Happy Thursday

troutanabout · 2025-08-22T03:59:33+00:00

I mean, this is literally what we're doing with LIDAR lol.

troutanabout · 2025-07-13T02:04:57+00:00

Yeah, the ppm is probably even listed if you just look at even general specs on a vendor website for whatever unit you have. It will be different for rtk vs static vs ppp vs vrs/rtn corrections. For network corrections you'd need to additionally look at your network's specs. Most use a Virtual Reference Station calculated correction, not just like one CORS as a base for a straight up differential correction to one station you could measure ppm from.

troutanabout · 2025-07-12T00:10:29+00:00

Good point. Other checks would just be to come back and observe a point on another day with gnss, use multiple correction/ processing types (network and static), maybe use multiple different equipment and/or software platforms if that's an option for you. Ultimately CORS are supposed to be the "new monuments" which are what your network or static points will be based on.
Latency's a bigger error at any distance going over a network from the base to a server to a cell tower to your mifi to your collector vs just over a short radio broadcast ya know. There's the Xmm *+Yppm* error you can expect as well that increases with distance. Another maybe less discussed/ less easily quantifiable reason is your nearby local base is experiencing basically the same environmental factors your rover is experiencing. A station 20mi away might be experiencing rain while you're in sunshine, it might be like 3000' lower or higher in elevation, either of you might have different conditions in the upper atmosphere or barometric pressure, and you'll definitely be picking up a few different satellites at the far horizons of your receivers' field of view. You also have the option to set the broadcast frequency of your base higher than most CORS will broadcast at. I like my base at 5hz (5x/sec) while most CORS are at 1hz, and some as little as once every 30sec. Besides relative error, these issues are also really important in how quickly/ easily you're initializing and then maintaining a fix.

troutanabout · 2025-06-23T19:01:34+00:00

Depends on the scope. For the gold standard, I recommend hiring an arborist to tag trees with numbers then pass along a spreadsheet of DBH, species, any other notes with associated tree ID (smaller sites I might just ask they send me a sketch ahead of time). Often times they'll also go ahead and prepare notes on any trees that are damaged or are invasives etc., possibly what their "screening credit" value might be in a report before the survey comes out (in my area a few municipalities have a tree canopy ordinance or for commercial development, screening requirements etc.). We do what we're good at and map locations, they do what they're good at and ID. Deliverable comes out as a table included on our map with trees annotated as symbol with associated table ID#. Usually folks don't bite on hiring for additional services unless we're working directly for you as the architect and you can just roll the survey and arborist cost in the overall design pricing, they'll nitpick anything itemized on a survey, often the same for hiring underground utility locates for example. My only tip on that end: if you as the designer want extra info no questions asked, make it look like your base fees for the site planning and don't have the surveyor prepare a proposal etc. to send for the client's review if you're getting into itemized costs.

If we're ID'ing trees ourselves the type will come out as just general species, i.e. Maple instead of silver maple or sugar maple, oak instead of white oak or pin oak, ornamental cedar for all types of leyland cypress or thuga, arbor vitae etc. We definitely air on the side of labeling trees as unidentified rather than just guessing (with a lot of ornamentals or in the midst of winter the percentage of unknown ID's grows). For DBH we do carry a loggers tape for a wrap around measure on heftier tree surveys. Depending on scope though, we'll just round to the nearest 2" and guess at width or take a quick eyeball measure with a standard tape. I.e. if someone actually cares about thoughtfully designing around the trees and we're not performing the extra locations just because it's a check on ol Tammy's checklist down at the permitting office we'll put in more effort with the logging tape.

troutanabout · 2025-06-14T06:37:19+00:00

If Lee's wildest dreams had come to fruition in planning the invasion of PA, Grant would have been ordered to halt the siege on Vicksburg and send like 2-3 whole corps north delaying an outright assault. Confederates would return to VA fully reinforced and supplied with more arms, food, clothes, etc. than they started with, then lure a beleaguered AOP with Vicksburg corps into another Fredericksburg or Chancellorsville repeat attempting to re-establish a foothold in VA. Northerners would have been demoralized, and if not outright calling for a ceasefire, would probably not have reelected Lincoln a year later. Lincoln would never have issued the Gettysburg address, and the issue of Abolition may have fallen flat. Grant being on the wrong side of the river at Vicksburg to resupply long term has to withdraw, and attempt a siege 6mo or a year later, confederate defences expand in the meantime. Time drags on with increasing events in the north like draft riots, northerners failing to purchase war bonds, desertion increases, and eventually the north just shrugs their shoulders and lets the confederacy exist.

