Many of our building projects are quite complex, explains Craft Superintendent of Carpenters Tino Lipari.Reduce your workforce and save time, too Now thats a win-win for any operation, and one of the reasons concrete contractors turn toward robotic total stations for laying out projects.
Topcon Total Station Software Plus I CanI eliminate one person, plus I can locate the points much faster than with a mechanical total station, says Neal Weiler. The president of Weiler Walls, Inc., in Denver, Pa., purchased a robotic total station in 2006 and hasnt touched his conventional one since then. My data collector is clamped to the pole and I just keep walking, and the total station keeps on shooting until I zero in on the point. Not only do I save the labor cost associated with having an individual at the station and the pole, the fact that the system is continually shooting saves time having the prism holder plumb the rod and then the individual at the instrument shooting. The device calculates angles and distances to position a point and can also be used to shoot elevations, says Weiler. You simply load all the points into the software and work your way around a site. Change orders can be sent directly to the total station, allowing the operator to quickly adjust the building position something we dont find necessary with our projects, he relates. I know it also has Direct Reflex (DR) capabilities and can collect and import data into third-party software for analysis, again something for which we also dont have an application. It wasnt true, however, and once the contractor understood how to operate a robotic total station, not only was the labor cost cut in half but the time associated with training rod holders disappeared, as well. I attended a half-day course sponsored by a Trimble dealer and taught myself from that point on. If someone quits or gets sick, I can have a new operator up and running in a day, he relates. AutoCAD drawings, with the most recent changes, can be easily downloaded into the instrument to ensure our measurements are accurate, he explains. ![]() Hence, having the robotic total station direct the placement of the rod versus a human do the directing allows for a higher degree of accuracy. Sorenson notes that both brands operate similarly, the biggest difference being the wireless communication. Topcon Total Station Software Series And TheThe Topcon models GPT-9000A series and the GTS -900 A both feature Spread Spectrum radio versus the Sokkia SRX robotic total stations that operate with Bluetooth technology. The latter allows the Sokkia units to work in especially difficult environments, e.g., where intensive reflections occur from behind the prisms or where there are repetitive interruptions in the line-of-site. ![]() Vanum is a general contractor that specializes in pool construction, explains Carpenter Foreman Tim Bishop. Im using the Sokkia right now to layout a pool and I love it, and will never go back to using a manual total station. ![]() Topcon Total Station Software Upgrade And CuttingIt was time to upgrade and cutting the cost of laying out a project nearly in half was very attractive, as well. It recently expanded its fleet with the purchase of three Topcon IS robotic total stations in October to help lay out building footings, foundations and site work for the new 185-acre, 687 million National Nuclear Security Administration project in the city.
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