Traverse PC Desktop Version 9.5                   
Update/Upgrade Policy

AutoCAD 2007 Support Spell Checker Plat Checker Slope Analysis Precision Survey View Changes	Drawing Sharing GAP points Graphical Rotate and Move Graphical Offsets and more ALTA / ACSM 2005 Extras Quick View Changes
AutoCAD 2007 Support
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.
Spell Checker
We’ve added surveying abbreviations and terms to the default dictionary 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.

Plat Checker

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. Insert Traverse Command The Insert Traverse command in Quick View is the key to quickly checking a single lot or hundreds of lots. It synchronizes the Quick View and Traverse View in such a way that you can select text right off the drawing to create your lot traverses. New Survey View Columns New columns in the Survey View format allow you to report closure information for each traverse and include it in a report or create a CSV file to import into your spreadsheet program.

Slope Analysis

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.     You have options to include the slope breaks in the legend to denote their color and hatching. Plus you can include the area summary in the current report.

Precision

The Closure View includes tools to include precision in its closure computations. Once applied, TPC re-computes the coordinates based on the direction and distance precisions. So this does in fact adjust the coordinates. You can think of this as synchronizing the survey data and the drawing data. When you apply precision to a traverse, the survey and the drawing data match. Precision is reported in the status bar of the Traverse View, in traverse reports and in the Closure View as ‘Precision: 10 minutes, 0.1 feet’. These vary based on your precision selections. Precision can also be displayed in the Survey View by turning on the Precision column in the view format.

Drawing Sharing

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. Delineating Traverses 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 Survey View and the where it lies in the drawing. Delineating Points Both the Traverse View and Point View will delineate the current (highlighted) points in the drawing. Finding Points in a Drawing Both the Traverse View and Point View allow you to find a point in the current drawing. The Find Point dialog lets you select a zoom factor then centers and zooms in on the point. The point is also delineated for you in the drawing.  When you choose this command from Quick View, you can specify the point label to find. The Traverse and Point views supply the point label and let you choose the zoom factor.

GAP points

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.

Graphical Rotate and Move

V9.5 lets you rotate and move objects on screen. You can also rotate and move traverses and drafted objects (like a porch) together. There are new commands to position and rotate the survey graphically on the page also. Eye-ball just the look you want for your plat right on-screen.

Graphical Offsets and More

V9.5 lets you specify an offset distance, then select objects and which side of each object to offset to. Drawing objects knows if they can be offset and how. Similar to the way you offset objects in CAD programs. We've rewritten the drawing commands in V9.5 to make them easier to use.

ALTA/ACSM 2005 Standards

V9.5 includes the ALTA 2005 specifications in the Least Squares Module. These APriori values ensure that the adjustments made comply with the MINIMUM STANDARD DETAIL REQUIREMENTS FOR ALTA/ACSM LAND TITLE SURVEYS.

Survey View Changes

We added columns 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 new 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 Survey View or append it to the Report View.  Either way, they will have one line per traverse (lot) with whatever information they want. The Tools, Recompute 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.

Quick View Changes

New offset command Synchronize zoom with pan Current drawing scale is now in scale pull down (Format Bar) and allows you to enter any scale. Holding down the Ctrl key over two objects updates the hit test to the second object immediately. New black background for AutoCAD folks. When placing a lot label in a traverse, TPC now uses the center of the extents from the initial point to the closing point. This improves the labeling of pan-handle lots. All drawings now include a ‘Background’ layer. You can rotate objects on screen. You can rotate the survey on screen. You can move objects on screen. You can  defined your own Drawing Settings. Works like traverse formats where each saved format has a name. V9.5 supplies predefined formats like Topo, Property Boundary, Alignment, etc. We added a Repeat button for appropriate commands like copy. We added new snap options (snap to specify a radius). You can enter some values directly (fillet radius, offset distance, etc). We added a Fine mode (hold down left shift key). Polylines can now be appended to the legend like other lines.

Extras

DCA R10 Many of you have asked use to read your old DCA 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. Pacsoft V9.5 reads the survey points, coordinates and descriptors from your old Pacsoft files. TPC knows how to decipher your Pacsoft’s binary CRD and PDT files and we’re working on the PRJ files for a future release. Thales Navigation Z-Max 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. DGN Includes the latest DGN libraries from the Open Alliance consortium. PNG 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. Single Row Button in Traverse View We added a single row button that toggles between one and two lines per points.