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The Beginnings of Land Survey Functionality within LibreCAD

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joseph_oc

The Beginnings of Land Survey Functionality within LibreCAD

To All;

I have just started coding in C for some Survey Functions within LibreCAD.

My efforts are as follows:

Coding within Eclipse.

Creating Command Line Functions to do Coordinate Geometry the way Surveyors generally enter such information.

The math is quite elementary, the usefulness of the final tools will be in that it is the way Surveyors think of their Geometry.

As of right now I am setting up an array of double percision points that represent our 'control points'.

From thier data entry routines from the command line to generate further detail. These additional points are being stored within the same array.

Quite simple, but we have the chose of very few products on the market, and they are all proorietary.

Once the routines are debugged, I will need pointers on intergrating the routines into LibreCAD code.

Thanks for your time if you read this. Hoping this all goes somewhere.

Sincerely,
Joe O'Connor

joseph_oc

Re: The Beginnings of Land Survey Functionality within LibreCAD

To all:

Two areas of question:
1) simplifying point database.
2) Input/output redirectioning.

1) Hoping to make these survey routines more functional for libreCAD, and simpler for me at this point, I am going to dump the 'survey control points' into an ascii point file, for librecad to import.

Surveyors are most concerned about 'control points', and 90 percent of the points in a CAD dxf file would be just unnecessary. Except for a particular job-order, where numbering could be itemized to that job-order, which would be unique and perhaps very useful.

2) Another question I have is regarding input/output. Could I create a Survey Command Function, that runs from the LibraCAD command line, and redirects input from and output to a file? A need with todays data collectors in the field, all generating some kind of electronic outout to files.

Additionally, Survey data entry can be extensive, at times, till this day. I would like these functions to be able to accept input from a ascii files, and output to a file. (All ascii files - for legal purposes as well as efficiency. We always need a paper trail for what we do.)

Any opinions or ideas for item one, or an answer to item two?

Hoping this makes sense.....

Sincerely,
Joe O'Connor

Rallaz

Re: The Beginnings of Land Survey Functionality within LibreCAD

About input from a ascii files:

http://forum.librecad.org/Importing-ascii-points-can-t-make-it-work-td5707670.html

joseph_oc

Re: The Beginnings of Land Survey Functionality within LibreCAD

In reply to this post by joseph_oc

Thanks for the link, I will need it when i get there.

hoping 5 lines of good code is worth 50 lines of bad code. I have dropped back and I am drawing a flowchart of my routines, trying to get some discipline here.

Thanks for the reply!!

joseph_oc

Re: The Beginnings of Land Survey Functionality within LibreCAD

In reply to this post by Rallaz

Rallaz:

I was speaking to Reis of LibreCAD, and he suggested you might be interested Development project with LibreCAD. He is going to cantact you via email about myself and what I have going on.

I will look for you on the LibreCAD IRC Channel, where we can chat.

Look forward to having contact with you.

My contact information:

Joe O'Connor, Surveyor/Mapper

[hidden email]

Web Site: linuxGIS.net

702 North L Street, Apt 7

Lake Worth, Florida 33460

Phone: 561-502-3514

On April 18, 2013 at 2:55 PM "Rallaz [via LibreCAD]" <[hidden email]> wrote:

About input from a ascii files:

http://forum.librecad.org/Importing-ascii-points-can-t-make-it-work-td5707670.html

If you reply to this email, your message will be added to the discussion below:
http://forum.librecad.org/The-Beginnings-of-Land-Survey-Functionality-within-LibreCAD-tp5707884p5707921.html

To unsubscribe from The Beginnings of Land Survey Functionality within LibreCAD, click here.
NAML

joseph_oc

Re: The Beginnings of Land Survey Functionality within LibreCAD

In reply to this post by Rallaz

To developers:

Continuing on this mission. I am currently preparing Flow charts for the program logic. Will this be helpful to others after I am completed? for documentation? I hope so. Putting time into this phase.

After I am completed, I would like to get some functions into a "COGO" library. Don't know how to compile a library. Can anyone help?

Thanks!!

Best Wishes,

Joe O'Connor

joseph_oc

Re: The Beginnings of Land Survey Functionality within LibreCAD

In reply to this post by joseph_oc

I just read my post of 2 months ago!! This is taking more time then I thought. However, I am working on other projects as well.

Summary of status:

1) I will be submitting one main function (that is way to big) to validate input and it will determine the functions needed to generate additional 'control points'. The original geometry project I am trying to emulate is called 'Engineers_Guide_to_ICES_COGO_1_Aug67.pdf.'

Its a very very old program for Surveyors and Civil Engineers, but was very popular at one point in time. The ICES I would think stands for "Integrated Civil Engineering Systems".

