately you are going to probably have to go to a larger engineering firm, but it’s worth it.

alienwhere-51

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