With advanced technology and the use of drones to capture the essence of a project site, the most common misunderstanding people have is that a drone is a replacement for surveyors, which couldn't be further from the truth. The drone is simply a tool that takes photographs or uses lidar to create a digital copy of the terrain. You still need a person, a surveyor, to interpret and create a survey of a project site. When you use Virtual Surveyor, you stay in the mindset of a surveyor and do everything a surveyor does, except you are now surveying from a virtual world.


Overview


The Basic Virtual Surveyor Concept

Instead of forcing surveyors to become data analysts, we use computer vision technology to create an interactive and fluent environment in the Virtual Surveyor app so that surveyors can do what they do best: survey the terrain. Except you'll do so from a digital copy of the actual terrain with a literal virtual representation (you can create the digital terrain model using our drone photogrammetry Terrain Creator app). 


The drone data by itself is too much for a CAD program to handle, so Virtual Surveyor's terrain engine was designed to specifically handle both large and small digital copies of the terrain from the drone data. We use technology to simplify the process, make surveying faster and more user-friendly, and still able to retain all the data and information needed for survey-grade deliverables. All while making it fun and easy to use with a visually rewarding experience!


1 - Surveyors in a Virtual World - Basic Method

The basic method is that you can use the traditional surveying process in the same way you would gather points if you were on the project site in person.


Survey the virtual world with the same concept as boots on the ground. Ask yourself how you would survey a site if you were there in person, except you use the visual virtual space and computer tools to help give you a 'sense' of the project site. For example, you can turn on the Graticule lens and set the extents to 15m (50ft) to help you 'walk' the terrain and add points in a grid pattern.

Traditional survey method using the Point tool to 'walk' extents across the project site, using the Graticule Lens as a guide for distance.


Create a light-weight surface model. After you survey the digital terrain, you can create what we refer to as a light-weight surface model. This is the most basic method for creating a topography in Virtual Surveyor. With your surveyed points, you can easily generate a CAD surface model by triangulating all your survey items.

Use Triangulate All on your survey points to create a surface and view it as a TIN (triangulated irregular network).


Set how to display your surface. Your surface is generated and viewed as a TIN by default. You can change your surface to view it as contours and set the intervals between the contour lines.

Change the view your generated surface from a TIN to contours and change the intervals between the contour lines.


You can do an entire survey using the basic method. Our free Valley version of Virtual Surveyor allows you to fully complete a basic survey and generate a deliverable. However, you have the option to pay for advanced versions of the app that will significantly increase how fast you can complete a survey with the help of advanced Virtual Surveyor tools. 


2 - Speed Up the Basic Surveyor Method

You can use the same basic Virtual Surveyor concept to scale the methods used as a surveyor in a virtual world and speed up the project work for larger and more complex areas.


Use more advanced tools. Using the same concept of surveying a project site, we can create a boundary around our project area and run a Point Grid to create points in the same pattern as if you had walked the site on foot. Just set the grid size to 15m (50ft) and with the click of a button, you'll have 'walked' the entire site within the boundary in just a few seconds.

Delete the basic survey. Draw a boundary around the project area and create a Rectangular Point Grid with a spacing of 15m (50ft).


Make edits to complete the surface. With the Rectangular Point Grid created, the computer was able to quickly generate the points, but you'll need to survey and edit points that fall on trees, brush, or buildings. Virtual Surveyor allows you to triangulate the points and directly edit the surface to help save time.

Edit your surface to remove points from trees, buildings, brush, etc.


3 - Smartest Tools, Faster Survey, Same Results

Use tools that work best for certain situations for an even faster survey and still get a detailed light-weight CAD model.


Get a detailed surface in minutes by applying the smartest tool for the job: For terrain with vegetation, you can use the Low-pass Point Grid to save even more time. You still survey the same way, with the concept of using a grid. This option, however, will help prevent points from being placed on top of trees and buildings (the same as if you had walked it yourself). You can also lessen the spacing between points to get even more detail of the terrain in the same amount of time.

Run a Low-pass Point grid at 10m. 

Use powerful editing tools and complete your surface. Now you have a detailed light-weight CAD model that was created in mere minutes. In order to complete the topo model, you still need to edit and touch up areas by adding or removing points where necessary with some additional tools. But by taking advantage of the smartest tool for the job you can get the same (or better) results, save massive amounts of time, and finish your work with the same high-quality deliverables.

Remove erroneous points from your surface in real-time while displaying both TIN and Contours.


Apply the Basic Surveyor Concept to Multiple Projects

A small learning curve with the Virtual Surveyor app comes with big results. Once you understand the basics of surveying in a virtual world, you can start working smarter using tools in the Virtual Surveyor app to take on multiple tasks quickly and efficiently, all while achieving high-quality and detailed results.


Tools and methods for any type of survey:


Additional Capabilities Using Virtual Surveyor

The Virtual Surveyor desktop app capabilities extend beyond the basic Virtual Surveyor concept. While creating topographic surveys is the original functionality of the software, over the years it has grown to be much more capable. Much of the functionality outside of creating a virtual survey enables you to save money from needing to buy other software programs by using the Virtual Surveyor app for a myriad of other drone data applications.


Tools and methods for a user-friendly and high-quality experience across multiple disciplines: