Surveying with Emlid Flow & Emlid Flow 360: field-to-office demo
Hi everybody! My name is Julia and I'm an application engineer at Emlid. Today we're going to check what features we have in our software Emlid Flow and Emlid Flow 360. We're going to check the features themselves, how you can use them, and in which workflows they are handy. We're going to work as I mentioned with Emlid Flow and Emlid Flow 360, our cloud-based app. You can see it on the left side of the screen. Now it's time to get prepared for your fieldwork, import the data, and to work with the results, so once the fieldwork is done, you can export the files from here and save them directly to a laptop. We're also going to use
our mobile app of course Emlid Flow. It's available for Android and iOS. The app covers basically two main tasks. The first one is the configuration of the receiver, when you configure it as a base or the rover, configure GNSS settings, use it to record raw data logs for PPK. And the second main task is of course data collection. And today we're going to
focus specifically on it. So we're going to mostly collect the data, check the features that we have for it and use cases of course. How the apps are connected for that. We have our Emlid account, so now I'm logged into my account in both apps and, yes, once I collect the data or import the data in one of the apps, it gets synced and appears in another one too. So okay let's
begin I think. And we will begin in Emlid Flow 360. So let's create a new project here. We can call it Demo. And yeah, here we come to the first feature we're going to discuss. So here we're going to use a code library, why codes are needed, and what this is all about. Codes are helpful for topographic surveys when you want to define and specify what type of object you're collecting.
Whether it's a fence, a building corner, or a pavement, for example. Default options for code libraries. There are two of them. First one is point/lines, so here you see only point and line. Well, this one is not about typographic survey, it's not about adding some additional information. It's just about distinguishing whether you collect a point or a line. And we also have a default option with the Emlid library. It contains 100 most popular codes for topographic surveys, so you can also choose it. And we're going to use it today in our project. But let me also talk about one more option that we have here. You can see a custom one. It's a spoiler. So if you are used to
working with some custom codes that are convenient and handy for your project, you can add a custom code library here. You just add a name for it. Okay, let me name it My library. And after you do that, you have an option to import a CSV file with the codes you want to use. Here we also have an example, so you can see in what format the CSV file should be to have it all displayed properly. But again for today let's just use the Emlid library and let's proceed. Our next option going to be choosing a coordinate system. And here we also have options. The first one is just to use
a coordinate system from our registry so here you can use either the name of the coordinate system, the name of your country, or EPSG codes to find the right one. Our prepared project for today is for Switzerland, so I'm going to just write it. My project is just in the UTM projection, so I just chose it. And here I can choose the height I want to work with. Let's apply it. Let's talk about other options that we have. So apart from choosing the coordinate system from the registry, you can also use the Global option. This one is about working with the geographic coordinates only. So when you don't have any transformation, you just work with the
latitude, longitude, and height, no projections, and transformation. The last option here is using a custom coordinate system. So what is available here. Technically it covers two workflows. The first one is when you work with some local coordinate system, and you know its parameters of transformation. So then you can just specify them here, just add all the parameters, save this coordinate system, and it will be stored in your account. So you'll be
able to use it for all future projects. Another option may be to work with localization. And we're going to try it in the field soon. But this one, let me just add a short note on this one. It's about the case when you don't know the parameters of this coordinate system, but you still have a local one, and you have some points with known coordinates in this coordinate system, so you define the coordinate system by the points in it. We're going to try it soon. So, yes, just to note that once you also do localization, the coordinate system, the parameters of it will be stored here, and you will be able to apply it to the new projects. Today we chose the coordinate system from our registry, so we're good to proceed. What else we have here. The linear
units. Here you can choose feet, if you'd like to work with them. We're going to stick to meters today. And there's also a setting for angles, so you can display them either in decimal degrees or in degrees, minutes, and seconds. I use degrees and milliseconds. If you want to adjust it, just do this in the preference, it will be applied to all the projects you have. So let's go o. And now we
have our new project. For now, it's empty, we didn't add anything here yet, but let's fix it. Now to import the data to the project, you just hit Import, and you choose the format of the file you want to import. We support CSV, DXF, Shapefile, and KML. My prepared file is in CSV, so I'm going to use it. And let's open it. So now you can see the data loaded and you can also see it actually in the Emlid Flow. Now okay we have different backgrounds. We're going to talk about the background soon. But once I loaded the data in Emlid Fow 360, it also appears in Emlid Flow. And technically I'd say that I'm already good to go and proceed with surveying. But let's
check a few more features, a few more options we can do in this preparation stage. So one more thing we're going to work today with is surfaces. Let's also import it. We just go to Import and choose the surface file. We support surfaces in LandXML format. Choose the surface, and voila, now we have our surface. I bet it's also already synced to Emlid Flow. But we also need to activate it manually. Yeah, not very good. Okay, yes. What else can we do in the preparation stage? If needed, you can add points manually. So to add a point, you can choose a code you want to use for it.
