Level Curves from GPS Data

Diego Mitre · Mar 6, 2018

Hey guys,
I'm working on designing an irrigation system for my farm and height differences are crucial for the calculations.
I would love your suggestions on first what GPS to purchase it doesn't need to be milimetrical but should have a fair amount of precision without digging a hole in my pocket.
Secondly I need a suggestion o what software I could purchase to make the curves (Contour Map) and export them to google earth and/or autocad. The more user friendly the better. I currently have autoCAD LT 2015 and I don't really know how to use it.

I recently heard of trackmaker, does any of you have any experience with tis software? suggestions?

Nuvi-Nebie · Mar 6, 2018

I'm not sure what level of accuracy you are looking for, but I don't think GPS is going to be useful, you have to remember that any accuracy figures you may be given for a GPS don't apply to altitude, ( height above sea level), because all GPS devices are roughly twice as inaccurate on altitude as they are for Latitude / Longitude figures. It is possible to use GPS to generate contour lines, but you would really need a professional surveying GPS, which will cost a few thousand dollars

In order to overcome the inaccuracies of hand held GPSs, some units also have an additional way to determin altitude e.g. an in-built barometric altimeter, your best bet is to purchase one if these GPSs, e.g. the Garmin GPSmap 62s and the GPSmap64s have this feature

Diego Mitre · Mar 7, 2018

@

Nuvi-Nebie said:

I'm not sure what level of accuracy you are looking for, but I don't think GPS is going to be useful, you have to remember that any accuracy figures you may be given for a GPS don't apply to altitude, ( height above sea level), because all GPS devices are roughly twice as inaccurate on altitude as they are for Latitude / Longitude figures. It is possible to use GPS to generate contour lines, but you would really need a professional surveying GPS, which will cost a few thousand dollars

In order to overcome the inaccuracies of hand held GPSs, some units also have an additional way to determin altitude e.g. an in-built barometric altimeter, your best bet is to purchase one if these GPSs, e.g. the Garmin GPSmap 62s and the GPSmap64s have this feature
Click to expand...

Yes the idea is to get a GPS with an in-built barometric altimeter. I'm hoping the gps can detect 1 meter differences. Any ideas on what software I can use.

Nuvi-Nebie · Mar 8, 2018

The contour lines could be drawn as Tracks on the free to download Garmin Basecamp and then exported as a *.GPX file or a *.KML file for Google Earth

Level Curves from GPS Data

Diego Mitre

Nuvi-Nebie Moderator

Diego Mitre

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Level Curves from GPS Data

Diego Mitre

Nuvi-Nebie Moderator

Diego Mitre

Nuvi-Nebie Moderator

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

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