Keep connected with Leica Captivate cloud services

Author:Zühal Duran Goeminne

我们的产品工程师ZühalDuranGoeminne与我们一起进行了有关Leica Captivate Cloud Services的洞察力。阅读有关Caintivate中基于云的服务的所有信息。

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Many people have seen recent posts showing that Leica Geosystems and third-party collaborators have cloud-based data management solutions. Before we talk about supported cloud services, perhaps you can tell us why companies would need a data management solution at all?

In the USA alone, people generate a staggering 4 million GB of data per minute on the internet, according to the cloud-based operating system Domo. This is only the data being generated by individuals on the internet. Many companies also routinely generate massive amounts of data, for surveyors and engineers this can often be specialised datasets like point clouds, 3D BIM models, or complete surveys. Suppose employees just save their data on their personal computers or leave it on a server without proper data management procedures – things could escalate very quickly. Without proper data management, valuable data can get lost or become inaccessible, and many hours of company time will be wasted trying to retrieve and understand poorly annotated datasets. Inconsistencies in the data might also lead to wrong interpretations. Emerson Reliability Consulting recently reported that on average 30% of the data created during the design and construction of a project is lost when the project is finished (further information is available in the Online Course “Connecting the Dots Between Office and Field Using BIM360 Docs” Deepak Maini和Aaron大衣）。

A proper data management solution ensures that all your data adheres to the so-called FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable). The FAIR concept originates from the scientific community to encourage open science. Still, its principles are universally valid, even when the number of people who have access to the data is limited, as is typically the case within a company. Even if you are the only person who has access to the data, if you need to re-access your data in a few months, you are sharing with “your future self”.

因此，数据必须保持易于访问且可操作，同时可以安全，安全地存储。在此之后，两个主题引起了人们的关注：“轻松访问数据”和“使数据可用”。数据的可访问性和可及性使数据管理变得更加重要。但是，生成的数据越多，通常需要的管理越多。

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Ok, I see your point- - - - - -but why is it needed to store data in the cloud? Isn’t it sufficient and safer if companies just store their data on their own secure servers?

绝对不。根据艾默生可靠性咨询公司的说法，2020年，62％的现场建筑专业人员仍通过电子表格或存储媒体方法传输数据。这个过程不仅乏味且耗时，而且具有风险。数据可能会在设备上损坏，并且该设备可能会丢失，数据徘徊在设备上，并且可能落入错误的手中。如果未做出适当的备份，对办公室计算机的撞车或勒索软件攻击可能会导致严重的数据丢失。

基于云的数据管理是将所有数据存储在异地服务器上的中心位置。您保存，组织，编辑和使访问的数据与授权人员共享。云服务将您的数据牢固地存储在具有高级网络安全的不同物理位置的严重保护服务器网络中。与典型的公司网络或私人硬盘驱动器相比，这些措施使云使云更加强大。

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Now tell us about the supported cloud services – what are these services and how do they contribute to your project workflow?

With Captivate's latest release, we support theLeica Exchange,Leica Conx,BIM360 Docs， 和Bricsys 24/7cloud services.

When we consider the benefit of online services in the world of surveying and engineering, easy access to data gains incredible importance for an engineer working in the office and in the field, both in terms of saving time, enhances the workflow on both directions, and tracking and keeping up to date on project tasks.

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年代o let us touch the different cloud services and connectivity options Leica Geosystems has in store for the users, starting with Leica Exchange.

Leica Exchangeis an online data organisation tool that allows selecting data from your computer, storage media, or network and sends them directly to any office or field crew. With the data transfer of Exchange, the user is informed about the transfer status instantly, whether the data has been sent or is still in process, showing what percentage of the data is included in the transfer. To use this file transfer service, you need an Exchange subscription. In the field, Leica Captivate sends completed field jobs back to the office over-the air, seamlessly connecting the office and the field. With it, you send jobs and files from your local computer to any office or field crew all over the world. Thus, every surveyor can periodically send their measured data to the office for further processing directly in Infinity or other office software. Leica Exchange offers the flexibility to include or exclude any field job data before sending, giving you complete flexibility to add images and map files folders in the job data, or not. It makes it so much easier to transfer data securely and eliminates the tedious process of saving the data on an external device, take it to the office, deliver it to the field and office crew, and then copy it again on a computer. With Leica Exchange, you can also transfer Leica Infinity data, regardless of the format.

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How about Leica ConX?

