Introduction of Leveling and How to take Reading through on Total Station (TS)

The automatic level is one levelling instrument

used on a building site.

And there's basically three components in its use.

There's the automatic level itself,

the tripod on which it sits,

and when we take a reading, that's to the staff.

I'm now going to demonstrate the setup of the level

and first we're going to place the tripod.

Tripods come in two types.

Firstly, there's this one, the dome top.

And there's also a flat top.

With the automatic level, we generally use a dome top tripod.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           The tripod legs have to be placed firmly in the ground

and we try and keep the top of the tripod level.

The instrument's then removed from its case,

and placed on top of the tripod.

And it's fixed by a screw from underneath.

So, we can level the instrument using the dome top

by loosening the screw and moving it over the dome top,

until the bubble is in the middle of the circle.

In the event we can't level it on the dome top,

then we have to use the levelling screws.

To do that, we need to place

the axis of the telescope parallel to the line between two levelling screws.

Then by turning the levelling screws both in, or both out,

never in the same direction,

we bring the bubble adjacent to the centre of the circle.

We then rotate the instrument 90 degrees,

and use the third levelling screw

to bring the bubble into the middle of the circle.

We can then check just by rotating the instrument

around through a few locations,

to check that the bubble remains in the circle.

These are the features of the automatic level.

First we have the telescope,

which contain the optics for the level.

The eyepiece, which we view through,

and within those, we have some crosshairs.

This is the focus screw, to bring our target into focus.

And here we have a fine adjustment or fine tangent screw,

to make very small adjustments to the direction of the level.

Sitting on here we have the bullseye level which we level the instrument to.

And here we have a prism,

which allows us to view that bullseye target

from the horizontal direction.

The automatic level is a sensitive piece of equipment

which must be cared for.

The instrument can't be dropped,

and must be transported in its case, well secured.

When setting up the level,

ideally you will set it up at eye-height, not as I'm demonstrating now

where I have to stoop down to read through the level.

When moving around the instrument,

be careful not to place any pressure or put your weight on the tripod legs.

This will push the level out of adjustment.

And when moving around the tripod, make sure we don't trip over the legs.

And even placing pressure on soft ground adjacent to one of the legs

may cause the instrument to go out of level.

Thanks,