Here is the copyright info:

Copyright
@
I967
by
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
All Rights Reserved
Printed in United States of America

2) I will secondly integrate a open source program called LazyBat. It assists in creating a command line shell. Has it own 'Grammar Language' that I have review and will be quite powerful for me.. I have tested it out and seems to work well, No errors in the provided examples that I compiled and execute (except for my own error).

3) I will use LazyBat in a plug-in that I will develop as I go on.

4) Been working on this project and need to set myself a deadline. Not good at closing a sales, or apparently a project, I have the habit of constantly expanding it which I always need to avoid.

Thank you for your time if you read this. And reply with comments, esp. LazyBat if you have time to look into it. I will be putting a lot of time into it and would share my experience of anyone is interested.

Thanks.

Best Wishes,
Joe O'Connor, Surveyor/Mapper

thatguy2

Re: The Beginnings of Land Survey Functionality within LibreCAD

I hope there is an alternative to land desktop in linux. My uncle is using old computers that still have XP on them and land desktop 2005. People are finally starting to build houses again, but he is far from being able to afford new computers, with the cost of windows OS, and the ridiculous cost of autocad. I'm guessing he would have to switch to civil 3d now that land desktop is no longer supported if he was able to upgrade, but seems like a steep price to pay to update with all the other equipment cost. He is using old TDS rangers that are failing to stay on, costly GPS cables, the list goes on. I wish I could convert his entire office to run on linux since it is so lightweight and would run on his existing computers so much better.

joseph_oc

Re: The Beginnings of Land Survey Functionality within LibreCAD

you express the situation regarding autoCAD that I believe is true.

I have started writing a survey program for Librecad, but I still have a few months to go.

PLEASE RESPOND if you think I am on the right track.

Also I could use all the help I can get.

The program will plug into librecad and be open source.

if you can program at all we could cooperate.

PLEASE RESPOND!!.

Joe O

dxli

Re: The Beginnings of Land Survey Functionality within LibreCAD

Hi,

I'm thinking about the architecture for this new feature:

1, to what level we would like to have this feature integrated? should we fork LibreCAD instead?
2, A new layer should be handling data input/output, generating/modifying LibreCAD entities;
3, Special output templates
4, feel free to discuss on desired features from LibreCAD side, as we can quickly implement new features.

from technical side: try to use as much Qt feature as possible, and feel free to build on top of power geometry libraries: such as CGAL and boost-geometry. For LibreCAD, we have been trying to avoid extra dependency to ease the support for multiple platforms.

Regards,

Dongxu

On Fri, Jul 5, 2013 at 9:23 AM, joseph_oc [via LibreCAD] <[hidden email]> wrote:

you express the situation regarding autoCAD that I believe is true.

I have started writing a survey program for Librecad, but I still have a few months to go.

PLEASE RESPOND if you think I am on the right track.

Also I could use all the help I can get.

The program will plug into librecad and be open source.

if you can program at all we could cooperate.

PLEASE RESPOND!!.

Joe O

If you reply to this email, your message will be added to the discussion below:

http://forum.librecad.org/The-Beginnings-of-Land-Survey-Functionality-within-LibreCAD-tp5707884p5708496.html

To start a new topic under LibreCAD-dev, email [hidden email]
To unsubscribe from LibreCAD-dev, click here.
NAML

--
Dongxu Li, Ph.D.
www.librecad.org

thatguy2

Re: The Beginnings of Land Survey Functionality within LibreCAD

In reply to this post by joseph_oc

I am very inexperienced at programming. I'm more of a network nerd. I have edited existing html but that's about it. I think you're on the right track. I can't believe this wasn't done years ago. XP just seems so ancient and every update seems to make it lag. Doesn't help that his kids get on there and download everything under the sun with all the malware written for windows.

joseph_oc

Re: The Beginnings of Land Survey Functionality within LibreCAD

In reply to this post by dxli

I would not like to fork librecad.

I to am new to programming, but I am making progress.

I currently using a lot of the Ncurses library for input/output.

It is very fast.

I envision an open source plug-in.

I believe in seeking contributions to continue development.

The contributions could come for an active Land Surveying Community. There is a great need.

Joseph O'Connor

joseph_oc

Re: The Beginnings of Land Survey Functionality within LibreCAD

PS I just spoke to a Purdue University Civil Engineering professor who will follow our progress and look into using librecad in his intro to survey calculations.

He is currently using AutoCAD but is very dissatisfied with surveying support and the expense.

I will keep him up to date on our progress and try to sell LibreCAD as his survey software of choose.

Best wishes,

Joseph O'Connor

dxli

Re: The Beginnings of Land Survey Functionality within LibreCAD

In reply to this post by joseph_oc

while ncurses is nice and fast, new GUI based methods should be considered, as a step to newer technologies.

We need to add possible USB/network input as well

On Fri, Jul 5, 2013 at 10:35 AM, joseph_oc [via LibreCAD] <[hidden email]> wrote:

I would not like to fork librecad.

