New developments in CAPLAN ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Jan 30,12: A new interface to raw tacheometry observation data from Trimble instruments was implemented. With the selection of "Trimble JobXML (*.JXL)" from the file type list raw obser- vations from JobXML format can be loaded into CAPLAN. Jan 26,12: Two lines in a project can be connected using a joining arc. The new function can be invoked via the menu command "Calculate / Join Two Lines by Arc...". In the course of a network adjustment the distribution of all the standardized residuals (SR) can be graphically dis- played in the Plan Window as diagrams. The relevant option is available on the "Observations" page of the network ad- justment dialog. Theoretically, the standardized residuals should be normally distributed. As the actual distrubition can now be shown in diagrams, a visual check can be done. Jan 25,12: When loading DXF data into the plan window the layer proper- ties have in some cases been ignored so that all layer co- lors were set to black e.g. for DXF data from the bavarian cadastral map. This error was rectified today. Not all variants of the GeoGraf vertex format (LNE) were loaded correctly into CAPLAN. Now the interface has been revised and it now additionally loads arcs from LNE format. Jan 19,12: The file dialog for loading alignments now allows to select multiple files for certain alignment formats like DA40, DA50, ProVI, Vestra S40, Novapoint TIT, Geodimeter JOB, Trimble DC and Verm.ESN. When loading a horizontal alignment from DA40 the corre- sponding vertical alignment can immediately be loaded from a DA21 file of the same name. Furthermode the alignments name can be derived from the file name because the two di- git alignment id contained in DA40 text lines is not always useful or sufficient for the distinction of alignments. Jan 16,12: The computation of standard deviations of leveled elevation differences whilst loading leveling data or determing height closures was improved. The standard deviation out of back/ fore observations sums up the differences dif between back and for observation using the formula StdDev = Sqrt ( Sum(dif*dif/l[km]) / 2*Count Delta-H) Height closures are now computed out of the the averaged height differences and the standard deviation sums up the loop misclosures mis using the formula StdDev = Sqrt ( Sum(mis*mis/l[km]) / Loop count) The dialog for defining station values (e.g. when interpo- lating profiles) now offers a new check mark to take over the stations of all cross sections which already exist in the current project. The interpolation of profiles out of polylines now allows to assign an object type e.g. a horizon ID to the newly created profile points. Jan 13,12: The data export to VIS-All now allows to transfer polylines as exact roof lines. With threedimensional polylines the elevation of the roof line will individually be derived from the elevations of the vertex points. Jan 12,12: Hitherto within leveling data only the last observation of multiple intersights to identical points was loaded into CAPLAN. Now all multiple observations will be loaded and thus allow to compute average values in data evaluation. Jan 05,12: Loading points from a JobXML file did swap easting and nor- thing accidentially. This error was amended today. Jan 04,12: Profile constructions in the plan window sometimes lead to a program crash whilst copying a horizon to an new project. This error was amended. Dec 30,11: As a final step of the network adjustment the adjusted co- ordinates can be applied to the project. This step is now added to the list report. The matching of control points in some cases leads to rena- ming the matched points in the current project. This rena- ming will now be reported to CAPLAN.LST. Dec 28,11: Data exchange with Trimble instruments via DC format will not be supported by Trimble in the long run. Hence we will tur to the JobXML file which contains the complete data of a surveying task. First we implemented in CAPLAN an inter- face to load points and lines from JobXML in local coordi- nates. This interface appears as entry "Trimble JobXML" in the list of file types when loading points or lines and offers a very flexible assignment of point attributes. The CP file contains the current project settings like zoom extent, view layers, projection, etc.. To show a project in the same state as it has recently been closed CAPLAN up- dated the CP file every time a project was closed although no data may have been edited. Thus the file time of the CP file changed and did no longer show the time of the last data edit actions. Via "Settings / General" the tab "Backup" offers a new op- tion to disable this "silent" saving. Doing so the user can always decide whether the CP file should be written or not. Dec 23,11: With several elements lying very near to each other in the project window the edit command invoked via the context me- nu of the right mouse button did not in every case edit the previously activated element. This error was amended today. When loading raw observation data from Leica GSI format the changes in prism constant and ppm factor will now be added to the list report on demand. Dec 09,11: The REB file written by the volume calculation out of two DTMs in few cases did not contain all relevant points. This was caused by an error which we corrected today. Dec 01,11: The dialogs for importing data from the GND database of the Deutsche Bahn AG now show long descriptions for the selec- tion of the both coordinate systems. Nov 28,11: Hitherto it was not possible to change the angular units if you have installed CAPLAN in "C:\Program Files" within Win- dows Vista or Windows 7 because "C:\Program Files" is write protected an thus copying the TPL file is rejected. Now the template file CAPLAN.TPL resides as copy in the TEMP folder and can be edited at any time. The english version of the template file is named CAPLAN.ENG. Nov 25,11: Profile constructions in cross section plans always lead to a recreation of the profile plans and thus all additional drawing objects got lost. Now all the additional drawing ob- jects are preserved along all profile constructions. Thus e.g. retracing of profiles from sample drawing data will considerably be facilitated. Nov 18,11: In loading points and lines from a DXF file into a CAPLAN project points with identical coordinates could be assigned to existing points read beforehand. Thus the point informa- tion of subsequent points get lost. Now points with infor- mation derived from blocks with attributes will be prefer- red in this place so that the information of the attributes (e.g. point name) is preserved. Nov 17,11: The dialog for entering stations relatively to a center line required the fields "Start at?", "Interval" and "End at?" to be cleared if the values should not be considered. Now via the check mark "Station Range" allows to disable resp. enable these fields at once. Nov 16,11: DXF elements with an extrusion vector different from (0,0,1) will be treated in a special way when imported to CAPLAN. Arc, circles and ellipses will be approximated as polylines. With DXF polylines containing arcs the arcs will be removed and the chord will be transferred to CAPLAN. Nov 14,11: When importing a DXF file as plan or background the newly created symbols were stored only temporary. Thus the data was not displayed completly on reopening. Now you can de- termine the storage scope of the symbols immediately on the first page of the import dialog. The volume computation out of DTMs offers now the balance of area and of volume for the list re- port. Nov 11,11: The computation of station points and the setout of a road