Patent ID: 8483512

Claim:
A position determination method for a theodolite or a total station having distance and angle measuring functionality comprising a datum point set of datum points which measurements are capable of being made and the positions of which are known and define a distribution of datum points in an external reference system, the method comprising: determining the relative position of the theodolite or total station device and reference points of a reference point set by measurements of in each case distance and at least one angle from the theodolite or total station device to the reference points as reference quantities, the reference quantities being determined in a device-related reference system and representing a distribution of reference points in an internal reference system, and reference point set and datum point set having common elements; determining the position of the theodolite or total station device in the external reference system from the reference points; deriving the relative position of the reference points to one another from the reference quantities; and identifying and assigning the common elements on the basis of identifying common points of the distribution of the datum points and the distribution of the reference points by comparing the relative position of the datum points of the datum point set with the relative position of the reference points of the reference point set.