Stijn!!

[GH85Carrera]

I just checkd my house was flown at a 1.5 cm pixel. I even did a basic Planimetric drawing of all the items. So every flowerbed, tree, sidewalk or object is drawn in a vector format. It is a AutoCAD type DWG file. In the end, it is just cool to have, but I have no real use for it.

[GH85Carrera]

Find some kid in the area that has a drone. Have him shoot the property with the highest resolution camera file, and I will process the files. Not video, individual jpg files. Lots of them.

[flipper35]

For now, I think the Google Earth works just fine. If I had time, I would get one of the kids and fly it myself.

[GH85Carrera]

Google Earth is usually 1 foot resolution at best. Not bad, especially for the price.

[flipper35]

Yeah, I can live with free. I don't need anything, just had to make a joke about mm resolution for you!

[GH85Carrera]

We had one client ask for 1 mm aerials on a 6 sq mile farm. We just laughed. Of course he had zero accuracy statement, or specifications. We could have flown it at 2 foot resolution and just output the final file at 1mm. It would be just a really giant file that said it was 1mm but garbage.

We constantly deliver files too big for the client to handle and we are talking normal resolution files. Then we find out they are trying to open it Microsoft Word or PowerPoint.

[RKDinOKC]

Oh nooooooo...almost page 2!

[GH85Carrera]

Hey TGIF I think. I thought that yesterday but I was just starting really early.

We are trying to determine what restaurant we will get take of from tonight. Oklahoma is reopening businesses and many restaurants will have open dining rooms. I figure I will wait for the staff to get back in the grove, and figure out what does and does not work with 1/2 capacity dining areas.

[Porsche-poor]

Morning. IT is indeed Friday.

We are still in lockdown till 5/4 as of this am. Rumor has it that will be extended this afternoon. Make no diff to me as I have been working the whole time from home and so has the wife.

[flipper35]

We had Adobos Mexican Grill take out last night. Good thing they are a bit out of the way for us or I would look like Jabba the Hut.

[GH85Carrera]

The doorbell rang a while back. It was a guy working for a a company that is a subcontractor for the city. They were once again looking for the sewer manhole covers. He said the map shows it as in my back yard. I told him the map is wrong, and I can show them where it really is. I was just about to go run a quick errand and I had my shoes on. I walked to the association common area, and said it should be about right...... There. They poked with the probe and thunk, hit it. So they poked around trying to find the edges. They had to uncover it, and lift the lid. So I watched as they uncovered it from the sediment in the runoff that the rain deposited. It was easily 5 inches deep.

They measured how deep it was 7' 8" and the direction of flow from my back yard then to the north. Then they took photos of the insides of it. I asked if I could have some for Facebook and they laughed. I did not really want any copies in case you were wondering.

They thanked me for saving them the time to search for it. Likely the most interesting thing for me to do today.

[Porsche-poor]

At least you were home so you could help. They might have just gone poking around your yard all day.

[flipper35]

Last time we had our septic inspected the dog threw her stuffed duck down the open manhole cover. She was trying to throw it to the guy and missed. She is not a good thrower. Anyway, he fished it out and hosed it off and tossed it on the roof. We were on vacation at the time but dad was there and explained to the guy she lives to play fetch with it.

[GH85Carrera]

They were with an actual engineering company. We have done work for them. One of those little mom and pop firms, Woolpert. Founded in 1911 and has offices all over the world.

I know the city came trough with a crew 10 or 15 years ago but now they are mapping the sewer system. It is pretty had to help them with that with aerial photography.

[flipper35]

What, you can't fly your little quad through the sewers with a GPS tag?

[GH85Carrera]

The GPS signal gets blocked with the 6 or 7 feet of dirt and concrete on top of it!

Years ago the company we worked for did a small city in Louisiana that wanted every single utility mapped, the streets, fireplugs, utility pole, and curb, driveway and so on. It was all put together in a GIS file that would let them click on a pole or sewer lid in the drawing, and bring up all the information possible about it. And the could turn on the image layer as well if they wanted to see what the ground looked like. We would love a few of those projects now.

We just did a smaller city and with the aerial photography and 3D map we made did the full planimetrics of every single object visible from the air. We don't have the info for is under the ground, but our files can be merged with whatever other data they had.

It is pretty cool to see a line drawing of an entire city. Click on any object with the info button and it will tell you the building address and who owns it. It can even be tied to the floor plan if they have that info available.

[flipper35]

Just pull a trick from subs and trail the antenna behind and above ground at the manhole so it is exposed to the signal. Easy peasy!

(These don't need to be in green do they?)

[GH85Carrera]

The best bet is use a 4x4 monster truck model and just drive along the bottom of the sewer and use the IMU to track the location. Just need it really waterproof for cleanup and maybe a hybrid helicopter to retrieve it.

[RKDinOKC]

That sounds like a mission impossible episode.

[GH85Carrera]

In the end the reality is they map the manholes with an accurate GPS based device and get a solid XY&Z reading. It can be 6 inches off and not affect the reality of finding it again. They probed with a rod and found a solid surface. Used a shovel to clear off majority of the dirt, that found the hole used to remove the lid. Then one guy got his big sledge hammer and just whacked the lid hard. That makes the lid jump enough to loosen the edges. He hit it with the sledge 5 or 6 times with a full force swing. I asked if they break the lids and he said sometimes. The lid of course is cast iron and pretty stout. The drug the lid off, and did the measurements. I left then, I had seen the real action.

Of course once they have the XYZ of each lid they can plot them together and see the suystem, and add in the data from the camera and measurements.