surface, for example, create new points with the station in their name. With negative stations the minus sign will now be transferred to the new point names. Nov 02,11: Within Windows Vista and Windows 7 the DesktopWindowManager (DWM) is responsible for the screen display of the windows. With larger projects containing some hundred thousands of points it is possible that DWM interrupts the drawing of da- ta and restarts it immediately. To avoid this infinite draw- ing loop you have to stop the Windows service "Desktop Win- dow Manager Session Manager". ----------------------------------------------------------- Oct 31,11: Release and distribution of version 3.2 ----------------------------------------------------------- Oct 26,11: The DB_REF reference system was added to the list of stan- dard reference systems with the name "Germany - DB_REF". Oct 19,11: In the Plan Window, the calculations "Trim Line", "Extend Line" and "Line Intersection" can now also be called from the toolbar on the left hand side of the window. Oct 17,11: The process for entering relative coordinates in the Plan Window has been improved. Now the dialog can be placed any- where on the screen and remembers its position. Several points can also be entered in succession without closing the dialog. Oct 14,11: Several tasks in both the Project and the Plan Windows cre- ate intersection points (e.g. trim lines, extend lines, line intersection). The elevation of such intersection points can now be taken either from the first or from the second polyline, or can be calculated as an average of both elevations. Oct 13,11: A new option is available on the "Directions" dialog page in the measurement data import dialog: "Rename target to avoid a change of zero". Activating this option results in an unmoved horizontal circle if different targets with the same name are detected. Instead, a question mark is added to the second target point name in order to avoid a circle rotation (change of zero). Oct 10,11: A new interface for horizontal alignments was added to im- port S40 files from VESTRA. Oct 05,11: For all control point transformations, the point weight can can now be changed for several marked lines. The listing of 3D objects now also offers the three compon- ents of the normal vector for output. The components can be added to reports via "Settings / List Template...". Oct 04,11: Several lists in CAPLAN allow the storage and loading of list data via LDX files. This possibility has now been ex- tended to include the selection of reference points in net- works and in deformation analyses. In the dialog for editing fixed control points, loading and saving always relates to the current list view. The transformation from RD83 to ETRS89 in the German state of Saxony is now available in CAPLAN as NTv2 transformation SaeTA2010. The corresponding raster file SaeTA2010.gsa can be found at www.landesvermessung.sachsen.de/inhalt/etrs/etrs.html After copying this file to the DAT folder of your CAPLAN installation, data in Saxony can be transfomed with an accuracy of a few centimeters. Sep 22,11: The creation of polylines and areas in the Plan Window is now facilitated by the ability to enter relative coordinates. By pressing the corresponding button in the toolbar of the dialog or by pressing F10, a dialog will be displayed at the bottom right corner of the detail window which allows polar or rectangular coordinates to be defined by clicking or typing. Sep 21,11: The fieldbook report for leveling data previously created different leveling lines depending on whether the current project contained elevation points or not. The fieldbook report is now created independently from a project's eleva- tion points and accurately represents the leveling lines contained in the observation data. Sep 20,11: As a result of many user requests, we supplemented symbol attribute labels so that they can include eastings and northings. This provides additional flexibility with regard to the labeling of coordinates. Sep 19,11: Functionality for loading circles from DXF into the Project Window has been improved. Hitherto, either the circle's center point (point import) was loaded or the circle was created as as a polyline (line import). Now, the center point will be imported in both these cases. It is thereby ensured that the center point of a circle is always avail- able (e.g. in the case of drilled piles). Sep 14,11: The volume computation using profile horizons creates a re- sults sheet in A4 format. If many positions have been incl- uded in the calculation, one results sheet may be too small to display all the positions. In such cases, as many re- sults sheets as necessary will be generated automatically. Sep 07,11: If polylines were dimensioned in the Plan Window with both length and gradient, the dimension texts overlapped each other due to the identical placement. The "Longitudinal Offset" parameter in both dialogs now offers the possibili- ty of offseting the dimensioning text along the leg of a polyline, thus avoiding text collisions. Sep 06,11: The road surface functionality has been revised and now offers rounding curves at stations where width or crossfall change. The curves are taken into account when edited lanes and in all other surface tasks as well. - When editing a single lane, the crossfall can be extended with reference to the previous lane. - A polyline can be used as a template for a single lane. Via the button "Get line", all vertices of the selected polyline are used to compute the station, width and crossfall. All computed values are added to the list in which existing list data are retained. - If the surface layout is symmetrical along the center line, one or several lanes can be mirrored to the oppo- site side of the center line. - The selection "From surface" in the station dialog can distinguish between TI points and starting/ending points of roundings. - The section view of a vertical curve in the plan window is extendend by a width band. For this, it is possible to choose the lanes that will provide the data for drawing. A new toggle in the polyline dialog control whether the current view will be adapted to the point clicked on in the list if it is not visible. This avoids changing the current screen view unintentionally while editing a polyline. Aug 30,11: Selected elements in the Plan Window were sometimes diffi- cult to recognise if the basic color of selected elements was similar to the specified election color. In such cases, selected elements will be displayed with the complementary color of the selection color. Aug 30,11: The transformation of DXF files now applies the transforma- tion scale to images as well and thus adjusts their size. Aug 29,11: Editing profile data in the Project Window now allows sort- ing of data tables using any selected column. Aug 11,11: The track network database of Deutsche Bahn AG can contain data from various coordinate systems in a single database. Now the import dialog for points and the import dialog for alignments allows selection of the plan and vertical ref- erence systems in use. The layer manager and many other drop-down lists offer a new method for selecting an item. While entering an item's characters, the best fitting entry will be automatically found and selected. Aug 05,11: The transformation of DXF files now also takes into account viewports in paper space as well. Their parameters are modified so that the transformed model data is still visi- ble in the viewport. Please note: existing coordinate lab- els and grid crosses are no longer valid after such trans- formations! Jul 29,11: During plan creation, regular stations along an alignment will now be labeled in round values