BenchMap

TSQMadness

In-app purchases

About this app

BenchMap allows searching and viewing of National Geodetic Survey (NGS) survey stations on an interactive map. The map will allow you to quickly determine if the control station is usable, and whether the chances that it still exists. Once a station is selected, you can view its datasheet - both in the app and through your web browser. You can also pull up the Geocaching page, in case there may be useful notes that aren't on the NGS's site.

Tools for submitting a recovery to the NGS inslude allowing you to take pictures of the station (using the recommended naming format), and record notes. (At this time, submission of recoveries is not possible in the app - but may be available in the future!)

Filtering allows you view just the types of stations to display that you want - like certain stabilities, horizontal/vertical orders, and destroyed/non-publishable status. You can also directly search for a PID and have the map take you to the location of the station.

Made for the professional surveyor and the hobbyist out there in the wild.

Note that the application will only display NGS survey marks. At this time, certain agencies' stations will not appear in the app, unless their survey controls were submitted to the NGS. These agencies include:
- United States Geological Survey (USGS) - they will never digitize their station database.
- Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) - they have an online database, but at this time no API to pull data from.
- Department of Interior (DOI) - Stations for the DOI that don't fall under the ones above at this time have no API.

If any of these open up an API to pull survey marks from, they will be included.

Ratings and reviews

Great app! I'm a land surveyor and need to be able to find benchmarks within a particular area, this app is perfect for that. You can search your proximity or specify another location to easily see what benchmarks are nearby. Then touch on the one you want to bring up the NGS datasheet with the description and published data on it. Fantastic field tool for surveyors!

5-17-19: NGS notified me that the Control Locator datasheet problem had been resolved and I just successfully loaded two random sheets in mid-Florida, so great ! Back to 5 stars. 4-26-19 update: Still can't load any datasheets. NGS says they had problems with "systems" in March, but here we are in late April and still no datasheets... ORIGINAL: In years past, this was a useful app for Android, but it fails to call up any data for any benchmarks any more. I've seen the developer's remarks about NGS slowness. I've written NGS to see if they are aware of any Android apps that they might play nice with, and so far, they don't seem to accept responsibility for any problems we're having with no datasheets in BenchMap. I give it three stars for at least showing the locations, although I am having trouble with the app crashing since last Android update more often on my S-7.

Great addition with a little twist to those who enjoy geocaching. The data sheet for each bench mark gives both gps coords and detailed measurements in feet from nearby landmarks. I like to search using the measurements first and gps as backup. Simple to use. Just like the geocaching website, the map shows locations of BMs, click on the mark to get the name then click on the name to open the data sheet. If you've found all the caches in your vicinity, try looking for bench marks.

What's new

Includes small fixes:
- Less battery usage when app is not in foreground.
- Fix to some user's 'My Location' dot not showing up.
- Adds bearing arrow to dot when moving.
- Updated linked libraries.