MIRPUR UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (MUST), MIRPUR

DEPARMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING

Surveying/Elementary Survey

Lecture 05 : Plane Table Survey

Engr. Khalid Mehmood

(Lecturer)

Date: June 12, 2023

 PLANE TABLE SURVEYING

❖ Plane Tabling is a graphical method of surveying in which the field work and
plotting are done simultaneously.
❖ The principle of plane tabling is parallelism, meaning that the rays drawn from
stations to objects on the paper are parallel to the lines from the stations to the
objects on the ground.
❖ Particularly adapted for small scale or medium scale mapping in which great
accuracy in detail is not required or where local attraction is suspected.

❖The plane table consists essentially of:

1. A drawing board mounted on a tripod and
2. A straight edge called an alidade.
Engineering Survey 3
ACCESSORIES USED IN PLANE TABLE

Engineering Survey 4
 ACCESSORIES USED IN PLANE TABLE
Drawing Board
❖ Made of well-seasoned wood such as pine or deodar.
❖ Size varies from 40cm x 30cm to 75cm x 60cm
❖ It is mounted on a tripod in such a manner that it can be leveled, and
revolved about a vertical axis and clamped in any position.

Engineering Survey 5
 ACCESSORIES USED IN PLANE TABLE
PLAIN ALIDADE
❖Consists of a metal (brass or gunmetal) or boxwood straight edge or ruler
about 50 cm long.
❖The beveled (ruling or working) edge of the alidade is called the fiducial
edge.
❖It consists of two vanes at the ends, the vanes are hinged and can be
folded when the alidade is not in use.
❖One of the sight vanes is provided with a narrow slit and the other with a
central vertical wire or hair.
❖One of the vanes known as sight vane is provided with a narrow slit with
three holes, one at the top, one at the bottom and one in the middle.

Engineering Survey 6
 ACCESSORIES USED IN PLANE TABLE
PLAIN ALIDADE
❖The other vane which is known as object vane, is open and carried a hair
or a fine thread or a thin wire stretched between the top and bottom of
the slit.
❖With the help of the slit, a line of sight may be established parallel to the
ruling edge of the alidade.
❖The length of the ruling edge should be equal to the smaller side of the
plane table.
❖A plane alidade can be used only when the elevations of the of the
objects are low and level.

Engineering Survey 7
ACCESSORIES USED IN PLANE TABLE

Engineering Survey 8
 ACCESSORIES USED IN PLANE TABLE

❖The alidade which is fitted with a telescope is known as a

telescopic alidade.
❖It is used to take inclined sights.
❖It increases the range and accuracy of the sights.
❖It consists of a small telescope with a level tube.
❖A graduated scale is mounted on the horizontal axis.
❖One side of the metal ruler is used as the working edge
along which lines are drawn.
❖The angles of elevation or depression can be read on the
vertical circle.
Engineering Survey 9
ACCESSORIES USED IN PLANE TABLE

Engineering Survey 10
 ACCESSORIES USED IN PLANE TABLE

Spirit Level
❖ It consists of a small metal tube which
contains a small bubble.
❖ The spirit level may also be circular but
its base must be flat so that it can be laid
on the table.
❖ The table is truly level when the bubble
remains central all over the table.

Engineering Survey 11
 ACCESSORIES USED IN PLANE TABLE

Trough Compass
❖ A box compass consists of a magnetic needle pivoted at its centre freely.
❖ It is used for orienting the plane table to magnetic north.
❖ The edges of the box compass are straight and the bottom is perfectly
flat.

Engineering Survey 12
 ACCESSORIES USED IN PLANE TABLE

Plumbing Fork
❖ The plumbing fork consists of a hair pin-shaped brass frame, having two equal
arms.
❖ One end has a pointer while a plumb bob is attached the other end.
❖ It is used in large scale survey for accurate centering of the station location on
the table over its ground position.
❖ It is also used for transferring the location of the instrument station on the
sheet on to the ground.
❖ The fork is placed with its upper arm lying on the top of the table and the
lower arm below it. The table is said to be centered when the plumb bob hangs
freely over ground mark
Engineering Survey 13
ACCESSORIES USED IN PLANE TABLE

Engineering Survey 14
 ADVANTAGES OF PLANE TABLE SURVEY

i) It is most suitable for preparing small-scale maps.

ii) It is most rapid.
iii) The field book is not necessary as plotting is done in the field concurrently
with the field work, and hence the mistakes in booking the field notes are
avoided.
iv) The surveyor can compare the plotted work with the actual features of the
area surveyed and thus can ascertain if it represents them properly.
v) It is particularly advantageous in magnetic areas where compass survey is
not reliable.
vi) It is less costly than a theodolite survey.
vii)No great skill is required to prepare a satisfactory map.

