Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Selecting a site Trying to "copy" the shape of my pond

I put 3 photos under "billboard pond" or something like that in the gallery but I suppose these have to be approved because the images were not on the site after I uploaded them.
I am trying to draw on paper the shape/demensions of my pond. One of the photos is of a rough sketch. It is total about 90' long and 30' average width but is an odd shape.
What I have done is put a stake near the middle of the pond as my central point to measure from. Around the perimeter I placed stakes 2' apart and I pulled the tape to each point from the center and wrote down these distances. I cannot find any way to use this data as a way to solve the shape. I know it is possible to do so however I am not strong in math and have not been able to find a site that can show me how to use these measurements. I am basically using a bunch of triangles that have the same base dimension (2') to "build" the shape.
I know there are other and perhaps more customary ways to measure this pond but this was absolutely the best way for my specific application.
If anyone has a tip on how I can use these number to build the shape of my pond I would greatly appreciate hearing them.
I am filling the pond for the first time as I write this. At 30 gallons /minute it has been 5 hours and it is not even completely filled the bottom from deep end to shallow end. The deepest is about 7' and the shallow is about 5'.
Thanks
Howard

Hey, HFC, sometimes photos don't show up in the photos section because of the manner of uploading not quite being done correctly. There is no approval process in advance that I know of.

As for your post, I am a math retard which is why I had to become a lawyer. Not much of a reason, I know, but it's all I had! Back to my point - what exactly are you trying to accomplish? A better understanding might make it easier for us to help you figure out what you have not yet figured out!

Why are you trying to draw the shape of the pond? Planning purposes so you'll have a diagram to lay things out or some other reason?

Try to give us a little more insight as to your objective here and someone will help you get it nailed down.

If you are trying to measure it to find out the area, I was going to suggest http://www.acme.com/planimeter/

But, since it's a newer pond, it might not show up on there.

Mine didn't, and I ended up walking along the waters edge with a hand held GPS that had an area calculator imbedded in the software.

Triangulation - measure a known distance on pond edge and mark each end with stake - stake "new" points around bearings of two landmarks visible from where you are".

Geta flat surface drafting board with sheet of paper.
Use a ruler and plot original measured staked points on created "map" - stake new points around pont - triangulate intersectons and plot on map - connect the dots and you have a map.
Clear as mud?
Get out your old Boy Scout manual...

Read more: How to Triangulate a Position | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_8741099_triangulate-position.html#ixzz2HU4U17zJ "

If you want a cool 3D sketch problem, Check out Google Sketch. Use a feet/Inches template, then zoom out to where you can enter your pond dimensions. With a bit of fiddling around you can draw the outline of the pond using your triangulation info, you will see the measurements as you draw. (Hint: Use SHIFT to log into a particular axis) With more fiddling, you can then extrude the pond volume. Even more fiddling and you can place structures, trees, etc. Before you know it you can loos a lot of time fiddling around.

Students have been using this tool locally and have come up some pretty amazing stuff, mostly architecture.

Oh wow, you can select region and you will get a satellite image to draw onto! Holy crap this is cool. My image is too old to have the pond show up yet, but still, it gives a great sense of scale to work with, especially if you are triangulating.

Edit: You can then get easy area information from the sketched item, and then push it back up to Google Maps and it will show up and be hosted on their website. When the satellite image becomes updated, you can then compare the two.

Further Edit: You can switch on terrain and you get elevation info also! Now you can build your dam and see what areas will flood!!!

I would like to scale down the pond shape so I can insert it into the plot drawing of my building (house) lot. I have all the distances measured from a near center location that I selected while the pond was dry (about 1/3 full now). I know the edges (perimeter) of the pond drawing, if I use a drafting board/scale to transpose the many triangles, will be straight lines but this would be no problem as they are closely spaced enough to easily "round off". I am sure any program I use would do the same and "simplify" the shape by removing the sharp lines of the shape..

I know I can take a drafting scale and use it to physically transpose the measured feet/inches onto a piece of paper but I thought using all the triangles measured from the same point AND all having the same size base would be something that could be plugged into a CAD design program or something. I don't care about the volume and/or area of the pond at this point. I just want to duplicate the shape on a much small scale. Likely scale, I believe, would be 1/8"=1' which makes it difficult to actually transpose to paper given the small distance that inches would require.

To George-I appreciate your input but I suppose I should have done the measuring as you suggested prior to doing it the way I did. Now the pond is filled and I am so extremely tired of looking at it that I will either find a way of using the numbers I have or I'll wait until my batteries recharge and I find interest in revisiting this subject.
I've had to do so much manual labor in this pond plus fix the small dam I poorly designed TWICE after it washed into the pond that I am physically unable to drag myself out and work more now that I see it filling up. I am not shy about hard work but my golf/tennis elbows have me convinced I need to give them a little rest. Shoveling mud for weeks on end can do this I suppose.
As for GPS I tried 3 programs on my cell phone but none would give me a resolution I could use. I suspect GPS could work but I wasnt going to invest in a GPS unit just for this pond.
Thanks
Howard