and no longer on the basis of the starting station. Jul 28,11: The Flat Earth projection is a special projection used when 3D scenes involving the earth surface's are produced in simulators. Although the Flat Earth projection is not a conformal projection and is therefore of less importance in the realm of surveying, it has been implemented in CAPLAN in order to support direct conversion between national grid coordinates (such as UTM based on an ETRS89 system) and simulator coordinates. Jul 19,11: The export of points from a project to a DXF file was en- hanced with the addition of DXF version 2004 compatibility. Long block names and long layer names are thus preserved. A new feature enables all Z values to be set to zero. Jul 15,11: The closed layer controller offers a context menu which can be opened via a right mouse click. This offers entries for turning layers on and off by using a wildcard e.g. "SV_*". A new feature was added recently which allows the current layer configuration to be saved to (and loaded from) a file. The layer configuration comprises not only the visi- bility but also all other layer properties, such as color, linetype etc. The placeholders for plan and profile frames were extended to include the entries <#WIDTH> and <#HEIGHT>. These allow the width and height of a plan to be added to a frame lay- out. The values are formatted in centimeters e.g. "42.0 cm" for the width of an A3 format plan. Jul 14,11: The scale factor of a reference line can be defined as the ratio between the total line length as measured and as calculated from coordinates. The factor used to reduce dis- tances can now also be selected as the scale factor. Jul 07,11: Until now, pipe shift data from inclinometer or inkrex ob- servation data was displayed in sections in combination with terrain data. The new function "Plan / Diagrams / Single Pipe Displacements" can be used to create A4 plans for each individual pipe. In addition to the observation data the differences between epochs can be computed and displayed. Such epoch comparisons can also include the dis- play of velocities and distorion rates. The frame template PIPE.FRM can be used for such plans and is installed during setup from the CD. Several functions in the Plan Window result in the creation of new elements based on an original element (e.g. dimen- sion labels for polylines). Now, in addition to the layer, the properties color, line weight and linetype can also be transferred from the original element to such derived ele- ments. To this end, the "Pen" dialog offers the additional choice "By Original". Jun 24,11: Clicking free vertex points to define polylines or areas in the Plan Window results in vertices without elevations. The coordinate list's context menu now allows the elevations to be calculated or set for such points. For easier use, the "Interpolate empty elevations" option causes these values to be calculated at the time the dialog is exited via the OK button. Jun 17,11: The Plan window now allows the loading of ALKIS data in NAS format (German cadastre standard) to form a complete plan. This is done by selecting the "NAS-XML (ALKIS) (*.XML)" file type in the "Load Drawings" dialog. You will find the necessary NAS*.DAT configuration files, with applicable default values, in the "CAPLAN Workbook" download. Please copy these files to the DAT folder of the CREMER installa- tion. Using the arrow keys allows you to pan the screen area of the detail window in all four directions (up, down, left and right). Jun 15,11: A line (e.g. for use for the intersection of two lines) can be defined by a starting point and a bearing. The bearing can now be specified by clicking a point in the detail window. Jun 14,11: The sorting algorithm for point names in the point list shifts all numeric point names to the top. These are then followed by the alphanumeric point names, which are com- pared character by character. Since Summer 2010, the point names have been left aligned prior to the comparison which, in some cases, resulted in somewhat confusing sort orders. The "Names" tab in the "Settings / General" dialog now off- ers an option to turn off this left alignment of the point names; they will then be right aligned prior to the compar- ison. Example: left aligned right aligned PN1 PN1 PN11 PN2 PN12 PN3 PN2 PN11 PN3 PN12 Jun 08,11: When saving points to the Geodimeter, Leica, Sokkia, Topcon, Trimble and Zeiss tacheometry formats, all the points are now checked for unique point names. Otherwise, measuring and setting out with a total station does not really work. Jun 06,11: The dialog for editing the fix points in a network now pro- vides a selection by object type via the point list's con- text menu, as is the case with the creation of a network. You can now use an INI file with all the parameters re- quired for the CAPLAN setup, in order to enable an unatten- ded installation to be carried out. Further details are de- scribed in the online help, in the topic "Installation - Unattended Setup". Jun 03,11: Loading tacheometric observations took the tolerance for recognizing a circle zero directly from the sum of the two input fields. From now on though, the tolerance part that depends on the distance will be computed using the actual distance to the target point. May 30,11: When drawing a vertical alignment, the version released on May 12th in some cases omitted the last part of the gra- dient line. This error was rectified today. May 26,11: The status line of the project window now displays the name of the active element on the left hand side. May 25,11: Loading DXF data into the Plan Window has been improved again. Further special cases are now covered, such as im- plausible coordinates, invisble elements and complex sym- bols. Inserting vertex points into a polyline may have collided with curving a line segment if the new vertex point lies very near to the polyline. Now points always precede the curving when in project window. To ensure the precedence of the symbols in the plan window the point snap has to be enabled. May 19,11: Until now, the transformation of DXF files included only the center point of arcs. The connection to neighboring ob- jects was thus not always precise. Now, however, the start- ing, middle and end point of arcs will be transformed pre- cisely. The transformed arc is computed on the basis of these three points, using the new parameters. The connec- tion to neighbouring objects is thereby preserved. May 17,11: When a road surface is defined with reference to an align- ment, the alignment's vertical curve can also be assigned to a lane of the road surface, thereby creating a lateral vertical curve. This is often done when constructing high- ways as the alignment represents the central reservation and the vertical curve relates to the driving surface. All computations associated with road surface's take the lateral offset of the vertical curve into account: - Setting out a road surface - Setting out one lane of a road surface - Checking a road surface - Interpolating point elevations from the road surface - Creating profiles from a road surface In cross section plans, the lateral shift of the vertical alignment is also taken into account and displayed later- ally to the center line. When creating plans, the gradient indicators of an align- ment can be shifted by a variable distance from the axis. Setting the distance to 0.0 causes the gradient indicators to be located directly on the center line. May 10,11: When horizontal distances are reduced to the coordinate plane, the total reduction includes a projection part and a part relating to the elevation. As elevation values are referenced to the geoid, which usually