Leica Conxis a cloud-based web solution widely used to transfer data between Leica Geosystems machine control products and data exchange between the field and the Captivate office. In this cloud service, a surveyor can easily send field-related jobs to a pre-created ConX project and retrieve processed data from the office. This gives a competitive advantage by streamlining the flow of information between construction teams on-site and in the office.

CONX使用基于角色的访问控制，这意味着您可以在项目成员获得完整或有限的权限的情况下创建用户角色，具体取决于项目。可以创建一个反映公司层次结构的结构，从而可以为不同的层次结构收集结果。

To exchange surveying data with ConX in Captivate, a Leica ConX license is needed. The first time you connect to ConX, a pairing code appears on the screen. This code is entered in the relevant field in the web service, and after the pairing is successful, the user can upload and download data from a ConX project. The measured data can be synchronised periodically with the cloud, and the user can receive automatic notifications in case of a project update.

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Can you tell us more about BIM360 Docs?

BIM360 Docsis cloud-based-construction document management that allows all project documents to be stored, viewed, and shared among project members in one centralised database. Surveyors can directly send Captivate job data to an existing BIM360 project and retrieve the modified data from the office. Viewing data in BIM Docs allows you to instantly check construction drawings and models without the need for any other applications. Besides, one would wonder how to keep track of project files. If you have ever worked on a project, regardless of its scale, you realised how quickly files are changed and updated in parallel. This is where BIM Docs comes into play. BIM Docs creates a version-control system that keeps track of what is current but preserves previous versions. This allows the user to effortlessly access these earlier files and revert to them if unwanted changes were made along the road. Furthermore, users can easily compare different versions at any time, whereby Leica Captivate highlights all differences to present a comprehensive overview of all changes.

在办公室方面，Autodesk产品用户可以通过将其发送给Captivate来快速与现场团队共享设计文件和文档，这有助于改善数据流和节省项目时间。从现场的角度来看，测量师可以轻松地从Caintivate到Docs寄回原始的测量结果。

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Leica现在还支持Bricsys 24/7，您能解释一下客户对此著名协作工具的知识吗？

Bricsys 24/7is a cloud-based service for document management and workflow automation. It allows sending data through the cloud directly from the field to the office and vice versa. In Bricsys 24/7, perhaps the most interesting of its many features is that Bricsys 24/7 is directly connected to BricsCAD, Bricsys’s own CAD software, via a dockable panel. This saves the user time by eliminating one of the documents exchanging steps: users can update drawings or models in the design software and send them to the field without opening their browsers. In other words, the data exchange takes place directly between BricsCAD and Captivate, while Bricsys 24/7 runs in the background. Through the 24/7 panel, users can easily check the document's status with an icon indicating whether the document is in the cloud, if someone is currently working on it, if it is currently uploading, or if it is locked by someone to prevent modification. As in Docs, users can view project files in Bricsys 24/7's viewer without the need for native software. Bricsys 24/7 also includes version control and makes sure that users have access to the latest version of each document while tracking all earlier file versions. Captivate shows the most recent files by default but can also easily be configured to display previous document versions.

每个第三方云服务都在其方面管理基于订阅的许可，独立于Leica Geosystems。

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In your opinion, what do these cloud services have in common?

It is increasingly common for us all to have our devices connected to the internet, either periodically, or continuously for a whole day – it is this internet connectivity that allows us to make use of the cloud data services, providing real-time data transfer and sharing anytime, any place.

Leica Exchangeand Leica ConX licences are handled directly with your local Leica Geosystems representative – for the additional services authentication and/or licences may be required to access the service. For example, a valid BIM360 Docs license is needed to start using this online service in Captivate. The BIM360 server must be authenticated with existing Autodesk credentials and necessary to authorise BIM 360 to access Leica Captivate.

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Are cloud services easy to use?

所有这些服务的过程非常相似且非常简单。设置并连接帐户后，您只需输入相关的Caintivate服务，选择要发送的数据，以及您要去的人或何处。The short video clip below shows us quickly how to send an entire job to a colleague by using Leica Exchange - and then sending that same data to a different colleague.

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Where can our users get more information about these services?

For questions about purchasing products, subscribing to online services, or pricing, please contact your local Leica Geosystems distributor or service partner. You can find more information on our年代ales & Support website.

Thank you for your insights, Zühal.

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In case you should have any additional questions regarding oursoftware and/or hardware, please feel free to contact us.