Hi Sebastian,
I understand your pain with SiteWorks, effectively it is a pretty version of SCS900 with all the same flaws and sluggish behaviours that used to drive me insane.
I must say I spent 5+ years using SCS900 in a TCS3 and loved it, at the time there was nothing better for setting out. The road staking workflow blew Leica out of the water (still does really). However for all the positives there is a bigger list of negatives (Traverse Workflow is horrific, Connections to TS and GPS are slow and clunky, surveying is limited, general performance is bad). I still use sitework from time to time on the TSC7 however I recently tried Trimble Access on the TSC7 and was blown away by how good it is for pretty much everything now. It certainly gives more options.
I found Access on a TSC3 great for surveying but bad for setting out, the Access 2018 version is miles ahead of the TSC3 version. It is a learning curve but if you have the hang of Captivate switching to access will be pretty smooth (it is much more logical). Access gives you many more options on site and so far the advantaged over SiteWorks for me are:
- Super Fast Auto-connect to TS, GPS (none of that slow progress bar of nonsense stuff)
- Total stations come to life when using Access (auto search, programmable hotkeys, being able to adjust from the TSC7, measure arounds, quickly turn to point, next point, nearest point, ect)
- Setting out is greatly improved over the TSC3 version. Once your in line stake mode you can quickly tap a new line to change the setting object. Must quicker than SiteWorks now.
- Advanced feature coding (similar to Captivate but better), Zig Zap, Left to Right. Access gives you to tools to create really nice looking topos.
- It is much more stable, It doesn't crash or randomly loose connection to the TS when your 200m away from it. If it does loose connection it allows you to reconnect without power cycling the TS (that use to drive me insane)
- The ability to reference multiple jobs as background, background images, TTMs, ect.
I could go on but suffice to say I'm 95% Access now, it is just better it pretty much ever area if you can cope with lots of options (no different to Captivate)!
If you can drive Captivate you should have no issues with Access. You can get a 30 Trial in the Trimble Installation Manager and see if it suits. Like I say the learning curve is a little steep (setting survey styles and GNSS connections) but once those are set up its a much better approach when working on multiple sites.
I would love Trimble to Improve SiteWorks however the quickest solution may be to drop it for the moment.
I wouldn't be surprised to see them merge in some way (like TBC has) at some point down the road.
Hope that was helpful!
Sam
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Sam Williams
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Original Message:
Sent: 03-22-2022 01:54
From: Sebastian Lundin
Subject: Siteworks development
Hello,
I switched back to Trimble after using Leica for 2 years. When I last used Trimble I had a TSC3 with SCS900. I also tried the TSC7 before it was released with a Siteworks demo.
Now me thinking after 3 years Siteworks after all its updates had reached a new world of functions and a user-friendly app. No, I was really disappointed and I'm finding more and more stuff that is not fixed.
I really don't like Leica Captivate but after using Siteworks for just some days I have to say that Captivate is far more user-friendly and have alot more customisation. I don't want to switch back because Leica has problems of their own.
I want to come in contact with the people developing the Sitworks app and share my ideas.
Regards, Sebastian
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Sebastian Lundin
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