What’s on the Total Station poster
A definition and 6 facts worth remembering.
A total station measures a horizontal angle, a vertical angle and a slope distance, then computes coordinates.
- Set up over a known point and orient it
- Backsight a second known point for bearing
- Check a third point before you trust the setup
- A wrong prism constant shifts every distance
- Face left and face right cancels axis errors
- Record raw observations, not just the results
- Typical angle accuracy — 1 to 5 seconds
- Typical distance — About 2 mm + 2 ppm
- An unchecked prism constant puts every measured distance out by the same amount.
Educational reference. Quoted accuracies are manufacturer figures under test conditions, not field guarantees.
Questions about the Total Station poster
- What’s on the Total Station poster?
- A definition and 6 facts worth remembering. A total station measures a horizontal angle, a vertical angle and a slope distance, then computes coordinates. Set up over a known point and orient it; Backsight a second known point for bearing; Check a third point before you trust the setup; A wrong prism constant shifts every distance; Face left and face right cancels axis errors; Record raw observations, not just the results; Typical angle accuracy — 1 to 5 seconds; Typical distance — About 2 mm + 2 ppm; An unchecked prism constant puts every measured distance out by the same amount.. Educational reference. Quoted accuracies are manufacturer figures under test conditions, not field guarantees.
- Who is the Total Station poster for?
- Total Station belongs to the Civil Engineering section rather than to a school year, because engineering is not something one grade owns. Anyone learning surveying can pin it up — a beginner, a student mid-course, or someone revising years later.
- When should you use the Total Station poster?
- Setting up for detail survey or setting out, and checking the setup. A wall chart earns its place by being glanceable from where the work is happening, so Total Station belongs on the wall where that engineering work actually happens, within glancing distance, rather than filed away.
- What other posters go with Total Station?
- Areas & Volumes, Bearings and Contours sit alongside Total Station in the Civil Engineering section. Printed together they make a wall rather than a single sheet, which is how a reference set actually gets used.Areas & VolumesBearingsContours
- Is the Total Station poster free to download and print?
- Yes. Total Station downloads as a free PDF with no account, no email and no watermark, like everything else in the Civil Engineering section. Print as many copies as you like for a home, a classroom, a library or a tutoring group; reselling the file is the only thing the licence rules out.Read the licence
- What size does the Total Station poster print at?
- Total Station is a vector PDF laid out for US Letter, and prints on A4 with Fit to page — the same file, no separate download. Because every mark on it is drawn rather than photographed, it stays sharp enlarged to A3, A2 or A1 at a copy shop. Colour carries emphasis only, so a greyscale print of Total Station loses nothing.Printing guide
Related posters
Charts that sit alongside Total Station on the same wall.
Browse every Civil Engineering poster, or start from the full catalogue.