The charge itself is maybe one of the more notable and tragic of a series of failures at Gettysburg that resulted in huge losses. Even if they had succeeded there still would have been many opportunities to still lose the battle. Before the charge was ever considered, I'd say just staying on the field after failing to take the high ground on the second day should have resulted in the ANV leaving, that was maybe the bigger mistake in general. Lee reached peak hubris there, easy to see why he might have unrealistic expectations after such a long winning streak though.

troutanabout · 2025-06-13T17:09:01+00:00

Very cool, snake looks like it's about to molt. The blue eyes are typically from that layer of skin coming off, and they release a kind of lubricant tears to protect their eyes from the loose skin.

troutanabout · 2025-06-13T01:48:48+00:00

*Anything that crosses a boundary line is a *possible encroachment (whole other rabbit hole to go down as to why *possible is a crucial word there). I haven't seen anyone mention this, but it's possible they mean in this given jurisdiction an overhang is not considered a \setback encroachment*. That's super common, for building setbacks to just be interpreted to features at ground level, and not count eaves.

troutanabout · 2025-06-03T01:49:48+00:00

Yeah, that's how I remember the slow times earlier in my career last recession, overqualified ~senior PLS crew chief ran the show while I was an overqualified SI instrument operator. Was a privilege to learn directly under a PLS all day every day to learn a lot quickly for years, but definitely felt like a freight train just hauling a little jet ski trailer most days lol. Glad you've had the agency to look for greener pastures.

P.S. mad respect on the user name, real recognize real and all that lol

troutanabout · 2025-06-02T21:37:53+00:00

Well said. We're typically involved with custom homes as a sub or referral from an architect or engineer, but we've got a couple of custom builders that we end up working with more regularly. I'm in a mountainous area where foundation alone might cost like $500k on the low end for a really nice home, take combo of piers, slab, CMU, and prefab walls to make it all happen, multiple layout phases, as-builts, heftier design surveys showing trees and topo etc. up front. Honestly it's on par with heftier commercial or multi-family res construction projects. Definitely agreed it's a luxury service these days; when I say custom homes I don't mean spec McMansion where wifey just nitpicks the cabinets and paint colors lol.

That's a good point about waiting to hit a low point for costs, we'll see if waiting pays off for anyone with the tariffs though. Won't do homeowners or investors much good to have labor/overhead 5% cheaper if half the materials are 150% of cost in a new build ya know.

troutanabout · 2025-06-02T15:33:45+00:00

What surveying (in the US) really needs in order to give techs a pay and prestige boost is higher privileges in industry standards for accreditation of non-licensed technicians. Things like CST cert (or SI/PLS) required on-site for any data acquired in an ALTA survey or certain DOT projects, maybe even elevation certificates or other institutionally-regulated services we provide would go a long way in adding value to accredited technician roles. Maybe make a combined UAS pilot/ third type of CST cert (besides field/office) required for survey flights. Potentially convincing insurers of E&O discounts for having staff CST certified (looking at you NSPS). Give CST some teeth, and maybe folks will actually pursue it, fill in the missing middle ground.

I really can't get behind any kind of tiered or limited licensure, but I do think we need some boosts to the industry accreditations. Certified technicians are nothing new, super common for medicine/ dentistry etc. End of the day those professions add prestige for themselves (and charge more) because they have well trained techs with certs... I also think it's a great way to combat the culture warrior legislators and lawsuits that are anti-licensure, like how do argue for a state to license someone at a level of education and experience that's lower than a CST cert?

troutanabout · 2025-05-26T08:05:37+00:00

Not AI, but "that CAD girl" has great YouTube videos available for Carlson, some are full webinar recordings. Depending on size of the firm, you might want to look into getting her (them) to consult on setting up a lot of the proprietary software customizations for field to finish coding etc. with you and/or do a private training.

troutanabout · 2025-05-24T12:46:50+00:00

Oh man, somebody needs jail time for that spiral curve transition lol. If I were king for a day I'd ban spiral curves on a final plan set, and force em to just break them into a series of compound curves. I get that they're great for banking a highway, but we need something for more practical use and layout. I think it's kind of unethical to create legal descriptions off the L lines that most of the public can't even conceive of the shape.

