What is surveying software? Which are the best quantity and land surveying systems for engineers, architects and quantity surveyors in 2011? Can a building contractor find a free or open source surveying tool from Internet?
This article will try to give architectural and engineering professionals simple answers for these questions and provide an easy to use guide for choosing a good surveying solution.
In this article, a surveying software application is not a web-based online survey questionnaire program for market research and customer satisfaction investigation. It is a kind of computerized mapping solution for land surveyors or estimating tool for quantity surveyors.
Best Quantity and Land Surveying Software Tools Comparison and Reviews
There are two types of surveying software solutions available for architectural and engineering projects management in Internet. The first type is quantity surveying software that can help a quantity surveyor calculate and estimate the costs of a construction or civil engineering project.
For example, Q Script is Microsoft Windows-based survey software that integrates the functional modules of cost planning, pre-contract preparation, post-contract management, and price book. The pre-contract module is actually a quantity surveying tool for measurement, estimating, bill production and pricing. With other three modules, Q Script provides a fully-featured solution for quantity surveyors.
The second type is land surveying software for land surveyors. For example, Micro Survey provides an AutoCAD-based land surveying tool that includes the functional modules of COGO, DTM, and design. It also provides a professional solution for seismic surveying.
Some of the top surveying programs provide integrated solutions for both land and quantity survey. For example, Snape Vector is surveying software for professional quantity surveyors. But it also provides a CAD measurement module that has the basic functions of land survey.
A user can also find a few other wonderful commercial surveying solutions in Internet. Most of them provide free trials or free demos. Please try and compare them before making a right decision.
Free and Open Source Surveying Software Systems
A professional quantity or land survey software program could cost a few hundreds US dollars. Sometimes it could be too expensive for a small project contractor who is looking for a cheaper solution.
Unfortunately there is no any fully-featured land or quantity surveying freeware in the industry. A user may have to choose other alternatives like a free or open source CAD software program for doing parts of his or her surveying jobs. But this will not be an easy task.
Chen Nanyang - Chen Nanyang's journalist career began in 2002 when he started writing for China's Nanfang City News, Singapore's United Morning Post and ...
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