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Trav PC vs Carlson
Posted by CHarmon on August 7, 2014 at 12:32 pmTrying to decide on software. I’ve got it narrowed down between Carlson/Intellicad and Traverse PC. I’d like to here a few pros-cons. Anyone who has used both would be great to hear from. We’re currently using Carlson 2006 and we’re upgrading the computer so we figured the software should be too. We have 10yrs with a CRD files so thats a factor but Traverse PC works with CRDs, but how well? Cost is somewhat of a factor but if the learing curve is too great thats a cost right there. I’d say cost is about 6th on my list of issues because both are pretty reasonably priced.
Ease of downloading/field to finish reduction (using TopCon’s Magnet)
Ease of entering descriptions
Ease of entering handnotes
Ease of contouring/modeling
Ease of plotting drawingsI’ve used Retriever, Eagle Point, Micro Station, LDD and Carlson so changing software isn’t that big of issue. Bugs and just a plain lack of surveying are though.
Thanks
CHarmon replied 9 years, 7 months ago 8 Members · 11 Replies- 11 Replies
I would caution that TraversePC is probably more stable/usable than Carlson on IntelliCAD. I’ve been using Carlson on AutoCAD for over ten years, I absolutely love it.
Just pointing out since you said that “both are pretty reasonably priced” – you won’t get quite all of the usability and horsepower from Carlson on IntelliCAD, and you would pay about 1.5 times more to get it running on the AutoCAD engine. IMHO it’s worth it, though. TraversePC looks like a fine product, too. I’ve never used it, but have noticed that it can make pretty maps right out of the box, and I like that you could circumnavigate AutoDesk completely.
One thing I don’t like about Carlson products: they have the crappiest fonts, symbols, linetypes, etc. set as defaults. You can open Carlson and go right to work, field-to-finish and all, but the plat will be ugly (of course this is in the eye of the beholder…).
You can go through and set everything the way you like, but it takes a day at first – then the rest of the first month finding things you didn’t know about. Then if you upgrade you can export/import all of the settings/files.
Here’s my take on your concerns in Carlson land:
Ease of downloading/field to finish reduction (using TopCon’s Magnet) – probably simple, depends on how you have them set up. You’ll have to mirror the definitions on Carlson’s end.
Ease of entering descriptions – very nice/easy routine: Plot Deed Descripion
Ease of entering handnotes – very easy using Visual Cogo (even shows point previews)
Ease of contouring/modeling – as good as any software (better than some), this depends somewhat on user knowledge of how DTMs work, regardless of software brand
Ease of plotting drawings – you can make this easy or somewhat difficult (advanced) depending on which methods you choose.“One thing I don’t like about Carlson products: they have the crappiest fonts, symbols, linetypes, etc. set as defaults. You can open Carlson and go right to work, field-to-finish and all, but the plat will be ugly (of course this is in the eye of the beholder…).”
You can always add your own linetypes, either custom made or from other sources. I’ve got all of the old ACAD linetypes, the Corps linetypes and several that we created in the office all loaded in my Carlson Survey. Same is true with the symbol library. I have TONS of custom symbols and rarely use the Carlson symbols.
That’s one of the advantages to the embedded version, you ban add linetypes, patterns and the *.pgp file easily to make the product feel more like LDD.
Everyone talks about how you have to learn to do stuff Carlson’s way, but that is not necessarily true. You can add files to customize Carlson for most of the flexibility that you desire. The only thing that I lost switching over was LISP, and I am just not a LISP programmer type.
I have never used the Intellicad version, but I am willing to bet that there is a way to do much of this in that package too. It will just take a little digging. My only heartburn with Intellicadis the stability issue. Many say the new release has solved that problem and many still report constant crashes. Until there is a real consensus I plan to stick with the Embedded version. It’s worth the extra money to me right now. BUT then that is just my view.Isn’t that pretty much what I said on the very next line?
There are more basic issues you need to think about first. We tried Trav Pc a few years ago and I know people swear by it, but if you are an autocad user it’s hard to get used to (we couldn’t and returned 2 copies). You should really get a demo before you make a decision, it’s a great program, but it’s not the same as autocad.
not really
One thing I don’t like about Carlson products: they have the crappiest fonts, symbols, linetypes, etc. set as defaults. You can open Carlson and go right to work, field-to-finish and all, but the plat will be ugly (of course this is in the eye of the beholder…).
You can go through and set everything the way you like, but it takes a day at first – then the rest of the first month finding things you didn’t know about. Then if you upgrade you can export/import all of the settings/files.
Context clues dude…I guess some people don’t believe in being economical with word choice.
