Using Total Open Station

There are two ways to use Total Open Station, from the command line or as a user-friendly program. Each mode of operation has its drawbacks, and both are constantly used and tested.

Graphical User Interface

If you followed the guide about Installing Total Open Station, you should be able to start Total Open Station.

The basic usage of Total Open Station is made of the following steps:

  1. download raw data from the total station

  2. save raw data (optional, but recommended)

  3. export raw data to an output format

Saving raw data enables you to open data files even at a later stage and process them when it’s more appropriate.

A complete manual of Total Open Station GUI

Command-line

After Installing Total Open Station, there will be three new executable programs in your path. Two of them are meant for being run in a terminal, and are extremely useful for batch operations and easy repeating of common tasks with minimum time effort.

Total Open Station CLI Connector and Total Open Station CLI Parser are two command line programs that make the same features of the graphical interface available to those who prefer working in a terminal. They are well documented, and they make it possible to process large amounts of data files via shell scripting, or to drastically reduce the time needed for downloading raw data.

These two programs also provide a basic but complete example of how to use Total Open Station as a programming library.