Trimble Access : Survey Core Plugin API

Summary : Trimble Access and Plugins

Survey Core (SC, Survey.exe) is the main executable that implements a number of Field "Applications" for Trimble Access, such as General Survey, Tunnels, Roads, Mines, etc.  All these applications run the same program (Survey.exe) but present their own main menus and associated workflows, individually tailored to suit the application.

The Trimble Access Survey Core Application Program Interface (SCAPI) provides the means for third-party developers to leverage the huge code base that is present in Survey Core, to extend and customize it for their own particular field applications.  The Trimble Access Software Development Kit (TASDK) is installed on a Windows computer to facilitate the development of add-on modules which can access this API. At Trimble we refer to them simply as plugins.

Recent changes and important release notes

There is a separate page with a complete set of more detailed release notes, including upgrade steps where necessary. Here's a summary of the last few releases:

2025 April 28th :

• Trimble Access version 2025.10 released.  There is no 2025.00

• Polylines have been extended to handle the new "Live" polylines, which are composed of tsc_Points instead of grid coordinates to define the lines and arcs. 

• A number of issues have also been resolved with the polyline API.

• Note that the internal Polyline interfaces are being re-implemented in the next version of TA. Rebuilds will be required if using polylines.

• Support for the new Trimble Mini prism has been added.

2024 November 1st :

• Trimble Access 2024.10 released. This was followed by a stability version 2024.11 released 18 Dec 2024.

• A "Toast" UI element has been added. This is a small pop-up message that can be positioned anywhere on the Window. See tsc_Toast.

• Some formatting and other minor other problems with the Eula form are fixed. Additionally, the plugin's EULA may now be specified as an HTML file path.

• Support is added for License-free plugins.

• The tsc_StringField now responds to SetCustomDimensions() even with auto layout.

• Methods have been added to tsc_Control to control the size and weight of the fonts used for the control or field.

• tsc_EntityFeatures_AttributeForm now supports the auto-generation of photo attribute filenames which include the entity's name.

• TapeDistance is renamed to TapedDistance.

2024 May 29th :

• Trimble Access 2024.00 released, with several additions and some minor changes to the API.

• Added creation of virtual points and lines to tsc_JobMap and the ability to change their display colour, line thickness, selectability, and selection state.

• Added the ability to query and request permissions to access external storage, the camera, bluetooth, and fine location. This functionality is particularly targeted at Android devices.

• The serialStream API now has an IsConnected method to sense Bluetooth connectivity.

• Added CalibrationPointPair information to the jxl associated with a job.

• Added export functionality to tsc_Image so that an image can be saved to a file.

• Added ability to retrieve the plugin's warranty expiry date.

• Selected polylines are now visible in Scapi apps.

• Feature code attributes marked as "OfficeUseOnly" are now hidden.

• Many of the tsc_LineDefinition class methods were marked const.

• tsc_Alignment class added, supporting conversions between station/offset and grid coordinates on Trimble roads.

• All memory allocations now use the standard C library heap. This should have no perceptible effect, although heap leak reporting will no longer occur.

• tsc_JobMap has a new entities pre-selection event handler which allows control of what objects the user can select.

• The SDK installer has been updated with a later version of the MSVC toolset redistributable, which is the version required to build the plugin, for it to be compatible with the Scapi plugin library provided in the installation. The new version is 14.38.33135 

A list of released versions

This online guide covers all Trimble Access versions from 21.10 onwards. Online documentation for older versions is not available, however this page contains .chm (Windows help) files for many of these versions, should you wish to look them up. Previous to v21.10, all installations of the SDK shipped with a .chm file containing the entire website.