Working with echosounder depths in TBC

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Jo Jo posted 05-08-2025 18:33

It appears to be impossible to export sounding depths from a TBC project.

The only way I can export depths is to create a jobXML file in Trimble Access on the survey controller, then use the ASCII file generator app to apply a style sheet to the jobXML file and export as "comma delimited with elevation and depth" file.

This is a rather clunky workflow, since there are plenty of situations that would be much better handled by processing in TBC. One situation we commonly have is that the base is setup as an autonomous measurement and later post-processed to get an accurate position. If we do this in TBC, all points connected to this base position are automatically adjusted. But if I do this with bathymetric sounding points, I lose all depth information. The only way to correct my sounding points with an autonomous base setup is to do a 1-point calibration in Trimble Access, which is very inconvenient and error-prone. Another reason to want to process the points in TBC is to change antenna heights (which can be done in Access, but it's way more convenient to do this in TBC).

My question is whether I'm mission an obvious point here. I have yet to find a way to export point coordinates WITH depths from TBC. Depth is not an attribute found in the Export Format Editor, so a custom CSV file isn't an option, either. I've tried "Trimble Field Software exporter (jobXML)" (as I do in Trimble Access), but the exported file contains WAY less information than the file exported from Trimble Access - and, you guessed it, no trace of the depth information.

It feels like such a large gaping hole in the functionality of TBC. Surely, we are not the only ones using our Trimble receivers together with echosounders...

Robert Hoy posted 05-09-2025 09:33

You are correct. A colleague that uses a sonarmite, has to import a JOB file into a blank VCE file, to run a stylesheet which exports a coordinate file. Then you can import those coordinates into somewhere else and move if so needed.

Jo Jo posted 05-11-2025 15:45

Thanks @Robert Hoy, I saw your reply to a similar post from about 2.5 years ago.

I've been surveying with Trimble equipment and echosounders for 20 years and have raised this issue multiple times with our local distributor in New Zealand, but there is absolutely zero movement from Trimble. Despite Trimble publicising and marketing the Ohmex Sonarmite connection for something like 12 to 15 years now. I find this incredibly frustrating. While you can almost everything inside TBC, the moment you include echosounder data, you have to resort to Excel? Really? That's absolutely crazy... Over the years I have adapted my workflow and follow it, but I'm just training up somebody in this type of surveying and the absurdity of this required workflow became very apparent when trying to explaing it to somebody who hasn't been conditioned to accept it as a fact. That's why I was looking into this issue again now. But it appears that Trimble is just not doing anything to integrate bathymetric surveys into TBC.

Jim Russo posted 05-12-2025 07:19

I use a Single-beam Sonarmite, and export a Comma Delimited with depths applied ,csv from the controller Stylesheet and import that into TBC to generate contours.

Jo Jo posted 05-13-2025 19:28

@Jim Russo, this workflow loses most of the dependencies that are inherent in a survey (you end up with completely independent points in TBC). It also requires you to have already corrected/site calibrated positions on your survey controller when you export the jobXML/depth-applied CSV. What if you set up with an autonomous position for your base and need to correct this position after the survey? The only way to do it is to post-process your base and then key in the base position on your controller and do a 1-point site calibration on your base. It works, but it's clunky as hell.

But judging by the feedback, there really is no way to work with bathymetric soundings stored as an attribute of a point measurement like with any other survey measurement in TBC (site calibrations, etc.). That's pretty poor in my view. Either, very few people actually work with bathymetric data or we are just too complacent and have resigned to just do clunky workarounds to compensate for clearly missing features.