Total Station Menu

The Total Station menu contains these items:

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

Go 0 Position - This option moves the Total Station to the zero position.

Change Face - This option rotates the Total Station head and camera by 180 degrees. The final target position is the same as it was before PC-DMIS issued the command, except that now the software inverts the optics.

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

Probe Modes - The items in this submenu control how PC-DMIS takes measurements 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 option 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 you need to reference all measurements off of ground level.
Availability - All target types.

Laser Pointer ON/OFF - This option 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 so that you can issue a Find command to locate and lock-on to the target. Your system must support lock-in (see "Lock-in ON/OFF" below) for that target type. You can also use this option in conjunction with the Point To command to locate points that PC-DMIS identifies by a filter applied to the measurement results (see "Move To Point To" above).
Availability - All target types.

ATR ON/OFF - This option 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 this option is on, the Total Station tracks the movement of the target. This allows you 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. Use this in conjunction with ATR mode. When the Lock-in option is on, PC-DMIS automatically sets ATR to on as well. This works well with the stable probing measurement mode (see "Stable Probing" above).
Availability - Prism target types only.

Power Search Window ON/OFF - Power Search is the ability of a Total Station to recognize targets within the field-of-view (FOV) of its optics. The Power Search window is a user-specified window or region that defines where the Total Station should search for a target. You can set the window's boundaries from 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 option enables or disables the flashing target illumination light. You can use this light to help locate a target while you look through the telescope. The light flashes alternately between red and yellow. When you look through the telescope, you can easily see the targets because of the light reflected to the telescope. When the Total Station loses its lock on a prism, the default action of the machine is to perform a Power Search to try and relocate the prism. If PC-DMIS cannot find a prism, turn on the Target Illumination light.
Availability - All target types.

Probe Compensation ON/OFF - This option enables or disables the probe compensation. When the probe compensation is "on", PC-DMIS compensates by the radius of the probe tip or the reflector sphere. During bundle alignment creation, PC-DMIS automatically activates or deactivates probe compensation as needed when you measure points. See "Total Station Probe Compensation" for more information on probe compensation.

Live Readout ON/OFF - This option 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, PC-DMIS provides the Live Readout mode if you want to track the location of the target in real time. You can use this in conjunction with Lock-in, and PC-DMIS automatically enables the Lock-in mode if it is not already enabled. If you enable Live Readout and take a measurement, you will notice that the readout update on the DRO pauses. This happens because of the momentary change in the measurement mode to get a precise measurement. The software then switches back to Live Readout mode.
Availability - Prism target types only.

Insert Total Station Command - When you enable this option, 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 option points the total station at a specified feature, or at a hit or hits within a feature. You can also use certain dimensions as inputs to this command. See the "Move Feature (Move To / Point To)" topic for additional information.