differs from the co- ordinate plane, the elevation values must be corrected, particularly if the difference in height between the geoid and ellipsoid is significant. It was previously necessary to provide this correction using the 'elevation of coordi- nate plane' value (H0). From now on though, a geoid is al- ways taken into account when distances are to be reduced, so H0 is usually set to 0 in such cases. ----------------------------------------------------------- Apr 26,11: Release and distribution of version 3.1 ----------------------------------------------------------- Apr 26,11: When importing cross section data from DA 66, profile poin- ts with an identical axis offset in one horizon are not permitted. In such cases, CAPLAN amends the offsets of the affected points by 1 mm. Apr 21,11: Coordinates of surveyed points can only be calculated using the point stack function if sufficient control points exist in the project. As a special exception it is now also poss- ibkle to start the calculation in an empty project. In such cases the point stack automatically introduces an arbitrary local coordinate system. The volume calculation from cross sections (Elling) requi- res closed Elling lines. Thus all Elling lines will be checked if they are closed. Stations with open Elling lines will not be added to the volume calculation. The calculation of surface areas from cross sections executes this check as well, but in this case open Elling lines are required. Apr 14,11: When drawing cross sections, all profile plans generated will be issued immediately with a unique identifier (ID). This ID is displayed in the plan list after the profile name e.g. "1+275 (ID: 3)". A profile construction can then be applied to multiple pro- files with the same ID. It is sometimes the case that prof- ile plans are generated in a number of different drawing steps (e.g. via CTRL+double click in the Project Window) but should be modified in a single step. For this purpose you can transfer the unique ID from one profile plan to various other profile plans via "Profile / Transfer ID...". During a CAPLAN session, the profile plans generated have a direct connection to the source projects, as identified by the ID in the profile plan name. After each profile const- ruction, all changed profile plans are fully redrawn and any additional drawing elements would previously be lost. Hitherto the only way to 'disconnect' profile plans from projects was to save the plans to an M file and load them again from the M file. Via "Profile / Disconnect from Project...", the profile plans can now be directly dis- connected from the projects. You can then embellish the profile plans in any way you like. Thanks to its universal applicability, the NTv2 transfor- mation is now widely used. However, a GSA file containing adjustments for longitude and latitude values is not always available. It is though possible for CAPLAN users to create their own GSA files if a program for the coordinate convers- ion is available. CAPLAN now allows user-defined GSA files to be accessed, which can then be used in the NTv2 trans- formation process. The creation of a GSA file is explained at length in the CAPLAN Help files. As a result of the growing importance of GNSS technologies, surveyors increasingly have to deal with longitude and lat- itude values or even with Cartesian X,Y,Z coordinates rather than easting and northing values. However, a CAPLAN project is a projection of the earth's surface and can only be rep- resented using easting and northing values. In the past this discrepancy could be bridged only by applying import and ex- port functions combined with a transformation, which was quite onerous. As a new solution, the dialog for entering or modifying single points has now been extended, so that besides easting and northing coordinates, which are now pre- sented on the first dialog page, the longitude and latitude values (on the second page) and the Cartesian X,Y,Z coord- inates (on the third page) can also be directly viewed and modified. The entry of detail points referenced to a survey line has been enhanced with the addition of new options allowing the entry of point elevations: Individual, Above reference height, Elevation of survey line, and Elevation above sur- vey line are the input options. Apr 11,13: When adjusting a vertical network, a plan containing either the provisional elevations and their shifts or the adjusted elevations and their standard deviations can be output. The elevation shifts or standard deviations are drawn as verti- cal bars. Apr 07,11: For detail points on an alignment, the elevations could previously be entered using various options (e.g. indi- vidual, above vertical curve etc.). A further option is now available: this involves using a reference elevation so that only the height difference must be provided for each detail point and CAPLAN then calculates the elevation (reference elevation plus height difference). Mar 31,11: The reporting of road surface data now offers an alternative: interpolatation and output of the surface data at individual stations. Mar 30,11: The computation of volumes between horizons (menu command "Profiles / Volumes...") has been reworked. The positions are now defined first (as with Volumes from Cross Sections) and the valid stations for each position can thus be ident- ified immediately. The dialog thus provides a unique station list for each position. This station list may be extended using zero pro- files in order to exclude certain station ranges from the computation. Hitherto in such cases it was necessary to run the computation mutiple times for different station ranges. In order to provide a smooth transition for our customers, the old function will continue to be available via "Profiles / Volumes (old)...". If you have to enter slopes in a DTM dialog (e.g. excava- tion, terrace or slope classes), you can now type angles specified in degrees (e.g. 60.5°) or in gons (e.g. 45.5 g). Mar 25,11: When importing points from Zeiss REC format, leading zeros in point names can now be removed or retained. Mar 22,11: Standard leveling can be carried out using the "Rote Hose" technique to avoid certain methodical errors. With Zeiss/ Trimble instruments this variation of the method B-F is registered as aBF. CAPLAN now allows the correct import of such data. Mar 17,11: To activate an image element in the Plan Window using the mouse, it is necessary to click on the rectangular border of the image. However, the border line is not always clear- ly identifiable if the image contents do not fill the en- tire rectangle. The click-sensitive border line has there- fore been widened so that the border line can be found and clicked with less effort. Mar 15,11: A notification will now be provided to users indicating point modifications made in the Project Window that affect currently invisible lines. After upgrading the GeoGraf interface (PAR file) to cater for GeoGraf version 6, the names of the exported points were declared as "Info". We have now identified the settings responsible for this in the PAR file and amended the output. Thus GeoGraf now recognizes point names correctly. Mar 14,11: The epoch comparison and deformation analysis have now been enhanced to check all selected projects for identical co- ordinate system definintions. In the Plan Window, the editing of polylines did not always recognize rectangles correctly. This error was amended to- day. Mar 09,11: The computation of station points sometimes resulted in in- correct station values, especially when main points were being computed and the station list actually contained the stations of the main points as well. This error was recti- fied