Penmap software
Penmap is land surveying software that is used a lot with the GNSS receivers of Trimble. Before we can tell you about the alternative for this land survey software we need to tell you a bit more about Penmap itself.
So it is land surveying software. That means you can do mapping and staking out with it. Besides that there is some way to draw in this software.
It is a product of Trimble. This manufacturer says on the specification sheet of this software that it supports: points, symbols, polylines, arcs, circles, rectangles, bezier curves and text.
Penmap has some methods to exchange data. The file formats it uses to exhange data are CSV, DXF, DWG, Esri Shape, GE Smallworld and Penmap UNV.
So Penmap does have lots of functionality. But so does its alternative. The best alternative is Apglos Survey Wizard. It can also exchange data. And does that in the following file formats: CSV, TXT, KML, DXF, AGP, SHP, AGL, XML, PDF and more.
Also Apglos Survey Wizard can map lots of different entities like points, texts, symbols, arcs, polylines and polygons. That means Apglos Survey Wizard is more than a worthy alternative for Penmap. If you want to know more about Apglos Survey Wizard then check out this page. On that page there is a lot of information on all the functionality of the land survey app Apglos Survey Wizard and there is also the download link.
So if you want to test the alternative for Penmap then it is worth to check out that link.
Penmap of Trimble
Penmap is a software package of Trimble. If you want to know more about Trimble than check out this page. Trimble is a huge company in the GNSS world and there is a reason for that.
Trimble like to have a closed system. So if someone has one product of Trimble than he needs other products of Trimble as well. Because of these up-sales they grew a lot and became a big company. That is why Trimble likes people to combine Penmap with their GNSS receivers R2, R8s, R10 and the R12.
In the beginning that is not a problem. But it means that Trimble is focussing on a complete solution and does not have the focus on the software. The best alternative for Penmap really has its focus on the software and wants it to be better and better. The alternative, Apglos Survey Wizard, also does not focus on one serie of GNSS receivers, but it works with many GNSS receivers of different types.
That is why Apglos Survey Wizard is such a good alternative for Penmap. This software is open to combine it with any GNSS receiver. It works great as long as the GNSS receiver sends NMEA output via Bluetooth. And that is a good reason to check out more about Apglos Survey Wizard.
Penmap for Android
Besides for Windows Penmap is also available for Android. You can even download it from the Google Play Store. So yes Trimble has an Android solution for land surveying. And another nice thing is you can try it in a freemium way. This means that you can try the software, but that not all functions will work.
This is already different with its alternative Apglos Survey Wizard. With Apglos Survey Wizard you can use all functions right after downloading and registration without any restrictions. So with the alternative for Penmap you can see right away if it is something for you.
Here you can check out more on Apglos Survey Wizard. And there is also the download link to download the alternative for Penmap. So it is worth to check that page.
We checked the Android version of Penmap. And it looks interesting, but there is something very sure. You really need to understand land surveying to be able to use it. So Trimble assumes that everyone knows enough about land surveying to be able to work with their software.
We from Apglos know that is not the case. So that is why Apglos Survey Wizard is very approachable and it let’s you learn it very easily.
User guide of Penmap: the manual
So Trimble makes you think that Penmap is one software package. They use one name for Windows and they use the same name for the Android version. So you might think it is the same. And that it has the same functionality.
But in fact that is not true. There are even two different manuals or user guides for Penmap. One user guide is for the Windows version and one user guide is for the Android version of this land survey software.
And that is not such a big problem. Because Android is different from Windows. But since Trimble uses the same name for the software the functionality should also be the same. Unfortnately that is also not the case. Here you can download the user guides or manuals for Penmap.
You can already see it in the size of the two user guides. The user guide for Android has only 42 pages, while the manual for Windows has 247 pages. Of course everyone knows that Android is easier than Windows, but that does not explain the difference. Besides that the amount of chapters also differ in the two manuals of Penmap.
In the manual of Penmap for Android there are hardly pictures. That means you need the software right next to the manual to be able to understand it. That is very different with its alternative Apglos Survey Wizard. The manual of Apglos Survey Wizard is full of images as you can see on this page. That makes it more clear for you to understand.
Also the clear manual makes Apglos Survey Wizard a good alternative of Penmap.
The alternative for Android
For land surveyors that know a lot about land surveying this Trimble software might be a solution. But if you are not an expert or if you just want to land survey sometimes than we highly recommend to chose the alternative for Android.
The alternative for Penmap of Trimble is Apglos Survey Wizard. You can read more about this alternative on this page.
Download Penmap or its alternative
Of course you can download the software of Trimble. As mentioned before it is on the Google Play Store. You can download there. After downloading and installing you can try it with a freemium account.
On the other hand you can download Apglos Survey Wizard from the Google Play Store. After downloading, installing and opening this land survey app will ask you to register with your email address. After you registrated yourself, you can log in and start to test Apglos Survey Wizard with full functionality for free.