How can I output a list of features and # of collected GPS points from Trimble Pathfinder?

Question

I want to export a list of collected features in an SSF (or .cor) file displaying how many GPS satellite positions were collected for each feature, in order to make sure certain collection standards are being met. I don't want to select each feature in pathfinder and check the # of positions for each as there are hundreds of features in each SSF file, so a bulk export I could potentially dump into excel to work with would be great.

Is there any way to do this, either as an export from Pathfinder, or as an attribute to add to a feature when they are being exported into a shapefile?

Answer 1

The Pathfinder Office Utilities menu has an Export option - give this a try. If you select an SSF file then choose the "Sample Configurable ASCII Setup", you can tweak what gets exported via the Properties button. In the Export Setup Properties dialog box "Attributes" tab, you can select Correction Status, Total positions, etc.

When you export, PFO creates 3 files in an Export directory, with types "att" (attributes for each feature - this is the file you want), "inf" (information about the export setup), and "pos" (positions of features).

Here's a few lines from an "att" file I exported - this shows two Uncorrected point features each made up of 30 positions:

07/13/11 03:04:37am,10,"Point_generic","bd10","Uncorrected","Juno Series 5","03:04:08pm",30,30,32.313,6.3,4.8,"",-43.543624683,172.586010737,32.313 07/13/11 03:05:16am,11,"Point_generic","bd11","Uncorrected","Juno Series 5","03:04:47pm",30,30,32.321,6.3,4.8,"",-43.543623030,172.586026570,32.321

Since this is comma-delimited, it's easy to import into Excel and it has the information you want once you work out what field you want to look at.

I don't work with Shapefiles but the same option to export "Total positions" is available in the Export Setup Properties dialog for ESRI Shapefile.