TPC Desktop 2008 - What's New

Windows XP and Vista Only

We understand there are diverse opinions out there as to whether or not Windows Vista is an improvement or not over Windows XP so we’re giving you the best of both worlds – Vista and XP.

We’ve dropped support of older versions of Windows in order to bring you the best of what Windows offers today in Vista and XP. You’ll notice the difference the first time you pull down a menu, resize a view or open a COGO dialog. We’ve standardized as much of the user interface as possible by using Microsoft’s Common Controls V6.0. Most of the new options are available on both XP and Vista or you can switch to Vista and take advantage of them all.

TPC Desktop 2008 handles all of Vista’s Standard User controls so you don’t have to. We provide easy, one-step installation on your stand alone computer along with network installation for the corporate IT (Information Technology) folks.

New Menus and Toolbars

You’ll find the new menus easier to use because they display the toolbar buttons right in the menu along side the command. Whether you select the command from the menu or from the toolbar you’ll use the same icon. We’ve also arranged many of the commands in a more logical order plus added hot keys for some of your most requested commands.

User Collaboration

TPC Desktop 2008 understands that you work with other people on the same surveys. So we’ve built User Collaboration into TPC Desktop 2008 right from the start.  If you select the Network option during installation, you can specify the location of your survey files and all the program data during setup. You network administrator can assign these locations without even running TPC.

Survey Files

TPC Desktop 2008 stores your surveys in a Documents folder called Surveys. Now that’s simple. It evens looks for existing surveys on your computer and moves them into this new folder for you so you’re ready to go right from the start. If you want to share your surveys on a network file server, just browse to the appropriate folder on the server – that’s all there is to it. See the Survey Data dialog.

Program Data Folder

TPC Desktop 2008 stores all of its program data in a shared program data folder so that everyone who uses a particular computer can access the same data. This is where you find the things you’ve created or customized like point code tables, symbols, line types, sample survey, drawing templates, additions to the spelling dictionary and more. And to keep it simple, there’s the new Use Window’s default folder button that resets to the correct folder for your version of Windows. How nice is that.

If you are using Windows Vista, you’ll notice a new folder called \ProgramData right below the \Program Files folder. Look in there for the \Traverse PC\TPC Desktop 2008\ folder where you’ll see just what we’re talking about.

You can set the folder to any location on your computer or network in the Program Data dialog.

 Traverse Groups

 Some of you will remember Traverse Groups from the TPC DOS days. Well, they’re back, but much better, thanks to Windows.

 Traverse Groups allow you to group similar traverses together in the Traverses Manager. Each group has a unique group name and can have any number of traverses in it. TPC supplies some initial groups for you like Alignments, Boundaries, Lots, Control, Imported and others plus you can add your own.

 Once your traverses are in groups, you can rearrange the groups, expand or collapse them (Boundaries and Import are collapsed in the example shown here) or select the group name and all the traverses in it are selected automatically. Organizing your traverses into groups is all about making it easier to manage your survey data.

 Predictive Data Entry

With so many more points, traverses, drawings, point codes and everything else in our surveys these days, we could all use a little help selecting the data we want. That’s just what predictive typing does.

Start entering the From point in the Random Inverse dialog and the pop-up list displays each matching point along with its description. Use the pop-up list to help you remember which point you want or select it directly from the list – it’s that easy. Or how about displaying all the existing traverses when you want to create a new one or all the drawings. You get the point. With so much data in the survey, it’s just nice to have a little help.

 AutoCAD 2008

TPC Desktop 2008 can read and write AutoCAD 2008 DWG, DXF and DXB files. Enough said – you’re current.

 World File Support

 TPC Desktop 2008 can read and write World Files that geo-reference any image file to your drawing. The world file takes care of the image's position, rotation and scale and corresponds directly to your survey's coordinate grid. You can override the world position when you need to plus export world files for the images you've geo-referenced manually then re-use that image in any future drawing.  Once again, TPC Desktop makes background images fun and easy to use.

Single TRV File

TPC Desktop 2008 eliminates the .DRV file used to store drawings. Drawings are now included in the .TRV file. This makes it easier to use the new built-in e-mail option. 

As always, survey files are NOT 100% backward compatible. This is especially true of TPC Desktop 2008 because the .DRV file is gone. We have modified Version 9.5 to read TPC Desktop 2008 files but it is limited to the first 32 drawings and will not track Unique Traverse Settings.

Cool COGOave unique traverse settings in any drawing makes Traverse Settings more powerful than ever and removing the Drawing Settings makes them easier to use. Now, we say that Drawing Settings are mostly gone because you can still access them via the Drawing Settings dialog – it’s just that you won’t want to anymore..

Clipping Survey Space

You can Clip Survey Space to any object you draw. Don't want the coutour lines to extend all the way to the border?  Want to draw in a line break to the reference monument?  Want to show just a part of the adjacent lots? These are all great reasons to clip the survey space of a drawing.

 Drawing View

 You’ll find dozens of fresh, new WOW! features in the Drawing View and drawings. We already mentioned unlimited number of drawings and unique traverse settings, so we’ll highlight a few others here.

We combined two really great new features to make working with your drawings a walk in the park. They’re Object Accent and Tool Tips.  In this example, we’ve placed the cursor over a contour line. The entire line changes to Drawing View’s Accent color and the pop-up Tool Tip displays information about the contour – like how long it is and the extents of the surface it is part of. WOW! Is this ever a great way to work with your drawing data.

