I’ve been a little slack in requesting feedback from my customers over the past year so I was very pleased to receive the following unsolicited feedback from Aaron Hahn this week:
I purchased the Civil Suite last month and I wanted to thank you for all your pdf tutorials you posted on your site. They have been extremely helpful and they have made the switch from Civil 3D to Carlson quick and easy.
I can confidently say, that I prefer this software over Civil 3D already (used Civil 3D for years)! It’s faster, has more control, and is generally cleaner than Civil 3D. Clean and simple.
Thanks for all your help! Looking forward to getting up to speed on more of your tutorials and webinars 🙂
Aaron Hahn
Hahn Engineering & Consulting
British Columbia, Canada
Software Purchase – December 2011
In Figure 1, the dotted lines represent the actual edges of pavement that exist in the field. Points 1-10 have a description “EP” designating them as Edge of Pavement.
To draw the linework for the edges of pavement, you must create a field code for the EP description. You can see from Figure 2 that it requires only a couple of specific settings to indicate that this is a 2D polyline type of entity and on what layer the polyline is to be created.
Rather than calling all edge of pavement points EP, we can use a number to modify the description so that we can tell the two polylines apart. We can use “EP1” for the northwest side and “EP2” for the southeast side. Now, when we redraw the points using Field to Finish, we end up with Figure 4, which is exactly what we wanted.
Using the same method as in the prior example, we can use descriptions “EP3” and “EP4” for the new edges of pavement. As you can see in Figure 6, this leaves us with the four separate polylines that we wanted.
You use multiple point codes when you have two site features (such as the edge of pavement and a sidewalk) that intersect. As you can see in Figure 8 there are two points where a sidewalk meets the edge of pavement. In Figure 9, you can see the descriptions we used so we could have Field to Finish process points 5 and 6 as part of both the EP and SW linework entities.
Now, let’s take a closer look at the descriptions for points 5 and 6 (Figure 11). In Carlson Survey, if you use a space between two descriptions, the program allows you to process them separately using the two corresponding field codes. The corresponding field codes used to process these descriptions are EP and SW so Carlson will process the same point twice, first using the EP field code and then again using the SW field code.
Because having a space in a point description is an indicator to Carlson that multiple field codes may need to be processed, it is a best practice to avoid using spaces in your descriptions. Using a description such as 24” RCP PIPE can create several problems, but the main one is that Carlson will think it is supposed to process three separate field codes: one for 24”, one for RCP and one for PIPE. A better description would be PIPE/24” RCP. In this example, a field code named PIPE would be processed. And, because a forward-slash (/) separates PIPE from 24” RCP, Carlson considers everything after the slash as a comment and will ignore it when processing Field to Finish.
If you select “All,” any point description that contains a space will be processed as a multiple point code. If you select “None,” all spaces will be ignored when it comes to processing multiple point codes. If you select “Prompt,” you will be prompted with the dialog box from Figure 13 each time a space is encountered in a point description.
Benefits
Granted, these examples demonstrate the power of Field to Finish when used to its fullest capacity, and it does require additional time and attention in the field to generate these results. In my training classes I encounter a lot of skepticism from folks who don’t believe the extra time in the field is worth it. While it may look cool, they say, it’s just easier to sort to layers, insert symbols, and connect the dots manually back in the office.
The Field Code that processes points with an FH description, as defined in Carlson Survey 2012, is shown in Figure 3. On the “General” tab of the dialog box, note the highlighted areas that show the layers, point group, and the checkbox to tag points as non-surface. Importing points with an FH description and using the “FH” Field Code definition results in the symbol named SPT16 being inserted on the layer V-WATR-STRC, the point being inserted on layer V-NODE-WATR-STRC, and the point included in a point group named EX-WATER.
In Figure 5 you can see the linework coding that has been added to the “BOC” (Back of Curb) point descriptions in the sample of the point file. The “+7” linework code instructs the program to begin drawing linework, and the “-7” instructs it to stop drawing that piece of linework. The “PC” and “PT” identify the starting and ending points of a curve that fit all points in between the PC and PT.
And this is just a sample of what can be done using Field to Finish. Depending on your software and data collector firmware, there are many other linework codes that can be used to automate the creation of linework based on your point descriptions and notes. In some cases there are specific linework codes that must be used, such as “B” for Begin linework (instead of the +7 used above) or “E” for End linework (instead of -7). Other programs, like Carlson, allow you to customize these codes. The “Special Codes” dialog box in Figure 7 shows the default linework codes used in Carlson Survey 2012.
encountered the proverbial drawing from “you-know-where” that seems to drive us crazy from start to finish. Here I offer several tips to help you identify problems and conquer your problem drawings. I’ve listed these tips in the order I would apply them. 
