MachineControlOnline.com Exclusive Column by Jay Jones, PLS

In my last article at MachineControlOnline.com, I stressed the importance of understanding the construction process. I want to continue discussing skill sets and challenges I feel are important to the successful implementation of 3D Machine Control. Land surveyors possess the knowledge and skills qualifying them as positioning experts. Many are also experienced as construction surveyors. But what other challenges should you be aware of?

Machine Control technology is evolving rapidly. The hardware and software components are becoming easier to use and more affordable which fuels faster adoption. But this pace also poses an educational challenge for those looking to get involved and stay current.

From a business standpoint, I feel it is important to be able to support clients with any brand of machine control technology. It takes a lot of time to learn and understand multiple brands of machine control technology, but if you are only able to support one brand of technology, you are obviously limiting yourself in your market share. This does pose a challenge. At less than 10% adoption, the technology has not approached compatible standards...yet.

Allow me to share how I approach this challenge. I currently have 4 different surveying and civil design packages on my computer for building 3D models. There is a time commitment required to become proficient with each package. Many land surveyors take a couple of years to become truly competent with a software package, and then only use a portion of its true capabilities. Add to this the fact that you may need to learn the civil design package of that software brand and more importantly, become proficient with it. The next task is to be able to learn and use 3 more completely different surveying and design software packages. And as we all know, none of the packages share a common user interface (UI). It is like learning a new language from scratch for each package.

In reality, I tend to use one package for most of my 3D model projects, but because various data is provided to me in different design software formats and I have clients that have different brands of software and equipment, I have to have a working knowledge of the other software packages so I can send out or receive data for the various software brands. It is also important to realize, from a business standpoint, that not only do you need to understand the various packages, but also you have to purchase these packages so you have a larger overhead to consider.

Today, most of the machine control technology is driven by GNSS manufactures. All of the manufactures have proprietary software that is needed in order to work with that brand of machine control technology. This is the software that takes the 3D models and makes the files readable to the their brand. It is also the software that is used to transfer files to the machine control equipment and to retrieve data that is collected by the machine control equipment. (Just as a side note, did you realize that you can collect topographic data of a site with a bulldozer equipped with machine control?)

I am starting to hear rumors that even machine control will have to move towards a common format, such as .xml, but that will be a few years down the road before all brands commit to a common format. This means that not only do you have to learn various design software packages but you have to learn the various proprietary software packages as well. And unless you only want to support clients with one brand of machine control equipment, you have going to have to learn the software for multiple brands. I currently have about 8 different software programs from various vendors that I need to use and understand in order to upload and download data, manage the data and convert files to proprietary formats.

Another form of software that you will need to know and understand is the data collector software. Most of us know how to use a data collector and the data collector software for land surveying, but most of the machine control manufactures have different software for the data collectors for their machine control customers. In other words, they didn’t take the land surveying software and turn it into machine control or construction layout software, they literally started from a clean slate and created new construction layout software and they created it for construction personnel, not land surveyors.

In order to be able to fully support clients you will have to learn and understand how “their” data collector software works and the proprietary formats they need to make it work. I find that you really need to know how their data collector layout programs work in order to properly build the 3D models and line work associated with a project. In the past, land surveyors have always created points for their layout and then gone out to a construction project and laid out those points. With the new construction layout data collector software, I seldom create points for my clients. The layout is done with the 3D model of the surface for grade and the data collect software will allow you to layout from the line work, as opposed to laying out a point. Now everything they need to layout a project is on the data collector screen and they no longer need to scroll through numerous points to find the point they are looking to layout. They just tap the data collect screen where they need layout, and it tells them where to go and what their cut or fill is to grade. This trend could be described as moving from “point based” staking to “surface centric” management.

When I purchased my last GPS unit, I also purchased a copy of the construction layout data collector software in conjunction with my land surveying data collector software. This gives me the ability to learn and use the software and have a better understanding of how my construction clients are going to use the software. Again, from a business aspect, this is another expense and larger overhead, but it allows me to give my clients what they need as well as support them when issues arise. In many cases, since machine control is starting to become more affordable, I have quite a few new clients that are just learning the technology and don’t really know what they need. You can offer your construction clients more value by helping them with their purchase decisions.

As machine control technology advances there are more and more software packages available through the machine control manufactures and 3rd party vendors that can be effectively used for machine control technology. In order to support multiple brands and therefore multiple clients, you will have to purchase and have a working knowledge of the multiple software packages and programs out there in order to stay up to date with the technology. You should evaluate who your clients are, what systems and software they use and then take advantage of the most compatible and open software packages.

Learning and understanding the software associated with machine control technology is just another important factor in acquiring the skill set necessary to be part of machine control technology. This is simply another skill that must be learned over time and is not a quick fix to the impending loss of construction layout work. However, there is no one better poised to learn and implement the software and the technology than land surveyors.