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Son Bryce Shows Grant Tolton
Snowboarding and Software Solutions
Grant Tolton's business, Mid-Mountain Surveyors, is tucked between
the Kettle River Range, the Okanogan Mountains to the west and
the Selkirks in Republic, Washington. In the past year Grant’s
15-year-old son Bryce has been helping his Dad introduce new
technology to his business, including a new Leica TCR 703auto
total station and FieldGenius software.
"He's my computer tech guy
and has been changing our system from less field work to more
data collection. It's been a year since I bought new instruments
and software from MicroSurvey. Any change is hard but it's
well worth it. I'm making more money because I'm getting more
jobs, being more productive and efficient."
"He's so valuable to me,"
says Grant of his son. "He's only 15 but by the time
he's 18 he'll be running his own survey crew. Bryce has a
lot of options being adept at surveys and computers. He will
be working for me and making more money than other kids his
age until he finds something better. " Bryce learned
to use FieldGenius first and after seeing the advantages of
the FieldGenius graphical interface, was encouraged to buy.
Bryce says, "FieldGenius topped all of the other data
collectors in a comparison article in a (recent) issue of
POB".
FieldGenius has been working very
well for topographies, according to Grant. ”The download
to the desktop software was seamless and we were able to produce
excellent drawings and compute pile volumes in a fraction
of the time it would have taken me before our adoption of
MicroSurvey software.”
”With over 30 years of experience
as a land surveyor and a fledgling programmer myself, I feel
like I have some insight as to what surveyors would like to
see in surveying software. FieldGenius is a great program...”
Grant and Bryce play just as hard
as they work. After work they head to the mountains snowboarding,
wakeboarding, flying their RC airplanes, and riding their
horses.
Win a Free Copy of FieldGenius
XG!
Just answer a skill-testing question by viewing our quick video.
Then go to www.microsurvey.com/contest/ to enter your answer.
A random draw from all correct answers will happen on Feb. 28,
2003. Good luck! (Contest is over,
and link is gone.)
MicroSurvey® Training
Now Offered Online
Jason Poitras is MicroSurvey's new dedicated Training Facilitator,
and he will begin offering several options: on-site, on-line,
or classroom training. Courses are for MSCAD 2002, MSX 2002,
inCAD and FieldGenius. Jason's goal recently has been to research
training options that are more affordable as well as practical.
The courses help you become more efficient in less time than
the usual “learn as you go” approach.
Check out our training
web pages, or email or call Jason
for more info, at 1-800-668-3312.
A Useful Website for Those
Who Want to Know More About AutoCAD Features
The MicroSurvey service team found an excellent website that
explains a lot about the main commands and features of AutoCAD,
useful when using MicroSurvey software. "It is a really
nice website with clear and intuitive instructions", says
Jason Poitras, Technical Training Facilitator. Check it out
here: www.cadtutor.net
Tip of the Month
Make Your Drawings Realistic
with Trees and Hedges
You will enjoy more professional and complete drawings with
the addition of details like trees and hedge lines. Using
MSCAD 2002, you can go under the Design menu to choose Treeline.
Draw straight lines and convert them to a Tree/Hedge
line after pressing Enter. The scalloped line will be drawn
on the right side of the line, in the direction it was drawn,
using the current text size to determine the size of the scallop.
If you draw a Tree/Hedge line and the scallops are the wrong
size, you can erase the line. Then set the desired text size
and redraw the Tree/Hedge line.
To set the correct text size, with MSCAD2002,
you can go to the MicroSurvey menu -> Text Entry and Editing
-> Leroy -> and then pick the size of the text desired.
When the text dialog comes up on screen
– click on Cancel. This has the effect of setting the
desired size, and since you do not want to enter any text, hitting
Cancel exits the command. Now you can run the Tree/HedgeLine
Command and the new text size will be used to form the scallops.
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From all the staff at MicroSurvey.
FieldGenius
XG Release
The new Xtreme Graphics interface from
MicroSurvey brings 'Heads-Up' technology to survey. The
Heads-Up display will speed up your data collecting and
make the process easier.
Details of each shot can be displayed as an
overlay in your drawing (HA, VA, SD, Next Point ID and Target
Height). You can view coordinates, drawing info and computation
results using the new HUD display.
You can now also import CAD DXF files for background
viewing (Lines, Text, Polylines, Curves, 3D Faces and more).
FieldGenius XG also exports LDD FBK files containing raw observations,
coordinates and line connectivity.
The advanced 3D Viewing feature allows dynamic
view rotations in 3D, dynamic Zoom, Dynamic Pan and Zoom Window
for easier viewing.
FieldGenius XG is a free upgrade and will be
available January 2003. For more information, phone our technical
sales representatives at 1-800-668-3312.
Joke of the Month
Four elderly surveyors were enjoying their morning cup of coffee
at a local cafe, discussing everything from weather to technology
and how things used to be in the "good old days."
One of the old surveyors turned to the other and asked, "Roy,
aren't you and your bride celebrating your 50th wedding anniversary
soon?" "Yup, we sure are,"
Roy replied.
"Well, are you gonna do anything special
to celebrate?" the other surveyor asked.
The old gentleman pondered this for a moment,
then replied, "For our 25th anniversary, I took Bea to
Tucson. Maybe for our 50th, I'll go down there and get her."
Have
You Ever Wanted To Become A Published Writer?
Have you surveyed an interesting site or solved an interesting
survey problem? Has technology or a MicroSurvey product helped
you? Write us about it! Your story will be read by more than
8000 land survey professionals, and your experience could
help them perform surveys better! Suggested story length is
500 words. Please submit your story to: Editor, MicroSurvey
e-News
Email the Editor
| Visit
the MicroSurvey Team in a City Near You:
2003 Tradeshows |
| Jan. 14-16 |
NYSAPLS, Catskill,
NY |
| Jan. 22-24 |
Wisconsin Land Surveyors,
Stevens Point, WI |
| Jan. 26-29 |
Pennsylvania Land Surveyors,
Hershey, PA, Booth#33 |
| Feb. 4-7 |
British Columbia Land Surveyors,
Kelowna, BC, Booths#12,13 |
| Feb. 5-7 |
Professional Land Surveyors of Ohio,
Dublin, OH, Booth#21 |
| Feb. 18-21 |
Michigan Society of Land Surveyors,
Grand Rapids, MI, Booth#8 |
| Feb. 19-22 |
Land Surveyors Association of Washington,
Seattle, WA, Booth#30 |
| Feb. 19-21 |
Association of Ontario Land Surveyors,
Niagara Falls, ON, Booths#14,15 |
| Feb. 27-28 |
Hawaii Association
of Land Surveyors, Honolulu, HI, Booth#2 |
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