Guides
Short, practical guides for surveyors and site engineers: survey coordinates into Google Earth and AutoCAD on the right grid, traverse and level adjustment, and roads in AutoCAD.
Getting started
- How to Put Survey Points from Excel into Google EarthStep by step from a spreadsheet of eastings, northings and levels to pins in Google Earth: pick the grid, check a known point, save KML or KMZ.Read guide
- Total Station CSV to KMZ with Site PhotosTurn a raw total station export into one KMZ file with a photo in every point's balloon — naming photos, matching them to points and adding boundary lines.Read guide
- How to Lay Out a Survey Spreadsheet for ConversionWhich headings are recognised, what to do with a sheet that has no heading row, and the small layout habits that stop points going missing.Read guide
- Convert Many Survey Sheets to Google Earth at OnceBatch conversion: turn a folder of CSV and Excel sheets into one Google Earth file each, with a summary of what every sheet held.Read guide
- Keep a Survey Job and Carry On LaterSave the whole job — points, grid, symbols, photos and settings — under a name, open it on another computer, or send it to a colleague.Read guide
Coordinates
- How to Convert Easting and Northing to Latitude and LongitudeConverting grid coordinates to latitude and longitude: coordinate systems, UTM zones, datums, units, and the mistakes that put points in the wrong place.Read guide
- How to Find Your UTM ZoneWork out the UTM zone and hemisphere for any site from its longitude, with the zones for the Gulf, Pakistan, India and other common regions.Read guide
- Site Calibration: Tie a Local Site Grid to Real CoordinatesPut a project grid (such as a 1000/1000 start) or a slightly-off national grid in the right place using known control points.Read guide
- How to Convert Latitude and Longitude to UTMTurn a sheet of latitude and longitude into UTM or national grid eastings and northings, and save them to Excel, CSV or DXF.Read guide
- Convert Coordinates from One Grid to AnotherMove eastings and northings from an old national grid to UTM, or between any two grids, without losing the original values.Read guide
- Degrees, Minutes and Seconds to Decimal Degrees in ExcelConvert coordinates like 25°12'30.5"N to 25.208472 with one Excel formula, and why a DMS column must be converted before mapping.Read guide
- Convert KML or KMZ to Excel with CoordinatesGet the placemarks out of a Google Earth file into a table of names, latitude, longitude and height, and onto your own grid.Read guide
Checking the work
- Check a Survey for Duplicate Points and Level BustsCatch the mistakes that survive a visual check before you send the file: points shot twice, points on top of each other, levels that jump.Read guide
- Compare As-Built Survey Points with Design CoordinatesMatch what was shot against the design sheet station by station, flag anything outside tolerance, and save the comparison.Read guide
- Bearing and Distance from a Setup Point: a Setting-Out SheetSet up on any point and list every other point by bearing, distance and level difference, then save the list as a setting-out sheet.Read guide
Deliverables
- KML vs KMZ: Which Should You Send?What the difference is between KML and KMZ, when each one is the right file to send, and why photos and custom markers need a KMZ.Read guide
- Draw Boundaries and Calculate Land Area in Google EarthJoin survey points into boundary lines by code, close them into plots, and get lengths and areas in square metres and hectares.Read guide
- Export Survey Points to DXF for AutoCADSave your points as a DXF drawing with 3D points, name labels and a layer for each code, on the grid your drawing uses.Read guide
- Survey Points to Shapefile and GeoJSON for QGIS and ArcGISSave survey points, lines and areas as a zipped Shapefile or a GeoJSON file with every column kept, ready to open in GIS.Read guide
- Survey Points to GPX for a Handheld GPSPut your control points and boundaries on a handheld GPS as waypoints and routes, with levels, to find them in the field.Read guide
- Send Points to a Total Station: Leica GSI and Trimble FilesSave design or control points as a Leica GSI-16 file or a Trimble comma file to upload to the instrument for setting out.Read guide
- Colour-Coded Markers by Point Code in Google EarthGive trees, manholes, benchmarks and every other code its own marker and folder, and keep the choices for every job.Read guide
- Chainage, Offset and Level Profile Along a CentrelineGive every point its chainage along a road, pipe or kerb line and its offset left or right, and save a level profile with grades.Read guide
Traverse and levelling
- How to Adjust a Closed Traverse by the Bowditch RuleA worked example of a four-station closed loop: balance the angles, work out bearings and coordinate changes, find the misclosure and spread it by the Bowditch (compass) rule.Read guide
- Reducing a Level Book: Rise and Fall vs Height of InstrumentReduce the same level book both ways, run the arithmetic checks, compare the misclosure with the allowable and spread it over the set-ups.Read guide
- Traverse Misclosure and Precision: What 1 : 10,000 MeansAngular and linear misclosure, how the precision ratio is worked out, typical limits, and what to check before you adjust a traverse that fails.Read guide
Roads in AutoCAD
- How to Draw a Complete Road in AutoCAD from a Centre LineFrom one polyline to a finished road plan with RoadPro: edges, turning radius, barricades or kerb, chainage, signs, markings, a cross section and an Excel report.Read guide
- Road Junctions, Widening and Turning Lanes in AutoCADJoin a new road to an existing one with kerb returns and an auxiliary lane, add a lane between two chainages and taper a road, with RoadPro's RDJ, RDW and RDT.Read guide
- Road Quantities and Setting-Out Data from AutoCAD to ExcelWhat RoadPro's report lists: barricade, cone and kerb quantities, signs, marking paint, curve data and the setting-out coordinates of the centre line and edges.Read guide
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