Version 8.5

Version 8.5 adds dozens of user requested features without significant changes to the user interface. Along with new features, you’ll find a number of existing features that are faster or better.

Faster Contours

Contours and volumes are now over 20X faster and more accurate. As a general rule, TPC now triangulates 1000 points in 1/10^th of a second.

Breakline Toggle

Turn breaklines on or off without removing them from the contour. Use this feature to see how the breaklines affect the contours.

Save / Reset Contour Settings

Choose the settings you use most often for contours, TIN lines and breaklines then save them as your default settings. Every new contour you create will use your settings.

Contour Borders are Optional

Borders are optional now. In fact, you’ll see speeds greater than 20X faster if you don’t need a border.

Contour Information

TPC now reports information on how many points, triangles and edges are involved in a contour plus when it sees something that isn’t right, it lists it out for you.

User Defined Symbols

You can now add your own point symbols, remove any predefined symbols you never use, rename the existing symbols and use relative paths to locate the symbols you do use. Use the new Save As toggle to ‘Share Files with Others’.

Better DWG Text Placement

TPC does a better job of placing text objects in the DWG files so that when you bring up the drawing in AutoCAD the text is exactly where it was in TPC. This is no small task considering the vastly different conventions Windows and AutoCAD use for text, but you’ll notice the difference it makes right away.

Import DWG Attributes

TPC now reads entity Attributes when opening a DWG file. They appear as separate text objects in your drawings.

Export 2D Polylines and LWPolylines

TPC now excludes the elevations of their vertices if you turn off the 3D Lines option in the DWG settings dialog.

TDS RAW Files

TPC tracks the changes TDS has made in the way it stores backsight reference azimuths in the RAW data format used by the Ranger and Recon.

MicroSurvey RAW Files

TPC now includes a separate listing for the MicroSurvey data collectors which use the TDS RAW file format.

Export MS Excel CSV Files

Now you can write a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet file in a single command. Send your data from the Points Manager, Traverses Manager or Traverse View right to Excel.

User Defined Raw Data Files

Use this new file format to import and export raw data just like you been doing for years with ASCII coordinate data. It works almost the same as the ASCII files but with raw data instead of coordinates.

Sharing TRV Files With Others

Toggle this new option On in the Save As dialog to share your survey files with others. TPC includes the definition of many objects like point symbols right in the file so when you share your surveys with others, they have the same information you have.

Stakeout Report Enhancement

The Stakeout Report now works with either the @ or _ symbols to identify staked positions. When TPC sees the point 12@1 or 12_1 it knows there is a design point 12 and can generate the stakeout data to it.

New Word Wrap Options

The Message and Report views now include a word wrap option that lets you wrap text to the printer, the view or turn it off altogether. This can make your reports much easier to read.

Separate Report Heading Lines

TPC now separates the Survey Name and Survey Filename at the top of a printed report onto two lines so long filenames don’t overlap the survey name.

Equations

You’ll find new equation options to add an angle to a bearing like N20d30’30”E-10 which will subtract 10 degrees from the bearing and add distances like 50+50+60.

Point Codes Now Support Survey Point Properties

You can now use the Point Codes to set the Survey Point Properties of the corresponding points. Set the symbol, size and color of all the Catch Basin points even if you don’s sort them into traverses. This new feature eliminates the need to create separate traverses for many of the points you typically include in a drawing.

New Point Code Aliases

TPC now uses an Alias column which allows you to put any number of codes into one traverse. Combine all your Tree or Utility codes.

Copy Point Code Traverse Settings

Now you can select a point code in the Point Codes Manager and copy its Traverse Settings to any number of other point codes. This is a really fast way to get your codes just the way you want them.

Updating Codes by Traverse

Now you can update your point code traverses using just the points in a traverse. This is a great way to keep your project current each day as you collect more data.

32 Drawings per Survey

TPC now allows up to 32 drawing per survey. The old limit was 16 so this is double the number.

Drawing File Names

Now when you export a drawing file, TPC uses both the survey and drawing name in the file name. You’ll get files like Job1AsBuilt.EMF making it easier to identify which drawings are in which files. Of course you can modify the names however you want before writing the file.

Traverse PC Plot Mark

You can now place the ‘Traverse PC’ plot mark inside the border as needed. TPC even moves it over as needed to accommodate rounded corners in the border.

Drawing View Interactive COGO

Now you can select two points in Drawing View and choose COGO, Random Inverse to display the inverse between them. Or select a line, then right click any number of points right in Drawing View to get their offsets to that line. Many of the COGO commands work just like this.

Points Manager Interactive COGO Functions

Right click any point in the Points Manager and choose a COGO command. The selected point is placed into the COGO dialog for you.

Sharing Drawing Objects With Others

Choose File, Save As and turn on the ‘Share File With Others’ and TPC will include all block definitions in the DRV file.

Drawing View

Just drag-n-drop the survey to pan in Drawing View. You’ll do this almost without thinking about it.
The circle cursor drawn by the Object Snap mode now retains its fixed size as you zoom in making it easier to select hard to get objects.
We’ve added the Drawing menu to the Context menu. Right click on Drawing View and choose Drawings to rename a drawing, switch to a different drawing or start a new one.
Zoom Window and other commands are much faster now thanks to new technology from Microsoft.
We’ve added Italics and Bold Italics font style. Italics draws text at a 15° slant, very close to the old Leroy lettering for that authentic old-fashion look when you want it.
Use these new options on any text object.
TPC now retains the drawing zoom as you move between drawing commands. It even retains the zoom when you open and close Traverse Views. It just feels so much better.
Use the View menu to display empty blocks and pictures.

Traverses Manager

The new Point Code column shows which point codes, if any, individual traverse where created from, making it easier to update existing traverse with new points.

Traverse View

Now you can select the point type from any highlighted cell. In fact, TPC now uses the same context menu regardless of which column is highlighted.
New View, Export CSV File command. It honors the ‘Single Row’ setting so that the CSV file will have either one or two rows per point. CSV files can be read directly into MS Excel.
When you open a Traverse View, Drawing View now uses the Traverse Settings vs Drawing Settings (temporary) when displaying the traverse. You can switch to Drawing Settings as needed.
When editing the Traverse View format, TPC now reconciles any differences between the Edit and Disp sequence by adding any letters in the Edit Sequence to the Display Sequence if needed.

Points Manager Sorts

The Points Manager can now sort points based on their Count, Status and Origin. These options make it easier to manage points by grouping similar points together.

Closure View

You can now specify your own Closed Loop tolerance in the Tools, Program Settings, Limits dialog. This percentage determines how much error a traverse can have and still be a closed loop. Once you select a closure type from the Closure View TPC locks the traverse into that type and no longer sets the closure type automatically.