The Falls of the Ohio Chapter of KAPS will be hosting an in-person fall seminar taught by Chris Gephart, PLS (Bio), Bruce Carlson (Bio), Luke Woodyard, PLS, EIT (Bio), and Ben Shinabery, PLS (Bio).

Ethics, Code of Conduct, and Standards of Practice
8:00 AM -12:00 PM ET
Presenter - Chris Gephart, PLS
4 PDH

Focus on the Standards of Practice – KRS & KAR, our responsibility to protect the public; KRS Chapter 322 – definitions, exceptions, licensure requirements, investigation/complaints, makeup of the board & qualifications; code of Professional Practice and Conduct – definitions, conflict of interest, records retention, qualifications/competence, direct supervision; Standards of Practice – history of the Standards, most common Standards of Practice deficiencies, definitions, classifications for surveys, measurement specifications, monumentation, Section 13 non-boundary survey work; Q&A

12:00 - 12:30 Box Lunch 

Subdivision Layout using Carlson LotNet
12:30 PM - 2:30 PM ET
Presenter -  Bruce Carlson
2 PDH

LotNet is a specialized automation tool integrated into Carlson Software's suite of civil engineering and land surveying applications, such as Carlson Survey and Carlson Civil. It is designed to streamline the process of subdividing land parcels into lots, making it particularly useful for planning residential subdivisions, office parks, commercial developments, and other tract layouts. By automating the generation of lot boundaries, setbacks, building placements, and associated annotations, LotNet significantly reduces manual drafting time and minimizes errors in site design workflows.

Trimble Business Center for a Surveyor's Daily Workflow
2:30 PM - 3:30 PM ET

Presenter - Luke Woodyard, PLS, EIT
1 PDH

This course will guide you through the daily workflow of processing field data, ultimately producing an exported dataset that can be used in a variety of systems for final processing or delivering to clients, depending on your specific needs. We will begin by using Trimble Connect to transfer your crew's field data into Trimble Business Center, then proceed to process the data using Trimble’s field to finish workflow. The course will also cover importing point cloud data from Trimble scanners and other sources, ensuring proper geo-referencing with your dataset, and creating surfaces using your point clouds. Additionally, you'll learn about the various formats available for exporting data to integrate with other software or deliver to clients. By the end of this course, you'll have a deeper understanding of how to leverage Trimble Business Center to optimize your daily workflows.

Traverse vs Tilting GNSS: The Battle for Precise Survey Control
3:30 PM - 4:30 PM ET
Presenter -  Ben Shinabery, PLS
1 PDH

Traditional surveyors know that traverse adjustments on survey control allow relative precision errors to be corrected within balanced adjustments. For millennia, surveyors have used mathematical calculations to prorate and balance systematic and random errors across the whole of a precise traverse to force closure. Every measurement a surveyor conducts in the field has a discrepancy between true values and observed values. We surveyors understand this dynamic and rely on proven adjustment methods to hide the error among all the control. Some of these systematic errors are promulgated through the environment, instrument, or observer. A survey technician running a long traverse on a hot day, using a prism pole that needs calibration, and a total station that is set up a fraction off will produce discrepancies that are difficult to isolate and correct.

What if our control observations were isolated to individual data points constrained by a robust constellation of satellites with balanced calculations simultaneous to the point of data collection. There are still opportunities for the same types of environment, instrument, and observer errors, but now instead of balancing corrections among all points in the traverse, redundant GNSS RTK observations are isolated to the point which they occur.

Which method provides a more precise control network: Traverse or Tilting GNSS?

During the Spring and Fall semesters of the CE211 Land Surveying course at the University of Kentucky, students were taught both methods on the same survey control network. In Lab #6, they learned to traverse with total stations and direct measurements for a closed loop. Then in Lab #11, the same land survey students were given Trimble 780 GNSS Tilting RTK receivers and asked to collect the same control network. The use of these GNSS units was generously donated by Seiler Instruments for teaching the next generation of Kentucky engineers and surveyors. The results were intriguing and helped support the shift to better new survey control standards.

This practical session is for those surveyors who are interested in finding out how traditional traverse methods compare to RTK GNSS with tilt for precision control.

Objective 1: Compare traditional and modern methods of balanced survey control adjustment

Objective 2: Learn about how modern university students apply skills learned for both methods

Objective 3: Consider a balanced method of establishing precise survey control on project sites

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