I to am new to programming, but I am making progress.

I currently using a lot of the Ncurses library for input/output.

It is very fast.

I envision an open source plug-in.

I believe in seeking contributions to continue development.

The contributions could come for an active Land Surveying Community. There is a great need.

Joseph O'Connor

If you reply to this email, your message will be added to the discussion below:

http://forum.librecad.org/The-Beginnings-of-Land-Survey-Functionality-within-LibreCAD-tp5707884p5708500.html

To start a new topic under LibreCAD-dev, email [hidden email]
To unsubscribe from LibreCAD-dev, click here.
NAML

--
Dongxu Li, Ph.D.
www.librecad.org

dxli

Re: The Beginnings of Land Survey Functionality within LibreCAD

In reply to this post by joseph_oc

yes, whatever features needed, we can implement and customize.

On Fri, Jul 5, 2013 at 10:42 AM, joseph_oc [via LibreCAD] <[hidden email]> wrote:

PS I just spoke to a Purdue University Civil Engineering professor who will follow our progress and look into using librecad in his intro to survey calculations.

He is currently using AutoCAD but is very dissatisfied with surveying support and the expense.

I will keep him up to date on our progress and try to sell LibreCAD as his survey software of choose.

Best wishes,

Joseph O'Connor

If you reply to this email, your message will be added to the discussion below:

http://forum.librecad.org/The-Beginnings-of-Land-Survey-Functionality-within-LibreCAD-tp5707884p5708501.html

To start a new topic under LibreCAD-dev, email [hidden email]
To unsubscribe from LibreCAD-dev, click here.
NAML

--
Dongxu Li, Ph.D.
www.librecad.org

thatguy2

Re: The Beginnings of Land Survey Functionality within LibreCAD

In reply to this post by dxli

I know for my uncle, he needs to be able to draw by bearing ie N60:25:32W distance 500 feet. Instead of inches, he needs tenths since surveyors don't use inches. There is also something like a grid where if you start surveying a small piece of land and create a new job in the data collector, I would make my northing 5000 and my easting 5000. Because when you open it in autocad, you don't want to be in the negative good grid. Then we can gps some shots and rotate it in the drawing to match the bearings.

Been a long time since I have been in the field. So hope I am saying this right. Also i remember having to convert points from raw to ascii and I cant remember the name of the OS our data collectors used. We needed to be able to make points on a drawing, and import them into the data collector so we can go out in the field and start with a known control point. We never did anything in 3d but we would take topography shots that had elevations on them and the drafter would make couture lines to show the slopes.

joseph_oc

Re: The Beginnings of Land Survey Functionality within LibreCAD

thatguy2

I have just emailed you a summary of my view of functionality which goes as follows:

Functions
Store Points
Inverse
Traverse
Bearing Bearing Intersection
Bearing Distance intersections
Distance Bearing Intersections
Distance Distance Intersections

Solution output will be in BEARINGS.

This is a brief summary of objectives which i am currently working on and plan to make it as a plug-in into LibreCAD.

Thanks for your comments and keep posting ideas, I will try to respond. The connection to the data collector was being worked on but fell through when a manufacturer I was in contact with withdrew. I would of cause like to do this in the future, perhaps as a next step after these fundamental functions.

Thanks and best wishes
Joe O'Connor

thatguy2

Re: The Beginnings of Land Survey Functionality within LibreCAD

Would be nice to do away with data collectors all together and use something like galaxy note running data collection app that can upload points in real time or use Bluetooth connection to the pc if you are out of range from cell towers and have to bring it into the office.

dxli

Re: The Beginnings of Land Survey Functionality within LibreCAD

I have been excited about the idea of porting LibreCAD to android.

Qt5.1 supports android, and we will need an android developer for the project.

On Fri, Jul 5, 2013 at 4:24 PM, thatguy2 [via LibreCAD] <[hidden email]> wrote:

Would be nice to do away with data collectors all together and use something like galaxy note running data collection app that can upload points in real time or use Bluetooth connection to the pc if you are out of range from cell towers and have to bring it into the office.

If you reply to this email, your message will be added to the discussion below:

http://forum.librecad.org/The-Beginnings-of-Land-Survey-Functionality-within-LibreCAD-tp5707884p5708507.html

To start a new topic under LibreCAD-dev, email [hidden email]
To unsubscribe from LibreCAD-dev, click here.
NAML

--
Dongxu Li, Ph.D.
www.librecad.org

Joseph

Re: The Beginnings of Land Survey Functionality within LibreCAD

In reply to this post by thatguy2

Yes, I am looking at a tablet that is called PengPod, very inexpensive, but it has no cell phone within it, so real time transfer is not possible. It does use linux os and will run the program i outlined. It does have WiFi and a local hotspot could be used to download and upload files.

Joe O'Connor