QUICK START GUIDE SOLO Forest
Software Installation 1. For PC installation, run the.msi file. 2. For Mobile device installation, copy the.cab file onto the device 3. Run the.cab file Starting the Program 1. To start SOLO Forest on your mobile device, tap Start then tap Programs > SOLO Forest. 2. When you start SOLO Forest for the first time, you will be notified that your copy of SOLO Forest has not been registered. At this point you can tap the Register button and move to Step 3 below, or tap the Demo button to run SOLO Forest in demo mode. 3. When you tap the Register button, the Product Authorization dialog box will be displayed. The serial number for the installed copy of SOLO Forest will be displayed in the Serial Number field. Contact your sales representative or email (forestrysupport@trimble.com) with this serial number, a copy of your invoice and the model and serial number of the Mobile device you are using to receive the corresponding authorization numbers. You can then enter the authorization number to register SOLO Forest for full use. Points, Features and Attributes The primary function of SOLO Forest is to collect position and attribute data and to locate existing points while in the field. Locations are determined through the use of GPS, DGPS, a laser rangefinder or through the touch screen of your mobile device. A point, by itself, simply consists of coordinates and an elevation. If a person collected several points consisting of only coordinates and elevations, then later tried to work with those points in a GIS application, it would be very difficult to distinguish one point from another. To help the user identify each point, the points are categorized using features. Features are used to describe the points that are being mapped. There are three types of features supported by SOLO Forest: Points, Lines and Areas (polygons). Point features consist of a single independent point like a tree, pole or section corner. Line features consist of two or more points that define a linear object like a pipeline, fence or street centerline. Area features consist of several points that describe a two-dimensional object like a pond, parcel or spill site. Just as a feature helps describe a point, attributes are used to help describe a feature in more detail. Attributes are either typed in from the keyboard or selected from a pull-down menu. For example, a particular feature might be called Fence and attributes for that feature might be Height, Condition and Type. There are four types of attributes available in SOLO Forest; Menu, Character, Numeric and Date. Normally, features and attributes are customized for a particular application and stored in a Feature file (*.FEA). You can create and edit feature files within SOLO Forest. If no Feature file is selected for a project, a default Feature file that contains a generic point, generic line and generic area feature will be used.
Creating a Project When SOLO Forest is started, a prompt will ask if you want to create a new project or open an existing one. The Satellites View screen is also displayed, which is described later. Tap on the Create a new Project button to create a new project, which will open a new screen. Enter a name for your new project in the Name field or keep the default name and tap OK. The Settings screen will then be displayed. This screen allows you to configure the details of how you will be using SOLO Forest. Tapping on any tab along the top of the screen will open that particular page. There are more tabs than can be displayed at once so use the left and right arrow buttons in the upper right corner to scroll through the available tabs. Note: The Settings dialog box can also be accessed at any time by selecting File > Settings Settings: Info The Info page provides version information and project details such as the project name and number of points collected. You can also display the version numbers for the SOLO Forest DLL files by tapping on the DLL Versions button. Settings: General The main function of the General page is to select the format for how your position is displayed and the units that you want to use for distance and area measurements. Position Display You can select to display Latitude-Longitude or Northing-Easting (state plane, UTM or Custom) coordinates for your position. Distance Unit Select the units that you want to use when entering and displaying distances. Area Unit Select the units that you want to use when displaying calculated areas. Bearing Style Select the way you want to view bearing information during navigation.
Settings: Language Choose the desired language from the drop-down list. Settings: Zone If you selected to display Northing-Easting coordinates from the Info page, the options in the Zone page will affect the how your coordinates and distances are calculated and displayed. If you selected to display Latitude-Longitude, the options from this page will only affect how distances are calculated and displayed Coordinate System Select the coordinate system in which you wish to display your positions. You can tap the button from this field to select from State Plane 1927, State Plane 1983 or UTM. Horizontal Datum Select the horizontal datum in which you wish to display your positions. Depending upon your selection for Coordinate System, a variety of options are available. Zone Select the State Plane or UTM zone in which you will be working. Depending upon your selection in the Coordinate System and Horizontal Datum fields, a variety of options are available. If you selected UTM in the Coordinate System field, you may select 0 Natural Zone for the Zone field and SOLO Forest will automatically determine the correct UTM Zone. Note: Collecting data in the UTM coordinate system from two different longitudinal zones will result in a mismatch of the coordinates. If you select 0 Natural Zone for your UTM zone, and then move between two zones, a warning will appear with instructions on how to manually select a zone. Use the following zone file A zone file can be created using SOLO Office then transferred to the mobile device and used to calculate your coordinates in a local grid system. To use a zone file, check this checkbox then tap the Browse button. Locate the *.zon zone file and double tap on it to select it. Settings: Logging The Logging page has settings to customize how points are logged using GPS. Min. number of GPS fixes averaged per logged point Enter the minimum number of GPS fixes (epochs) that must be collected and averaged for each position stored in this field. You will be required to occupy the location until the minimum number of epochs has been recorded.