For example, let It be Anchor, and yes, here specify the coordinates of this known point. You have local or global ones, it's up to you. The ones you have. One more thing you can do is add a line oк polygon. Just draw some geometry. For example, I want to connect these two points and draw a line. I just choose them and save them. Oh no, let's check it this way. Let's choose three points. And here you see that when you choose three points, you can either leave it as a line or make it a closed line, so make it a polygon here. This is how I save it. And if needed, all the data can be
adjusted before I start to work. You can see it's all already in Emllid Flow. Already good to good for measurements. If I have the opposite goal, so I want to remove some geometry, I just hit it here. Oh sorry, Delete. Now I need to choose the line. And when I delete it, I have two options to keep a point or delete everything. So deleting everything
will remove the polygon completely. Keeping points will allow me to save the points themselves, just remove this polygon. Okay let's check one more thing and we will go to the field. It's layers. So by default, you usually have just this regular map. So this one is not accurate, it's just an approximate map, but it can help you navigate. So it can help you understand what happens around you. A convenient satellite map is sometimes a bit more detailed. So you can also switch to it and work with the satellite map. You can see that it can be configured both
in Emlid Flow 360 and Emlid Flow to your convenience. But both these layers are approximate. If you want to work with more accurate data, you can add a WMS layer. So here I'm just going to use the previously added one. But overall, to work with the WMS layer, you need to have a link to the
WMS service. And then once you access it, you can choose the right layer, the one you want to work with. Just one layer I found that can be used. Let's choose it. Okay, for example, this one. Once it's set, you can also apply it to a project, and yeah, I saw it even faster in Emlid Flow. Okay, by default, it's not much fun. This one is
a layer with different segments for Switzerland. You can configure it for the layer here. So choose the opacity, how transparent the layer should be for you I can keep it like this. But overall of course, working with the WMS layers it's not only about this kind of map. So it may be any information you want to display in the background.
It may be a utilities map. It may be I don't know, any additional drawing. It may be an orthophoto, for example from your previous drone flight. For example, a drone mission and orthophotos can be converted to the WMS layer, and then you just add it here. Okay, this one layer. Let's just disable it for now, and let's move to the field. Okay and let's check one more feature before moving to the field. Okay, two features. The first one is that you can adjust the coordinate system of your project, if needed. So for example, if you by accident
chose the wrong UTM zone, you can change it here. And all the points will be recalculated to a proper UTM zone. And one more feature I wanted to show you is NTRIP profiles. So here, in the Profile settings. Technically I think we discussed everything already. Coordinate systems that you've added manually. Map layers, I mean WMS layers that we work with. Code libraries. And finally NTRIP profiles. So NTRIP profiles are needed for NTRIP connection. For connection to get corrections from the NTRIP service. You need to use credentials. Yes, it may be really
convenient to add them here, directly in Flow 360. You can copy and paste it. I have credentials for our Emlid Caster that we can use. Okay, let me call it just NTRIP. It's going to be Caster.emlid.com. And the password. I also need to choose Mount Point. Okay let me choose this one. Then I can save it. Once I saved it in my account, they also appear here, on the phone. Now I can use it for my NTRIP connection to get corrections, to get a fix.
