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 TBC NAVD88 to NGVD29 elevation change

jeff little's profile image
jeff little posted 08-10-2022 19:02

I have about 4000 points from multiple equipment rtk network rtk base and rover and several s series robots. I have already performed the network adjustment with multiple sensors and have produced the ALTA report . I am on NAD83 2010 (2011) for horizontal and NAVD88 via GEOID 18. Now they want the elevation data to be on NGVD29. It’s about a foot and I will be verifying this via NGS Tools tomorrow on points around and within my project. Is TBC capable of this via a vertical shift without messing up my network adjustment or any other way to do this within TBC.  Or should I just go the old fashion way of excel and NGS tools. 

I don’t mind if I need to create a separate TBC project and just import the points if the transformation tool will work and that the navd88 to ngvd29 difference is constant on my site which I will be verifying. 

I don’t like mixing Apple and oranges but it’s what they want.  I am just new to TBC so seeing how others handle this. 

Scott Roberts's profile image
Scott Roberts
There are several options here. Some are one-time and basically permanent, others are removeable and allow for future data to be incorporated without further adjustment.

If you just want a simple, one-and-done solution that will produce points with shifted elevations (but doesn't provide good provisioning for future additional work on this datum):
  1. Use Excel to shift the elevations before importing into other programs, or re-import the values back into TBC. I believe you can clear the northing/easting columns and import the CSV as "control quality" and you should get just elevations, which will allow for the horizontal position of your points to continue to be adjusted. If you bring data back into TBC like this, you'll end up with flags on every point.
  2. Use the Transformation tool
The reason to not use one of these options is that it pretty much kills the workflow if you want to bring in more data later. The transformation tool is a one-time thing and there's no simple way to "clear" it later on (i.e. it does not work like a site calibration or network adjustment that have a "clear" button).

The other option, and the one I prefer, is to use a site calibration. This does require that your survey field work be conducted in a particular manner, however. I don't know the specifics of your project, but basically you need a way to propagate (at least one) GPS-derived elevations throughout all of your total station setups. This can be achieved by traversing as long as your first instrument setup point (and preferably the backsight point) were tied in with GPS. If all of your control is shot with GPS, you're good. Another option is to use a level, again depending on how your survey network is setup this is probably the best and most foolproof method - you would simply need to update your BM elevation and then apply a calibration to your project to correct any GPS-derived elevations.
Dave Olander's profile image
Dave Olander
How hard would it be to revise the vertical constraints and re-run the network adjustment? The observations wouldn't change, just the held vertical points.

In practice myself, I would plan to do this by adding into the adjustment all of my field work (vectors or levels) to establish NGVD29 on the site. This would likely mostly entail adding levels between NGVD29 BM's and points already in the TBC least squares adjustment network.