today. The export of an alignment to the Trimble DC format now writes the correct id "37" for vertical alignment points without a rounding radius. If the point selection using a rectangle is carried out with an elevation range specified, only points with valid elevations will be included in the selection. The dialog "Edit / Coordinates / Set Elevation..." invali- dates the point elevations if no elevation is entered, i.e. the edit field remains empty. Mar 07,11: Selected polylines in the Plan Window can now be adorned with accompanying symbols. The new dialog can be invoked via the menu command "Edit / Polyline / Accompanying Sym- bols...". The old functionality that could be used to place symbols on polyline vertices has been integrated as a spec- ial case in the new dialog. Feb 22,11: The Ctrl+U keystroke can now be used for switching between the Project and Plan Windows, which can be useful if this has to be done frequently. When points are to be loaded into a project, the standard file type now also offers the L-files as options. If an L- file is selected, only the points in it are loaded, without the connecting lines. The area unit "acres" is now available in all dialogs that are related to area calculations. Feb 16,11: The line selection in a project's line directory can now be saved to or restored from file via "Save list data" and "Load list data", which are accessed from the line list's context menu. Feb 15,11: In the epoch comparison, each epoch is now provided with a different color and line type, thus increasing the legi- bility of the plans considerably and reducing the need for manual input to a minimum. Feb 11,11: In some cases it is useful to include part of an existing polyline in a new polyline. The Plan Window now offers the possibility to add polyline vertices or areas to the poly- line or area currently being edited. The button "Insert polyline" shows all the vertices belonging to the selected element. All the selected vertices will then be added to the line before the active point. This option is also available when editing horizon or Elling lines in profile construction mode. When shifting the coordinates of selected elements in the Plan Window, the use of negative scale factors in the east- ing or northing directions will result in the data being mirrored about the northing or easting axis. Feb 10,11: The interpolation process for elevations on polylines in the Plan Window has been redesigned again. If a polyline vertex is based on an existing symbol, the symbol's elevat- ion is taken as the elevation of the polyline vertex. In all other cases, the elevation column remains empty. A level interpolation can be launched via the context menu, once alignment of the polyline has been determined in plan. The context menu can also be used to carry out other elevation- specific tasks. Feb 08,11: The following three options can be changed in the Plan Win- dow at any time, irrespective of whether a dialog is open or not: - Point snap mode on / off - Object picking mode on / off - Plan coordinates (cm) or easting / northing values (m) All three options are now handled in the same way when a dialog is open and the settings are stored just temporarily for use in the dialog. Upon dialog termination, the three modes are reset to their original states that existed be- fore the dialog was invoked. In all dialogs for editing drawing elements, the rotation angles are defined in an anticlockwise direction and are stated in (decimal) degrees. The reference direction is now determined by the "Plan coordinates (X,Y in cm)" option in all dialogs: If the option is activated, the angle is orient- ed to the plan's x-axis. Otherwise, the angle value refers to the easting axis of the global coordinate system. Of course, this distinction is only of relevance in rotated plans. Feb 07,11: In many cases it is easiest to derive longitudinal or cross sections from fully elaborated plans by intersecting the drawn polylines. Now, with "Profiles / Generate / From Lines", sections will be created from the intersection points generated by the project's polylines. The project's current point selection can now be saved to or restored from a file using "Save Selection" and "Load Sel- ection", which are accessible from the point list's context menu. The LandXML format can now also be used as an interface for exchanging data defining road surfaces built up using lanes. Feb 02,11: If points in a project are transformed, either by a datum transformation, a parameter transformatoion or a coordinate swapping operation, all the lines involved are moved along with the points. Rounded arcs in such lines, however, were not scaled up to now. This situation has now been improved: a conformal transformation with an isotropic scaling effect now includes adaption of line arcs to the new scale. In all other cases, the arcs are removed if permission is granted by the user. Precise leveling can be carried out using the "Rote Hose" technique in order to avoid special methodical errors. With Zeiss / Trimble instruments this variation of the B-F-F-B method is registered as aBFFB. CAPLAN now allows the correct import of such data. Jan 27,11: A new rectangle can now be defined in a plan using a dedi- cated dialog in which all the rectangle parameters (such as width, height, position etc.) can be specified. Editing a rectangle is also done via this dedicated rectangle dialog, instead of using the general polyline dialog, as was the case until now. Jan 26,11: The profile layout now offers the parameters R21-R24, which provide precise details about the center line text (position, text height and rotation). If the profile points are labeled with their point name, the point names will be left aligned if the text rotation dif- fers from 0.0 (horizontal). Horizontal point names will still be centered. Jan 25,11: The DXF interface now also loads ellipses into projects. The ellipses are approximated using polylines. Multilines could to date not be loaded from DXF. But, from now on, at least the centerlines of multilines can be loaded as poly- lines. The search for redundant lines in the lines directory can now be restricted to linies with an identical object type. Thus e.g. fences lying on the edge of slopes will be ex- cluded from a search. Jan 11,11: For many years, height differences in CAPLAN have been dis- tinguished in the observation database with respect to the survey method used: leveling or trigonometrical surveying. Both these height difference types may occur in large proj- ects if both surveying methods are employed. However, such a combined spatial network could not be created in a direct way up to now; it was in fact necessary to create the trig- onometrical network and the leveling network separately. Merging these networks then resulted in both types of height differences being conducted in two groups (H0 and H1). This work-around is now no longer necessary. In addition to the general height differences (H), there are now also the lev- eled height differences, which are stored in a new section (L). The relevant changes have been implemented in all the functions related to height differences in a network: - Network creation (using the observation database) - Network planning for a prediction (prognosis) - Saving a network (in an N-file) - Network adjustment - Network prognosis - Deformation analysis - Editing network data - Factorizing of standard errors (a priori) - Merging of two networks - Height closures - Network display in a Project Window - Drawing a network plan Dec 29,10: The placeholders used in section plans, plan frames and pro- file frames have been revised completely. - The placeholders can now be