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What apps are you using to look at plans on tablets?

Dozerboy

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 18, 2006
Messages
2,232
Location
TX
Occupation
Operator
The old school company I work for in getting some technology out in the field. I don't recall what programs I used at other employers. Looking for something that you can scale things off on. One of the contractors I know used one that used GPS to show you where you where at on the plans in real life.

Thanks
 
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CM1995

Administrator
Joined
Jan 21, 2007
Messages
13,250
Location
Alabama
Occupation
Running what I brung and taking what I win
We use Insite for estimating 3D models. There is a way to export KMZ files to google maps and use the data in the field just haven't gotten that far yet.

We are looking for the same tech. Would be great to be able to quickly reference a plan overlay in real time without setting up the rover and base station.
 

Shimmy1

Senior Member
Joined
Aug 14, 2014
Messages
4,260
Location
North Dakota
You guys are getting too lazy, lol. All this reliance on technology obviously helps efficiency, but at what cost? I'm going to be looked at like the old man in the back here, but unless you have a 20 acre site, you should be able to figure out close enough where you are on a plan by looking at it. This is hurting our operators today by making them totally at the mercy of a computer screen. They have no idea how something should look until the 3D gps system builds it for them. Sorry for the rant.
 

redneckracin

Senior Member
Joined
May 19, 2010
Messages
574
Location
Western PA
Occupation
Civil Engineer
In the office, I've used BlueBeam to measure stuff on pdfs pretty accurately once I set the scale. It's no where near the precision of CAD but for the field it should be good enough. If you are talking drawing files (dwg or dgn) or terrains/surfaces I can't help much there. I just generate them!
 

CM1995

Administrator
Joined
Jan 21, 2007
Messages
13,250
Location
Alabama
Occupation
Running what I brung and taking what I win
You guys are getting too lazy, lol. All this reliance on technology obviously helps efficiency, but at what cost? I'm going to be looked at like the old man in the back here, but unless you have a 20 acre site, you should be able to figure out close enough where you are on a plan by looking at it. This is hurting our operators today by making them totally at the mercy of a computer screen. They have no idea how something should look until the 3D gps system builds it for them. Sorry for the rant.

Nah - what I've found is the tech takes away the PITA part our job and makes us more money. We can put a 100 car parking lot on grade in an easy day with GPS something that would've taken a couple of days pulling strings and using level rods before. Doing it with one machine and most importantly one operator is where the money is at.

Mr Trimble replaced a $50K a year warm body for our operation. The best part about Mr Trimble is he doesn't have a grandmother that dies 6 times in one year or car breaks down 2 times a week and we never have to bail him out of jail. All we have to do is keep his batteries charged.

$100K to get started so in 2 years of not having a warm body that shows up when they want to, the system is paid for. Of course there are updates that cost money but it's money well spent in the long run. I wish I would've done it years ago.:cool:
 

CM1995

Administrator
Joined
Jan 21, 2007
Messages
13,250
Location
Alabama
Occupation
Running what I brung and taking what I win
Forgot to add we don’t have to pay WC, unemployment, FICA, vacation, PTO, retirement match, etc on Mr Trimble either.
 

hvy 1ton

Senior Member
Joined
Jul 24, 2006
Messages
1,943
Location
Lawrence, KS
I use ArcGIS Explorer to look at the city's utilities map. I haven't tried to load in my own KML/KMZ files, but I know it can do it.
 
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