Advantages and disadvantages of plane tabling

Advantages

• Fieldwork and plotting are done together, so omissions and mistakes are detected on the spot.
• Contours and details can be drawn directly by looking at the ground.
• Less field book work; no angular booking is needed.
• Not affected by local attraction when oriented by back-sighting.
• Quick and economical for small and medium-scale maps.
• Inaccessible points can be plotted by intersection and resection.
• Needs less skill than theodolite surveying and the instruments are simple.

Disadvantages

• Not suitable in rainy, windy, foggy weather or in thick forest and built-up areas where intervisibility is poor.
• Instruments are heavy and many accessories must be carried; difficult to transport.
• Less accurate than a theodolite survey for large areas; accuracy depends on drawing quality.
• The whole work depends on the plan only; a plan cannot be re-drawn to a different scale from field data as there are no field notes.
• Paper may shrink or expand with weather.
• Plotting is done in the field, so work stops in bad weather, and an unskilled person may make a poor drawing.