So, this is pretty impressive for Carlson Software… no?

The Surveying & Mapping Software CLEAReport from Clear Seas Research is based on an independent study performed each year that, among other things, determines and/or measures:

• Which surveying and mapping software manufacturers are industry professionals aware of?
• Which brands of CAD software, data collector/controller software, and/or GIS software did industry professionals purchase in the past year?
• How do the brands perform on technological leadership, price fairness, product support, and product quality?
• Which surveying and mapping software brands will industry professionals consider purchasing?

Their latest report includes data collected in November and December 2018 and concludes that “Carlson Software outperforms all competitors across every tested metric.” Well done Carlson Software!

You can read the press release from Carlson Software here and more about the 2018 SURVEYING & MAPPING INDUSTRY SOFTWARE STUDY from Clear Seas Research here. [updated link from American Surveyor here]

The rollout of Carlson Software’s 2020 desktop programs is now complete with this week’s release of Carlson Survey 2020 and Takeoff R11 with embedded Carlson AutoCAD (OEM). There wasn’t a new release of Takeoff last year so Carlson Survey 2020 includes two years of updates which you can see here.

If you purchased a new license or upgrade to 2019 on or after 9/1/2019 – you are eligible for a free upgrade to 2020! Email me to request your 2020 serial number.

Click here to request a 30 day trial of the software or, if you’re currently using an older version of one of these OEM products and are interested in upgrading, please click here to request a proposal.

Here are a few links and video with more details about new features and updates in the 2020 software:

Click here to download a PDF of improvements to Carlson Takeoff R11

Click here to download a PDF of improvements in Carlson 2020 products.

Carlson’s 2020 Page

More Dynamic, Carlson Civil and Hydrology 2020 Provide Advanced New Features

Carlson Mining 2020 Features Upgrades, New Tools, and Functionality Enhancements

Carlson Survey and GIS 2020 offer User Interface Upgrades, Efficiency Tools and Education

Time to Upgrade?… No Problem

A couple of weeks ago Carlson Software released the 2020 version of their desktop software that runs with IntelliCAD 9.2 (which is included) or on top of a separately purchased license of AutoCAD 2015-2020.
UPDATE: Carlson Survey 2020 and Takeoff with Embedded AutoCAD (OEM) is now available

For customers who are current on maintenance, you can follow this link to look up your new 2020 serial number. If you have trouble finding your serial numbers, you can call Carlson for free tech support at 606-564-5028 or contact me and I’ll try to help.

You can click here to request a 30 day trial of the software or request a proposal for a new purchase or Carlson 2020 update.

Here are a few links and video with more details about new features in the Carlson 2020 update of the software:

Click here to download a PDF of improvements in Carlson 2020 products.

Carlson’s 2020 Page

More Dynamic, Carlson Civil and Hydrology 2020 Provide Advanced New Features

Carlson Mining 2020 Features Upgrades, New Tools, and Functionality Enhancements

Carlson Survey and GIS 2020 offer User Interface Upgrades, Efficiency Tools and Education

Time to Upgrade?… No Problem

I don’t know about you but the new Carlson product offerings for P3D Topo and Point Cloud Basic and Point Cloud Advanced confuse me. Admittedly, these are products I haven’t dived into much and have relied on Mark Long and Doug Aaberg for their advice and direction. So, I put the question to them, “Who Needs Point Cloud? And Who Needs P3D Topo?”

Doug Aaberg: I feel that while Carlson P3D topo is a good solution for producing, manipulating surface models as well as some hydrology capabilities while Carlson Point Cloud is a good solution for performing virtual surveys and extracting existing data out of a cloud. It is probably to simple to surmise by saying Engineers would like P3D while Surveyors would like Point Cloud but I sort of think that way. The truth is, there is a lot of overlap between the two products.

Mark Long says: Carlson P3D Topo is intended to take large point clouds and create surface models for design professionals via Drones or Lidar.

And as to the difference between Point Cloud Basic and Advanced? Doug says: Point Cloud Basic – designed to work within a CAD environment to manipulate and extract data from a point cloud. It has a very large capacity (up to a billion points) and is a great program for performing a “virtual survey” directly in a cloud. It allows the creation of Carlson points and 3D polylines utilizing a typical Carlson Field to Finish code table (FLD file) and draws entities directly into an open CAD drawing with no additional export function. A notable feature is Survey by Grid which sets points at any specified grid spacing.

Point Cloud Advanced – contains all of the functionality of Carlson Point Cloud Basic plus the ability to extract features such as trees, hydrants and poles. It also allows the creation of solids and utilizes typical Carlson cross section alignments (mxs files) to extract cross sections and profiles. You can select cloud data by color or elevation and create regions for isolating portions of a cloud for editing or extracting features.. A notable feature is the ability to simplify a TIN and create smoother looking contour lines.

Here is a handy chart – current as of the 2023 product release:
Comparison: Point Cloud Basic vs Point Cloud Advanced

View Carlson Point Cloud webinars

Doug Aaberg previewed this new Carlson Software Learning Management System (LMS) at our workshops last year and Carlson has finally released it! And, the best part is that Carlson Academy will be available right from the Help menu in Carlson 2020 programs and is free for up-to-date users.

Carlson Academy is a collection of modules and training courses for most of the Carlson desktop software programs. The lessons include both written and video tutorials covering features of the software and also many command-specific tips and tricks.

