ComEasy, a new tool for the total station

Since ArcheOS 4 we added to the distro the open source software Total Open Station (in order to handle the process of downloading and converting raw data from our instruments) and I have to say that I still use the tool very often to turn Trimble .are file into .csv format, even if sometimes I experienced difficulties in connecting the hardware to my PC. For this reason I tried some alternatives and today I want to write about one of these software.
Its name is ComEasy and it is developed by Dr. Zoltàn Siki (aka zsiki) of the Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BUTE). To test the software I simply downloaded the source code from the repository, but I had to modify the file "maincom_easy.tcl" in order to make it work under a Debian derived distribution like ArcheOS 6 Hypathia (as you see in the image below).

The small modification of the source code

Once I changed the Tcl interpreter (from Prowish to Wish), the software worked perfectly and I tested it with a Spectra Precision Focus 10 instrument. Until now I never experienced connection problems, so I recorded I short videotutorial to illustrate how the software work and I plan to add it to ArcheOS Hypatia suite to work with total stations, (together with Total Open Station, of course).
Here below is the short videotutorial I did.

I hope it is useful. Have a nice day!

Webography

ArcheOS 4 Caesar: ATOR post 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 

ArcheOS 6 Hypathia: ATOR post 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 

ComEasy: GitHub repo; 

Total Open Station: official site; GitHub repo; ATOR post;

Bibliography

ArcheOS 4: "ArcheOS 4.0 - "Caesar": novità e aspetti della distribuzione GNU/Linux dedicata all'archeologia" (here in ResearchGate, here in Academia)

File conversion with TOPS (Total Open Station)

HI all,

today I had to convert some raw total station data from Trimble file format (.are) into something simpler and more readable, like a csv file (Comma Separated Value), in order to further process my points and load them inside a GIS. To perform this operation I used a specific software which you can find in ArcheOS: Total Open Station. 

This tool is developed by +Stefano Costa and Luca Bianconi. Here you can find the official website.
I record a short videotutorial about the file conversion. You can see it in the video below.

As usual, I uploaded it also in the Digital Archaeological Documentation Project of Innsbruck University. Here is the direct link.
I hope it will be useful.
Have a nice day!

Photomapping with Quantum GIS (Khovle method)

Hi everybody
Together with Alexamder Sachsenmaier and Alesandro Bezzi i found out a method to create a photomosaic just with QGIS. The problem was to export the single pictures in a good quality and in the size of the whole photomosaic not just the size of the single picture. But this works fine with the print composer of QGIS
So shortly:
1. edith the file of the ground control points to a .csv file
2. import the .csv file into QGIS (plugin is requiered)
3. change the design of the points
4. start the print composer and export the model with the points. Here its possible to set the dpi: e.g. for an area of 3x2m 500dpi gives a resolution of more or less 1mm
5. start the georeferencing plugin of QGIS and georeference the model
6. to export the wordfile from the geotiff of the model, type the following in the terminal
gdal_translate -co "TFW=YES" input_geotif.tif output_tif_tfw.tif
or open the model in OpenJUMP and close it again
7. georeference all the single pictures with QGIS
8. start the same print composer like the one for the model and export all single picures (dont move the pictures)
9. open the model in GIMP and import all single pictures as single layers
10. give the same name to the wordfile of the model and the photomosaic
Alessandro allready maked a videotutorial:

So, I hope this is helpful for somebody...