Trimble/TerraSync Background Files

[HLove]

I'm using a GeoXH, GeoExplorer 6000 Series with TerraSync 5.3 and I've found some buggy/tricky things surrounding the use of background files I'd like to share with anyone who may hit the same issues:

>When you georectify an image, the world file associated with the raster will have a file extension that four characters long and ends in an x-- in order for TerraSync to locate it change the file extension to not include the x and only be three characters long. I don't know why this is, but otherwise the Data Transfer program will not identify the world file.

> Do NOT try to upload a background file that has transparent sections!!! It will cause TerraSync to crash. The only way I could find to delete the file and get TerraSync to cease from crashing was to drill down through the File Explorer on the GeoXH to:
MyDevice/MyDocuments/TerraSync
and delete the file with transparent sections. I thought this would be a clever way to view two background images laid over one another, but it was only a clever way to cause the system to crash.

Any other experinces related to these or outcomes different than these I'd love to hear about-- post on the thread!

 

[JoeB]

Thanks for the info, HLove!
I am using the same setup - GeoXH 6000 Series w/ TerraSync (now on v5.7). We use ESRI ArcGIS 10.3 software for the GIS at our District, FYI.

A workaround for your transparency issues I am using: I am displaying our parcel polygon layer over the top of our aerial photography basemap. I exported a very simple shapefile of our parcel polygons, without labels. I transfered this shapefile as a background file instead of as data (resulting in a smaller, quicker file as there are no attributes). I then move the shapefile to the top of the checked list above the aerial raster in TerraSync's background list. It displays pretty quickly except when zoomed way out and the lines become a big dense blob.

If you needed parcel info, you could probably make labels and then flatten them as part of a line feature class with the parcel lines, then export this as a shapefile. But I have not tried it.

 

[JoeB]

Does anyone know what format background raster the Trimble/TerraSync units process the fastest?


Our district has recently had new Orthophotography flown and we are in the final stages of wrapping up the project. I am in the process of updating the background imagery we use on our GeoXH units and am requesting changes from our contractor as needed.


We previously used MrSID files that were about 114 MB in size: 3 band, 8 bit, with Wavelet (MG3) compression; 1sqft/pixel resolution. It would take about 3 seconds to zoom and pan in TerraSync while using this background file.


The new imagery was flown with a resolution of 3” per pixel. The contractor was having some difficulty generating a MrSID file from the mosaic of all of their TIFF tiles. As a test, they have mosaic’d a JPEG 2000 file and compressed it down to about 108 MB. I loaded this file, and it looks good but is extremely slow to update in TerraSync (takes about 15 seconds after every pan/zoom).


What is the best (quickest to respond) raster compression format to use in TerraSync on these GeoXH 6000s? What file size should I shoot for? I will see if I can get the contractor to deliver a file in this format.


If it is MrSID, any software resources to perform the mosaic/conversion from the full resolution TIFFs they are delivering?

 

[JoeB]

California Surveying and Drafting Supply tech support had the following to say:


"I’m not sure about the compression format, but you want to limit your background files to 10 MB or less. Windows Embedded Handheld (WEHH) – the mobile operating system on Trimble devices – only allocates a small amount of the RAM available to each program, including TerraSync. Unfortunately, this amount of RAM is usually much smaller than the available amount, but this is Microsoft’s fault, not Trimble’s.


In the past, Trimble has recommended that you break up the background files and only enable the portion you need to view."