How to Perform a Topographic Survey with GPS Using Your Smartphone - ProTRACK

How to Perform a Topographic Survey with GPS Using Your Smartphone

Until a few years ago, performing an accurate topographic survey meant using complex, expensive, and difficult-to-manage tools like total stations and optical levels. Today, thanks to advances in GNSS technology, it is possible to achieve professional results in a simple, fast, and accessible way.

GNSS receivers use not only GPS, but also the Glonass, Galileo, and Beidou constellations, ensuring extremely accurate positioning even in challenging environments such as dense urban areas, forests, or remote locations.

With the right app and a simple smartphone, you can collect data, manage your surveys, document them with georeferenced photos, and work in real time or offline. If you’re wondering how to perform topographic surveys without bulky equipment and with maximum efficiency, the solution exists and it’s called ProTrack.

Until a few years ago, conducting an accurate survey required complicated and difficult-to-use tools. Today, however, everything has changed thanks to new satellite positioning technologies.

You may have already heard of survey GPS, but you should know that now we talk about GNSS.
GNSS means that, in addition to GPS satellites, those from the Glonass, Galileo, and Beidou constellations are also used. The advantage? You can obtain much more precise positions, even in areas with weak signals, such as near tall buildings, in wooded areas, or remote locations.

Furthermore, today’s surveys are not only about saying “where a point is,” but also about adding information: for example, you can indicate whether it is a tree, a pipe, a manhole, or a road. This way, you create a complete map, also useful for environmental, construction, or agricultural work — such as with precision agriculture GPS.

To do all this simply and quickly, there are now smartphone apps that help you configure the GNSS rover, collect points, and add all the data you need.

Whether it’s for land registry surveys, topographic surveys, or drone surveys, you can use a surveying GPS device or a GPS station for topographic surveys to achieve professional results.

Costs are also much more affordable today: you can find a low-cost surveying GPS or an affordable RTK GPS with an excellent price-performance ratio.

This way, you save time, work better, and have everything under control… right from your phone, with tools featuring a competitive GPS price and the performance of a precision GPS.

The ProTrack Solution: Accurate Surveys at Your Fingertips

When conducting a field survey, having a reliable and easy-to-use surveying GPS device really makes a difference.

That’s exactly why the ProTRACK solution was created, designed by Analist Group for those seeking professional precision with a practical and immediate system.
The heart of the system is the GNSS ProTRACK receiver, which, once turned on, connects via Bluetooth to the Analist Mobile app installed on your Android or iOS smartphone.

The app is designed to simplify the configuration and management of the GPS: in just a few steps, you can check real-time precision levels, acquire the points you need, and manage the entire project directly from the field, without needing to carry a computer, tablet, or additional equipment.

Thanks to RTK technology, you get centimeter-level coordinates even in challenging environmental conditions.
It’s the ideal solution for those seeking a GPS for land registry surveys, topographic surveys, or a GPS for precision agriculture, combining ease of use with professional performance.

Everything You Can Do with Analist Mobile

The Analist Mobile app is not just a control panel: it’s a real survey assistant, always with you. Once connected to the receiver, it allows you to do much more than simply acquire points. For example, you can activate continuous measurement, useful if you’re walking along a path or road alignment.

Need to survey an inaccessible point, maybe behind an obstacle or within dense vegetation? No problem: you can use the triangulation function, which automatically calculates the position starting from other known points.

And if you need to perform staking out, the app guides you step by step: thanks to a visual radar, it shows you in real-time how far you are from the exact point, both horizontally and in elevation — a particularly useful function during a topographic survey with a precision GPS.

One of the most convenient features is the ability to view cadastral maps and satellite imagery directly within the interface, to instantly compare your land registry survey with official data.
You can also organize everything into separate layers: roads, buildings, parcels, control points… all under control.

If you need to document a point with a photo, just take it from the app: it will be automatically geo-referenced and ready to use in your reports.

In short, with Analist Mobile, all you need is a smartphone to control, manage, visualize, and document the entire survey — clearly, professionally, and — above all — quickly.

Even Where There’s No Internet

One of the most useful features of Analist Mobile is the ability to work without a data connection.
You can activate the Base-Rover mode using two ProTRACK devices: one as a fixed base and the other as mobile.
This way, you create an autonomous RTK network and work accurately even in remote areas.

Export and Share

Once the survey is complete, all data is saved on Analist CLOUD, where you can process it online and export it in the desired formats to work on it in the office or share it with colleagues and collaborators.

How to Get Started

  • Download Analist Mobile from Google Play Store or App Store
  • Connect the ProTRACK receiver via Bluetooth
  • Set up your survey and start measuring!

For more detailed information and to purchase ProTrack:

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In Conclusion

With Analist Mobile and ProTRACK, you can manage the entire survey process directly from your smartphone, with centimeter-level precision and features designed to simplify your work in the field.

It’s the perfect solution for surveyors, engineers, agronomists, construction technicians, and professionals seeking a surveying GPS device that’s powerful yet easy to use.