Planning GPS Surveys with Quickplan Software

Quick plan is Trimble's software for planning GPS surveys. It is part of the Pathfinder Office package, found under the Utilities menu in Pathfinder Office. GPS almanacs are uploaded to the satellites regularly and allow one to predict their orbits, and that of the whole constellation, in the near future. Quickplan uses the most recent alamac that has been downloaded from a GPS unit to show you where satellites will be during your survey and what the PDOP will be. Generally, you want to plan your survey so that PDOP <= 6.0.

• Start Pathfinder Office
• To download the most current almanac from the GPS receiver, under the Utility/Data Transfer menu, select Data Type: Almanac, and hit the transfer button. Answer yes to replace the older almanac.
• Under the Utility menu select Quickplan, and a series of windows pops up; answer questions appropriately.
• In Quickplan's menu bar select Graphs, then click whatever views you want. I like "Number SVs and PDOP." Note in the graph below that there are intervals of time when PDOP greatly exceeds 6.0.