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We have put together some typical user profiles to help you understand how LSS might work for you.
Bill is a Land Surveyor running his own business. He has one
survey instrument and needs to be able to download survey data, process
contoured topographical surveys and building
elevations and create AutoCAD
files for his clients. He may want to do some setting-out, but doesn’t need to
plot sections and calculate volumes, at least straight away.
One copy of LSS Solo should do the trick. He can install LSS on his home computer and also on his laptop, so as long as he has the dongle with him he can run LSS. £250 a year gives him technical support and updates to the software.
After a couple of months he decides that he could do with the ability to calculate volumes and draw sections (profiles) and thinks he is in with a chance of winning some work for an environmental consultant, so the ability to create ISIS and HEC-RAS data will come in handy. He’d also like to be able to view his surveys in 3D so he can show the client his site as a fly-through. He’ll need LSS Vista for this, so we need to calculate the upgrade cost. The full year difference between Solo and Vista is £250, but because we’re two months into the licence year the difference will be £210. A quick phone call and we can have his dongle updated to Vista within minutes. There’s no extra software required.
Karen is an engineer with a large contractor. She does a bit
of surveying with a robotic 
EDM and also has the latest GPS kit available if
required. She’s started on a new site which involves building a new warehouse
and surrounding infrastructure. The architect has supplied drawings in AutoCAD
format and before she starts she’ll need to do a site survey and then work out
some volumes for the job. Just to complicate matters the site is a brownfield
development and some contaminants have already been identified, so the work
will be phased and monitored which means that volumes must be categorised
carefully and costed accordingly.
Karen and one other colleague are likely to need LSS on site, but they are not sure whether they will both need to use it at the same time. A single user LSS Elite dongle seems to be the correct solution, because while Vista will do volumes, the additional volume capabilities in Elite, including volumes by zones and also volumes between three models simultaneously will come in useful, as will earthworks designs when they come to build the warehouse. £750 gives her technical support and updates for the software for 12 months.
Six months into the job, pressure on the single copy of LSS means that a second one is required. If the software is going to be used exclusively on-site across the computer network then a second ‘key’ can be added to the original dongle giving it two, allowing two people to run LSS at the same time. The full year cost of a second key on the same Elite dongle is £500, but because we’re half way through the licence year the cost will be £250. Adding extra keys to a dongle requires the exchange of emails, but is usually completed in a couple of hours. Again, no extra software or hardware is required.
Peter is a Landscape Architect working for a multi-disciplinary consultancy. He is working on a large windfarm proposal and needs some software to calculate ZVIs and ZTVs, as well as produce some panoramic wireframe and rendered views. Working in a large office amongst consultants from other disciplines he is used to exchanging data with CAD packages, but until now hasn’t really used a modelling package to do any visual impact assessment.
LSS Elite is the product for him. Starting with the acquisition of 3D terrain data, LSS can import a wide range of data to produce a model onto which the proposed wind turbines can be added. If desired, it is possible to overlay mapping data and aerial photographs to get a clearer idea of what existing mitigating features are already in the landscape. If any are to be added these can be done in LSS and taken into consideration when performing the ZVI/ZTV calculations. From straightforward line of sight analysis, though to horizontal and vertical ZTV measurements, LSS Elite is the right tool for the job. Then, when a presentation is required, wireframe or rendered 3D views can be produced, together with virtual tours.
Much of the success of LSS is due to individuals in large organisations taking it onboard to perform one task and finding out that it does so much more. Before long it’s being used in different departments on civil engineering and construction projects, waste management, reclamation, mineral extraction and a whole host of other tasks, all of which have terrain modelling at their centre.