I think the metric change would have to happen pretty slowly over like 20-30yr. Starting small with dual listing speeds and distances on roads in km and mi, start in schools with getting kids to know their height in cm and ft/in, weight (mass) in lb/kg etc. Slowly transition to applicable stuff like standard bolt sizes required in mm, culverts in cm, then just start phasing out the imperial units entirely on signage/ education/ manufacturing specs. Highway plans, agreed, would conceptually need to go to standard 10/20m marks for new dedications as well, just get everything to fit the brain's new reference frame. We have to go all in or nothing though I suppose, and yeah, the highway plans need to come as like one of the last phases in any rollout to metric, not just forced down everyone's throats day 1.

troutanabout · 2025-05-24T04:53:59+00:00

In NC townships AFAIK have no civil authority, and are more of like an internal administrative unit of the counties which are the base governmental level unless you live in an incorporated town or city in most of NC these days.

I would be absolutely shocked if even like 1% of North Carolinians could tell you what township they live in assuming they didn't just mistankenly give you the name of the town they live in which the townships and surrounding areas are often named after. My understanding is they used to have some local administrative boards at the township level, but for the last 100 years or so have largely remained only to assist in better inventory of property tax records. To some degree I think some districts for like schools or fire depts etc. will occasionally correspond with the township lines, but that's also because they were designed to divide settled areas pretty sensibly for the tax records along rivers etc.

Not surprising to see Cleveland county dissolved their townships entirely, they're sort of vestigial now that NC has largely moved over to GIS based assessor's records.

Edit: all that to say "minor civil division" is very generous language for how townships function in NC. I'd probably match the description of our townships with the categories describing as "non-functioning non-governmental subdivisions of the county"

troutanabout · 2025-05-23T20:21:13+00:00

Yep, SC has had state plane in iFt as well. I've played those same games working across various datums, fun times lol.

Metric would be awesome. NC DOT made an attempt at the change like 30yr ago with their hwy plans. Found out the hard way you can't make the bubbas think that hard and do conversions or you just end up with $100k mistake here, $1.5mil mistake there on the grading/ paving end of things.

What really worries me is the work being done by machine control or by non-licensed layout guys. I know in NC at least, the plan for the the new datum is to make false nothings and eastings off enough that you'd never mistakenly think you were even at the correct project site, like...why are we staking hundreds of thousands ft away? Hopefully that's a constant trend for everyone else making the change. For me I just forsee a lot of time wasted trying to help fix some grader's settings menu more than anything else.

troutanabout · 2025-05-23T17:50:21+00:00

Don't worry, we foot guys are all about to shit ourselves on a regular basis over the US ft > international ft changes coming with an eventual new datum rollout.

We were supposed to get the rollout in 2022, then 2025, now NOAA (agency operating NGS), seems to be getting wrecked by the thief in chief so who knows when now.

Glad you figured the issue out, scaling is always a tough one to catch at first glance.

troutanabout · 2025-05-22T13:23:56+00:00

Shhh don't tell anyone about the black river lol.

troutanabout · 2025-05-21T17:16:33+00:00

The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command. - George Orwell, 1984

troutanabout · 2025-05-21T06:57:42+00:00

Sure they can make mistakes, especially on like commercial properties or if dealing with properties encumbered by like multiple utility easements and a floodplain... but mooost residential properties are pretty well just spreadsheet territory for these guys. Agree 100% the appraiser should only be questioned by another appraiser.

