LAND SURVEYING
Fieldwork ends with a point file, a drone flight or a LiDAR scan. The job ends with a surface, a contour plan, a volume, a set of sections and a drawing the client can open. STREAM is land surveying software for that second half: a Windows desktop application that takes survey data from any instrument and turns it into checked deliverables on your own PC, with no upload and no per-project fee.
A survey passes through several kinds of software. Field software on the controller records the observations. An office package reduces them, adjusts the traverse, runs the coordinate geometry and drafts the boundary plan. A photogrammetry package turns drone photos into a point cloud, a DEM and an orthophoto. STREAM comes after those: it works on the coordinates and surfaces they produce.
That makes it land survey software for topographic and site surveys rather than for cadastral computation. It does not collect data in the field, adjust a traverse or write a legal description, and it says so. What it does is the surface work: build the surface, check it, measure on it and hand it over.
Import surveyed points and lines from CSV, DXF, Shapefile, GeoJSON or GeoPackage, or open a LandXML file with its surfaces, points and lines. Select the points and lines and triangulate: the result is a Delaunay TIN built from their vertices, which keeps every measured point where it was measured. Where an edge cuts across a ridge or a ditch you flip it, where a triangle does not belong you delete it, and a model check reports overlaps, holes and duplicate triangles before the surface is used for anything.
Drone and LiDAR surveys arrive as rasters and point clouds instead. GeoTIFF DEMs and orthophotos open directly and stream at full resolution even at gigabyte scale; LAS and LAZ point clouds are rasterized to a surface on import. Either way the result is a 3D survey you can orbit, shade by elevation or slope, and measure on.
Contours are generated from the surface at the interval you choose, with index lines and elevation labels. They are previewed before they are committed and saved as editable line objects that export to DXF.
Cross-sections are cut at every station along an axis, with the cut and fill area of each section, a cubature table and DXF section drawings. Distance, height difference and grade, and plan, 3D and draped areas, are measured directly on the surface.
Cut and fill is computed against a reference surface, a flat level or a second survey. Stockpiles are measured above a base, with tonnage from the density you enter. Two surveys of the same site give the volume moved between them.
Each of these ends in a PDF report that carries the numbers you saw on screen, the coordinate system, the unit system, a report number and a signature block. A report never runs a second calculation, so the document and the screen cannot disagree.
The coordinate system is read from each file and confirmed before the layer joins the project. A site surveyed on a local grid is moved to the national system in one step, from the EPSG definitions, from points known in both systems or from parameters you were given, and the residual of every common point is shown before anything is written.
Check points of known elevation are compared with the surface point by point: RMSE, mean difference, standard deviation and 95 % accuracy, documented in a PDF or Excel report. No pass or fail verdict is given until you enter your own acceptance criterion.
Construction is where survey deliverables repeat. A drone flight every week or month becomes a new surface; STREAM compares it with the previous one or with the design level and returns what was cut, what was filled and what is left. In that role it works as construction drone software for the earthworks side of the job: progress volumes, stockpile checks and section drawings from each flight.
It is the analysis step, not the flight or the photo processing. The photogrammetry package you already use produces the DEM, the orthophoto and the point cloud; STREAM takes them from there.
Contours, sections, lines and points go to DXF with their layers. A TIN goes out as DXF 3DFACE or as a LandXML surface that civil design software opens in place. Rasters go to GeoTIFF with their georeferencing, point and quantity tables to CSV or Excel, and a site overview to KMZ for people who have no survey software.
For paper, the print composer lays the current view on an A4, A3 or A2 sheet at a fixed scale from 1:1000 to 1:10000, with a north arrow, a scale bar and a legend.
STREAM is in public beta and free to use: every feature is unlocked, there is no time limit and exports carry no watermark. Paid editions are planned and not yet on sale, and academic use stays free. It is commercial software, not open source.
It runs on Windows 10 and 11 (x64) as a native desktop application. There is no mobile or browser version: streaming gigabyte surfaces and computing on them is workstation work, done after the fieldwork.
Each of these has its own page with the detail, the supported formats and the questions people actually ask.
Build a TIN from surveyed points and lines, check it, edit it and export it.
Learn moreContours at your interval with index lines and labels, exported as DXF.
Learn moreWhat to do with a drone survey once photogrammetry is finished.
Learn moreLAS/LAZ point clouds from LiDAR or photogrammetry, rasterized to a surface.
Learn moreEarthwork volumes against a surface, a level or another survey.
Learn moreStation-by-station sections, a cubature table and DXF drawings.
Learn moreStockpile volume above a base, tonnage and a PDF report.
Learn moreDistance, area, height difference and grade measured on the surface.
Learn moreLocal grid to national system, with residuals before anything is written.
Learn moreCheck points against the surface: RMSE, 95 % accuracy and a report.
Learn moreSignable PDF reports and scaled map sheets.
Learn moreDXF, GeoTIFF, CSV and KMZ for CAD, GIS and spreadsheets.
Learn moreSoftware that turns survey observations into deliverables. It comes in several kinds: field software that records measurements on the controller, office software that reduces them and drafts the plan, photogrammetry software that processes drone photos, and terrain software that builds surfaces and computes on them. STREAM is the last kind: surfaces, contours, volumes, sections and reports from the coordinates and rasters the others produce.
Usually a chain rather than one program: the instrument's field software, a CAD or survey office package for coordinate geometry and drafting, a photogrammetry package if they fly drones, and a terrain package for surfaces and quantities. STREAM fills the terrain role on a Windows PC and exchanges data with the rest through CSV, DXF, LandXML, GeoTIFF and LAS/LAZ.
STREAM is free during its public beta: every feature is unlocked, there is no time limit and exports carry no watermark. Paid editions are planned but not yet on sale, and academic use stays free. It is not open source.
Yes, for the surface. Surveyed points become a TIN and drone or LiDAR data a DEM, both viewed in 2D and 3D on the GPU, shaded by elevation or slope, and measured on directly: distances, areas, sections and volumes.
Yes. The DEM from each flight is compared with the previous survey or with the design level to give cut, fill and progress volumes, and the results leave as DXF drawings and PDF reports. Processing the photos stays in your photogrammetry software.
No. STREAM works on coordinates that already exist. Traverse and network adjustment, coordinate geometry and legal descriptions stay in your survey office or CAD package; STREAM takes the resulting points and lines and builds the surface work on them.
No. STREAM is a native Windows 10 / 11 desktop application. It is office software for processing a survey, not a mobile surveying app for collecting one.
Points, lines and areas from CSV, DXF, Shapefile, GeoJSON and GeoPackage; LandXML surfaces, points and lines; GeoTIFF DEMs and orthophotos; and LAS / LAZ point clouds. Results go out as DXF, LandXML, GeoTIFF, CSV, KMZ and PDF.
Free beta for Windows x64. Works fully offline with GeoTIFF, LAS/LAZ and DXF.
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