Tree Survey Software-What's being used, these days?

[Sunrise Guy]

As I get more into tree survey work and, at almost sixty, am preparing to pull back, a bit, on my climbing for my company, I am wondering if anyone in here has much experience with tree survey software for CAD work. I checked, online, and 100% of the first page hits were based in the UK. I'm sure there must be some US packages that everyone is using, so fill me in. The surveys I do now require me to use GPS, using a phone app, in the field, and then hit PS to get everything looking good, manually. This takes a day and a half of office time for small to medium gigs. I want a package where I can lock in coordinates for each tree, key in pertinent info on the same, and then have the program tell my computer to tell my CAD printer where to plot everything, including CRZ circles for each tree. There must be a popular program out there. Let me know its name and cost. Thanks.

 

[imagineero]

I don't think there would be something like that available, not that many tree guys are using CAD. If you're using a reasonably modern version of autocad, then you could have someone write you a script that would do exactly what you're asking. It would rely on you having accurate site data beforehand though. It's a relatively straightforward sort of script and could be done cheaply (couple hundred dollars) by a competent script writer.

For not much more, you could get the guy to incorporate basic shapes of a few trees into blocks for easy insertion, do you up a standard drawing layout with all your company info on it and make it look very flash. With that sort of setup you could pretty easily do a layout in less than half an hour including the time to make any manual adjustments yourself. A script like that usually lets you insert a block at a fixed co-ordinate, select from a clickable list of blocks (tree shapes), scale the block manually or by a scale factor, then insert data into a table on a line by line basis. It's a worthwhile investment considering the time it will save you.

Before I was a tree guy I used to do a lot of structural steel cad work. If you had to draw out every detail of structural steel and pipework manually it would take forever. We did most of the drawings from libraries of details and custom blocks of our own fabricated items. It didn't require that much manual work.

Shaun

 

[sgreanbeans]

My city is looking to bring in a contractor, they use I-Tree. Was real interested in helping, until they said they are just doing city trees. I think that is kind of foolish. If you are going to do a true survey of the urban forest,in your city, shouldn't ya include all trees?
I have read up on this and it seems I-Tree and Arbortrack are the favorites. There is another one, but I cant remember the name and couldn't find it on Google. I would like to get involved in a survey, just think it is kinda pointless to only do maybe 20% of the trees in a area.

 

[sgreanbeans]

Hey Sunrise, there is a guy in the 101 who could use your help, had questions about pecan trees. Couldn't remember who was a guru down there.

 

[Sunrise Guy]

Hey Sunrise, there is a guy in the 101 who could use your help, had questions about pecan trees. Couldn't remember who was a guru down there.

Just caught the thread. The advice he got was solid.

 

[Sunrise Guy]

My city is looking to bring in a contractor, they use I-Tree. Was real interested in helping, until they said they are just doing city trees. I think that is kind of foolish. If you are going to do a true survey of the urban forest,in your city, shouldn't ya include all trees?
I have read up on this and it seems I-Tree and Arbortrack are the favorites. There is another one, but I cant remember the name and couldn't find it on Google. I would like to get involved in a survey, just think it is kinda pointless to only do maybe 20% of the trees in a area.

Thanks for the info. I'll hunt down the programs. I just priced some CAD printers. Looks like I'll pop around a grand, there, just for entry-level quality. With the survey programs, this might get into more bucks than I was counting on, but it will pay for itself pretty quickly, hopefully, if I keep getting calls from other tree companies to do the surveys they're called in to do. I like being out there measuring, plotting, etc. It is a different game from the active stuff we do, mostly, but it is starting to feel pretty cool. Maybe I'll give the Forest Service a call. If the bears and cougars don't eat me, I might come to like being out in the middle of nowhere with just the trees and I.

 

[BC WetCoast]

There's software out there that will do what you want.

I used some about 6 years ago that would take a google earth image, interact it with a gps input, and allow a point (say tree) to be described by a bunch of defined variables. For example, species, DBH, Ht, crown radius, defects, prescription. Then this could easily be downloaded to maps. Unfortunately, it was proprietary software to the company I was working for.

I would suggest you broaden your search to include forestry inventory software rather than just arborist software. When I was a forestry consultant years ago, we had data loggers attached to our gps systems. (we were using sub meter accuracy gps systems). We could then custom write our own input screens and have the data come out easily in MS Access. The gps data at that time had to be post processed due to selective availability, so I'm sure it is easier to use now.

Just poking around the web sites of a couple of the big guys ArborMetrics (Asplundh) and Davey, they both have inventory software. It might not hurt to call and see if they sell their software packages.

 

[CJ-7]

My experience with tree surveys were when they were part of a full topographic survey needed in order to get city or township approval of a proposed site improvement plan for a new store or subdivision or condo where the local municipality had a tree ordinance. All of the work was done by the surveyors and trees were located with survey grade instruments, either total survey stations (transit like instrument) or survey grade gps equipment, either costing in excess of $10k and able to locate a tree base within a few inches (actually within about 0.02 feet or 1/4"). The surveyors were experienced field people able to ID at least 90% on the tree species accurately. A few municipalities required an arborist, or more likely, a professional landscape architect who supposedly had more expertise in identifying tree species. Either way, the survey needed to be sealed by a licensed professional. Drawings were almost always done with the use of AutoCad. The software was not tree-survey specific. Data gathered at each spot included DBH, species and sometimes drip line diameter. Depending on the density of the trees and the scale of the map, tree information was often shown in a tabulation, with a tree number only shown on the map. The rules usually indicated a lower size limit of 6", anything smaller was just within the limits of the forest or woods line and not identified separately. I have seen surveys with as many as 10,000 trees for a regional mall. I am using this description in the past tense as I have been retired for 2 years now as a civil engineer who often had to include a tree survey on my plans.

It would be possible for an arborist to simply tag each tree and keep a log of the pertinent data, and have the surveyor locate the trees accurately, prepare the drawing, incorporating the data from the arborist in a tabular form on the survey.

 

[GrahamS]

I use an older version of davey's treekeeper software to manage a municipal street tree inventory. Its pretty versatile once you get the hang of it. I mostly rely on it for inventory purposes, but it has the capability to track any maintenance and work order info that you would want, and it can generate reports from any data that you have and export them to excel, which has helped me a good bit lately. The newest version also incorporate arcgis for mapping purposes, but it is definitely not cheap.

 

[lxt]

anything with CAD is ancient & will be a PITA to upload on new systems, look into ESRI`s Arcview series, they have a forestry software application.

the Yuma with arc-pad is really good, the GPS is just about survey grade & can be if you cough up enough for that license, however NMEA & Sirf are very acurate on those units. this is the software most every town, city, utility are going with! good luck!



LXT..........

 

[john roberts]

If it is still of interest we have windows software with a supporting Android app that will do what you require it is $300 for a single license. Regards John Roberts (HowBig) email [email protected]