Leica X6 P2P Case Study: Leica Disto Plan App
Leica X6 P2P Case Study - Using the Leica Disto Plan App Export DXF or DWG into SketchUp
One of our customers, John, has used the Leica DISTO Brand for nearly 10 years. He switched from the DISTO S910 P2P last year when the NEW X6 DISTO came to market. He now has a seamless interface using the Leica DISTO Plan APP giving him the ability measure in 2D and 3D with an option to export his survey as DXF or DWG format files.
I also grabbed some of the adjacent ridge lines of houses and roof slopes, for reference. I worked along the track, relocating the DISTO X6 numerous times by using 3 cheap tripods that I purchased from Amazon and sticking targets on them. I was hitting the tripods at distances of some 20-30m, so did get the warning that that that the accuracy wasn’t bang-on when relocating. But I captured the roofs of the houses from more than one position, and the overlays showed that the accuracy was well within what I would expect for a fairly sizeable site such as this.
For the heights themselves, I had an apprentice carry a pole around with a target on and then dropped the heights in SketchUp by the length of the fixed pole after we’d finished. From this, in SketchUp I can create full contour plans at whatever interval I choose, using the Create Surface command and some wizardry involving duplicating rectangles at a set interval and intersecting them with the created surface.
The other survey is a full survey (both internal and external), of a very steeply sloped site in the conservation area in West Looe. It was carried out for a remodel and extension of a dwelling. I did this survey entirely on my own with the DISTO X6 R and did piece together afterwards in the office (the actual survey took about 6 hours). From this I will create a full 3D model in SketchUp. For this one, it started to become apparent how annoying levelling the tripod is. So, I have now bought a levelling widget that screws to the tripod before the DISTO base, and which has a ball joint. This has makes levelling it all so much easier and accurate (a potential improvement for future tripods?).
However, overall I am hugely impressed by it, having come from using the DISTO S910 for 10 years, I can’t quite believe how good the DISTO X6 R is, and I now take it to initial meetings, before I’ve even been commissioned, just to grab a couple measurements to inform the subsequent quotation.
Google SketchUp
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Leica DISTO X6 R
- Range: 250m | Accuracy: ± 1 mm
- Colour touchscreen with Digital Pointfinder 4x zoom
- IP65: waterproof and drop tested from 2 meters
- Rechargeable Li-ion battery
- Measure by Gesture* or DIST Key* (* NEW features)
- Bluetooth® Smart - FREE Apps Leica DISTO™ sketch & Transfer
- 360° tilt measurements
- Leica DISTO X6 R Laser Measure
- DISTO pouch | USB Cable & Hand loop
- Calibration Certificate Silver
- 3 year warranty
