What a fabulous start to spring we have had at least in the southern half of the British Isles. Wall to wall sunshine and record breaking temperatures which reached 26.5 degC in Sussex over Easter.

So, as the warm weather brings renewed optimism for a good year ahead, the threat of interest rate rises might be expected to affect the very markets in which we are all working. That doesn't appear to be the case at least yet anyway. You only need to talk to those in the construction industry to realise that order books are still bulging and projects which were on hold for so long are now well underway. This activity was, we feel, reflected in the lower than anticipated turn out at World of Geomatics this year. Going by the popularity of our recent training courses in Scotland and Derbyshire, people are simply getting on with the job rather than window shopping. They are buying software and equipment in ever increasing amounts and just want training in its use. This all bodes well for the medium term at least.

It may all sound like hype, but we really have seen further growth in the numbers of LSS users this past year. Nigel is kept busy quoting for and demonstrating the software, but recent orders from Bahrain, the Caribbean and Australia have not necessitated visits, in spite of his best efforts to justify hand-delivering the software. Our reputation precedes us for which thanks are due to the large number of existing users out there who recommend LSS to friends, colleagues and business associates. You are our salesforce!

We continue to hold our bi-monthly training courses at our Head Office in Gloucestershire and following the recent success of off-site courses we have decided to hold three more events between now and the end of the year. We have tried to avoid any significant sporting events and holidays. Even the Scotland training, being as it is in the middle of the 7-week long Rugby World Cup avoids matches involving any of the home nations, so there really is no excuse not to book your place on a course.

North East England (Venue TBA)
Tue 31st July - LSS Introduction
Wed 1st Aug - LSS for Land Surv.& Engrs
Thu 2nd Aug - LSS Intermediate
Fri 3rd Aug - LSS Advanced

Central Scotland (Venue TBA)
Tue 25th Sep - LSS Introduction
Wed 26th Sep - LSS for Land Surv.& Engrs
Thu 27th Sep - LSS Intermediate
Fri 28th Sep - LSS Advanced

Chesterfield
Tue 13th Nov - LSS Introduction
Wed 14th Nov - LSS for Land Surv.& Engrs
Thu 15th Nov - LSS Intermediate
Fri 16th Nov - LSS Advanced

You will have noticed that we haven't timetabled any more Survey Instrument Workshops. That's not to say we won't be holding any, but we are currently offering alternatives instead. If you are a user of Leica System 1200, Trimble or Topcon Topsurv equipment and have colleagues who would benefit from training then you could book a Bespoke Instrument Workshop day. The cost would be £500+VAT+travelling expenses. You supply the survey equipment (maximum of 3 per instrument and 3 instruments - all from the same manufacturer) and we do the rest. Call or email Richard Dalton for more details.

For those already using the Beta version you don't need to be reminded of the growing list of new functions, but look out for a few more developments in the coming months. We are currently working on some interactive CO-GO commands which should go some way towards alleviating the pressure on CAD work, allowing more to be done inside LSS. We hope to have something ready for release in time for the next e-bulletin.

The processing of data from a Leica System 1200 GPS now (LSS Beta 9.55.11 or later) automatically includes the 3D coordinate quality and GDOP values for each point surveyed. At the end the report screen shows the minimum and maximum values for both. If any observations have exceeded either of the the preset quality control values the conversion will pause at this point with a warning. The resultant loadfile will contain comments identifying each observation which exceeds these pre-set values. LSS is attempting to provide quality control tools at all levels of the process. Please let us know if you would like any other capability included, whether on this or any other instrument type.

2D CAD into 3D survey It still amazes us that so many apparently 3D AutoCAD files are in fact 2D. Not only that, but the understanding of what is 2D is also patchy to say the least. Let's say you are sent a DXF, but when you load it into LSS the whole thing turns out to be either at zero level or 2D, but you can see levels text in the survey which would represent the terrain levels if they could only be used.

Well, retrace your steps back to the first Input/Convert from DXF screen and tick the box to use a conversion file. Type in a filename and hit the 'Edit' button. This will open up a new file. Into it simply enter a single line of text:

TEXTOUT, , LEVELS

Save and close the file. Now, when LSS encounters any numerical text in the DXF file it will generate an observation at the insertion point for the text and give it that level. There are limitations to this exercise, especially when the text has been moved to make it readable in the original drawing. In this case the level will be offset, but as long as you are aware of this you can either leave the observation where it is, or manually move it to where it should be. The remainder of the DXF file will be converted as before.

2D or not 2D And on the subject of 2D, there is a popular misconception amongst CAD users that zero is the same as 2D. Well it isn't. A point with a zero elevation isn't the same as one which is 2D. Sometimes you'll even see minus 999.999 or something similar marking points which should be 2D. What you can do when importing such data into LSS is get it to look for zero or minus 999.999 levels and convert them to 2D inside the LSS survey. If you forget to tick this box on the way in you can use 'Reassign Overlay' and choose 'Selection filter'. This way you can highlight observations within a particular height range and make them non-terrain, then if necessary make all of them 2D using the selection filter option in 'Edit Amend level'. (You'll need the Beta version to perform the first of these two steps).

Simple really and this should drag you out of most holes dug for you by others.

What's the point? Another common problem occurs when you have imported an AutoCAD DXF but all you get in the LSS survey is a single observation in the middle of the screen. This is most likely the result of the objects in the DXF having been grouped into a 'block' and the single observation is the insertion point for the group of objects. All you need to do is, in AutoCAD explode all the objects and re-save as a DXF. This time the file should import correctly.

Hidden files When providing technical support over the phone we often have to 'visualise' what the caller can see on his/her screen in order to assist. Sometimes it is necessary to 'browse' for a file but sometimes the one 'we' are looking for has apparently disappeared. It's often down to a setting in 'Windows Explorer' which hides file extensions of known types. So, even if you know you are looking for a file called 'surveyname.001' but all you can see are files called 'surveyname' with different icons next to them, try going into 'Tools' and 'Folder Options', click the 'View' tab and untick 'Hide Extensions for known filetypes'.

The same applies whenever editing a file in Notepad or Wordpad. If the file is called surveyname.001, but you save it as a textfile, it can sometimes be given the name surveyname.001.txt. By displaying file extensions you will see what has happened and be in a positon to rename the file back again.

If anyone is retaining string labels when importing MX GENIO data, please update to the latest LSS program version (9.50.15 or later or 9.55.11 or later). The program will perform a survey check when a survey containing string labels is opened. Any errors found in the survey should be corrected during this operation. If the check fails to correct any errors please email us the survey. We should be able to help.

World of Geomatics 2007 It was nice to see a few users again at this year's show, but apart from a handful of genuinely new sales enquiries it seemed that had it not been for the main survey equipment suppliers attracting visitors, the show wouldn't exist at all. We have requested that it moves around the country each year, but there seems to be a reluctance to do so, especially in a northerly direction. We know that a lot of our users can't afford the time off to travel to the Midlands which, let's face it, is a bit of a drive from Inverness! For those of you who visited but never found us, ours was the stand hidden behind the Sokkia wall.