Posted by Dent on Jan 1, 2012 2:10 pm
Our field crews use Carlson Field to collect all of the data. Using Carlson's coding, all of the linework is established as are all of the symbols. We then import the CRD file directly into Carlson Survey with Embedded AutoCad ("Stand Alone" only means that the software is loaded on each computer and not run off a server.). With this setup we can use the Field To Finish tools to draw all line work, label all inverts and control points , tree types and sizes, etc. What used to take a day or two drawing "point to point" now takes less than 5 minutes.
We use Carlson Survey to prepare all of our boundary plats, ALTA surveys and topographic surveys.
You do give up some LISP functionallity, but the program came with all of the lisp routines that I was using, except for one. The only other issues that I had were the lack of Quick Keys and the "Draw Arc by Start, End, Direction". I found that it was just that Idid not know how to do something rather than the software lacking the ability to do a task. These two items now function well in my copy of Carlson.
If you are a small survey outfit, I can think of no better product than Carlson Survey for your day to day use. The price for a seat of Carlson Survey with embedded AutoCad is almost 1/3 of that of C3D. I have yet to not be able to do anything that I did in LDD, I just have to do it a little different. The learning curve is rather shallow and I find that building a surface and generating contours to be faster and easier than the old LDD.
