Glossary
Definitions for the acronyms and terms used across Soarvo.
Soarvo platform terms
Project
Top-level container grouping related sites, with project-wide settings (coordinate system, measurement system, category). See How Soarvo Structures Data.
Location
A specific physical site inside a Project, holding its own datasets (point clouds, orthomosaics, features).
Reference Location
A Location flagged as project-wide so its datasets appear in every other Location in the project — useful for shared baselines like control points or design files. See Reference Locations.
Feature Type
A reusable schema defining a capturable object category (e.g. "Manhole", "Tree"), with a geometry type and attribute set.
Feature
A specific instance of a Feature Type captured against a real-world object, with its geometry and filled-in attributes.
Secondary Feature
An auto-generated child Feature linked to a parent. Examples: Grid Lines, Parallel Lines, Tree Inspections (BS3998).
Project Dashboard
Configurable widget board summarising activity, inventory, and to-dos at project level. See Using the Project Dashboard.
Alignment
A Linear Feature marked as the reference centreline for chainage and offset calculations in road, rail, and pipeline surveys. See Alignment and Chainage.
Default Codes
Special strings in a Feature Type's attribute settings that auto-populate values, control visibility, or run calculations in the mobile app. See Mobile App Data Entry Shortcuts.
Processing Tokens
The unit of consumption for processing raw drone imagery into orthomosaics, DSMs, and 3D models. See Resource limits.
User roles (short forms)
Administrator
Full platform access; the only role that can invite other Administrators.
Project Manager
Creates projects and locations, invites users (except Administrators), and sees every project in the tenant.
Project Supervisor
Uploads and manages data within assigned projects/locations only.
Editor
Creates and edits Features in shared locations; cannot upload data.
Viewer
View-only access; can use measuring tools but cannot create or edit.
Mobile-User
Mobile app access for field capture plus read access in the web portal.
Mobile-Only
Mobile app only; no web portal access.
See User Roles & Permissions for the full permissions matrix.
Geospatial & surveying acronyms
CRS — Coordinate Reference System
The mathematical model mapping coordinates to physical locations on Earth (e.g. WGS84, OSGB36); every Soarvo Project has one CRS that all data aligns to.
EPSG
Registry of CRS identifiers — Soarvo picks coordinate systems by EPSG code (e.g. 27700 = British National Grid, 4326 = WGS84 lat/lng).
BNG — British National Grid
The Ordnance Survey coordinate system for Great Britain. EPSG code 27700.
ITM — Irish Transverse Mercator
The standard Irish coordinate system. EPSG code 2157.
TM65 / TM75
Older Irish coordinate systems still found in legacy datasets. EPSG codes 29902 (TM65) and 29903 (TM75 / Irish Grid).
GPS — Global Positioning System
The US satellite navigation system; used colloquially for any satellite positioning but technically a subset of GNSS.
GNSS — Global Navigation Satellite System
Umbrella term covering GPS (US), GLONASS (Russia), Galileo (EU), and BeiDou (China); modern rovers typically use all four.
RTK — Real-Time Kinematic
Centimetre-grade positioning using a base station's real-time corrections sent to a rover. See nordalp X6 PRO.
NTRIP — Networked Transport of RTCM via Internet Protocol
Protocol for streaming RTK corrections over the internet; requires a URL, mountpoint, username, and password from your provider.
RTCM
Data format for RTK corrections carried by NTRIP; Soarvo-supported rovers require RTCM 3.x mountpoints.
NMEA
Standard text format for transmitting positioning data between GPS receivers and software; Soarvo Mobile reads NMEA strings from external devices.
GST
NMEA sentence type reporting position-error statistics; enable in your rover app for higher-quality accuracy readings.
HDOP
Horizontal Dilution of Precision — a numeric GPS quality indicator (lower = better).
RTK Float / RTK Fixed
Two stages of RTK quality: Float = sub-metre; Fixed = centimetre-grade. On the RD8200SG, flashing green = Float; solid green = Fixed.
Data formats
Orthomosaic
A geometrically corrected aerial photo where every pixel sits at its true geographic location; typically produced from drone imagery and uploaded as a GeoTIFF.
Point Cloud
A dataset of 3D points capturing the shape of terrain or objects; sources include drone photogrammetry and LiDAR. Soarvo supports LAS / LAZ.
DSM — Digital Surface Model
A raster of the top-surface elevation of an area, including buildings and trees.
DTM — Digital Terrain Model
A raster of bare-earth elevation with buildings and vegetation removed.
GeoTIFF
A TIFF image with embedded geo-referencing; the standard format for orthomosaics and DSMs.
Shapefile
ESRI vector format comprising multiple files (.shp, .dbf, .shx, .prj); always upload as a ZIP containing all parts.
DWG / DXF
AutoCAD vector formats used for engineering and survey drawings.
KML / KMZ
Google Earth's vector format (KMZ is a zipped KML); Soarvo supports KML for import.
OBJ
3D mesh format (.obj, .mtl, and texture files); always upload as a ZIP and remove spaces from texture filenames before zipping.
IFC — Industry Foundation Classes
Standard BIM format; Soarvo can display IFC files alongside surveyed data.
E57
Standard format for point cloud and panorama data, often combined with 360° images.
WMS — Web Map Service
OGC standard for serving georeferenced map tiles over the web; used for background maps. See WMS & Custom Raster Layers.
ZXY tiles
Web map tile addressing scheme (z = zoom, x/y = column/row); used by most modern web basemaps as an alternative to WMS.
Workflow & survey domain terms
BS3998
British Standard for arboricultural surveys; Soarvo's Tree Inspection secondary features implement BS3998 measurements including RPR.
RPR / RPA — Root Protection Radius / Area
Minimum construction buffer around a tree, calculated from stem diameters per BS3998; Soarvo auto-calculates via !CALCRPR (cap = 15 metres).
Chainage
Linear distance along a route from a defined start point; Soarvo calculates it to a marked Alignment via the !CHN default code.
Offset
The perpendicular distance from a feature to a linear reference (typically the Alignment).
Snapping
The mobile app's behaviour of attaching a linear feature's start/end to nearby point features, enabling auto-pulled attributes like cover levels. See Manhole + Pipe Snapping.
Position Averaging
Recording GPS readings over a time window and using the averaged value for a feature's position, improving accuracy in poor satellite conditions. See Position Averaging for Feature Geometry.
Mobile Mapping
Capturing geospatial data from a moving platform — vehicle-mounted scanners, backpack systems, or handheld units.