Total Station Menu

The Total Station menu contains these items:

Station Management - Displays the Station Manager dialog box for the Total Station. For details, see the "Adding and Removing Stations" topic.

Go 0 Position - Moves the Total Station to the zero position.

Change Face - Rotates the Total Station head and camera by 180 degrees. The final target position is the same as it was before the command was issued, except that now the optics are inverted.

Find - Locates a target within the field of view of the Total Station camera if possible. This does not work with tape targets.

Power Search - This attempts to locate a target either within a user-defined window if Power Search Window is enabled or a 360-degree search if it is not.

Probe Modes - The items in this submenu control how measurements are taken with the Total Station. There are four different modes:

The various ON/OFF items below are different modes that you can activate when you measure with a Total Station device. Some of these modes are available with all target types, and others are only available with specific target types. A description of each mode and its availability follows:

Compensator ON/OFF - This turns the compensator on or off. The compensator adjusts the measurements taken by the device to level them to the gravity vector calculated on the machine. This can be helpful when all measurements need to be referenced off of the level of the ground.
Availability - All target types.

Laser Pointer ON/OFF - This turns the laser pointer on or off. The laser pointer makes it easier to locate where the Total Station is pointing. It allows you to position the total station close enough to a target that you can issue a Find command to locate and lock-on to the target if lock-in (see "Lock-in ON/OFF" below) is supported for that target type. It can also be used in conjunction with the Point To command to locate points that are identified by a filter applied to the measurement results (see "Move To Point To" above).
Availability - All target types.

ATR ON/OFF - This stands for Automatic Target Recognition. When turned on, the Total Station locates the center of mass of the target closest to the center of the optics and makes a fine adjustment to the position of the Total Station to take more accurate measurements.
Availability - Reflector type measurements only.

Lock-in ON/OFF - When active, the Total Station tracks the movement of the target. This allows the operator to find the target and then pick it up and move it from one measurement location to another without having to go back to the Total Station to complete the next measurement. This is used in conjunction with ATR mode. If Lock-in is turned on, PC-DMIS automatically sets ATR to on as well. This works well with the stable probing measurement mode (see the "Stable Probing" item above).
Availability - Prism target types only.

Power Search Window ON/OFF - The total station can recognize targets within the field-of-view of its optics. This is called Power Search. The Power Search window is a user-specified window or region that defines where the Total Station should search for a target. The window's boundaries can be set using the Machine Options dialog box. If the Power Search window is off, it defaults to a 360-degree search and stops at the first target found.
Availability - Prism target types only.

Target Illumination ON/OFF - This enables or disables the flashing target illumination light. This light is used to help locate a target while looking through the telescope. The light flashes alternately between red and yellow. When looking through the telescope, you can easily see the targets because of the light reflected to the telescope. If the Total Station is locked on a prism and loses that lock, the default action of the machine is to perform a power search to try and relocate the prism, and if one is not found, to turn on the Target Illumination light.
Availability - All target types.

Probe Compensation ON/OFF - The enables or disables the probe compensation. When the probe compensation is "on", PC-DMIS will compensate by the radius of the probe tip or the reflector sphere. During bundle alignment creation, PC-DMIS will automatically activate or deactivate probe compensation as needed when measuring points. See "Total Station Probe Compensation" for more information on probe compensation.

Live Readout ON/OFF - This enables or disables a continual update of the target location on the DRO. Since the Total Station does not send back position updates to PC-DMIS on a regular basis, the standard DRO does not update as do most other devices. This is due to the nature of the communication with the Total Station and the desire to have a responsive interface. However, the Live Readout mode is included if you want to track the location of the target in real time. This is used in conjunction with Lock-in, and PC-DMIS automatically enables the Lock-in mode if it is not already enabled. If you take a measurement while Live Readout mode is enabled, you will notice that the readout update on the DRO pauses. This happens because the measurement mode is momentarily changed to get a precise measurement and then switches back to Live Readout mode.
Availability - Prism target types only.

Insert Total Station Command - When enabled, this mode lets you insert selected Total Station menu items or toolbar items as executable commands into the measurement routine at the cursor's location in the Edit window. This lets you automate repetitive measurements or processes.

Move Feature - This points the total station at a specified feature or at a hit or hits within a feature. Certain dimensions can also be used as inputs to this command. See the "Move Feature (Move To / Point To)" topic for additional information.