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I use the construction data tab for managing my designs that I send out to the field. Is there a way to designate that you want the design to be pushed out as a vcl? The reason for this is to utilize the ability to have alignments and multiple surfaces in one design that Siteworks will now use. 

I can do this via SCS Data manager but it just adds another level of steps and data management, 

Patrick: I asked the same question and received the answer that it is a "manual process" at this point but that it will be 'coming in the future'.

So, I manually created a "Design" folder in my Project folder (old SCS900 terminology) and then exported a VCL to that folder. Then synced up the controller and it worked like a charm.

This also gets away rom having to create a linestring from an alignment as you can have multiple surfaces and alignments in the VCL all accessible in Siteworks for staking etc. Really cool.

Kudos to the Siteworks/TBC team for this feature.

Now if they'd just add a few more "survey-oriented" features and support for the SX10 etc to Siteworks we could stop having to use Access. Better still, end the artificial distinction between "geospatial" and "construction" surveying and we'd be golden .

Marshall

Thanks Marshall. That is what I was planning on doing. The only downside is you don't get the friendly reminders in TBC that linework or your model surface has changed and to push that out. A feature I have mixed feelings about but it is fairly useful all in all. All in good time though. 

100% agree with you on ending the distinction between "geospatial" and "construction". They would be way better to have one software and modulating it for "surveying" and construction". This is part of my deep frustration because there are certain features that are deemed as "geospatial" that are in fact not just "geospatial" and probably vice versa. I had hopes for this but I think the release of Siteworks last year will delay the merge.

Hopefully in the future. TBC has done it...

I don't mean to derail your original post, but I have a question about this.  How did you learn about this feature, i.e., exporting vcl for use in the data collector?  It's not listed in the Siteworks user manual nor in TBC, at least that I have found. I'm hoping you tell me there's a resource available that I haven't found yet!  And besides being able to stake multiple alignments and surfaces from a single design are there any other features?  Thanks!

I truthfully do not remember where I learned this. It may have been at Dimensions or Sitech. This is something that I have been requesting for a while.  The big advantages that I know of are the alignments and surface in one design. You will need the roading module to use the alignments though. 

Having the option for separate alignments will be nice feature. And I supposed having multiple surfaces within one file could eliminate the need for additional designs.  Thanks for the info.  Maybe there's some other hidden gems to be found.

The official line on VCL support in Siteworks is that it is not "officially Released" at this point. They are working on VCL support for all things TBC - they are not all supported at this time. The benefit of VCL files is that they are

1) Native TBC Files

2) More intelligent data than is available in DXF or TTM

3) Has the TBC Corridor Model and TBC Surface Model (Material Layers, Subgrade Adjustments, Site improvements, Textures  etc are all possible but not yet all supported

4) Has the TBC Utilities Module (Pipes, Manholes, Structures etc.) but not yet supported

5) The TBC computation engine for corridor models and surface models that can provide advanced features not available in DXF, TTM or PRO files

The VCL is a straight select and export from TBC, there is no reformatting of the data. Larger, richer data sets can be transferred. Multiple Surfaces, Corridors, Alignments and more (Pile Plans, Drill Plans, Cut Fill Maps etc. can all be leveraged to the field.)

This is something the Siteworks team is working on, however other elements of Siteworks are a priority today I gather and full VCL support will come later.

Alan

This is exciting news.  I'm looking forward to this functionality.  

Once official support for VCL is announced, I would expect to be supporting VCL output as the preferred format for Designs on TSC7 / T10 devices running Siteworks vX.X (release of VCL file support) through the Field Data Workflows - this would replace DXF, TTM and PRO file support on these devices as the default Model Format. Until then a Manual Export of Linework and Surfaces and Alignments is working but not Corridors or Utilities at this stage etc.

Alan

I gotta' say that the ability to use VCL files like this is totally kick ass (hope you are allowed to say that in the forum space ). Huge KUDOS to the Siteworks/TBC Teams for this feature. The richness of the data that can be passed to the controller is truly fantastic.

Using the Siteworks emulator yesterday I came up with a workflow that, until the "official" release works pretty well for loading VCL's into Siteworks.

Using the Construction Data Tab:

1) Create a Site just as you would normally do. This creates the Folder/Data structure (in my case at C:\Trimble Synchronizer Data...) and saves manually creating the folders.

2) Create a Design but leave the Model Type set at None. I also add at the end of the name -VCL to remind myself that it is VCL data in the design.

3) Highlight/choose the data you want to export and choose Project VCL Link Exporter (Export-Construction Tab - last one in the list) and choose the Design Folder created above as the destination.

I have tested exporting points, lines, alignments, surfaces and all work no problem.

For a Corridor I just exploded the corridor and exported that. Good enough for now until they are supported. Haven't tried utilities.

The only negative to this workflow is that the Design Manager will show this design as needing to be updated and a VCL cannot be used to update the design.Perhaps this would be a feature to add to TBC? (ie update designs from the VCL in the Design Manager?) Maybe it’s a good candidate for a macro?

That’s pretty much it. Like I said the only negative is that the Design Manager sees it as needing to be updated and a VCL can’t update the Design. In my opinion that’s a very small price to pay for the extra versatility of being able to use VCL files with multiple alignments/surfaces etc. in Siteworks.

Again, thanks to the Siteworks/TBC folks for this awesome feature. Bravo.

Marshall

As I mentioned last night I would expect the full design manager workflow to be revised when the Siteworks team say that this is "official" right now it is "kinda Beta" and so the TBC team have not been tasked with plumbing it in properly since Design options change pretty drastically with addition of Multilayer Corridors, Utilities and anything else we may want supported.

Alan

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