 Can’t quite read the text on a legend item but don’t want to zoom in just to read it? No problem. Just move the cursor over it and read the Tool Tip.

Now would be a good time to talk about the new Drawing View Format dialog. Just like every other view in TPC, the Drawing View now has its own Format dialog.

 The new Mouse tab lets you choose how TPC identifies objects as you pass the cursor over them. We like the options to redraw the object in the Accent Color and show the Tool Tips with information about the object, but you can choose the ones you prefer.

 How about telling TPC you want to double click an object to display it’s Traverse Settings or object Properties.

 Or how about choosing which colors to use when delineating Topo shots, Paper Space or Survey Space objects.

 You’ll find that the Drawing View Format dialog provides lots of options related to how you work with drawings.

 It’s a good thing you can choose because with almost 200 colors to choose from we think you’re going to find just the right one for whatever you want. TPC Desktop 2008 used a standard color palette used by lots of Windows program plus we give you color names and list them alphabetically so they are easy to find. AutoCAD only gives you RGB values like 255, 128, 128 – whatever that is.

We added hot keys like T=Text, B=Text Box and V=Zoom Previous. We also grouped the commands in the menus, making them easier to find and use.

 We added the drawing variables SURVEYOR (surveyor’s name), COMPANY (surveyor’s company name), ADDRESS (surveyor’s address) and CLIENTADDRESS (client address). These can be entered in the Survey Information dialog.

 We added a Distance Factor 0.9988776 toggle to the Control Points tab in the Traverse Settings dialog. If you specify a distance factor for a traverse, you can now use it to modify the distance labels on the lines. It overrides the drawing’s distance factor when checked.

In TPC Desktop 2008, the COGO dialogs you use most have a pick button [>] that lets you pick the COGO point from the current drawing. Just select the Pick button for the point you want then select that point's label or symbol in the drawing. TPC get’s the survey point information from the drawing and puts it in the dialog. It’s pretty simple and easy – but will revolutionize the way you do COGO inside TPC .

Traverses Manager

 The new Insert Traverse Below Selected Traverse command makes it easier to add new traverses right where you want them and the New Traverse dialog tracks right with you.

 TPC Desktop 2008 adds COGO commands that can work on the selected traverse. Choose Offset Interval, Station, Station Offsets, Offset to Alignment, ROW Offsets and Predetermined Area.

 The Survey Information dialog now gives you a lot more information. It’s easier to track which Grid and projection you are using for your State Plane projects. And the new Surveyor dialog lets you enter and re-use information about your survey company in templates and drawings.

All the new information like Client Address and your Company name come with their own Drawing View variables so you can insert them into your title blocks and drawing templates. Now maybe you didn’t know about drawing variables. They update automatically in your drawing using the survey information. So you can enter the variable for client name one time in a drawing template and never have to type the client name into a drawing again.

 Traverse View

 Traverse views automatically cascade as you open them. Open a group of traverses in one area of the desktop, then open a second group in another area. Use Single Row per Point to make as much data visible as possible and you can do some serious analysis.

 TPC Desktop 2008 adds an Advanced tab to the Traverse View Format dialog. Now you can have TPC create a distance factor using the survey’s Grid factor and/or individual traverse units like Chains, Rod and Poles, etc. If you convert between Feet and Meters, you can even choose US or International Survey Foot.  And the Traverse View now displays the ‘Units=’ of the traverse if they differ from the survey units.

 And if that isn’t enough, check out the new Traverse Settings option to use these units in the Control settings for the drawing – for this traverse only.

Opening Traverses and the New Traverse Dialog

 The New Traverse dialog now displays Custom… (instead of blank) for both the Format and Settings list if neither one matches a saved format or setting.

 The New Traverse dialog now displays Insert Before: traverse name button if you are adding a new traverse to the survey.  now says ‘Insert Above: current traverse’ and displays the name of the existing traverse above which the new traverse will be inserted. The current traverse is the traverse currently highlighted in the Traverses Manager.

 Remember our new Predictive Typing –it will help you create unique traverse names here too.

We know these are just little things, but you’ll find lots of little things just like this in TPC Desktop 2008

Some New Little Things You'll Like

Added ‘Align / Space Selected Objects’ commands to ‘right click object’ menu.

Added Carlson SurveCE to data collector list in Import/Export.

When rotating text and left clicking the rotation point (instead of snapping to a location), the cursor goes off the screen (upper left or lower right). Fixed it.

All TPC supplied drawing templates now reference the Traverse PC PDF printer.

Updated all drawing templates to reference the Traverse PC PDF printer driver. This allows any template to be used for any size drawing up through Arch D.

When picking a line in the COGO Intersect dialog, TPC uses the end of the line you click closest to for Point 2 (the beginning of the line in the dialog). TPC also now displays the radius of a curve if selected.

Added ‘Retain Drawing Extents’ to DXF/DWG import. If the drawing has extents and TPC can read them and the drawing does not have any survey extents already TPC’s drawing will adopt the DXF/DWG extents.

Added ability to clip survey space objects in a drawing to any survey space object. Draw a rectangle around your survey then clip to it. Nothing gets drawn outside the rectangle. See 'Clipping Survey Space' in the help topics.

Added ‘Get Samples Path’ button to File Open dialog. This finds the current path for the sample files and places it in the ‘File name’ field.

When opening an existing drawing, TPC now displays the drawing size and printer along with the name.

The first traverse you add to a survey opens the Drawing View also unless the views are maximized.