Ask for Point Name If this box is checked, you will be prompted for a point name for each point that is stored. A default of the Feature name will be provided Ask for Feature Information If this box is checked, you will be prompted to enter feature and attribute information for each point that is stored. Save PDOP and SNR data If this box is checked, PDOP and SNR data will be saved for each point that is stored for future reference. Beep If this box is checked, a beep will sound for each point that is stored. Force full map in Log Interval mode When this box is checked, the full map view, including basemaps and images will be displayed while logging by interval. Depending upon the interval selected and the speed of the processor, this may cause the software response to slow. Settings: NMEA Filters The NMEA Filters page has settings that control logging based on the type of signal received when using NMEA-0183 as your GNSS type. Use only DGPS data when logging If this box is checked, SOLO Forest will not allow you to log a GPS position that has not been differentially corrected. When this box is unchecked, the differential correction is still applied, when available, but is not necessary for logging points. DOP Filter Select to filter incoming GPS data by PDOP, HDOP or off and then enter a maximum acceptable DOP. Higher DOP values may indicate lower accuracy. A maximum acceptable HDOP of 4 or PDOP of 6 is recommended. Epochs received that exceed the specified value are ignored. Settings: Files The Files page is where you select the Feature file and Waypoint file that you want to use for the current project. You may also specify a backup folder and a data folder in this page. Please refer to the SOLO Forest Manual for more details about the backup function. Feature file This field displays the currently selected feature file. A feature file is a customized template that will describe the objects that you are going to map. If no feature file is selected, the project will automatically be assigned a generic point, line, and area feature template. Waypoint This field displays the currently selected waypoint file. A waypoint file is a set of points that you wish to navigate to. This file must be created in SOLO Office and downloaded to your mobile device. Use the appropriate Browse button to select a different file or the appropriate Clear button so no file is selected.
Settings: Receiver This page contains the settings that allow communication between the GNSS receiver and the data collector (if they are separate devices). You can also configure SOLO Forest to operate in a GPS emulation mode from this page. GNSS Type Select the GNSS type from the dropdown list. Options are: Trimble GNSS or NMEA-0183. When selecting Trimble GNSS the Configure GNSS and Configure GNSS Antenna buttons become active. By default "Smart" control over GNSS settings are used and applied. Click on these buttons to change settings for the GNSS device (e.g. COM port, Real-time, Antenna settings, etc.). The default settings displayed are based on the connected or integrated Trimble GNSS hardware. COM ports and baud rates are automatically selected. Use the NMEA-0183 option to connect to a GNSS receiver which can output positions in NMEA-0183 format. COM port, antenna height and baud rate must be specified for this option. Log Raw GNSS Data for Post-Processing Check this box (only available with Trimble GNSS receivers) if you wish to log raw data and create an SSF file to be post-processed in Trimble Pathfinder Office software. SSF files are created based in the same location as the UDF files. The file naming convention for SSF files created in SOLO is: {UDF filename + date/time stamp.ssf}. This option must be checked each time you begin collecting data, even within the same project. Each session of logging raw data creates a new raw data file, so if the user takes a lot of breaks, they could have several raw data files for the same job. This option cannot be set to on by default. It must be checked each time you want to log raw data. Emulation mode When the Emulation mode box is checked, SOLO Forest behaves as if it were receiving a signal from a GPS receiver when it is not actually connected to one. When running in emulation mode, SOLO Forest is essentially playing a recording of a receiver moving around in a large area. This recording is played through until it ends where it then starts playing from the beginning again. Note: A message will be displayed in the Map View to indicate that you are currently in Emulation Mode if this box is checked. Receiver not used When the Receiver not used box is checked, SOLO Forest will not check for incoming GPS positions. Check this box if you will be logging data manually through the touch screen or by using only a laser rangefinder. Settings: Laser A laser rangefinder can be used with SOLO Forest to calculate new positions. The Laser page is where you select the brand of laser rangefinder that you will be using, and configure the settings for a laser rangefinder so SOLO Forest can communicate directly with the device. Please refer to the SOLO Forest Manual for more information on calculating positions using a laser rangefinder.
