Trimble Business Center

Hello,

I am trying to find out what would be the best way to manage large data sets (few years of data collecting, 100's of thousand of points) using Trimble Business Centre.

I would like to be able to maintain all Features Attributes as collected in the field.

I am not so fussy about observations (terrestrial or vectors), regular Easting, Northing and Elevations are good enough for me.

Surely over time we will go thru few different FXL files, as new features will be added.

We will have a team of 6 ppl full time in the field, collecting data, doing set outs etc.

Each and everyone of them will process their data at the end of the day. Import JXL from Access to TBC, Process Feature Codes, draft missing Line Strings, remove unnecessary points and so on and so on.

I'd like data like that to be exported to VCL file and then imported to MASTER PROJECT where all the data will be kept.

That's where my problem starts, as data in VCL is a dependable data. If a point was measured using RTK, VCL will not include RTK Vector, therefore as soon as I will recalculate MASTER PROJECT (F4) I will loose all points that were captured using RTK.

Once Features are processed, I'd like to have all the Points/Lines/Polygons and all their Features Attributes together with their linestyles / colours / weights / blocks / labels "set in stone", permanently fixed.

What is the best way to break all dependencies? To stop new FXL's from reprocessing all the data? But to maintain all "Feature Attributes" collected in the field?

Any help will be much appreciated.

Regards,

Marian

Hi Marian,

Great question, I'm glad that you are utilizing the feature code processing workflows in TBC!

If you are confident that you'll always be working in the same coordinate system, you could consider exporting your points with their codes as a point file, CSV for example, to import into your MASTER project, then run the feature code processing in the MASTER project.  This would lose the underlying field data, which I don't recommend (you just never know what you'll need in the future, right?), but if you just want the grid coordinates, it's an option.

Regardless of how you want to consolidate your data, there's a relatively new feature in TBC that meets your need to not re-process data...  the 'feature locking' in the Properties.  This status, when set to 'Yes' locks the processed codes in place even when new data is added and needs to be processed.

Take a look at the featured video here - Feature coding enhancements in TBC v4 10 - YouTube 

Follow-up if this doesn't meet your need!

Thank you,

Joe

Hi Joe,

Thanks for getting back to me.

I am afraid that CSV is not a viable option for me, as our data will be "attribute rich". Attributes won't come back in while importing into TBC MASTER, will they?

I tried to export processed data into DWG as per the tutorial video, but it does not re-import correctly into TBC. There are no point and no features when I import DWG back.

I will have to give "merge projects" a go...

Hi Marian,

Yes, attributes can be messy to import and export, it's been our list to improve for a while.  I believe it should work, but you'd have to likely setup a custom exporter and importer.  Doesn't take too long, but you'd be losing all the raw data.

The 'Merge Survey Projects' might be the best option.  Can you give it a try and let me know if it works or doesn't?  Tag me in the response, and I'll reach out, request two projects from you and give it a shot myself.

The 'locking' work for you on the feature coding?

Thank you,

Joe

Hi Joe,

Unfortunately the Merge Survey Projects command does not merge processed features atm.  Maybe this could be added the enhancement list.

Thank you,

Hi @Joseph Blecha

As Ramin wrote, Merge Survey Projects does not merge features.

Thank you Marian and Ramin.  Will take this offline to get your sample data and build out the exact requirements.