Trimble Penmap

Hi,

I'm new here at the PenMap Community but somewhat experienced in using PenMap for Android and the Catalyst GNSS receiver. I'm using PenMap for positioning documentation of new underground water pipes and I'm missing a feature in my PenMap for Android system.

The problem:

Sometimes the pipes are put in trenches and I can make my positioning measurements directly on top of the pipe, before the dirt is put back and the trench is filled again. But often the pipe is laid down using directional drilling, in which case the pipe is not accessible and the measurements are done on the surface. The drilling operator will spray paint X's on the ground and write associated depths to indicate the position of the pipe under the surface. I will then make my measurements on these X's, but the Z-coordinate I'm measuring is the point on the surface - not the pipe, which is typically 100-150 cm below the surface.

The missing feature:

Because new Danish legislation demands precise registration of all 3 axis (X, Y and Z) for all installations under ground, I'm now missing a feature where PenMap can ask me after every measurement, if I want to shift/extend the Z-coordinate in a downwards direction (and how far), in order for PenMap to calculate and register the actual point of interest, being the top of the pipe and not the measured point on the surface.

If PenMap already has this feature, I'm unable to find it (currently running 11.9.0.2596). If not, it would be really handy, as underground installations are increasingly being established using directional drilling, as it is often cheaper and faster than trenching/excavating.

Any help is highly appreciated.

Dear Henrik,

I will take in your improvement request to product management, but I can't make an estimate when or if this will be implemented.
For now I would suggest to edit the elevation values of the recorded points via the point manager which is accessible via the three bar button on the left side of the screen in a Penmap project.
Another option would be to add the depth of the pipe to the antenna height of your gnss device by a longclick on the gnss symbol and pressing the button "Antenna height".

Kind regards

Patrik

Hi Patrik,

Thank you very much for your quick response.

I'm aware of both of your suggested work-arounds, but they are both quite cumbersome to apply in the field (in their own unique way), when you're pressed for time and trying to be efficient. The risk of miscalculating the "offset" in elevation, while trying to stay focused on the job at hand, is high and may even require the use of a calculator, or even better - an assistant following you around and doing the calculations. All in all the work-arounds will reduce the efficiency of working with the otherwise very intuitive and efficient PenMap interface as you'd have to step in and out of the measuring modus continuously.

I know there are other GNSS mapping apps that has this feature, but I'd like to stick with PenMap, as it is the best and most intuitive tool available in this segment, IMHO. I don't see it as a major task to add the feature and I'll stay hopeful that Trimble will decide to pick up the ball and run in to the finish line in the near future.

Best regards

Henrik

Ran into this exact issue when doing as-builts for horizontal directional drilling. The drilling crew usually relies on high-end walk-over receivers to determine the depth under active interference (similar to what you can see here: <response-element class="" ng-version="0.0.0-PLACEHOLDER"></response-element>https://ucghdd.com/collections/digitrak-falcon-f5<response-element class="" ng-version="0.0.0-PLACEHOLDER"></response-element>). Since PenMap doesn't always have an elegant way to auto-calculate the negative Z offset natively in the field screen, we usually just map the surface X's as a custom point feature with a 'Depth' attribute field, and then apply a basic Z-shift/offset math script in office post-processing or CAD before final submittal.