🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <5OCT199218453269@vxcrna.cern.ch> hearns@vxcrna.cern.ch (HEARNS,J./EP) writes:
> 
>ahem... This isnt my area of expertise,
>but many surveys these days are based on straight lines defined by lasers.

Yep.  You do, however, have to be careful about atmospheric effects.  I 
once saw (while spending summers surveying) a sewer pipe bend right 
up out of the ground -- almost -- before the contractor caught his 
mistake.  Thermal gradients in the pipe caused the problem; a good 
contractor will blow air through the pipe to prevent this.  

Actual survey lines still use a transit; lasers are used for distance 
measurement.  Contractors use lasers as an efficient way to carry 
slope or leveling information across a construction site.  

--
J. A. Carr                                    |  "The New Frontier of which I  
jac@gw.scri.fsu.edu                           |  speak is not a set of promises
Florida State University  B-186               |  -- it is a set of challenges."
Supercomputer Computations Research Institute |   John F. Kennedy (15 July 60)