It's just I'd say simpler this way with Flow 360. But now let's finally move to the field. For that I'm going to use the phone I have here. I'm using a demo mode here, so the unit has a fixed solution, even though well we are here. Because it's a virtual receiver, it's really good for demo. So that I don't need to go outdoors and record it all there. What we going to check
first? First, we're going to check two features which are technically still on the preparation stage. It's base shift and localization. A few words about the base shift. So shift is needed when it's not really convenient for you to place the base on the point with the coordinates you know. So you want to place it in some different location. For example, you have a point that is located close to the tree, so the sky view there is still good, but it's not really gracious. It's not perfect for the base placement. In this case, you can place the base in the area with
better environmental conditions. And this point, just measure it with your rover connected to this place base. So let's look through the steps and let me check. The project should be here. Let's say we are working here. So what we have here. You see two points. They're
prepared for the base shift. We have a known position of the benchmark, so it's a benchmark with known coordinates. Let's say that the sky view there is slightly obstructed. So instead I place my base in a good location and I average single at the position, I connect my rover to it and then go and measure this point As a result I get a point that is different from the point with no coordinates, because my base was placed in single. So what do I do next? I do
a base shift. To apply base shift, we just go to this window for our project and choose Base shift here. We will need to choose the measured point. So it's our measurement with our rover of the point with known coordinates. The known point is going to be the loaded coordinates of this benchmark. We can use for the reference here. Now we have calculated shift and can apply it to the project. All the data that is going to be collected after the base shift applied will be shifted. It will allow us to keep the accuracy to centimeter, so have it all absolutely accurate.
Even though our base is placed in a location with unknown position. Please be careful that the base shift is not moving your previously collected data. It only affects all future measurements. One more feature we're going to check. Let's disable the base shift. One more feature we're going to check is localization. And as I mentioned a bit earlier, localization is helpful when you want to work with some arbitrary coordinate system and you don't have its parameters. You just have some points with known coordinates in this coordinate system. It may be for example the coordinate system of your construction site. How to do localization? You need to place your base, connect your rover to the base and measure the points for which you know the coordinates in this coordinate system you'd like to work with. In my case,
I have three measured points. And what I need to do now is to create pairs. I already have imported the points with known coordinates. Here we go again to the project screen, choose project localization, and here add pairs of control points. So it's like points in the
coordinate system we want to work with. It's going to be this one. And measured points. I named them accordingly. So that not get confused, we have 62 One more there. And it's going to be 67 here. Today I use just three points to shorten our demo, but overall we recommend to use five points or from 5 to 10. Once you've added the pairs of points, you can see the residuals for them. You can also choose to remove some of the parameters, like remove from the calculations. You will also see the estimated accuracy for the whole localization. You can preview the results,
the calculated parameters, and you can apply it. Let's do so. Localization actually moves everything that you have in the project accordingly, so recalculates all the points. You can also save it as I mentioned before. Let's just name it Localization. Now this coordinate system will also be stored in my account, and I can use it for my future projects as well. Now you can see that the drawing that I had previously moved
here, and the whole project got recalculated. Okay, that's it with the localization. Let's move to the project we've prepared to check more features for data collection. We will start with this simple data collection. When you want to collect a point, you just tap on plus here. You can check right here the height of the rover.
Just make sure that it's correct. If needed, adjust it. For me, it's 1.8 m here. You also see the precision values and the coordinates that you have currently for your rover. To collect the point, just choose the right code. Let's say, it's an anchor. And tap Save. So now we have the point collected. Let's check the settings that we have here. The first one is just an option to collect the points only when you have a fixed solution. I really recommend you use it. It'll help you to make sure that all the data is collected with a fix. Here you also have a Precision limit.
