Trimble® Business Center is a desktop surveying office software that complements Trimble's full range of survey solutions. The new version 2.70 features an exciting new functionality which advances the capabilities of surveying offices.  With Trimble VISION™ Photogrammetry  the surveyor can now precisely measure objects using two or more images taken from the Trimble S6 and S8 total stations with Trimble VISION as well as the Trimble VX Spatial Station.

If your survey project contains two or more stations, each with referenced photo images of the same object, you can make photogrammetry measurements of the object to assign to it a point with a three-dimensional (3D) coordinate. You do this by selecting the object in a photo from each of the stations and applying a measurement. Trimble Business Center (TBC) then calculates the point's real-world coordinate based on the intersection of the resultant line-of-sight rays from each to the two station cameras. See Figure 1.

For example, the surveyor can photogrammetrically measure the locations of power lines that are very difficult to measure with other survey techniques such as Direct Reflex (DR) or angle intersections.  

Figure 1 : Using photogrammetry to measure objects that are difficult to measure in the field

Due to the careful and precise integration of the Trimble VISION system, the process of measuring photogrammetric points is simple. The surveyor finds an object of interest displayed in each of two or more TBC station views and uses a virtual telescope to select the exact image pixel in each view. TBC automatically calculates a 3D point from the intersection of the photogrammetric observations. The surveyor is then provided with indications of the quality of measurement, including the strength of figure for the intersection and residual values between the calculated point and each observation. 

To read more on the achievable accuracies in the Trimble VISION whitepaper, please click here

Other enhancement in the TBC v 2.7 are:

• Enhanced GIS Features – Process feature coded data from Trimble Access™ field software to create point, line, and now polygon features that can be exported in standard GIS formats. The polygon capability improves the surveyor's feature collection capabilities through accurate database recreation and automated area calculations.
• Export GENIO Roads – Import or key-in corridor designs for review and editing, then export them in GENIO format to stake in the field. The GENIO format offers improved modelling precision for some complex corridor designs

For more information about the photogrammetry functionality Trimble Business Centre’s, please contact your local Trimble distributor:

• Ultimate Positioning (QLD/NSW/VIC/SA/ACT/NT) : 07-38521245 ;  qldoffice@ultimatepositioning.com
• Haefeli-Lysnar (WA) : 08-94458811 ; info@hlse.com.au
• Geosystems (NZ) :  0800 436797 ; mark.green@geosystems.co.nz