Importing laser rangefind3r data
883robert
Global Mapper UserTrusted User
G'day Mike
I design and build refugee camps for UNHCR and find Global Mapper an invaluable tool. A lot of my work is in site assessment for which I usually need to work alone and work fast, meaning handheld an on foot. To that end I've just acquired a long range laser rangefinder which also gives me azimuth and slope to a target. I want to be able to import this data to GM and need advice.
The instrument is a TruPulse TP360B by Laser Tech Industries (www.lasertech.com). I use Global Mapper 12.02. The TPB360B uploads via serial cable or Bluetooth, I'm using the latter. Below is a sample download:
$PLTIT,HV,4.01,M,52.10,D,-0.00,D,4.01,M*7C
$PLTIT,HV,4.01,M,53.50,D,1.90,D,4.01,M*5C
$PLTIT,ML,6.01,M,335.10,D,22.10,D,7.01,M*4C
$PLTIT,HV,3.40,M,53.80,D,1.20,D,3.40,M*5A
The first and fourth lines give horizontal distance, the second and third are 'missing line' where I shoot to two targets and the TPB360B gives the distance, azimuth, height etc from the first target to the second. Sorry I can't give you the data format for all strings the TPB360B downloads.
When I shoot HD (horizontal distance) the format is:
$PLTIT,HV,HDvalue,AZvalue,INCvalue,SDvalue,*csum<CR><LR>
where
$PLTIT is message identifier
HV is horizontal vector message type
AZvalue is measured azimuth
INCvalue is measured inclination value
SDvalue is measured slope distance
*csum is an asterisk followed by a hexadecimal checksum calculated by XORing all the characters between the dollar sign and asterisk.
<CR> is carriage return
<LF> is line feed
HDvalue, INCvalue and SDvalue always include two decimal places where the second is either 1, indicating high quality signal return or 0, indicating low quality signal return.
After saving the data file, either csv text or Excel spreadsheet, I want to be able to bring it into GM and have the points plotted. Is this possible? As always, your valuable advice will be much appreciated.
kind regards
Robert Crigan
UNHCR Jordan
I design and build refugee camps for UNHCR and find Global Mapper an invaluable tool. A lot of my work is in site assessment for which I usually need to work alone and work fast, meaning handheld an on foot. To that end I've just acquired a long range laser rangefinder which also gives me azimuth and slope to a target. I want to be able to import this data to GM and need advice.
The instrument is a TruPulse TP360B by Laser Tech Industries (www.lasertech.com). I use Global Mapper 12.02. The TPB360B uploads via serial cable or Bluetooth, I'm using the latter. Below is a sample download:
$PLTIT,HV,4.01,M,52.10,D,-0.00,D,4.01,M*7C
$PLTIT,HV,4.01,M,53.50,D,1.90,D,4.01,M*5C
$PLTIT,ML,6.01,M,335.10,D,22.10,D,7.01,M*4C
$PLTIT,HV,3.40,M,53.80,D,1.20,D,3.40,M*5A
The first and fourth lines give horizontal distance, the second and third are 'missing line' where I shoot to two targets and the TPB360B gives the distance, azimuth, height etc from the first target to the second. Sorry I can't give you the data format for all strings the TPB360B downloads.
When I shoot HD (horizontal distance) the format is:
$PLTIT,HV,HDvalue,AZvalue,INCvalue,SDvalue,*csum<CR><LR>
where
$PLTIT is message identifier
HV is horizontal vector message type
AZvalue is measured azimuth
INCvalue is measured inclination value
SDvalue is measured slope distance
*csum is an asterisk followed by a hexadecimal checksum calculated by XORing all the characters between the dollar sign and asterisk.
<CR> is carriage return
<LF> is line feed
HDvalue, INCvalue and SDvalue always include two decimal places where the second is either 1, indicating high quality signal return or 0, indicating low quality signal return.
After saving the data file, either csv text or Excel spreadsheet, I want to be able to bring it into GM and have the points plotted. Is this possible? As always, your valuable advice will be much appreciated.
kind regards
Robert Crigan
UNHCR Jordan
Comments
-
Robert,
I'm not quite sure how that would end up plotted in Global Mapper. It sounds very similar to the distance/bearing/COGO line entry tool, except there doesn't appear to be any raw position data in the stream, just offsets from some location. Would you maybe select the start location, then use the input from the range finder to add new points based on that?
The latest release (actually v13.1 and later) includes a new edit mode where you can edit the lengths of existing segments, so you could rough sketch out a building or room outline, then edit the actual lengths after you get them from a laser rangefinder. I'm not sure if this would be applicable to your use though.
Thanks,
Mike
Global Mapper Guru
gmsupport@bluemarblegeo.com
http://www.globalmapper.com -
Thanks for the quick response Mike. You're right tha data stream contains no position data, only distance and bearing. I omitted to say that I'd have to record independently the position I was shooting from. Does GM have any scripting capablity where I could feed it distances and bearings from a specified point and have it plot new points?regardsRobert
-
Robert,
You could do that using the Global Mapper SDK using the GM_CalcProjectedLocation function to calculate the new point some distance and bearing from a start point. Basically the same functionality that the distance/bearing/COGO tool does in the Global Mapper application, but available from your own application. The SDK does require more programming than a script though, so you would need some developer experience.
Thanks,
Mike
Global Mapper Guru
gmsupport@bluemarblegeo.com
http://www.globalmapper.com -
Thanks Mike. I'm not as developer so for now I'll collect data into spreadsheet format and enter the points manually using the distance/bearing/COGO tool as you've suggested. For now there aren't many points. If it becomes unmanageable I'll have to pursue it further but you've given me a good solution. Thanks again!
regards
Robertglobal_mapper wrote: »Robert,
You could do that using the Global Mapper SDK using the GM_CalcProjectedLocation function to calculate the new point some distance and bearing from a start point. Basically the same functionality that the does in the Global Mapper application, but available from your own application. The SDK does require more programming than a script though, so you would need some developer experience.
Thanks,
Mike
Global Mapper Guru
gmsupport@bluemarblegeo.com
http://www.globalmapper.com
Categories
- 12.7K All Categories
- 5.6K Features Discussion
- 342 Downloading Imagery
- 1.3K Elevation Data
- 380 Georeferencing Imagery Discussion
- 628 GM Script Language
- 53 User Scripts
- 113 GPS Features
- 414 Projection Questions
- 819 Raster Data
- 1.3K Vector Data
- 6.6K Support
- 177 Announcement and News
- 908 Bug Report
- 558 SDK
- 1.2K Suggestion Box
- 3.7K Technical Support
- 562 Other Discussion
- 129 GIS Data Sources
- 27 Global Mapper Showcase
- 233 How I use Global Mapper
- 107 Global Mapper Forum Website