You can specify here the tolerance for your point collection. For example, here I can specify it for 5 cm and save it. Now if I have the precision values higher than 5 cm I just won't be able to collect the data. The app will wait till the values actually get within this tolerance. Let's check what else we have here. Now the collect mode is
set as instant. You can see it here. Which means I just hit the Save button and the data is collected. We also have averaging. During the point collection, you will see a timer for a specified time. So it may be recommended option just to average the position for a few seconds.
We also have an autocollection option here. Good, so we checked how to collect the points. Let's also check how to stake them out. Stakeout is helpful when you know the coordinates of the point, and you need to find where it's actually located on Earth. For that, you just choose the point you want to work with and hit Stake out. That's what you're going to see.
You will see the distance to the point you're searching for on Earth. You're staking out. There are two modes for a stakeout. The first one allows you to see the North/East and Fill/Cut values. But you can also hit this button. And switch to the mode for staking out by Direction where you see again Cut/Fill values and Asimuth. So it can also be used for stakeout. One more option that we have here
is measuring in stakeout. It's convenient when you do an as-built survey. For example, you have a project and you need to see how the final result matches the project. So you just start staking out the point from the project and collect it when you get its actual position. Then you do this measurement in stakeout mode. Okay we set the timer, so let's average it for a few seconds. As a result, you get this staked-out point. Let me move a bit. You will see this flag that this point is staked out. When you check the
details for this point, you will also see apart from its coordinates, of course, the Deltas. They show how this position is located in comparison to the original point we were staking out. Good. I think we're good with the points. And now we can proceed with the lines. We've checked how to work with the point, now let's proceed with the line. To work with the line,
I need to choose the code. It was Building, let's choose a Bridge, for example. Well, the process will be really similar to the point collection. Let's remove the timer though. Okay, so I just go and collect the points for my line and get a line. If I want to start a new line, I just click here, and now I can proceed with a new line. Here you can also see an option to collect from the other side if you'd like.
Let's collect one more point here. I can also close it and make it a polygon. This is it about the line collection. Let's also check the stakeout for line. So to stake out the line, it's also similar to the point stakeout. You just choose the line. You can choose it by tapping on the screen or from the list of objects. Just choose it, and it's staked out. But the options for stakeout here will be a little bit different. So first of all you can see there are two modes: To line and Along line. So To line stakeout is really similar to the point stakeout. It just helps you to find
the line in space where it is. You will see the values. Okay, in my case, now it's North/West, but of course, it can be South/East too, and Cut/Fill values. If I switch to the Along line mode, here I'll see a bit more information with the different parameters of the line. So you can see the offset. Offset is the length of the perpendicular to the line or it's extended version. So you can see if I move here, the line is just extended. And I still see this offset to it. Or I can get closer, and the offset will also be less.
And the values you can see here are the distances to the beginning or to the end of the line. So to A or to B, you can switch between them. Here in the upper part of the screen. And this one value is the measurement along the line. So you see this blue part, the line itself. You can also switch between different segments of the line and work with them separately. Again just monitor the offset, check the distance to the beginning or to the end if needed. That was the line stakeout. Let's check a few more features and proceed with the surfaces. So what we also have here, it's
Inverse and Traverse. You can find them here. When and why are they needed, and how to work with them? Inverse helps you to check the parameters of the geometry when it already exists. For example, I want to check the distance from this point to this line. So I just choose them here and the data about it is here. The direction, the slope distance, height difference - all specified. If I choose more than two points, I choose, for example, also this one, you can see that not only the information about the distance, not only the perimeter is here. But also, it's more fair to say,
you see here the separate information about the line itself, but it's also closed, and app automatically shows you information about the area and the perimeter as if it was a polygon. You can also switch between different segments of the line and check information for them separately. Okay, one more feature that we have here is a Traverse. And Traverse at some point is opposite to Inverse. So Traverse is about creating a new geometry when you know it's
parameters. For example, I want to draw a square from this point. I choose the start point, then I choose the distance. Let's say, I want my square to be with 5 m side. Then I choose the direction. Let's say I want one of these sides to go directly to the north. And height difference. Let's say it's going to be 1 m. Here you will see the preview for it, and you can save it here. Choose a code for it. And it's saved now. So now I have a new point,
and I can proceed with the Traverse actually from it. To build my square this time the direction going to be 90. And let's say, I want actually to have the height difference negative. Let's save it. The code again, let's call it anchor. Save. Okay, no I think I need to change it. Let's add one more vertical here. It's going to be 18. Again 1 meter. Done, save it.
