Trimble Access : Survey Core Plugin API

Summary : Trimble Access and Plugins

Survey Core (SC) 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 full set of release notes, including upgrade steps where necessary. Here's a summary of the last few releases:

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 

2023 October 24th :

• Trimble Access 2023.10 released, with additions but no other significant changes to the API.

• Added instructions about building Scapi plugins for Android deployment. This is ongoing however.

• Added an IsConnected() method to the tsc_Rs232Stream class to properly detect Bluetooth port connections.

• Added a new API, tsc_ImportFilter, which allows plugins to read coordinates from any format and source and pass them to Trimble Access as a line of CSV-formatted data. The new formats are added to the Fixed format import form.

• Added a new API, tsc_TrimbleRoad, which allows some control over the loading of Trimble road (.rxl) files.

2023 April 19th :

• Trimble Access 2023.00 released, with additions but no other significant changes to the API.

• Support for polylines was added. Polylines are now first-class entities like points, lines, and arcs.

• A Save method was added to tsc_Image, which allows the image to be saved to a file.

• May 23rd, 2023.01 released with stability and performance improvements.

A list of released versions

This online guide covers all versions from 21.10 onwards. Online documentation for older versions will not be available due to Google Classic Sites being deprecated from December 2021, 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 whole website.