Category Archives: Surveying
True 3D Design
New geospatial software combines the appeal of games with the rigor of applications. It’s never been done before: applying the rigor and disciplines of civil engineering, mining engineering, hydrology, and even classic survey field-to-finish to game-like 3D design. Sure, CAD operators have had 3D viewing for years, which they use to review the results of...
Blending Realities
A 3D design and visualization tool with phenomenal potential in the AEC world is coming from a collaboration between Microsoft and Trimble. Imagine designing an object, in 3D and color, using only gaze, gestures, and voice (GGV) commands. Imagine designing an entire building the same way—or modifying an existing one. Imagine moving in a physical...
Fundamentals of Geodesy
Part 1: An Introduction Editor’s note: With this article we start an overview of GeoLearn courses offered by Dave Doyle, former chief geodetic surveyor for the National Geodetic Survey and geodesy editor of xyHt. GeoLearn (geo-learn.com) is an online education business helping professionals reach mandatory continuing education requirements and sort through everyday work issues. Dave’s...
The Record 1/16 Corner
Glenny Dale (The Old Man), picked his way slowly through the pines, looking down and left and right, trying to remember where the old pipe was. Two Steller’s Jays perched on a pine branch directly above. One of them blended into the deep blue sky, the other into the black pine shadows. Their slightest flicker...
Indiana Jones With a Tripod
Why choose surveying as a career? Read this. My desk is a mess right now: stacks of old field books, dusty quadrangle maps, and a plumb bob serving as a paper weight for my research notes. I have to look under a pile of mining claims to find my trusty compass. I tuck the compass...
NSPS President’s Message to the Membership
A message to the membership of the National Society of Professional Surveyors (NSPS) from the NSPS President Jon Warren, PLS To all our new members, “welcome to your National Society of Professional Surveyors (NSPS)”, and to our previous members, “welcome to your new NSPS!” And, borrowing a phrase from a past NSPS President and Chairman of...