surrounded by fixed text parts e.g. "Scale: <#SCALE>" will expand to "Scale: 1 : 2000" - The format characters "###" following placeholders are no longer needed. The placeholders will always be replaced by their full value. Old style placeholders will of course still be supported correctly. - The menu command "Frame / Placeholders..." offers a dia- log for specifying user-defined placeholders, which can then be applied to plan layouts. The use of environment variables is supported - simply add a leading $ character e.g. NAME = $USERNAME. User-defined placeholders are saved hierarchically in up to three ASCII files called PlanVars.DAT, which will then be accessed by the plan frame commands. - The new placeholder <#SIZE> adds the plan size in square centimeters to the plan or profile frame. - A longitudinal section can be furnished with the new place- holder <#AXOFFSET> for writing the lateral offset to the section plan. - The new placeholder <#REFH> inserts a profile's reference height into the current text. Dec 23,10: Longitudinal and cross sections can now also be exchanged via the LandXML format. Dec 16,10: When importing profile data from DA 54, Elling IDs can now be assigned to the positions defined in the DA 54 format. Furthermore, the import can be restricted to specific pos- itions by selecting the relevant positions in the dialog list. Dec 15,10: The epoch comparison now retains additional settings e.g. the dimension of the comparison (plan, vertical, spatial) or the option to allow point gaps. To enhance the overview of plans that are created, the title of the comparison can be added to plan names. Dec 14,10: The initial station of an alignment can now be easily shift- ed. Accessed via the button "Initial station", the alignment edit dialog now offers a subdialog in which the station shift can be defined using an arbitrary main point on the alignment or a point in the project. Dec 09,10: Similarly to the import of leveling data, the fieldbook re- port of leveling data offers the choice to build leveling lines that are as long as possible. Nov 30,10: The intersection of two planes in a project is a new func- tion provided under the menu command "3D Objects / Plane / Intersect Plane...". The result of the intersection is a straight line in space, which can be added to the project as a new 3D object. Nov 26,10 The visibility of points and lines in the project window is turned on and off by the view layers dialog. The visibility can be indicated in the point list and all relevant dialogs with a light bulb symbol. The display of such bulbs is turned on and off via "View / Options...". As of now, the point selection in the detail window (e.g. by polygon) considers the visibility. Invisible points are excluded from selection process. When creating 'REB data' via a volume calculation between two DTMs, the outer borders of both DTMs must be identical. The check algorithm has been enhanced and allows additional border points as intermediate points of straight sections of the border. Nov 25,10: The transfer of DTM contour lines to VIS-All has been acc- elerated considerably by connecting single contour parts to polylines. Nov 21,10: The new version 3.0a of CAPLAN supports version 2.0.2 of VIS-All for 3D visualization. VIS-All 2.0.2 is available on our download page. The previous VIS-All version (2.0.0) is still supported, but only for visualizing DTM surfaces (without triangles and contour lines). Nov 18,10: The dialog for editing network control points has been re- newed. The standard error values are now entered in milli- meters - which matches the unit for entries made when cre- ating a network. The value entered can be applied to all control points that have a check mark (similar to the old dialog) or, alternatively, to the blue selected points (new). If a check mark is removed and then set again, the origin- ally entered standard error reappears in the list. The new X=Y=Z option can be used in a spatial network to edit all three coordinates simultaneously. Creating a parallel line in the project window now allows object types and attributes to be transferred from original points to new parallel points. Nov 15,10: Double-clicking an object in the Project Window previously led to various different actions, depending on the data in- volved. For example, double-clicking an alignment without a vertical curve resulted in the edit dialog being invoked. But if a vertical curve was present, a section view was immediately displayed in the Plan Window. The behavior resulting from a double-click has now been standardized. Double-clicking now always results in the object editing dialog opening. The vertical section view is created by holding the CTRL key while double-clicking the object. The "Draw Section View" option in the context menu also displays the vert- ical section view in the Plan Window. Nov 12,10: Up to now, a DTM border could only be indented by clicking one triangle side after the other. This function now offers an option to indent multiple triangle sides by selecting them via a crossing polyline (fence). Nov 11,10: As with reference systems, which increasingly form part of the everyday work of surveyors, geoid models are also now used more often. The geoid user interface has therefore been subjected to a major upgrade. Particularly the refer- ence system used as the basis for the geoid model is not only displayed in the editing dialog now but is also saved in the geoid files (in the comment lines). This is bene- ficial for all users that often work with geoid models. A geoid report can now be generated from the editing dialog. This lists the original geoid data (based on the geoid ref- erence system), and also the geoid data referenced to the coordinate system used. Nov 08,10: When adjusting a network, the reporting of the BAARDA test can now include the observation group. The list template sections "Network.ListBaarda1" and "Network.ListBaarda2" now therefore offer the new variable <$GROUP>. Oct 28,10: Copying points from the Project Window to the Clipboard caused a program crash if the attributes of all the points were extremely long. This error was rectified today. ----------------------------------------------------------- Oct 26,10: Release and distribution of version 3.0 ----------------------------------------------------------- Oct 25,10: The profile constructions in the Plan Window now enable you to delete profile points, horizons and Elling lines using the DEL key as a shortcut. Upon closing the point directory it removed all points from the project that had neither valid plan coordinates nor valid elevations without any message. In such cases the user is now queried to confirm or deny the deletion. Oct 18,10: Distances measured at terrain level must be reduced to the coordinate plane before they can be used for the determin- ation of coordinates. And conversely, when distances are calculated from coordinates, they must be corrected before they can be used for staking out in the terrain. The dist- inction between distances at terrain level and distances in the coordinate plane could often be ignored in previous coordinate systems (such as in France, Germany etc.), but the introduction of ETRS89 and its UTM projection results in differences arising that must be taken into considerat- ion. The definition of official cadastral areas has also changed in some German federal states: The new definition relates to the horizontal area at terrain level, whereas the previous definition (which is still valid in the other federal states) refers to the area at the ellipsoid level. CAPLAN can be used for both approaches: areas can be calc- ulated from coordinates and adjusted for the