Stationing an unleveled optical total station

A method of stationing an unleveled optical total station, the method comprising:

• placing the unleveled optical total station at a first station;
• at the first station, determining positions of three or more target points in a first instrument coordinate system using the unleveled optical total station, at least three of the three or more target points being non-collinear;
• placing the unleveled optical total station at one or more additional stations;
• at each of the one or more additional stations, determining positions of at least three non-collinear target points of the three or more target points in a respective one of one or more additional instrument coordinate systems using the unleveled optical total station;
• computing transformations such that the positions of the at least three non-collinear target points in each of the one or more additional instrument coordinate systems can be determined in the first instrument coordinate system;
• determining positions of at least three non-collinear control points, a position of at least one of the at least three non-collinear control points being determined in the first instrument coordinate system, and a position of at least one of the at least three non-collinear control points being determined in the one or more additional instrument coordinate systems;
• determining the positions of the at least three non-collinear control points in the first instrument coordinate system using the transformations;
• obtaining positions of the at least three non-collinear control points in the local coordinate system;
• and
• computing a second transformation between the first instrument coordinate system and the local coordinate system using the positions of the at least three non-collinear control points in the first instrument coordinate system and the positions of the at least three non-collinear control points in the local coordinate system.

A method of stationing an unleveled optical total station, the method comprising:

• determining positions of three or more non-collinear target points at each of a plurality of measurement stations using the unleveled optical total station, each measurement station being associated with a respective instrument coordinate system, where the three or more non-collinear target points at each measurement station are common with three or more non-collinear target points at another one of the plurality of measurement stations;
• computing transformations such that the positions of the three or more non-collinear target points at each measurement station can be determined in a first one of the instrument coordinate systems;
• determining positions of at least three non-collinear control points at one or more of the plurality of measurement stations;
• determining the positions of the at least three non-collinear control points in the first one of the instrument coordinate systems using the transformations;
• obtaining positions of the at least three non-collinear control points in the local coordinate system;
• and
• computing a second transformation between the first one of the instrument coordinate systems and the local coordinate system using the positions of the at least three non-collinear control points in the first one of the instrument coordinate systems and the positions of the at least three non-collinear control points in the local coordinate system.