The Main Screen Once you have created a project, the Main Screen will be displayed, which contains the Map View and other items. This is the screen where you will initiate all of the data collection and navigation functions in SOLO Forest, as well as displaying your collected points, waypoints and basemap layers. Map View Satellites View Status Line Zoom Toolbar The items displayed on this screen can be customized from the View > Display Options screen. Tapping the button will toggle on/off the Mode Toolbar. Tapping toggles on/off the Zoom Toolbar.
Displaying a Basemap or Raster Image SOLO Forest provides the capability for you to display basemap layers in the Map View, in the form of ESRI Shapefiles, MapInfo MIF files, AutoCAD DXF files, InterGraph DGN files, JPEG 2000 or SOLO Forest UDF files. You will also have access to the database information associated with the basemap files and, in the case of ESRI Shapefiles, the ability to edit the database and geometry of the basemap layers. Note: In order to access the database information for ESRI Shapefiles, the.dbf file corresponding to the Shapefile must be located in the same folder as the Shapefile in your mobile device. Note: In order to edit the database information for ESRI Shapefiles, the.dbf file cannot be read-only. Note: In order to edit the geometry of an ESRI Shapefile, the.shx file corresponding to the Shapefile must be located in the same folder as the Shapefile in your mobile device. Note: In order to access the database information for MapInfo MIF files, the.mid file corresponding to the MIF file must be located in the same folder as the MIF file on your mobile device. SOLO Forest will also allow you to display geo-referenced raster images in the form of GeoTIFF, JPG, DOQ and TDS SOLO SIF files. To load and display a basemap or raster image, select View > Map Layers. The Basemap Layer Control dialog box will be displayed. Basemap Layer Control dialog box The Basemap Layer Control dialog box displays the basemap layers that are currently assigned to your project. In this dialog box you can add and remove layers, turn on/off the layers displayed in the Map View, set the order of display and adjust the properties of the layers. Tapping on the Help button will display the Basemap Layer Help dialog box, indexing the functions associated with the various buttons in the Basemap Layer Control dialog box. For this document, we will focus on loading and displaying the basemap and raster image. For a more detailed discussion of basemap properties, please refer to the SOLO Forest manual. Selecting Basemap and Raster Image Layers Tap on the New Layer button to display the Basemap Layer File dialog box. Here you will specify which basemap or image file you wish to load and display. If you select a basemap file that has been used before, it will also be added to the list in the upper left-hand corner of the Basemap Layer Control dialog box.
If you select a basemap file that has not been used before, the Layer Properties dialog box will be displayed. Most basemap files do not carry projection information with them. Therefore, you will need to verify the projection of the basemap layer. The settings of the current project are displayed on the Zone page. To assign these settings to the basemap layer, tap the Set Layer to Project Zone button. Tap OK to return to the Basemap Layer Control dialog box. Note: If the current settings do not match the basemap layer, you can edit the project settings in the Settings dialog box by tapping View > Settings. You may repeat the steps as necessary to list all of the basemap and raster image layers desired. Loading Basemap Layers Each basemap layer must be loaded into SOLO Forest before it can be displayed. When you tap the OK button in the Basemap Layer Control dialog box, all of the checked basemap layers and images will be loaded. If you wish to adjust the properties of an individual layer (such as color, file, symbols, etc.), the layer must first be loaded. To load a layer from within the Basemap Layer Control dialog box, simply highlight the layer and tap the Load/Unload Layer button. The Active Basemap Layer One of the loaded basemap layers may be designated as the Active layer. When a layer is designated as the active layer, features from that layer may be selected with the stylus in the Map view. When you select a feature from the active layer in the Map view, you will have access to the database information associated with that feature. You can specify the active basemap layer in the Active Layer Selection dialog box. Tap the Toolbar or select View > Set Active Layer to access the Active Layer Selection dialog box. icon in the Mode Select the active layer from the provided list of layers. Once the active layer is selected you may also select an attribute for that layer that will be used as a pop-up label when a feature in the basemap is selected. If the box labeled Use floating dialog for full attribute list is checked, when you tap on the pop-up label for the selected basemap feature, a floating dialog box will be opened that will display all of the attributes for the selected feature. If this box is not checked, a portion of the map view will be dedicated to display the attribute information. You may also configure the number of lines and width of the rows that are displayed in the floating dialog box.