Engineering Survey 15
 DISADVANTAGES OF PLANE TABLE SURVEY

i) It is not suitable for work in a wet climate.

ii) It is heavy, cumbersome and awkward to carry.
iii) There are several accessories to be carried, and, therefore, they are
likely to be lost.
iv) It is not intended for accurate work.
v) If the survey is to be re-plotted to a different scale or quantities are
to be computed, it is a great inconvenience in absence of the field
notes.

Engineering Survey 16
 SETTING OF PLANE TABLE
❖ Following three operations at each survey station are carried out for the
temporary adjustments of a plane table.
1. Centering
2. Leveling
3. Orientation
❖ The table should be so placed over the station on the ground that the point
plotted on the sheet corresponding to the station occupied should be
exactly over the station on the ground. This operation is known as the
centering of the table. This may be done using a plumbing fork or U
frame.

Engineering Survey 17
 SETTING OF PLANE TABLE

Leveling of Plane Table

❖ In this operation, the table top is made truly horizontal. For rough work,
leveling can be done by eye estimation whereas for accurate work,
leveling achieved with an ordinary spirit level.
❖ The leveling is specially important in hilly terrain where some of the
control points are situated at higher level and some other at lower level.
The disleveling of the plane table, throws the location of the point
considerably out of its true location.

Engineering Survey 18
 SETTING OF PLANE TABLE
Orientation of Plane Table
❖ The operation of keeping the table at each of the successive stations
parallel to the position which it occupied at the first station is known
as orientation. It is necessary when the instrument has to be set up at
more than one station.
There are two methods of orienting the table:
1. Orientation by the Magnetic Needle
2. Orientation by Backsighting

Engineering Survey 19
 SETTING OF PLANE TABLE
Orientation by Trough compass
❖ This method is used when it is not possible to bisect the previous station from
the new station. This method is not much reliable and prone to errors due to
variations of magnetic field.

Engineering Survey 20
 SETTING OF PLANE TABLE

Orientation by Back sighting

❖ This methods is most accurate
methods of orientation and is
always to be preferred.
❖ In this method the table is
orientated by back sighting through
the ray which is drawn from the
previous station. This is the most
accurate and reliable method of
orientation of plane table.
Engineering Survey 21
 METHODS OF PLANE TABLE SURVEY

❖ There are four methods of surveying with

the plane table:
1. Radiation Method
2. Intersection Method
3. Traversing Method
4. Open Traversing

Engineering Survey 22
 METHODS OF PLANE TABLE SURVEY

Radiation Method
❖ In this method the objects are located by radiating lines from
the point, and measuring the distance with chain or tape with
suitable scale. It is chiefly used for locating the details from the
station, which have been established previously by other
methods triangulation, or traversing.
❖ This is the simplest method and it is useful only when the
whole traverse can be commanded from a single station.

Engineering Survey 23
METHODS OF PLANE TABLE SURVEY

B
C

b
c
d
P
A
a
e
f

Engineering Survey 24
METHODS OF PLANE TABLE SURVEY

Engineering Survey 25
 METHODS OF PLANE TABLE SURVEY
Procedure:
1. P is a station on the ground from where the objects A, B, C, D, E & F are visible.

2. The plane table is set up over station P. A drawing sheet is fixed on the table, which
is then levelled and centred. A point p is selected on the sheet to represent station P.

3. The north line is marked on the right-hand top corner of the sheet with trough
compass or circular box compass.

4. With the alidade touching p, the ranging rods at A, B, C, D,E & F are bisected and
the rays are drawn.

5. The distances PA, PB, PC, PD, PE, PF are measured and plotted to any suitable
scale to obtain the points a, b, c, and d, representing the objects A, B, C, D,E & F on paper.
Engineering Survey 26
 METHODS OF PLANE TABLE SURVEY

Intersection Method
❖ In this method the point is fixed on the plane by the
intersection of the rays drawn from the two instrument
stations. The line joining the stations is called Base line.
❖ This method is useful where it is not possible to measure the
distances on ground as in case of a mountainous country.
Hence, this method is employed for locating inaccessible
points

Engineering Survey 27
 METHODS OF PLANE TABLE SURVEY

Go through your book for detailed procedure

Engineering Survey 28
 METHODS OF PLANE TABLE SURVEY

Traversing
❖ This is similar to that of Compass
Survey or Transit Traversing. It is
used for running survey lines
between stations, which have been
previously fixed by other methods of
survey, to locate the topographic
details. It is also suitable for the
survey of roads, rivers, etc.
Go through your book for detailed procedure

Engineering Survey 29
 Points to be kept in Mind While plane tabling

1. Ground Points should be marked as A, B, C ……….. etc and plan

points (on papers) should be marked as a, b, c………
2. The ray from the survey station to the objects shall be drawn by
dashed line.
3. The alidade should be properly pivoted while sighting the objects

Engineering Survey 30
 REFRENCES/SELF READING

Pls. go through the following books for self reading and

Numerical Problems.

Chapter 11 from book 1 (Complete)

Engineering Survey 31
THANKS