Overview

The Survey module provides a complete set of tools aimed at providing the following functions for surveyors:

  • Surveying
    This module contains data collector upload and download facilities including reduction and re-sectioning as well as survey data and survey station operations and reports. Appendix C provides additional information on Vulcan's data recorder interfaces.
  • Blast Setout
    This module contains options that allow you to use blast holes as survey points. Checked numbers (sample numbers) can also be assigned to the survey points.
  • Survey Volumes
    This module contains options that allow you to calculate the volume between a before and after surface using the end-area volume method.
  • UG Survey
    This module contains options that are more applicable to the Underground surveyor, such as entering traverse and radiation data from a fieldbook, calculating offsets, and two methods for creating UG drives from survey data.
  • Transformations
    This module contains options that allow you to convert local grid coordinates to the plane projection coordinate system (UTM - Universal Transverse Mercator) and to convert UTM coordinates to geographic coordinates based on the local spheroid for that region. Geographic coordinates can then be converted to Cartesian coordinates in the WGS84 coordinate reference frame.

Angular Units

You can specify the angular units (either degrees or gradients) used in the Survey Module through the Miscellaneous section of the Tools > Preferences option.

Prerequisites:

  • To enable files to be transferred between a survey instrument and the computer, you require either a valid serial cable or for some instruments, which use PC cards, a PC card reader. Refer also to the section on Survey Instruments in the System Administration documentation.
  • If using a serial cable, then you require a free serial port. For UNIX clients, this port must be turned off (that is, no getty running on that port), and the protections should be set to allow write permission for all users, such as:
    crw-rw-rw-  1  root   krja   0,   2 Oct  19  11:28  /dev/ttyd2
  • An entry in the perif.setup file for the required survey instrument. For example,
    BEGIN$DEF GEODAT TYPE='SURVEY_INST' DEVICE='/dev/ttyd2' BAUD='9600' CBITS='8' SBITS='1' PARITY='NONE' NO_ECHO END$DEF GEODAT

    The above parameters can be added to the perif.setup file through using one of the following methods.

    • The prpset command, (refer to Peripheral Devices in the System Administration documentation).
    • Added manually via a text editor, that is, Notepad.
    • Selecting the Check settings button from the Survey Instrument Setup panel. Refer to the Setup option for more information.

    Survey instruments supported are:

    • Survey_Wild.gif10
    • Wild GRE3/4
    • TOPCON
    • Geodimeter 400, 500 and 4000 series
    • Sokkia SDR-22
    • Sokkia SDR-33
    • Collectech Criterion 400
    • Leica TPS-1000
    • Trimble TDC1/TSC1 GPS
  • A survey.codes file and a <libraryname>.stations file. Both these files can be entered and/or edited using special options, or can be created from scripts. If you setup the $SURVEY_DATA environment variable to point to a special main survey directory, then these files can be accessed from all the survey data areas.

    Survey codes are used to distinguish survey data at reduction time. If you code up your data out in the field, the survey codes allow you to define the characteristics of the reduced data, such as object name, group name, feature name, colour, line type and point or line structure. The survey.codes file is created in the Edit Codes option in the Surveying submenu. An example is provided in Appendix A.

    A <libraryname>Stations file is a library file containing the stations that have been coordinated at the mine. This file can be created in the Create Station Library option in the Surveying submenu, or can be scripted. More than one library may exist. See Appendix A for an example.