The advent of GPS guidance benefits a wide range of industries, including the construction and civil engineering industries. When it comes to moving dirt, GPS and products such as Trimble machine control files makes the process far easier thus ensuring the highest possible accuracy during excavation, grading, embankment and so forth. If you haven’t delved into the world of machine control, here are a few facts that may be of interest.

1. Machine Control Is Available For A Myriad Of Equipment
Trimble machine control files can be utilized for many commonly used pieces of construction equipment. For instance, you can use the files for grade control with excavators, dozers, motor graders, wheel loaders and scrapers as well as for more compact pieces of equipment.

2. It’s Not Just About Earthworks
Here at EarthCalc, our focus is on providing dirt estimates and providing 3D machine control files related to “moving dirt,” but there many other applications for Trimble machine control files. For instance, these files can be used for paving equipment, such as asphalt compactors and milling machines. Trimble software also can be utilized for piling and drilling systems, and Trimble also offers payload weighing systems.

3. Trimble Was There At The Beginning
GPS was developed in the 1970s by the U.S. Department of Defense. In those early days, the use of GPS was used only the U.S. Government and it wasn’t until the 1980s that civilian use was allowed. Trimble was founded in 1978 by three former Hewlett-Packard employees, including Charlie Trimble, and initially their products were based on LORAN technology and used for marine navigation. In the 1980s, the team at Trimble realized the potential of GPS and quickly developed products that took advantage of this new technology, beginning with products to help with geodetic surveys and, as time passed, for surveyors and civil engineers.

4. Training Is Essential
If you’ve been using machine control for several years, you probably already understand the importance of training. Many people mistakenly believe that they can simply move from traditional methods over to machine control seamlessly, but your machine operators will need some training. Even the best machine operators need to update their skill set before they switch over to machine control. Your dealer can be a fantastic resource for training, but training also may be available through Trimble, Topcon, Leica or whatever manufacturer you decide to use.

5. There Are Many Key Advantages
In previous articles, we’ve discussed a few of the benefits of using machine control. If you and your team are well-trained, machine control can increase productivity and drastically reduce the time it takes to complete earthwork. You’ll also need fewer crew members on hand, which increases safety as well as profitability.

If you need Trimble machine control files, the team at EarthCalc can help. You can move dirt with confidence using our 3D files. We can work with just about any type of information you have, including TIFF, PDF, hard-copy plans and more to ensure that the CAD files from the engineer represents the approved plant set. In addition to Trimble machine control files, we can create files for all major systems, such as Topcon, Agtek and more.