Version 9.5 contains many new features plus the first change to the Traverse View / Drawing View interface in almost 20 years.
We’ve added a spellchecker with surveying abbreviations and terms so TPC knows what ‘Trilateration’, ‘Trimble’ and ‘IP’ are, right out of the box. Skip right over bearings, numbers and program variables like #SCALE2 to check just the words that really need to be checked.
The whole idea behind plat checking is to make sure the bearings and distances you report in your drawing accurately reflect your survey. Sounds simple doesn’t it? Yet CAD based programs can’t guarantee it. They leave too much room for inadvertent errors.
V9.5 introduces a whole set of tools designed to help you check your plats whether you created them in TPC Desktop or some CAD program. The end result is a closure based on known values and precisions. See creating traverses and adding points to traverses.
The Closure View includes tools to include precision in its closure computations.
This is one of those ‘good news – bad news’ things. The bad news is that AutoCAD has yet another file version AutoCAD 2007. So someone may ask you for a DWG 2007 file or worse yet, send you a DWG 2007 file you can’t open. The good news is that V9.5 support AutoCAD 2007 DWG and DXF files directly.
V9.5 includes tools to help you produce ALTA/ACSM Land Title Surveys using the 2005 MINUMUM STANDARD DETAIL REQUIREMENTS FOR ALTA/ACSM LAND TITLE SURVEYS.
TPC now does slope analysis on the DTM’s it creates. Shade in all the slopes greater than 12% or find the total area above 20% or just shade in the slopes showing areas of moderate and steep slope.
We have added a new Traverse View point type called Gap. When TPC sees a Gap point, it does not draw the line to the following point. You can think of this as a permanent line break in the traverse. Use gaps to omit a ditch line as it goes under a drive way or switch from left edge of a driveway to right edge.
In a drawing, right click any traverse line or line label and choose ‘Gap’. TPC inserts the GAP point into the traverse and redraws the survey without the line – its neat.
When V9.5 opens a Traverse View, it shares the current drawing. This is the first time we’ve changed the way you open a Traverse View since TPC was introduced almost 20 years ago.
V9.5 will delineate a traverse for you in the current drawing, showing you every drawing object that is part of that traverse. With the potential for so many traverses in a survey, this feature is a WOW! You get a better correlation between a traverse listed in the Traverses Manager and the where it lies in the drawing.
This is also great when you revisit a survey you have not been in for a while. It’s easy to forget which traverses are which in the drawing. Delineating a traverse give you the visual reminder you need.
In addition to delineating a traverse in the current drawing, you can also delineate a single point. TPC highlights that point and any point label associated with it. Whatever point you have selected in either the Traverse View or Points Manager is highlighted in the drawing.
V9.5 makes it easier to create traverses with the new Tools | Add points to new/existing traverse command in the Points Manager and Traverse View and the new Tools | Add points to new/existing traverse in the Drawing View.
V9.5 makes it easier to add points to traverses with the new Tools | Add points to new/existing traverse command in the Points Manager and Traverse View and the new Tools | Add points to new/existing traverse in Drawing View.
You won't find the Scrap traverse anymore, as these new commands are easier to use and more flexible than the old Scrap traverse.
We rewrote the drawing commands to improve consistency and ease of use.
Now you can save your Traverse Settings just like you do your traverse formats. Version 9.5 ships with a number of pre-defined settings which you can modify. You can also easily create your own.
We've added a new option to include zeros as in N 90° 00' 00" E to the Legal Description report.
Version 9.5 tracks the initial and closing points set in the Closure View, allowing you to include calls prior to the Point Of Beginning. The following shows a traverse that includes calls prior to the POB.
Beginning at a IP 1; thence North 90° East for 284.88 ; thence North 23° 27' East for 163.50 to a IP 3, said point being the True Point Of Beginning;
We added some new columns to the Traverses Manager for closure info like area, linear and relative error, closure type, etc. which allows the user greater flexibility in reporting lot information in plat checks. All of the next display sequence options are available in the Closure View and therefore in the Traverse Report.
