StarNet v6 manual - Engineering Surveyor

Chapter 5 Preparing Input Data
5.3 An Overview of STAR*NET Data Files
STAR*NET input data files are relatively free in format. Generally, lines begin with a
one or two character code identifying the type of data, followed by the station names and
actual observations. These data elements do not have fixed positions on a line, but they
must appear in the proper order.
You may insert comment lines anywhere in the file using the “#” symbol. Anything
following the “#” on a line is interpreted as a comment, and is ignored. We highly
recommend that you add notes and comments to your data files documenting survey data,
field conditions, or any unusual situations that may prove valuable later. To many users,
comments added to their data files become part of an historical document.
Input data files are standard text (ASCII) files that can be created with a text editor,
either inside the STAR*NET program or external to the program.
Data files might also be generated as output from some another program, such as a third
party COGO program or a data collector routine. Starplus Software, for example,
supplies several utility programs that convert raw data collector field files to files
formatted for STAR*NET use. And certain large companies and public organizations
have written their own data converter utilities based on the way their surveyors collect
field data and how they wish to use that data in the STAR*NET program.
Data lines may be up to 500 characters long.
Blank lines can be placed anywhere in the file. You can use spaces and tabs to align the
data items if you wish. Comments, beginning with “#” characters, can be freely entered,
both as separate lines, and attached to the ends of data lines.
5.4 Naming Data Files
File dialogs have been designed in STAR*NET to expect, by default, that input data files
will have a DAT extension. This is a descriptive extension which is very easy to
distinguish from all other file types.
However, the use of DAT as an extension is not required. For example, in the
“Professional” edition, a GPS extension is used when adding GPS vector data to the data
file list. Although it is recommended that observations be created in data files using the
DAT extension so that you can use default file types built into the dialogs, any extension
may be used as long as it is not one of the several reserved output file extensions
automatically used by the program when creating output files.
The following reserved extensions and should not be used for data files: PRJ, LST, PTS,
POS, GND, DMP, ERR, SBF and DXF.
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