What Is Land Survey Software?
Mix (13 tools)
- License: 4 open source · 9 proprietary
- Hosting: 10 self-hosted · 0 SaaS · 3 both
Land survey software supports the professional land surveyor’s workflow: turning field measurements into adjusted coordinates, legal boundaries, and drawings. It is distinct from GIS (which manages and maps spatial data) and from CAD (which authors designs) – surveying is concerned with measurement, its rigorous reduction, and the resulting survey record.
The surveyor’s pipeline has several stages, and tools differ in which stages they cover:
- Field data collection – capturing observations from total stations, GNSS/GPS receivers, and digital levels on a data collector in the field; stakeout (setting out designed points)
- GNSS processing – reducing raw satellite observations (RINEX) into precise positions and baselines (static, RTK, PPK, PPP)
- Network adjustment – rigorous least-squares adjustment of a control network from redundant observations, with error estimates and outlier detection
- COGO (coordinate geometry) – computing bearings, distances, areas, intersections, and traverse closures
- Drafting / plats – producing the survey drawing, plat, or legal description and the deliverables
About this data & disclaimer
The information on these pages was researched by a combination of human review and large language models. This catalogue serves as a reference for the resources, applications, devices, deployment payloads, and other components that the ResorsIT platform integrates, deploys, and manages. To suggest an addition or correction, please contact us. Prepared by Rhodium Systems Inc., author of the ResorsIT platform — a unified IT operations management platform for IT teams and MSPs that integrates a curated suite of open-source, commercial, and SaaS applications into a single system with shared identity, single sign-on, access control, and a common audit trail. This information is compiled on a best-effort basis: it may be incomplete, contain errors, and become out of date as tools, vendors, licences, and features change. Use this catalogue only as a starting point for your own research, and independently verify and review any tool carefully against your own requirements before relying on it.
Comparison
No single open-source tool covers the surveyor’s whole pipeline; the commercial suites do, at a price and inside an instrument ecosystem.
Workflow Coverage Matrix
| Tool | Field | GNSS | Adjustment | COGO | Drafting |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GNU Gama | No | Part | Yes | Part | No |
| SALSA | No | Part | Yes | No | No |
| RTKLIB | No | Yes | No | No | No |
| survey2gis | Part | No | No | No | Part |
| Emlid Flow | Yes | Yes | No | Part | No |
| Trimble Business Center | App | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Leica Infinity | App | Yes | Yes | Yes | Part |
| Carlson Survey | App | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| MicroSurvey | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Topcon MAGNET | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Autodesk Civil 3D | Part | Part | Part | Yes | Yes |
| Bentley OpenRoads | Part | Part | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| VisionCogo | No | No | Part | Yes | No |
App = field capture handled by a companion data collector app (Trimble Access, Leica Captivate, Carlson SurvCE); Part = partial / indirect support. Adjustment = least-squares network adjustment.
Deployment & Ecosystem
| Tool | Platform | Type | Instrument Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| GNU Gama | Win/Lin/Mac | CLI | Vendor-neutral |
| SALSA | Win/Lin/Mac | CLI | Vendor-neutral |
| RTKLIB | Win/Lin/Mac | GUI/CLI | Any GNSS (RINEX) |
| survey2gis | Win/Lin | CLI/GUI | Vendor-neutral |
| Emlid Flow | iOS/Android | Field app | Emlid Reach |
| Trimble Business Center | Windows | Desktop | Trimble |
| Leica Infinity | Windows | Desktop | Leica |
| Carlson Survey | Windows | Desktop (CAD) | Multi-brand |
| MicroSurvey | Windows | Desktop (suite) | Multi-brand |
| Topcon MAGNET | Win + cloud | Desktop/cloud | Topcon/Sokkia |
| Autodesk Civil 3D | Windows | Desktop (CAD) | Via import |
| Bentley OpenRoads | Windows | Desktop (CAD) | Via import |
| VisionCogo | Windows | Desktop | Vendor-neutral |
Licensing
| Tool | License | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| GNU Gama | GPL-3.0-or-later | Free |
| SALSA | GPL-3.0 | Free |
| RTKLIB | BSD-2-Clause | Free |
| survey2gis | GPL | Free |
| Emlid Flow | Proprietary | Freemium |
| Trimble Business Center | Proprietary | $$$ |
| Leica Infinity | Proprietary | $$$ |
| Carlson Survey | Proprietary | $$$ |
| MicroSurvey | Proprietary | $$$ |
| Topcon MAGNET | Proprietary | $$$ |
| Autodesk Civil 3D | Proprietary | $$$ (subscription) |
| Bentley OpenRoads | Proprietary | $$$ |
| VisionCogo | Proprietary | Quote-based |
Selection Summary
Open-source stack
For a license-free pipeline, assemble: RTKLIB (GNSS processing) -> GNU Gama or SALSA (rigorous network adjustment) -> survey2gis / QGIS (into GIS). This covers processing and adjustment well but leaves field collection and plat drafting to other tools.
