Trimble Business Center

In access notes are attached to a point, however to get to this information in TBC users need to go to the imported files section and view them there. While they are stored against a point ID, it feels like they are being stored as an afterthought and it doesn't feel like they are attached to the data meaning they can be easily missed and hard to find.

It would be useful for a user to see them handled a similar way to media files where they can be seen against a point with a symbol (maybe even share the media file identifier), and also identified in the properties similar to how attributes are handled to make the data meaningful to a user. This way there is a direct association with the point for the data collected in the field.

Ross

i couldn’t agree more, I believe I raised this a while back, I use field notes a lot.

my solution would be simply to get TBC to read the note and show it as a label alongside the standard ones( point is/code etc)

another option would be able to generate a point label extracting the text from the note contents. Eg add notes to the list of sources in label style manager.

Alan

Hello Ross and Alan,

Thank you for your great suggestions! I've recorded your ideas about adding point labels for the notes (or grouping them with media files) and adding the notes to the properties pane. I'll be looking to bring up the topic for possible enhancements in a future release.

- Josh

Hallo Joshua,

I hope the enthusiasm to improve that, is bigger now then over 1 year ago, because it was mentioned already in marts 2018.

https://community.trimble.com/thread/4023-how-can-i-see-notes-in-a-pointlist-spreadsheet-in-tbc

Good luck

Carsten Merkel

I am in support of the notes being easier to use in TBC. I quit using them in favor of the "description" option in the FXL, but notes is really what I am doing. I needed a place to put notes to myself to fix or change stuff in the office, it wasn't intended for anything beyond that use.

I want to be able to write what I want in there without it being restricted  to 2 description options ( Ive never  used these!)

simply extract the data from the jxl and have it as a label ?

If a note isn't associated/tagged to a point or observation, TBC might have trouble showing the note in plan view since all data is point related. How do you have a label of something which isn't labeling...something?

you can view it in the project explorer and is associated with the point ( only if you use review job>add note I believe) ( as opposed to key in note)

A

That happens already, job related notes are posted in the project explorer in the sequence that  they occur.

They appear in the order they were put in - sure - but they aren't associated with a point unless you manually key the point number in first on site...

Right click a note in the "imported files" tree in TBC and click properties, it doesn't have any associated metadata except what you might key in onsite. Other survey processing software takes "keyed in" notes (CTRL N) from Access and automatically associates them with the previously collected point - from which the note can then be placed next to the point in the processed survey for further convenient use. I realise there are other ways to record data e.g description attributes, but often you just want to write something manually onsite unlimited characters and have it associated with a point!

Like others I can't understand why such simple obvious thing is not standard in the software already... as Carsten says mentioned a year ago but nothing in the 3 or 4 versions released since....

Please tell me I'm wrong and it's possible in TBC somehow currently!  If so please spill!

Depending on what you are typing in the note,  many cadd softwares handle a note placed on the end of the code with a designator to place before you start typing the note in. This way the note is part of the code. Both Civil3D and Geopak/OpenRoads has this ability. That's where I type my notes. Then they are part of the point and not just a floating note.

Hi Robert

Could you explain this in more depth? Particularly what you do in Access onsite in order to ensure the note ends up tagged to the point. I assume you add notes using "key in note" (or CTRL N) in Trimble Access? When do you add the designator or have you made it somehow automatic?

Thanks

Ben

Civil3D's default "field code escape" character is /   So if you enter: PP /AEP 3343-2    

The full description in C3D is PP /AEP 3343-2 but anything after the / is disregarded for drawing line work if you've setup Figure Prefix Library. The /  needs to be at the end after entering any line codes. Geopak/Openroads has a similar 'escape' designator character to allow the addition of a note on the end of a code that wont interfere with bringing in the code and line work.

I do not use the Note function in TA.

Hi Robert,

I recently recorded this enhancement request for 'feature code notes' on our list as a result of input from @Liam Curran. Nice to see that other users are interested.

Additionally, he also suggested a similar enhancement, wildcards in feature coding.

E.g. The feature library can have a feature code PP*. All codes added in the field which begin with PP are classified under the code. This similarly means you can add notes to the code.

I think we could definitely look to implement these ideas into TBC/TA's workflow in the future. I'd love to hear continued feedback on whether you can incorporate these features into your work.

-Josh

How are we going on this one Joshua, any progress?