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 often 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 December 3rd :

• Trimble Access version 2025.20 was released today.

• New overridable event handlers have been added to tsc_Form for handling gesture events.

• Possibly breaking change: MSVC Toolset for Windows updated from 142 to 142, and language version from C++17 to C++20, and a number of related minor changes to code style. See details in breaking changes.

• The maximum number of softkeys allowed on a form is extended from four to 99, and the tsc_EscSoftkeyControl and tsc_EnterSoftkeyControl classes now override the actual Esc and Enter buttons correctly.

• The prism named tspt_PreciseActivePrism has been renamed to tspt_SingleActiveEccentricPrism, and a new prism added, tspt_SingleActivePrism.

2025 April 28th :

• Trimble Access version 2025.10 released.  There is no 2025.00.  

• Trimble Access version 2025.11 released on On July 3 2025, with TA stability changes only.

• 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. These are offered to all customers at no cost.

• 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.

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.