new definition as well as the old definition. The general approach, which is to offer the correction of distances and areas only in dialogs and in projects, still applies. Distances and areas based on coordinates are not corrected in direct calculati- ons (i.e. without a dialog) or in the Plan Window. Volume calculations are also left uncorrected, as the correction effect of 1 per mille is much smaller than the tolerable deviation. More and more states establish their on satellite systems for surveying purposes. Hence the term GPS (Global Positio- ning Systems of the United States) will be superseded by the more general term GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System). Oct 15,10: Until now we have provided the DTMViewer for the 3D visual- ization of DTMs generated in CAPLAN. However, the effort to develop and maintain an additional 3D application exceeds our capacities, as we wish to focus on the development of our key applications. We have now therefore engaged the company Software-Service John as a partner in order to be able to use its application VIS-AllŪ to present CAPLAN data in 3D. Via "DTM / Export to VIS-All...", your data can be directly exported to version 2.0 of VIS-AllŪ, which allows three dimensional checking and presentation of the data. The setup file for VIS-AllŪ and a free info license will be provided on our next update CD, which will be shipped at the end of October. Oct 11,10: Line coding in the field can be implemented usind line num- bers. These line numbers are no longer restricted to pure numeric digits but can now include alphanumeric characters as well. Sep 30,10: The LandXML format was added to the interfaces of the Digi- tal Terrain Model. CAPLAN now offers the file type "LandXML Format (*.XML)" when loading and saving DTMs. Sep 29,10: Digital terrain models exported to TTM format for Trimble applications could not previously be imported by the new Trimble Business Center. This error was rectified today. Sep 28,10: Hitherto, the alignment files from the company Sinning were assumed to contain data in fixed columns. Thus not all TRA and LGS files could be read by CAPLAN because the format is block oriented and the width of the blocks is not fixed. The block oriented format is now interpreted correctly by CAPLAN. Sep 24,10: The file "CAPLAN Z-Format.xsl" provided by Trimble converts a JXL file (Trimble Job XML) to a Z format (CAPLAN observ- ations) file. This file has been updated by Trimble and can be found on our download page at "CAPLAN: External files". Sep 22,10: The "Normbasierte Austauschschnittstelle" (NAS) from the German AdV enables you to load cadastral data (ALKIS) into a CAPLAN project in order to create points and lines. Dec- orative elements, such as street names and parcel numbers, are not imported as they cannot be displayed in the Project Window. The import function is available at "File / Open or Load / Lines...". The dialog offers "NAS XML (ALKIS) (*.XML)" as an entry in the file type list. The new task "DTM / Build / Slope..." computes the inter- section of a slope with a DTM or a fixed elevation. The slope is based on a break line and slope values for cut and fill. These slopes can be useful for the planning of roads, mounds and areas of excavation. A coding error caused a crash in CAPLAN when selecting lat- eral distances during the interpolation of cross sections. This error was rectified today. Sep 20,10: Datum transformations are no longer specialized operations carried out by a few experts but are becoming increasingly prevalent in the everyday work of surveyors. The redesign of how reference systems work in CAPLAN was therefore only a question of time. The following main aspects form the basis of the new design: a) The specifications of all the reference systems avail- able should reflect the latest published details. The sources can now be reviewed in the help pages and can thus easily be validated by everybody. b) The dialog-based definition of a coordinate system often ended up causing mistakes and calls to the support line. Although the dialog has not been redesigned, pictures of the dialog now clearly show the input parameters for each country / system included in the help. c) In a project, a reference system was specified by its R- number (in the CP file). The R-numbers were defined as reference systems in the RefSys.DAT file, which could cause inconsistencies when projects were transferred. The parameters of a reference system are therefore saved completely in the CP file now. d) The old RefSys.DAT file contained a lot of systems of dubious quality, most of which were never used. This old file will therefore be removed after a transition period and is now replaced by standard systems and user-defined reference systems, which can be saved in hierarchically located RefsysX.DAT files. As a user of CAPLAN you won't notice the background changes very much in the user interface. The menu has been stream- lined though, and only the following two commands remain: 1. Transformation / Reference Systems... and 2. Transformation / Position Ellipsoid... The first command invokes a dialog displaying all the ref- erence systems contained in the data set (similar to object types and layers). From that dialog, new systems can be ent- ered and reports can be generated. The second command re- positions the ellipsoid of the current project and is al- most identical to the previous function. The special Dutch stereographic projection (Double Project- ion attributed to Schreiber) can now be used in CAPLAN. Sep 10,10: The "Feedback to CP..." could not be sent as an e-mail if you had a recent version of Microsoft Outlook installed. This error was rectified today. Sep 07,10: When exporting to DXF from the Plan Window, hatch patterns were sometimes not displayed correctly in AutoCAD. The rea- son was that the pattern origin was located far away. This error was corrected today. Sep 01,10: When staking out the lanes of a road surface, the report is usually sorted by lane number. The dialog now offers an opt- ion to sort the report by stations as well. The number of GSI words contained in one line of a GSI file was hitherto restricted to 15. Today this restriction was set to 30 GSI words per line. Aug 20,10: The transformation of DXF files now also considers elements with global coordinates that form part of a block definit- ion. Background data and dimensions are therefore trans- formed to the correct coordinates. Aug 13,10: In anticipation of the Intergeo trade fair and Version 3.0 of CAPLAN, all the program and file icons have been rede- signed to provide an improved and consistent look. In par- allel, the toolbar icons in the graphical user interface (GUI) have been updated. The applications thus have a mod- ern and appealing look. Aug 12,10: The last update on Aug 05 contained a small error with reg- ard to defining coordinate systems in CAPLAN. This error was rectified today. Aug 09,10: When loading a DXF file in the Plan Window, CAPLAN tries to translate the known AutoCAD line types to the internal CAPLAN line types 1-6. This speeds up the display in the Plan Window considerably. Aug 04,10: Line coding in the field has been enhanced once again. With all line coding methods, the lines can now be divided auto- matically if the code of the surveyed line point changes. Jul 22,10: An additional interface for alignments is available for im- porting so called ASCIIBAHN data from CARD/1. The function "Alignments / Single Alignment / List Elements" was removed because the alignments can be listed via the alignment directory. The line coding method "Link to named point" requires the name of the previous point as a piece of additional