Least-squares adjustment
- GNU Gama / SALSA – free, rigorous, CLI
- MicroSurvey STAR*NET – the commercial benchmark
Instrument-integrated end-to-end
- Trimble, Leica, and Topcon suites pair office software with their own field apps and receivers
- Carlson and MicroSurvey are more multi-brand/instrument-neutral
- Autodesk Civil 3D and Bentley OpenRoads suit survey-plus-civil-design workflows
Tools
13 tools.
Autodesk Civil 3D
Autodesk Civil 3D is a commercial civil-engineering design application whose survey module handles survey databases, field books, linework, and surfaces within an AutoCAD environment.
License: Proprietary (proprietary) · Kind: web · Deploy: saas, package · SSO: none
ResorsIT usage: Web App without SSO
Access & Identity: Forward-auth · Vaulted credential
Bentley OpenRoads
Bentley OpenRoads is a commercial civil design application on MicroStation whose survey tools import and process field observations into geometry and terrain models for road and site design.
License: Proprietary (proprietary) · Kind: web · Deploy: package · SSO: none
ResorsIT usage: Web App without SSO
Access & Identity: Forward-auth · Vaulted credential
Carlson Survey
Carlson Survey is a commercial surveying CAD package offering COGO, field-to-finish, drafting, and surface modeling, running on AutoCAD or a bundled IntelliCAD engine.
License: Proprietary (proprietary) · Kind: web · Deploy: package · SSO: none
ResorsIT usage: Web App without SSO
Access & Identity: Forward-auth · Vaulted credential
Emlid Flow
Emlid Flow is a proprietary mobile field app for GNSS data collection and stakeout, paired with Emlid Reach receivers, with an Emlid Flow 360 cloud for project data.
License: Proprietary (proprietary) · Kind: web · Deploy: saas, package · SSO: none
ResorsIT usage: Web App without SSO
Access & Identity: Forward-auth · Vaulted credential
GNU Gama
GNU Gama is an open-source command-line package for the adjustment of geodetic networks by least squares, handling combined terrestrial and GNSS observations in local and global coordinate systems.
License: GPL-3.0-or-later (OSS) · Kind: web · Deploy: package · SSO: none
ResorsIT usage: Web App without SSO
Access & Identity: Forward-auth · Vaulted credential
Leica Infinity
Leica Infinity is Leica Geosystems’ commercial office software for surveyors, processing GNSS, total station, level, and UAV data with network adjustment and project data management.
License: Proprietary (proprietary) · Kind: web · Deploy: package · SSO: none
ResorsIT usage: Web App without SSO
Access & Identity: Forward-auth · Vaulted credential
MicroSurvey
MicroSurvey is a commercial survey software suite spanning MicroSurvey CAD, the FieldGenius data collector, and STAR*NET – the best-known commercial least-squares network adjustment package.
License: Proprietary (proprietary) · Kind: web · Deploy: package · SSO: none
ResorsIT usage: Web App without SSO
Access & Identity: Forward-auth · Vaulted credential
RTKLIB
RTKLIB is an open-source program package for standard and precise GNSS positioning, supporting real-time and post-processed RTK/PPK/PPP solutions from raw GNSS observations.
License: BSD-2-Clause (OSS) · Kind: web · Deploy: package · SSO: none
ResorsIT usage: Web App without SSO
Access & Identity: Forward-auth · Vaulted credential
SALSA
SALSA (Surveyor’s Applications for Least Squares Adjustment) is a free, rigorous 3D geodetic least-squares network adjustment package from UT Austin’s Applied Research Laboratories.
License: GPL-3.0-only (OSS) · Kind: web · Deploy: package · SSO: none
ResorsIT usage: Web App without SSO
Access & Identity: Forward-auth · Vaulted credential
survey2gis
survey2gis is an open-source tool that converts raw total-station and field survey measurements into GIS-ready point, line, and polygon geometries via a configurable parser scheme.
License: GPL-3.0-only (OSS) · Kind: web · Deploy: package · SSO: none
ResorsIT usage: Web App without SSO
Access & Identity: Forward-auth · Vaulted credential
Topcon MAGNET
Topcon MAGNET is a commercial survey software suite spanning field data collection, office COGO/processing/adjustment, and cloud collaboration, with multi-brand instrument support.
License: Proprietary (proprietary) · Kind: web · Deploy: saas, package · SSO: none
ResorsIT usage: Web App without SSO
Access & Identity: Forward-auth · Vaulted credential
Trimble Business Center
Trimble Business Center is a commercial office software package for surveying and geospatial data, processing GNSS, total station, level, and scan data with network adjustment, COGO, and surface modeling.
License: Proprietary (proprietary) · Kind: web · Deploy: package · SSO: none
ResorsIT usage: Web App without SSO
Access & Identity: Forward-auth · Vaulted credential
VisionCogo
VisionCogo is a commercial, platform-independent coordinate-geometry and land-survey calculation package from Geo-Plus, with dynamic least-squares, transit, and compass adjustments.
License: Proprietary (proprietary) · Kind: web · Deploy: package · SSO: none
ResorsIT usage: Web App without SSO
Access & Identity: Forward-auth · Vaulted credential