Doug provides a great introduction to Carlson Academy here and the rest of his blog is fantastic as well!

As mentioned above, you do need to be current on your software in order to access this fantastic portal. You can call 919-417-8351 or send an email to request pricing to renew your maintenance or upgrade to the latest release.

It’s been several years working with the same general format so we’re changing it up in 2019!

We are once again going to have western NC workshops in Hendersonville and Statesville in November and will visit eastern NC in Raleigh in December; but, we’ll have 3 days on each end of the state! Click here to see the whole lineup of software training for surveyors & engineers.

Day 1 – 2019 Carlson Workshops for Surveyors & Engineers – This is a full-day of demonstration and presentation type training for $99. All attendees will be in one room with presenters rotating in and out for different topics. Attendees will receive 8 PDH credit hours.

Topics will include:

• Overview of SurvCE
• Avoiding Pitfalls with Data Processing in Carlson Software
• Network Least Squares traverse adjustment with SurvNet
• Surface Modeling with P3D Topo
• CadNet 101
• Carlson Tips & Tricks

♦ Tuesday Nov 12^th in Hendersonville NC ♦ View Announcement ♦ Register Here

♦ Tuesday Dec 10^th in Raleigh NC ♦ View Announcement ♦ Register Here

Day 2 – 2019 Carlson Workshops for Surveyors & Engineers – This is another full-day of demonstration and presentation type training for $99. All attendees will be in one room with presenters rotating in and out for different topics. Attendees will receive 8 PDH credit hours.

Topics will include:

• Overview of Carlson GIS
• Down & Dirty Data Transfer
• Processing Drone Data with Carlson’s Photo Capture and Point Cloud Basic software
• CadNet 101
• Surface Models, Profiles & Utility Networks with Carlson Civil & Hydrology

♦ Wednesday Nov 13^th in Statesville NC ♦ View Announcement ♦ Register Here

♦ Wednesday Dec 11^th in Raleigh NC ♦ View Announcement ♦ Register Here

Day 3 – 2019 Hands-On Carlson Workshops for Surveyors & Engineers – This is a full-day of hands-on training for $250. There will be 3 rooms with different instructors and different topics to be covered. Seating is limited to 15 max per room and you will be reserving one seat in a particular room – you will not be able to move from one room to another during the day.

Attendees will receive 8 PDH credit hours.

You will need to provide your own laptop computer with Windows 10 installed. We will provide a 30 day trial serial number for you to use. See announcement for further details.

• Room 1: Jennifer DiBona will teach Surface Modeling, Basics to Advanced
• Room 2: Mark Long will teach Subdivision Design, layout and roadway grading
• Room 3: Doug Aaberg will teach Survey Processing with Carlson Survey, traverse adjustment and field to finish

♦ Thursday Nov 14^th in Statesville NC ♦ View Announcement ♦ Register Here

♦ Thursday Dec 12^th in Raleigh NC ♦ View Announcement ♦ Register Here

I’m late posting this but, several months ago, Carlson announced a welcome addition to their desktop software “bundling” options.

Prior to this announcement, users only had options of buying individual modules or one of two different Carlson Software bundles: Carlson Civil Suite which includes Survey, Civil, GIS and Hydrology or Takeoff Suite which includes Construction, CadNet, GeoTech and Trench.

But, now? Now you can create your own Select Suite of 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6 different modules and receive discounted pricing for the original purchase and the annual maintenance. The modules available in the Select Suite are: Survey, Civil, GIS, Hydrology, Point Cloud Basic and CadNet.

All the modules come with an included license of IntelliCAD or can be installed on top of your own, separately purchased license of AutoCAD. The modules can also be shared as a network license if needed.

Psssttt… All Carlson products still include a perpetual license agreement so, if you like your software, you can keep it!

REGISTRATION is now open for Carlson’s next user conference in Portland Oregon in April 2020!

Carlson’s user conferences are truly about the users and offer rare opportunities to meet, greet, eat (and drink!) with Carlson’s development and support staff. Looking forward to seeing you there at Go West 2020!

The Bad News: Carlson Software announced last week that they will be increasing the cost of maintenance renewals as of 9/1/2019. The Carlson Software price for maintenance is going up! (View this as PDF)

The Good News: The increases will only apply to licenses for which the maintenance has expired.

Putting your licenses on maintenance is still completely optional (and won’t affect access to Carlson’s free tech support) and the annual cost to renew CURRENT maintenance will still be 10% of the retail price of the software. But, after Sept 1, the cost to renew EXPIRED maintenance will increase from 5% to 10% for each year that license is out-of-date.

Here’s an example… Renewing maintenance now for a license of Civil Suite 2016 that has expired will cost $987.50 (25% of retail price of $3,950) but, after 9/1/2019, will cost $1,580 (40% of retail price of $3,950). By renewing maintenance you will receive an immediate upgrade to the 2019 version of the software plus you’ll receive 2020 when it’s released in a few weeks.

So, if you have accidentally, or on-purpose, let maintenance on some licenses lapse, now’s the time to consider renewing. Please call or email to request pricing!

Carlson’s Year-End Specials were announced on November 1st and there are a couple surprises this year! You can purchase from our online store or contact us directly for a custom proposal.

Carlson Civil Suite or Pick 4 Bundle with maintenance thru 9/1/2019

Carlson Survey with embedded AutoCAD (OEM)

Carlson Takeoff Suite with maintenance thru 9/1/2019