And let's check what we have in the result. Here is our square. Let's quickly use Inverse to check the area of it, for example. All good, 25 square meters, okay. This feature is available in Emlid Flow, but it's also available in Emlid Flow 360. So of course, you can work with it there as well after field work.
I think we've checked everything in the field and we can get back to the office to check how we can export our data. So now let's imagine we get back to the office. Open our Emlid Flow 360. You can see that all the things we've done in Flow is in our account and synced. So you can see the square that we've built here, all the data, all the measurements are here. To export them, you just hit Export. Then you need to choose the format for the export files. We support the formats CSV, DXF, KML, and Shapefile. For CSV, you can actually customize the file. Choose whether you want to
keep header or not, what you want to use for a separator, choose what columns to export. And for the columns, what order do you want to keep them in. Let's just save it and export. What else. The stakeout reports. So today we also checked working with
collection of the point in stakeout mode. Remember when we check the deltas for the point> So here you can also generate a stakeout report where you will keep all the measured points, staked-out points, and the deltas between them. We've tried two collection modes directly in the app using the demo mode on the phone in Emlid Flow. Let's check also autocollection feature. But for that, it's a
little bit tricky with the demo mode because you need to move. So let's just check it on the video. So here you can see that we access the same menu, choose the autocollection mode here. You can use it by time or by distance. Specify the interval. Here it's 1 meter. And now we start moving. So
what happens here is every time you reach one meter from the previously collected point, a new point is collected. You can also see the progress of the data collection. Like how close you are to one meter distance now. Well, this is what it looked like. Let's also check it for the time. So here you can choose the time interval, for example, we will use 10-second intervals. Let's choose a line. Lines can also be collected this way. Again start the data collection. Once we start moving, the timer starts. And now every time you reach 10 seconds from the previously
collected point, again the new point is collected. So you're going to keep collecting the data this way till you stop it. Okay, let's wait for this one more point. This is how autocollection works. To work with the surface, let's also move to our videos. You can see different statuses for surfaces. The first thing is just to make the Surface visible and activated in the app. Now we choose the surface and hit Stake out.
What you can see. The first status you can see it's out of surface. So when the rover is not in the area covered by surface, you will see this. Once you get to the area covered by surface, you will see cut or fill value. You can see both of them when you get to the surface. So it's like you're on the surface, this value becomes green. That means you're within the tolerance, you're on the surface. This one is mostly practical for earthwork, so when you have a construction material and you need to understand whether you need to cut and fill. Well, cut and fill values are here. Now let's check one more video.
How you can work directly with the surface in the app. How to stake out and check cut and fill values, but also work with the points and lines on the surface. For that, the points and lines which are located in the area covered by the surface, you just choose them and hit Stake out. Now you will see not only the values you saw in the regular Stake out, but cut and fill values, as if this line or point was located on the surface. You can proceed with a regular stakeout and that's it for today. Thank you very much for watching me today.
We covered most of the features that we have for data collection both in Emlid Flow mobile app and Emlid Flow 360 cloud-based app. You can try yourself everything for that. Just follow the link we leave in the description to start a trial or subscribe and get the app. Thank you once again and see you next time.
2024-12-30 23:14