> Trying to decide on software. I’ve got it narrowed down between Carlson/Intellicad and Traverse PC. I’d like to here a few pros-cons.
Aloha, CHarmon:
I have been using TravPC for the past 8 months. I learned it pretty quick. It is totally different the CAD program. If fact it is marketed as CAD Free Zone and they mean it. Recently, I was trying to get more in to raw data viewing and analyzing. And got frustrated with Traverse. I was looking into Carlson–still trying the demo version.In the past couple days I did get good help from TraversePC tech support. They are really good! I am leaning toward sticking with Traverse PC. Carlson is pretty expensive for my budget and will be a huge learning curve…but the debate still continues.
One thing about Carlson…anytime someone post a question here on the forum they get help almost right away. I don’t think that will be true for TravPC. I depend on the TravPC’s tech support–it requires an annual fee. Which includes fixes and major updates for free.
Not sure if this is any help to you…but thought I’d share my thoughts.
Stormy Aloha from Hawaii! 😉
I like Carlson and I moved from Autodesk into it fairly with ease, still learning, cause I never have had any formal cad training.
The way I see it out of the box is that the settings are for someone that draws large format drawings Size D and bigger.
I’ve had to change settings to get everything down to letter to ledger size drawings.
Not landing the larger tracts these days and the guys that get them around here only locate the corners and draw straight lines between them. :'(
I still do my cogo with Carson Surveyor 1 in DOS because I never look at my keyboard or stop and think about a setting or layer.
> > Trying to decide on software. I’ve got it narrowed down between Carlson/Intellicad and Traverse PC. I’d like to here a few pros-cons.
>
> Aloha, CHarmon:
> I have been using TravPC for the past 8 months. I learned it pretty quick. It is totally different the CAD program. If fact it is marketed as CAD Free Zone and they mean it. Recently, I was trying to get more in to raw data viewing and analyzing. And got frustrated with Traverse. I was looking into Carlson–still trying the demo version.
>
> In the past couple days I did get good help from TraversePC tech support. They are really good! I am leaning toward sticking with Traverse PC. Carlson is pretty expensive for my budget and will be a huge learning curve…but the debate still continues.
>
> One thing about Carlson…anytime someone post a question here on the forum they get help almost right away. I don’t think that will be true for TravPC. I depend on the TravPC’s tech support–it requires an annual fee. Which includes fixes and major updates for free.
>
> Not sure if this is any help to you…but thought I’d share my thoughts.
>
> Stormy Aloha from Hawaii! 😉Yes, the support from Carlson is very good, and it’s FREE for life.
I used TRAVPC when it first came out and I liked it, but I’ve been using Carlson w/ACAD for years and wouldn’t trade it for anything.
We switched to TRAVPC in the last month from Carlson . I also use Magnet software .
I used Carlson for 12 years . My main reasons for switching .I had a hard time organizing the data the way I wanted it in Carlson and presenting the points for stake out in a clear manner . Trav Pc lets me organize my data in a neat organized manner . I can present stake out sheets to the crew quickly and concise manner . The ability to create multiple drawings in one file for a project for stake out is powerful .
The least squares program in travPC is a lot easier to use and meets ALTA standards and is very very easy . the Carlson one is good too but appears not to be part of the original program and to much setting up and such.
I was having trouble with Carlson line table just leaving labels out of the table ? this has happened many times . Its bad when a client catches it.
Also from magnet you need to export in the TDS RAW format for the Raw files . It does not like the RW% format of Carlson .
Traverse PC also has a few issues that bother me . If you bring in cad entities it does not have a radius snap so to create radius can be a pain in the but it you do not create a traverse for it.
Createing traverse to do what you use to in cad can be hard to grasp and will take you a while to learn .
Its a big learning curve but once you get it you will not want to use cad .
At least for me . I do keep cad running in the background to do stuff trav pc wont do and then import it in .
Trav pc drafting is aweful but most of the drawing is created from the traverses .
and switching the settings around .For me the trade of was the organization of the data and the least squares and Carlson tables screwing me . Also my maps look better . Once you get it setup you will like it , but expect a month of learning .
Also bringing in ,crd files are a snap.
feel free to contact me if you need to talk it out .
Thanks for the input guys. That’s the kind of information I was looking for. It seem’s like I’ll try and find a demo of Trav PC but I’m leaning heavily that way but I’m thinking of getting a seat of each because once I have the calc’s done my partner puts the drawings together but stills uses a few of the Carlson Survey commands to check me. I’ll have to see if the intellicad version is worth it though because I’m still hearing a lot of complaints about the bugs but the AutoCad version is out.
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