The work truck of a modern surveyor is filled with custom cases, perfectly arranged like a Tetris puzzle to maximize space for a specialized and ever evolving toolkit. A trusty total station, tripods, a backpack rig, GNSS units, and a mobile mapping platform like Nexys fill the most prominent travel cases.
With modern surveying, you’re like an army of one. As you hop from site to site, you’re never quite sure what you’ll encounter, and you need tools you can rely on for their flexibility and ultimate utility.
Rolling into a new job every day doesn’t just pose new surveying challenges. You encounter project managers and foremen who insist they know the best way to tackle any situation, despite having hired you to do just that. They’ll likely question your plan, or even your choice of tools to get the job done.
You’ll notice glances that whip-saw between “is this guy old enough” to “how in the world does that thing work”.
On construction sites, you can sometimes be the outsider, and you need to prove your mettle with the more traditionalists who may be expecting an approach they’re more familiar with. But that’s where your tools and the ability to use them to the fullest give you the confidence to tackle the job. Surveying has changed drastically in the last few years. New surveyors are leading this change, and with change, there’s always a little resistance.
It all makes for a workplace where no two days are ever the same, and no job is ever exactly like the one before. It’s the life of a modern surveyor. Rolling onto a job site and immediately being able to adapt the tools to match the challenge at hand.
It’s a chilly morning with a slight drizzle that can’t decide if it wants to stop or turn into a downpour. You pull up to an aging bridge that’s scheduled for repairs. You meet a small municipal crew that’s already on site, and they give you a quick briefing on the situation.
As you look around, you realize that there simply aren't enough stable flat areas 
for the number of static LiDAR stations that would be needed to cover the different piers. But it’s not a problem. You drop the tailgate on your truck and pull the case for your mobile LiDAR SLAM unit and a backpack rig.
As you’re setting up the unit from the tailgate of your truck, the manager of the on-site crew stops over to ask where you’ll be setting up each station. You’ve heard this plenty of times before, so you already have a response ready that aims to convince as much as it simply answers the question.
He’s not familiar with how far mobile mapping has come in the last few years, but after a quick back and forth, you notice his demeanor change. He realizes you have the surveying chops, understand the assignment and the end data requirements, and your choice of tools makes sense.
As the clanky metal doors close on the temporary elevator, the construction crew glances at your gear. You’re heading up to the 29th floor of an office building that’s under construction. It’s a great view when you get to the top, but the foreman interrupts your sightseeing to tell you they’re pouring concrete first thing tomorrow morning, and he points you to the full survey area behind the cavity that will soon be behind the freshly poured areas.
After unpacking, you find a flat spot on the ground and place the Nexys scanner there. In less than a minute, it’s fully initialized and ready to begin surveying the mechanical areas. You pick up the unit as you move through the area, checking the tablet to confirm you’re getting the scan you need. In any tight areas that may pose a problem, you simply double back and sweep the area again, pausing the scanner in a few areas to help populate the point cloud.
The foreman returns as you finish up, expecting to find you still setting up your gear. When there’s nothing set up, he asks what the holdup is. You know what he’s getting at, but you just politely let him know you’re about finished. You’re just cleaning up the point cloud now while still on-site to confirm everything has been captured.
The other construction workers on site may be a little upset that their work can already resume on the floor, they were hoping for a longer break. But you’re happy to be ahead of schedule, and you have plenty of time to head back to your hotel room and do any final tweaking of the files before uploading them for the client.
With storms moving in for the next several days, it’s nice to have an indoor job to close out the week. A historic city hall building is being restored, and the inside is filled with ornate columns, carved molding, and arches that have watched over town meetings for generations. Architects and building engineers will need the exact dimensions of these structures before they begin the final design process. They’ll also be using these for detailed visualizations that will be used to gain approval for the final renovation.
While static LiDAR could be used here, the time to set it all up isn’t worth it, especially since you don’t gain any accuracy advantage. Not to mention dragging in all that gear. The small inspection team you met as you arrived already has a scissor lift on site, so anything you can’t scan from ground level will be easy to reach with a handheld unit.
You finish the scan well before the end of the day and sit at one of the unoccupied desks to check the files and do some post-processing on site with the Nexys tablet. You’re able to clean up some noise and remove a large fabric banner that was hanging from the ceiling, which displayed the town’s crest and motto.
With the point cloud confirmed, you head back to your truck with enough time to get a head start on the afternoon rush hour. Another week of unique challenges that require creative thinking, a bit of nerdy tech knowledge, and the finesse of a salesman to convince the traditionalists that you know what you’re doing.
It’s just another day as a modern surveyor, where the tools you choose give you the confidence and ability to walk onto any job site and know you’ll be successful.
Surveying today is all about speed and flexibility, and you need the tools to match. Book a free demo of Nexys and see how a single unit can replace a work truck full of tools and allow you to tackle surveying challenges that you thought were impossible.
