(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai - Go Unlimited to remove this message)

Welcome everybody out to podcast number 1054. In this podcast, we're going to continue the builder and field engineering series. Stay with us.

Welcome everyone. I hope you're doing well and I hope you're ready to have a great week. I'm going to catch up on two podcasts here and see if we can finish strong.

So we're on step number 16. We already talked about setting up your total station and your data collector. So let's go from 17 on and see how we go and see if we can finish this up.

Okay, so if you're a field engineer or builder, the 16th step is to set up a testing and calibration schedule and follow it. So hopefully you already have your testing area that was step number 13. What you want to do is do this kind of like project teams want to do permitting.

Set yourself up a schedule, have it be a part of your leader standard work and follow, follow, follow the plan that comes with your, or sorry, that's going to apply to your, your tribrax, your automatic levels, the servicing that you will give to the total stations, meaning you'll take it in to get serviced and calibrated and cleaned and any other piece of equipment on the project site. And that will make sure that you don't end up having nasty out of calibration equipment for when you're doing work. The other thing it's going to do is make sure that you have really, really good solid habits and that you're following those habits as you go, which will shape the rest of your career.

Number 17, get your computer and applications ready. I really, really like this. If you're, so one of the best benefits of being a field engineer or an entry level builder is having the time to learn the tools and learn the applications.

So if you don't have, if you, oh, well, this is a good one. A lot of companies have made the decision, you know, hey, let's just give you an iPad and not a computer. That is a, that is a mistake.

You will, if you're on a construction project, you will 100% need the computer. Now, if you need an iPad separately, that's totally fine. Don't have any problem with that.

But it's never just the tablet or just the iPad. Okay. I can't tell you. 

So actually there's so many barricades to, for companies to actually let builders be builders and to train as builders. And I've actually had a couple of situations where the company was into it. One of the training was, was willing to give the people the opportunity.

But then the question was, you know, Hey, do you have your computers to go do the work? And the answer was no, we only do iPads. And it would take an act of Congress to go ahead and get, get computers as well. So we can't do this work. 

It was really quite tragic. So if you are a builder, make sure you have your computer and that you have applications on there. The basics, and I'll talk about AutoCAD and Revit in a minute, but AutoCAD, Revit, Google Sketchup, if you need it, you're definitely going to need WhatsApp on your phone and your computer.

You will want to entertain having Canva, Excel, or the whole office suite would be really awesome. Whatever project management software that you have available. And then eventually you're going to want to use Miro, but basically get that computer, get it secure, get it maintained so you can go do your work.

All right. Step number 18, learn and set up AutoCAD. So this is huge. 

You can learn AutoCAD by paying for professional training videos. You can do it through LinkedIn learning, which is pretty easy. So either, however you do it, I highly recommend that you learn how to utilize the basic commands, basic functions on Lean Survey, the YouTube channel.

Brandon Montero has some, some AutoCAD civil 3D lessons for how to do the basics of CAD work for your surveying activities. So however you do it, go ahead and learn that because you're going to need it when you're setting up your primary and secondary control plans, when you're overlaying your traverse and when you're entering in new data. I was with a Hensel Phelps team just the other day, and you already know that there's a real deal when it comes to field engineering.

I was working with them and I was encouraging them to finalize their primary and secondary control plans. And they hopped right into AutoCAD and started doing their work. It was a beautiful thing.

Step number 19, read the remaining sections of the field engineering methods manual. Now, this is a big one. If you're going to have field engineering teams, they've got to be able to know what they're doing.

So actually, the other day when I was consulting on that field engineering group, I literally wrote down the chapters that they were going to have to read and understand before they went too much farther. I already suggested reading chapters one through eight, but you're going to have to read the rest of the field engineering methods manual if you really, really, really want to be successful with all of the survey and control techniques. Step number 20, and this is where we get into the really detailed steps of what you're going to do as a field engineer.

Now you're pretty much set up. You're going to reconcile the basis of bearings, design benchmark, and find coordinate locations for the building. So here's what you're going to do. 

You're going to go find basically where your site was surveyed from, the basis of bearings, which was the basis to find the direction or the orientation and the distances of things on your as-built site, and the design benchmark, which is the benchmark that was used to design your project. You will find them, and you will find the building coordinates. And you're going to do this because later on you're actually going to survey them and compare them together.

So you'll want to crack out your civil drawings on your plans, get the right information, trace it, make sure that you're 100% good to go, and begin immediately understanding how your project was laid out and from where. Okay, so we're on a good path now. 21. 

