GY301 Geomorphology

Downloading Total Station Data

from the instrument to an Excel
spreadsheet using Sokkia ProLink
 Sokkia ProLink Application
• A Google search for “Sokkia ProLink” will
lead you to the download site
• A serial/USB data cable is required to
connect the Total Station instrument to the
PC
• Workstations in LSCB 314 will have a data
cable attached that will work with any of
the Total Station instruments
 Sokkia ProLink: Defining a New
Project
• In order to download a SDR file from the
instrument you must first define a new
project
• Use “File” > “New Project” to do this from
the ProLink main menu
• Note that the .SDR file is a simple “Text”
file so you can load it into “Notepad” or
any other text editor to inspect the data
values.
ProLink 1.15 Main Screen

• Main opening
screen in
ProLink after
a new project
is defined
 Sokkia ProLink: initiating
download
• File > Send/Receive
 ProLink Communications
Settings
• Click on the
“settings” button
after selecting the
“SDR” device type
 Sokkia Total Station Setup
• Setup the data
download from the
“MEM” menu on the
Total Station
• Make sure the
Sokkia Link
application is ready
before hitting the
{enter} button on the
instrument
 Sokkia ProLink: Receive Data
• Click on “Connect” button
• Highlight the “Use Job Name SDR” in the right window
• Click on the left-facing button to begin the download- you should see a
“ready to receive” message
• The points stored in the current job will count off as the file downloads. If not
there is a communication problem
• The file name for the downloaded file will be the job name plus a “.SDR”
extension
 Format of SDR file
• The SDR
file is a
text file
that can
be viewed
with a text
editor
 Sokkia ProLink: Load SDR Data
• Select “File” >
“Import” then
select the “.sdr”
file
• This loads the
SDR file data
into the
“Notebook”
format to the
right
 Sokkia ProLink: Export to Text
file
• From the
notebook
screen
select the
“File” >
“Export”
menu
• Choose the
options
indicated to
the right
 Sokkia ProLink: Exported text
file
• The raw data
spreadsheet is
readable but will
have to be re-
formatted to be
usable in ArcGIS
 Spreadsheet Formatting Notes

• Open the “.txt”

file in Excel and
select the
“delimited” type
of import text file
• Use comma
delimiters and no
text delimiter
 Spreadsheet Formatting Notes
• Add “headers” to
all 4 columns
• Format numbers
to 3 decimal
places
• Save file in “.xlsx”
Excel format