Can I capture shared vertices with a Trimble GPS?

Question

I'm trying to figure out how to use Trimble GeoXT and GeoXH GPS receivers to efficiently capture small farm fields in rural areas. The main issue that I'm struggling with now is trying to deal with the boundaries of adjacent fields. Right now if there are two adjacent fields a surveyor will have to walk the perimeters of both fields, ideally I would prefer if they only had to walk the border between the two fields once so that we are not collecting data for that shared border twice.

Is there a way to use vertices of a polygon that I have alreay captured with the GPS unit? I'm fairly new to using Trimble units and I haven't been able to find anything in the documentation, but I'm sure someone must have had to deal with this type of problem before. We could deal with this in ArcGIS but I would prefer to solve the problem in the field when we are collecting the data.

Answer 1

Assuming you are using the TerraSync software for capture, page 240 of this TerraSync Operation Guide pdf seems to outline the procedure you need to use.

Digitizing

Digitizing is the process of creating positions for a feature by selecting points on the map, instead of using GPS positions. A line or area feature can contain both GPS and digitized positions, but you must pause GPS logging before you can digitize positions. To record digitized positions:

1. Make sure that the new or existing feature that you want to add positions to is open in the Data section. If no feature is open, you can use the Create Feature button in the Map section to quickly open a new feature. For more information, see Creating and ending features from the Map section.
2. Make sure that GPS logging is paused.
3. Make the Digitize tool active. The Digitize icon appears in the Status bar.
4. Tap the location on the map where you want to create a position. If the location you tap is close to an existing position, the new position will “snap” to the same location. This is a useful feature when you want to create line or area features with shared boundaries.