Signal Quality Before you start collecting data, it is a good idea to check the signal quality. The areas to watch that indicate this are the Satellites View and the Status Line from the main SOLO Forest screen. It can take from 30 seconds to several minutes after initially connecting the hardware before the GPS and differential correction signals are available and usable. The signal quality varies depending on the location of the satellites in the sky, which is always changing and affects your accuracy. Satellites View The Satellites View shows a graphical representation of where the GPS satellites are positioned in the sky. Basically, you want to see at least four satellites spread far apart from each other. Your accuracy will decrease if the satellites are clustered together. Satellites that are in view, but are not being used are shown as gray circles. Satellite 17 in the image here is an example of an unused satellite. Flashing satellites represent those satellites that are being used to calculate your position. Status Line The Status Line provides information similar to that of the Satellites View. It indicates if you are receiving a GPS position or a DGPS (corrected) position. The HDOP or PDOP value represents the positioning of the satellites. Higher DOP values indicate less than ideal satellite locations, and potentially lower accuracy. The number of visible and usable satellites is also displayed. In the Status Line shown above, 9 satellites are visible and 8 are being used. The Status Line also shows your current position in the format that was chosen from the Info page of the Settings dialog box. In the example above, the current position is displayed in Latitude/Longitude format.
Logging Points Once you are satisfied with the signal quality, you are ready to start logging points. Place the antenna over the point that you want to log and tap the a Point button. The Select Feature To Log dialog box will be displayed, where you can choose the feature that you wish to map from the Feature file selected in the Settings dialog box. There are three pages in the Select Feature To Log dialog box. All Page This page lists all the available features from the Feature file. Recent Page This page allows you to select from the features that were recently used, where the most recently recorded feature is at the top of the list. Finding features from this page can be easier than from the All page when you have several different features to choose from. In Progress Page You should select features from this page when adding points to Line or Area features that are not complete. When selecting a feature from this page, the original point name and attributes for the selected feature will be used and cannot be edited. Double-tap on the desired feature to select it. This will open the Log dialog box described next. Log Note: After logging your first point, when you tap the Log a Point button to record another point, the Recent page of the Select Feature to Log dialog box will be displayed by default. The Log Dialog Box The Log dialog box is displayed after you have selected a feature. Depending on the system setup, you will be prompted to enter attributes for the feature. Once the Log dialog box is open, each valid epoch received is used to calculate an average position for the current location. The Log dialog box also displays a graphic of your current position. The circle in the center represents your position from the last epoch. The previous epochs are shown in the GPS Status page as smaller dots attached to the circle like a tail. These will move around as each new satellite epoch reports your position in a slightly different location. Immediately below this box is a graphical representation of the minimum number of epochs that have already been collected. You cannot store a point until the minimum number of epochs have been received, although SOLO Forest will continue using incoming epochs, beyond the minimum, to calculate an average position prior to storing the point. Note: The minimum number of epochs is set from the File > Settings > Signal screen.
The Deviation field displays the average distance between the epochs and the calculated average position. In general, the longer you occupy a point, the smaller this distance will become. If the Deviation exceeds 1 meter (3 feet), it is usually an indication that you are receiving a significant amount of multipath error. You may want to consider changing your position, or logging the position as an offset. Tap the Log Now button to store the point and return to the main SOLO Forest screen where the new point will appear as a small square in the Map View. Ending a Feature in Progress When logging a Line or Area feature, that feature should be ended after the last point is logged to avoid the possibility of adding addition points that are not intended. To end a Line or Area feature, select Log > End Feature The Logged items dialog box will be displayed, showing a list of all the active Line and Area features. Double-tap on the desired feature to end it. Where to Go From Here Please refer to your SOLO Forest manual for more information on all the routines covered in this Quick Start Guide. Also covered in the SOLO Forest manual are several important features that are beyond the scope of this Quick Start Guide, including: Navigation SOLO Forest can be used to accurately locate Waypoints, logged points, or any hand-entered coordinates. Logging Points by Interval This routine allows you to log points without any user intervention after a specified time interval or after traveling a specified distance. Zoom & Pan Options These routines allow you change the appearance of the Map View and quickly view the details for any points shown in the Map View. Logging Points with a Laser Range Finder SOLO Forest can communicate directly with a laser range finder. This can then be used to log points that are not occupied. Logging at a Way Point This routine allows you to log feature information for a way point once it is located where the exact way point coordinates are used. Change a Point s Location This routine allows you to change the coordinates for a point that was inadvertently logged at the wrong location. Basemap Display Options There are several available options for changing the display of your basemaps, including color, linewidth and symbology.
GPS Configuration Configure your DGPS receiver by specifying the output format, which Beacon is used, elevation angle, etc. Data Export Export your collected data directly from the mobile device in a variety of GIS formats. File Management Where you store your project files and the built-in backup features of SOLO Forest. Copyright 2014 Trimble Navigation, Ltd. All Rights Reserved