Point of Beginning articles from January 2008

Point of Beginning archives from January 2008

Profits and pride in '08: typically, editors fill their notes for the beginning-of-the-year issue with an industry outlook. I doubt I need to rehash the economic news that is already known by most or sum up that we are in the midst of an economic downturn. Rather, I'd like to investigate possible ways to withstand the current.(editor'spoints)(Editorial)
January 1, 2008... To begin, we evaluate industry trends. Financial projections for the construction industry report that building and construction are down in many application areas and in many regions. The international presence in U.S. business is greater than...

Technology benchmark: September 2007.(Letter to the editor)
January 1, 2008... I enjoyed your article in the September '07 issue of POB. I was registered in Wisconsin as a professional surveyor for more than 30 years. Most of the time I was in my own business while holding the county surveyor position for most of that...

Editor's points: November 2007.(Letter to the editor)
January 1, 2008... I just read your article in the recent issue of Point of Beginning about your trip to Traverse City, Mich. I had to laugh a little because I am the same way you are when I take trips around the state of Wisconsin. I am big into snowmobiling and...

GPS technology contributes to "robot race".(newsline)
January 1, 2008... Going from grand to urban, the 2007 autonomous vehicle challenge staged by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) added considerable complexity for the 11 competing finalists from its two previous years in desert surroundings. On...

Texas program sees first-year success.(newsline)
January 1, 2008... This month marks a full year for the land surveying certification credit program offered at Montgomery College in Conroe, Texas. The program, created in response to the shortage of surveyors in Texas, is a steppingstone to the two-year...

Galileo project makes headway.(newsline)(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... In November 2007, Europe's Galileo project made substantial headway in its planning. At the end of budget reconciliation talks between European parliamentarians, the European Commission and the European Council, delegates agreed that Galileo...

Industry supplier Oce aids Chicago Map exhibit.(newsline)(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... Oce, international provider of digital document management technology and services with offices in Chicago, has collaborated with Chicago's Field Museum on the new "Maps: Finding Our Place in the World" exhibition, which runs through Jan. 27,...

Calendar of events.
January 1, 2008... JANUARY 15-20 2008 VAS Convention Virginia Association of Surveyors Inc. Hampton, Va. 804/262-1351 vasoffice@verizon.net www.vasurveyors.org 16-18...

Lifecycle solutions: third annual Trimble conference focuses on transforming business through Connected Site concept.(conferenceRECAP)(Conference notes)
January 1, 2008... For the third consecutive year, the Mirage hotel in Las Vegas set the stage for Trimble's annual conference, Trimble Dimensions. More than 2,500 people representing more than 50 countries gathered from Nov. 5-7, 2007 to obtain hands-on product...

Green, global and growing: growing global presence underscores Autodesk University 2007.(conferenceRECAP)(Conference notes)
January 1, 2008... From November 27-30, the 2007 and Fifteenth Edition of Autodesk University (AU) took place once again in Las Vegas at the very posh Venetian Resort Hotel. The Venetian, as its name might suggest, has a decidedly European flavor. Light classical...

An a-maze-ing feat: rapid response and 3d laser scanning technology aid the rebuilding of California's MacArthur Maze interchange.
January 1, 2008... At 3:41 a.m. on Sunday, April 29, 2007, an explosion and a huge ball of fire lit up the night skies along the east side of the San Francisco Bay in Oakland, Calif. A tanker truck carrying 8,600 gallons of gasoline crashed into a guardrail,...

When millimeters matter: California's Bay Bridge replacement project benefits from careful and precise survey work.
January 1, 2008... Putting a square peg into a square hole is no trick. But when the "peg" is a new, 6,500-ton, 350-foot-long section of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, and the "hole" is an opening in the existing bridge with just 3 inches to spare, the...

The Earthmate GPS PN-20 by DeLorme: a mapping quality GPS receiver, navigation device and fully functional GIS software package for the navigating surveyor.(inREVIEW)
January 1, 2008... Surveyors, as well as "civilians," have been making good use of handheld GPS devices for reconnaissance, search and navigation tasks for years. The technology may no longer seem to be advancing by leaps and bounds, but it does continue to...

2008 editorial spotlight.(Company overview)
January 1, 2008... The 2008 Editorial Spotlight features news about manufacturers, dealers and service providers who serve the geomatics profession, including corporate activities, breakthroughs, company histories, and new products and services. All of the...

Developing a new GIS, part 3: as promised, we will now revisit the fateful question that launched this epic: "how much does a copy of ArcView cost?" And the answer (to no one's surprise) is ... it depends.(surveyinggis)
January 1, 2008... I hope by now we have established that getting started with GIS is ever so slightly more complex than simply choosing and pricing software packages. That is not to say budgeting and procurement are not important components of any GIS plan. But...

Construction surveying for anchor bolts: although the construction surveyor has many layout tasks and duties to perform on the jobsite, one of the most important tasks is the layout of anchor bolts. Anchor bolts are used to hold structural members to the foundation.(backtobasics)
January 1, 2008... Structural steel or precast concrete columns or beams are fabricated and brought onto the site with the expectation that they will easily slip into place. If care is not taken to locate anchor bolts accurately, the structure simply may not fit....

When an expert is no longer an expert: as with many cases we review involving surveyors, boundaries and court testimony, our case-in-chief, Rapides Parish v. Grant Parish (1) contains many lessons we can learn without having to actually experience them ourselves.(traversingthelaw)
January 1, 2008... This is why we review these cases in this column. The issues in this case are issues the practicing surveyor encounters every day. Rapides v. Grant is our classic boundary dispute case, the twist being it is a dispute between two political...