We think users will either write a CSV file from the Traverses Manager or append it to the Report View. Either way, they will have one line per traverse (lot) with whatever information they want.
The View, Refresh command re-computes the closure information like area, length and linear error. If you’ve made any changes to your survey data, just re-compute to make sure the closures reflect those changes.
New GAP point type (see topic)
The traverse can be delineated in the drawing.
The current point can be delineated in the drawing.
Added Find Point cmd.
The status bar now displays the column precision (Bearing displays Precision: 10 min, HDist displays Precision: 0.01 Feet, etc).
The traverse data printout now includes precision, i.e. “Precision: 10 min, 0.1 Ft”.
Removed DF=1.0000 from the Status bar and Traverse Report if it is 1.000 exactly.
Single Row per Point command lets you toggle between one or two rows per point.
Added Tools, Program Settings so users can more easily change the decimal settings for area and distances displayed in the view.
Precision Adjustment – part of the plat checking. The user adjusts the traverse to a specified angle and distance precision. TPC adjusts the coordinates. The Traverse View then displays the inversed bearing & distance between the adjusted coordinates, matching the precision the traverse was adjusted to.
Add Precision column to Traverses Manager along with other closure info.
Add Precision string to Traverse Report, “Precision: 10 min, 0.1 Ft” (just like DF=1.0000).
You can now create offsets right in Drawing View. Specify an offset distance then select an object and which side the offset goes on.
Rotate and move drawing objects and traverses on screen. Add a deck to the house traverse and rotate them both together. This is great for generating subdivision layouts with septic and floor plans.
Rotate the entire survey on screen.
Select multiple traverses and drawing objects for translation and rotation.
Allow black background for our AutoCAD folks. User option in Program Settings, Drawing View tab.
The pop-up list of scales in the format bar now displays your current scale and allows you to type in any scale you want or select it from the list.
Holding down the Ctrl key over two objects updates the hit test to the second object immediately (it used to require a mouse movement).
When placing a lot label in a traverse, V9.5 uses the center of the extents from the initial point to closing point. This eliminates any courses prior to the IP.
Allow commands to repeat in a consistent manner. V9.5 does not include the ‘Insert Multiple Blocks’ command since the ‘Insert Block’ command can be repeated. Commands that can be repeated include [Repeat] in the command prompt and have a Repeat button on the format bar.
Drawing commands like offset provide previous values where appropriate and let you re-use the value by pressing Enter or right clicking.
Display Shift+LeftClick=Dialog to indicate that a dialog is available for the command.
Display Shift=Fine to indicate that holding down the shift key results in finer cursor movement.
Display Ctrl=Ortho to indicate when Ortho mode can be used.
Add an Ortho mode button to the Mode toolbar.
The current point can be delineated in the drawing.
Added Find Point cmd.
We've added a number of new file formats to make your life a little easier.
V9.5 reads the survey points, coordinates and descriptors from your old Pacsoft files. TPC knows how to decipher your Pacsoft’s binary CRD (coordinate), PDT (point discription), SET (set) and STD (set description) files. Support for the SET and STD files was released in BETA form in May, 2007 and will be available in its final form with the next version released.
Many of you have asked use to read your old DCA Release 10 files and ‘fix’ the user coordinate system. You’ve asked other software manufacturers to try it, but they’ve never gotten it right. TPC now reads the survey points from the DCA file right into your survey as it imports the drawing entities and takes are of any user rotation / translation so the imported entities correctly match the imported survey points. You can pick up right where you left off with your old DCA and never miss a beat.
Import raw data files directly from your Thales Navigation Z-Max GPS receiver. The latitude and longitude come in as raw data which TPC can convert to coordinates based on your survey grid.
We added PNG (Portable Network Graphics) files to Quick View Import / Export. PNG files store drawings as vectors, much like the PDF and EMF files do. They are small and operating system independent. As a result, they can be inserted into most desktop publishing programs.
Includes the latest DGN libraries from the Open Alliance consortium.