What is the function of those tripod devices I see construction people using and staring through?
In: Engineering
There are lasers. That are used to shoot heights from a set point. And there are transits (the scope) that shoots a level line across the site for heights as well
It is a level.
It is used to establish a vertical measurement at any point within its view.
Nearly everything in construction requires a level. There are now laser levels that spin a laser at a set height and the contractor has a device that can beep when it’s measuring something flat.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Level_(optical_instrument)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Level_(optical_instrument))
It’s the site survey crew. To find and mark property lines, elevations and grading, etc. Sweet high school summer job btw
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They are finding the specific spots on the ground at the construction site where specific things are supposed to be built.
They use measurements and geometry to locate and mark where the building is supposed to go and/or not go. Those things they’re looking through could be anything from old-school ‘transit’ telescopes/compasses to modern computerized models that measure distances to flags and other features with a combination of lasers, GPS, and other things. Either way, they measuring distances and angles.
It’s binoculars placed on a level so that they always point horizontally. They also have a line inside marking the middle.
Other guy takes long ruler, places it on the ground and guy sees through those binoculars a line on some marked height. Now they take this ruler to another point, place it on the ground and look at it. If those point are at the same level then the line will be at the same point on this ruler.
Site layout is part of it.
Another part is progressive earthworks, where the current status of volumes that are to be cut or filled is measured and converted to contractor pay quantities. I worked 40 years for a highway department and learned a little bit.
You place them, level them, then aim them at each other and you can find the slope of the ground from one to another.
Presumably you’re talking about these or similar –
https://leica-geosystems.com/en-gb/products/total-stations
They’re very well engineered pieces of equipment that use a laser to measure points from one another, and using the software, you can use the construction drawings to show and subsequently plot lines in physical space allowing you to mark out walls, footings, trenches and much more.
If you know The level of a slab for instance, you can measure it to know if it’s to high or too low or if a wall is tiliting even a fraction of a millimetre from top to bottom.
It does this by using predetermined points called datems that you know the location of and will then triangulate its position to know where it is, and subsequently what it is looking at.
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