A government program ... that helps: you've heard the joke about the things you should never believe: "the check is in the mail." "I'm from the government and I'm here to help you.".(gains)
January 1, 2008... For nearly two decades, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has operated a program that truly helps the geospatial community by providing a suite of private, professional service contracting firms and the Corps' expertise in contract...

The newest tool after robots and RTK.(professionaltopography)
January 1, 2008... Based on the buzz in the industry, you might assume that the newest tool after robots and RTK is 3D GPS machine control. At the Trimble user conference last November, I heard some of the contractors in attendance say that 3D GPS machine control...

Carlson Software.(turningpoints)
January 1, 2008... CARLSON SOFTWARE, Maysville, Ky., formed a Civil Engineering Division and named Harry O. Ward, PE, as the head. The new division incorporates Carlson's civil software development team and a specialized sales force throughout the United States...

Rowe Incorporated.(turningpoints)
January 1, 2008... ROWE INCORPORATED, Flint, Mich., acquired CAROLINA AERIAL SURVEYS LLC, Myrtle Beach, S.C. The new office operates under the name of ROWE PROFESSIONAL SERVICE COMPANIES OF CAROLINA and is expanded to provide a full complement of professional...

Allen Precision Equipment (APE).(turningpoints)
January 1, 2008... ALLEN PRECISION EQUIPMENT (APE) promoted Mark Kuehn to GPS training manager. Kuehn directs the continued development of APE's training programs that are designed to make customers as productive as possible with GPS. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

ESRI.(turningpoints)
January 1, 2008... Dirk Gorter joined the senior corporate management team of ESRI, Redlands, Calif., in the newly created position of director of product management. Gorter implements new processes to help ESRI create innovative GIS software products that...

SOKKIA.(new&notable)
January 1, 2008... SOKKIA introduced the SET X Total Station. The SET X features an environmental protection rating of IP65 and is available in 1", 2", 3" and 5" models. 1" and 2" models include absolute encoders enhanced with SOKKIA's Independent Angle...

SECO manufacturing company.(new&notable)
January 1, 2008... SECO MANUFACTURING COMPANY introduced a small, portable pin pole and prism system, and a new alligator-clamp tripod. The 12-mm OD, aluminum pin pole breaks down into three sections for easy storage. The sections are painted in alternating 10-cm...

Vectors Inc.(new&notable)
January 1, 2008... Trimble dealer VECTORS INC. announced the first Trimble Real Time GPS network in Central New Mexico. The network encompasses more than 4,000 square miles, running approximately 80 miles from north to south and 54 miles from east to west. It...

Leica Geosystems.(new&notable)
January 1, 2008... LEICA GEOSYSTEMS released the DISTO D3 laser distance meter. The Leica DISTO D3 measures distances up to 325 feet within 1/16" even around nearby obstructions, and determines angles quickly and precisely. It detects the multifunctional end...

Leica Geosystems Geospatial Imaging.(new&notable)
January 1, 2008... LEICA GEOSYSTEMS GEOSPATIAL IMAGING announced a free low-resolution version of the ERDAS Field Guide, downloadable from the company's Web site at www.gi.leica-geosystems.com/LGISub2x514x0.aspx. The ERDAS Field Guide provides background...

KUBIT USA.(new&notable)
January 1, 2008... KUBIT USA released PointCloud and PointCloud Pro 3.2. New functionalities bundled in PointCloud Pro allow for faster and easier post processing of point clouds in AutoCAD. Planes can be adjusted by selecting a certain area of points and...

Hemisphere GPS.(new&notable)
January 1, 2008... HEMISPHERE GPS announced that its Crescent GPS technology is available for handheld mapping. Hemisphere GPS' XF100 series DGPS receivers for ruggedized handheld computers provides an integrated solution for the collection of position data and...

DeLorme.(new&notable)
January 1, 2008... DELORME introduced Topo USA 7.0. New features include: more than 3 million new or updated roads, more than four million places of interest from the DeLorme Street Atlas USA 2008 database and 40,000 locations from the renowned DeLorme Atlas &...

Blue Marble Geographics.(new&notable)
January 1, 2008... BLUE MARBLE GEOGRAPHICS released Geographic Calculator 7.0. New features include: administrative tools for quality assurance, enabling "lock-down" of a particular data source, securing true definitions and avoiding data corruption;...

Safe Software.(new&notable)
January 1, 2008... SAFE SOFTWARE announced that its FME spatial ETL (extract, transform and load) platform supports the spatial data capabilities in the SQL Server 2008 November Community Technology Preview (CTP). In the FME 2008 beta, SQL Server users will be...

Safe Software.(new&notable)
January 1, 2008... Also, SAFE SOFTWARE introduced a free FME FDO Provider for AutoCAD Map 3D 2008. Available for download at www.safe.com/fmefdo, the free FME FDO Provider integrates with the Data Connect dialog to enable quick connectivity to nine key spatial...

PCI Geomatics.(new&notable)
January 1, 2008... PCI GEOMATICS announced the latest release of GeomaticaX, a toolkit for creating customized workflows and automated processing chains, using Python scripting language and C++ and Java programming languages. The latest release consists of...

Surveying solutions.(funandgames)
January 1, 2008... Each month we present a surveying problem from the second edition of 1001 Solved Surveying Fundamentals Problems by Jan Van Sickle, PLS. As in the following example, the answer will appear below the problem, in a shaded box. We hope you enjoy...

Old Drafting Tools.(Remember When)(Column)
January 1, 2008... "In my early days of surveying, I moonlighted doing plan and map drafting. I built this drafting box to carry all my drafting equipment. In addition to what you see, the top has elastic straps for holding rolled maps, etc. It still sits on my...