Operations

SitePin

SitePin by GigOps CAD is an RTK GPS puck that screws onto a survey pole. With the GigOps Company app on your phone, it walks you to each corner of a tent drawn in GigOps CAD, to within a few centimetres, and records every flag you put in. The office sees each corner arrive on the CAD map and on the structures sheet as it happens. SitePin is in the GigOps Company app only, for Company Users who can edit CAD; a seat with view access to CAD can follow progress but not flag. In the app it is under More, Plans, SitePin (in the sidebar on an iPad).

How do I connect a puck?

1. Switch the puck on. To pair a new one, hold the mark button on the pole while switching it on, until the light blinks blue.
2. In the GigOps Company app, open SitePin. The pucks nearby are listed; choose Connect and allow the pairing if the phone asks.
3. Set the pole height: from the ground to the bottom of the puck. It is kept for that puck and saved on every mark.
4. Check the correction source: The company's caster (set in Company settings, below) or a base puck you set up on site.

From then on the status bar shows the satellites, the fix, the accuracy, how old the corrections are and the puck's battery. When new puck firmware is ready, the Connect screen offers Update the puck; keep it close, switched on, and charging or over 30 percent.

How do I open a site?

Choose Open site plan, then the event and the drawing. The plan downloads to the phone, so finding tents and flagging them keeps working with no signal; marks wait on the phone and send themselves when the signal is back (Review and sync shows what is waiting, and Send now sends it). RTK still needs its corrections, which come over the phone's data connection unless you run a base puck (see below). A drawing shows up once someone in the office has calibrated it or made its stake points in GigOps CAD.

How do I calibrate a drawing in the field?

In the app, choose More, Calibration. Stand the pole on each control point the drawing marks, plumb and still; two points tie the drawing down, and three let it check itself. Each point shows how far it sits off the fit. Choose Accept calibration when the points agree. The office can also set or adjust the calibration in GigOps CAD (see below).

How do I flag a tent's four corners?

1. On the plan, tap the tent, or choose Find a tent and search by name or code (for example B4), filtered by layer and by state. Only objects with exactly four corners can be flagged: rectangles, blocks and plots that are not circles, and drawn areas of four points.
2. Start. The app takes the nearest corner first, then goes round the tent the short way, so nobody crosses it.
3. Walk to the corner. Far off, an arrow and the distance. Inside 2 m the phone beeps, faster as you close in; inside 0.5 m the beeps rise in pitch and the phone ticks in your hand.
4. On the point the tone goes steady, the phone gives a strong buzz, the screen turns green and shows the code to write on the flag in large type (for example TENT-B4-NE). The puck's light goes solid green.
5. Push the flag in and press the mark button on the pole, or Mark on the screen (for example Mark NE corner). The app says which corner is flagged and how far it is to the next, and moves on as you walk away.
6. With all four in, the square check compares every side and both diagonals with the drawing: Square to 1 cm, or which corner to re-check.

On the point means RTK Fixed and inside the point's tolerance (5 cm unless the office set another). A Float fix never counts: the tone drops to a low warning, the light goes amber and marking is locked until Fixed comes back, because a Float fix can look close and be a foot out. Use speaker or AirPods; the haptics work with the sound muted, and the tone keeps going with the phone locked in a pocket.

What if I cannot reach a corner?

Choose Skip corner and give the reason (a truck is parked on it); come back to it later from the tent. To redo a corner, choose Redo (Redo NE): the old mark is voided with a reason, never deleted. A skipped corner leaves the sides through it unchecked by the square check.

How do I survey points?

Choose More, Survey points. Stand the pole on the point, plumb and still, then press Capture or the button on the pole. Take a single fix or average 5 or 10 seconds; only RTK Fixed fixes count, and the app warns if the pole moved more than 3 cm while averaging. Name the point (P1, P2 and on by default), pick a layer from the drawing and choose Save point. Surveyed points land on the drawing where they were measured and are listed with the marks in GigOps CAD.

How do I work with no cell signal (base and rover)?

With no signal the phone cannot fetch corrections, so a second puck on a tripod becomes the base and sends its own to the puck on the pole.

1. Screw the second puck onto a tripod over a nail or a paint mark, in open sky, where it can stay all day.
2. In the app, connect to the puck on the tripod, then choose More, Set up a base and Make this puck the base.
3. The first time, choose Survey in a new spot and leave the tripod alone until it finishes (about three minutes). Name the spot so tomorrow's crew can find the nail, and choose Save the spot. On later days set the tripod over the same nail and pick the saved spot: the base takes that position at once, with no survey, so every day's marks agree.
4. Pick how it reaches the pole puck: long-range Wi-Fi, built into every puck, or the 915 MHz radio on a puck that has one fitted. Long-range Wi-Fi is worth trying first; the radio reaches further across a big site and past trucks.
5. Disconnect, then connect to the puck on the pole. The app puts it on the base's link by itself, and the correction status reads, for example, Base by radio, link 96%.

Calibrate the drawing on the base the first time you use a spot; after that the saved spot keeps it right. Marks made on a different source from the one the drawing was calibrated on are flagged, because they can sit a metre or more out. When you are done, choose Make it a rover again to use that puck on a pole.

How does the office follow it in GigOps CAD?

Open the drawing in CAD and choose SitePin in the left panel's Annotate tools. The SitePin panel has three tabs:

• Progress: how many tents are done, part flagged, to do and out of square, then each one with its four corners and what is wrong with it (out of square names the corner to check). Tap a tent to see it on the plan. Select shapes and choose Corners for the selection to make their stake points; after moving shapes, save and choose Refresh stake points, and the points follow their shapes. A stake point whose shape was deleted is listed so you can delete it.
• Calibration: choose Calibrate (or Change the calibration), then for each control point choose Pick, tap where it is on the drawing, and type its latitude, longitude and height, or use Import CSV for a file of name, latitude, longitude and height. Each point shows how far it sits off the fit, with any warnings, before you Save calibration. Marks worked out under an older calibration are counted, with Work them out again.
• Marks: every mark from the field with its offset from the design and any flags (not Fixed, low accuracy, out of tolerance, a different correction source). Tap one to see it on the plan. Void a wrong mark with a reason; it stays on record, and Show voided lists it. CSV downloads every mark; DXF downloads them as points on a layer of their own for the surveyor's records.

While the panel is open the plan shows each corner, an arrow for each mark's offset and the control points, and it updates as marks come in from the field. Printing with the panel open puts them on the print.

Where does flagging show on the structures sheet?

On the sheet's first tab and on All columns, a Flagging column shows each structure whose shape has stake points: Not started, Flagged 3 of 4, 1 corner skipped, Done, Done, square, or Done, out of square by 4 cm (in amber). It updates by itself as marks come in from the field. A structure whose shape has no stake points yet is left blank, and the column only appears once at least one has them. Without a calibration the square check cannot run, so a finished tent reads Done.

How do I set the correction source and see our pucks?

Open the avatar menu, choose Company settings, then SitePin settings under SitePin.

• Correction source (Company Admins only): the NTRIP caster the phone pulls RTK corrections from and passes to the puck, for example your state's CORS network or RTK2go. Enter the caster's host, port (2101 unless told otherwise), mountpoint, username and password, and choose Save correction source. The password is never shown again: the page says a password is saved, and typing a new one replaces it. Every mark records the source it was made on.
• Pucks: the pucks out with your company, with their name, serial, firmware, battery, when each was last seen and whether it is still out with you. A puck appears once the GigOps Company app connects to it. Choose Rename to give one a name the team will recognise (Pole 1, Base). Tick Show returned pucks to see the ones that have gone back, for the history of their marks.