You're about to head out into the field because now that you have your basis of bearings, your design benchmark, and you have coordinate locations, you're going to head out in the field and start to survey them. So you need to create your job hazard analysis or your activity hazard analysis to make sure that you are ready to go out in the field and do your work and to possibly interact with any city streets, freeways, any public, right? Make sure that you're really, really good to go and get that signed off because step number 22, you're going to go out and survey your basis of bearings. And what this is going to entail is you checking the two points on the basis of bearings and make sure that the distance aligns and you'll either shoot over to your property lines or you will begin to do a traverse around the site.

The second thing that you'll do is you will survey to the design benchmark and start verifying the property corners again or existing elevations, or you will start it as a level loop that goes through your primary control on site. Either way, you're going to attach over to it. And this is the reason step number 23 is you want to design your primary control points, which means the points that are permanent that surround your job site and are used for to basically orient and control the entire project.

And so what you'll want to do is design where you want those points. Now, if you are going to survey your basis of bearings step number 22 in relation to your actually primary control points, then obviously you would design and install them before step number 22. But either way, hopefully you're tied into your basis of bearings in your design benchmark and you know where you want your primary control points and you actually have that in the field.

And the reason is because you will want to traverse your primary control. So the traversing is basically where you set up on each of the points and you take distances and angles in a very precise manner. We do have videos on this if you want help and you'll go around the entire network and be able to geometrically reference them together and do a closure.

Find out how accurate and precision that actually is what your precision is on that traverse. Do a closure and get coordinates for all of the other primary control points based on your basis of bearings. And so now you have your X, Y. And so step number 25 is level loop your primary control.

And the reason you want to level loop your primary control from the design benchmark is to get the elevation or the Z for all of your points. And what that is, is you are taking a differential leveling shots using three wire leveling and estimating to the nearest thousandth. And you're going from point to point to point to point to point to point.

Make sure that you're precise enough again, okay, that you're within tolerance. And then you will do a closure and now you have all of your elevations. So at this point, you should have a really, really nice primary control plan.

So you'll actually want to make the plan itself. So that's where having it on AutoCAD will really benefit you. You'll want to detail that out on AutoCAD.

Overlay the traverse on AutoCAD. Update the leaders for the X, Y, and Z for all of your new information. And print and publish that on a title block that you're proud of.

Awesome. All right, let's go into step number 27. Set up your secondary control.

Your secondary control is your semi-permanent control network, which is specific to the buildings. And that can be corners, which I don't recommend. The offset points around the entire building, which is okay.

Two intersecting baselines, a single baseline intersecting inside baselines. Any of these things would work. But basically, you'll set up your secondary control and it will align with grid lines and it will be at even offsets.

And the purpose of the reason that you want to do that is you want to actually design it and set it up out in the field. Now, typically, like I've talked to you about before, your primary control was traversed and level-looped. When you bring in your secondary control, let's say you're bringing in a baseline.

You'll do the endpoints and you'll shoot them in from primary. You'll shoot to the endpoints and you'll end up with two different points. So what you want to do is take the average and then those endpoints can be used to connect the line and any intermediate points and now you have your baseline.

Now, from that, you can level-loop and bring in a benchmark directly to your secondary control as well. Now, this will all want to be based on 28, your working control. So you want to design, you don't have to do it yet, but design your working control.

Working control is temporary, it's component-specific. So it's a layout that you would use to build a wall or a column or an elevator pit. Something that's specific to the building components and that is temporary and will literally get torn up.

Once it's served its usefulness, you can get rid of it. I don't know how else to say what I'm trying to say. It's not like it gets covered up, so it's very, very temporary.

So once you have a working control design, you can 100% start implementing it or laying it out from your secondary. And again, use the proper techniques. Remember, longer backsights than foresights.

Remember to turn 90, double-center, take direct and reverse shots. Remember good taping methods when you're installing your working control from your secondary and you should be fine. Okay? Step number 29, this is a big one, begin using your chain.

When you're in the working control world, you're using grid lines, you're probably on slabs, you're taking measurements. And what I want you to know is that you can use your 30-foot tape and you can use your certified steel calibrated chain with a tensioner. And you can use your total station, but you can't use those flimsy tapes.

They're not going to serve you well. They are, in fact, going to hurt you. So this is the point in your field engineering career where you will want to begin using your chain and make sure that you're taking really good parallel distance measurements.

Okay? I'm going to keep it at 29 right there so that then I can do 30 to 39 in another podcast. So we're still figuring out how to transcribe these podcasts, but I appreciate you being patient with me and on we go. Please join us next time in elevating the entire construction experience for workers, leaders, and companies coast to coast.

If you're enjoying the show, please feel free to share with your construction colleagues and help us spread the word by rating, subscribing, and leaving a review on your preferred podcast listening platform. We really appreciate it. We'll catch you next time on the Elevate Construction Podcast.

(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai - Go Unlimited to remove this message)