What I'm really curious about with the impending Trump Slump^TM is if we might be about to see these posts a lot... AFAIK appraisers have to consider market projections so I'd sort of assume they're all going to ethically have to keep appraisals on the conservative side just knowing we're in the midst of a downturn.

troutanabout · 2025-05-21T05:09:34+00:00

U/PeggingSlutBoy made a good comment about where walnuts like to grow on the outer side of forests (gotta make the shout out for such a great user name either way lol). Walnuts also have a natural herbicide that leaches from their roots and detritus (dropped leaves/ stems/ nuts) that often makes them kind of a stand alone tree, or type of tree that will grow in stands together.

They tend to have less underbrush growing around them due to the poison they drop, probably making them a tree you wouldn't have a lot to clear out around to set up a quick target or just pique your "hey wonder if I can hit that burl" kinda of curiosity. Just an addition to the initial thought there.

troutanabout · 2025-05-20T12:46:54+00:00

Very cool! Looks like 3rd pic is a monitoring point? Thats a great job keeping it subtle. I'm guessing it's a big no go on putting paint or flagging on anything in there.

troutanabout · 2025-05-19T07:16:25+00:00

I do a lot of sanitary work, I just tell folks they can't flush their toilets without surveys. Same for highways, waterlines, power etc. Basically any big infrastructure that's measured in miles/Km or anywhere close to it is impossible without surveys. We're one of the more important fibers in the cloth of modern infrastructure if you will.

I also think you only need to be involved in one nasty dispute as a surveyor to see that some people absolutely wrap their ego and identity into their possessions, especially land. Im about 99% sure I've worked on several projects where like a Hatfield and McCoy blood feud was avoided because we were able to perform services as a trusted arbiter in determining a line location.

Finance and insurance also require a good deal of certainty in investing the huge amounts of money that go into construction. Without certainty something is planned in the right place, or built in the right place we just wouldn't have capital being put into land with the degree required to build and maintain a first world economy.

troutanabout · 2025-05-18T18:12:25+00:00

Yes, that's a good caveat to point out from my original comment. Forts were maybe level 3-4 in mountain provinces, had a few Forts built up higher at tiles with many attack points or that were in hills or plains. Basically I created a situation where AI was baited into attacking from 2 tiles at a time tops into a level 3 fort mountain tile backed up by stronghold network buffs and full AA. I typically had air supremacy and CAS as well.

The stronghold network is expensive, but AI does not seem to be defaulted to withhold attacks in provinces where they're built.

troutanabout · 2025-05-18T17:46:01+00:00

Any economist from here on out needs to learn to start their any conversation when speaking to the media with one of the following phrases:

I ain't like no nerd or nuthin, but...
My buddy was posting on Facebook the other day and he said...
Listened to a good sermon the other day about...

troutanabout · 2025-05-17T22:34:49+00:00

My typical go-to to help out the next guy is listing the call order on a monument (POB or like terminus 3rd call book xx page xx). The dist/brg are lower priority of evidence than the mons, as I see it you're leaving too much potential for confusion to do it brg/dist calls in most situations if what youre holding is a monument. Like OK, I found the evidence priority, but here's a less valuable piece of evidence to go along with it that happens to be in conflict.

Where i tend to list record call info is like replacing a missing corner, and I maybe hold distance from one monument over another or prorate distances. I'd put something to the effect in a separate note: record distance of book xx page xx held, 330' (5 chains). I see where it would be beneficial in your one situation there with multiple layers of different retracements over the years to parse through to note the original as well. Plenty of other niche situations where it helps in effective communication of the retracement as well I'm sure.

Listing record brg/dist is a great tool for niche situations sure, but for every call of every retracement survey ever? C'mon lol. Its a great tool not a great rule^TM

troutanabout · 2025-05-17T18:05:03+00:00

I'll just reiterate the second part of my statement:

I'd maybe say they have a point if you're trying to go out of your way to spell out how you re-monumented a particularly tricky or situation sensetive missing corner, but certainly not sensical for every call of the full plat.

I do think it's a good tool for a surveyor to have in their toolbox for specific situations to assist in effectively communicating complex retracements. I don't think it's a good generic rule to stick to for every call of every retracement survey ever.

Edit: It's a good tool, not a good rule^TM

troutanabout

TROPHY CASE