infor- mation. This method has been extended to facilitate line recording: Specifying the hyphen symbol"-" as the point name causes CAPLAN to create a connection to the previously registered point. Jul 19,10: In various CAPLAN dialogs, there are text entry fields that can store multiple text entries in a list (such as stakeout report text strings). Previously, obsolete text strings could not be removed from the list. However, our new text list now displays a Delete icon next to the activated text element. A text element can be removed by clicking on this icon and then confirming the subsequent question. In the Plan Window, the two tasks "Trim Line" and "Extend Line" are now invoked by two different menu commands, so the previous option for differentiating these has been rem- oved from the dialog. The elevation calculation for a new point is similar to the elevation calculation used in the line intersection dialog. Jul 02,10: The conformal transformation of alignments can now be re- ported in CAPLAN.LST. Jun 30,10: The new sorting algorithm for point names sometimes wrongly identified very different point names as being the same, such as the point names "607" and "06-07". This error has now been rectified. Jun 28,10: Profile constructions in the Plan Window that have been carried out in multiple profile plans can be undone and re- done (as can other changes in multiple plans) in all the relevant plans in one single step. Jun 25,10: The point name masks in the dialogs - Alignments / Station Points - Profiles / Road Surface / Setting Out - Profiles / Road Surface / Setting Out a Lane now include continuous point numbering (e.g. "SP23AA###") in addition to the existing station mask (e.g. "SSSSS.sss"). Jun 24,10: If drawing elements have been selected in multiple plans in the Plan Window, the Delete command results in a dialog be- ing displayed that can be used to delete all the selected elements in all the plans. In the Plan Window, all changes that have been executed in multiple plans can now be undone and redone in all the rel- evant plans in one single step. Jun 18,10: Multi-line tooltips for points and alignments are now used to improve the display of information. In the Plan Window, the colors of elements are adjusted to a contrasting color if they are not sufficiently different from the background. However, areas with a SOLID fill are always displayed with their original color. This behavior is now also applied to areas that form part of symbols. Jun 16,10: The sequence of ascending point names is now displayed in a similar fashion in all the lists containing points. The seq- uence equates to a standard alphabetical sorting, compar- able to the lexically sorted rows generated by CREDIT. Other data sets, such as object types and layers, are also sorted and displayed in accordance with these rules. Jun 08,10: The two dialogs "New Layer" and "Available Layers", access- ible in the Plan Window, have been merged to create the "New Drawing Layer" dialog. A new layer can also be created directly from all editing dialogs in the Plan Window. For this purpose, a new button has been placed to the right of the layer selection drop- down list in the dialogs. Jun 04,10: Some functions for editing drawing elements in the Plan Window could not always easily be found. The menu structure in the "Edit" main group has therefore be rearranged, and these functions are now grouped under the element types to which they belong. May 28,10: In the Project Window, the dialog controls for angles now provide a data interface to the Clipboard via CTRL+C and CTRL+V. Warnings and errors that occur during a DXF import are now displayed at the end of the process. Hitherto, polygon meshes resulted in polylines with incor- rect vertices. These DXF elements are now ignored. May 26,10: The time-distance diagrams resulting from an epoch compari- son are now furnished with a zero line in order to enhance legibility. May 25,10: In some cases, the naming of polylines is an important is- sue for users. Up until now, the last used polyline name was stored persistently in the user preferences. Hence the polyline names could differ considerably in a project as a result of different users and various project directories being used. To achieve more clarity in naming polylines, the last name used is now stored in the project directory. May 21,10: As an option, elevations can be calculated while leveling data are being imported. Although this method is not gener- ally recommended, it is often the only means of obtaining a clear calculation report without investing too much effort if intermediate sights or profile points also form part of the survey. The background to this is that CAPLAN stores leveling observations and radial observations in the same way, so foresights and intermediate sights cannot be distin- guished once they have been imported. The elevation deter- mination report has therefore been improved when elevations are calculated in conjunction with the import of the actual data: All multiply leveled points are compiled at the end of the report, and the averaging process is also documented in detail. May 17,10: Converting polylines to alignments (using the menu command "Alignments / From Polylines...") resulted up to now in all the vertex points in the lines being retained, so the creat- ion of profiles in the vicinity of these points was often problematic. A radius can now be specified in the dialog for the horizontal alignments as well as for the vertical curves. The result is very similar to a tangential polygon approach for the horizontal elements, i.e., the circular arcs do not pass exactly through the vertex points but create a curve bypassing them. May 12,10: The new NTv2 transformations have proved popular since be- ing included in the latest update. In practice, however, they have been quite time consuming, particularly when specific grid files (possibly located on a file server) with small grids are used, as the grid file must be access- ed each time a grid change is required. To improve perform- ance, each grid that has been used is now saved in an inter- nal memory, which can be accessed much faster than the grid file itself. Apr 29,10: The calculation of a spline curve in a project (Alignments / Single Alignment / Spline...) results in an alignment that passes exactly through the given vertex points, with the curvature being zero at the first and last vertex points. Hence, the alignment smoothly transits to a straight line at both ends. It is now also possible to define a tangent bearing at the first and / or the last vertex point, which results in a curvature other than zero at these vertices. Editing a polyline in the Plan Window now takes vertex ele- vations defined in the dialog list into account: If the clicked point does not have a specific elevation, CAPLAN tries to derive an elevation for the new vertex from the dialog list in the following way: A new vertex inserted before the first or after the last vertex is assigned the same elevation as stated in the first or last vertex in the list. However, if the new vertex is inserted between two existing vertices, the elevation is automatically inter- polated, proportionally to the distances between the points. ----------------------------------------------------------- Apr 27,10: Release and distribution of version 2.8 ----------------------------------------------------------- Apr 23,10: Via "View / Overlay Projects...", the current project can be overlaid with other open projects. The visibility and color of the overlaid projects will be retained. Apr 22,10: For your convenience, we have defined some additional short- cuts. Project window: Ctrl+Shift+O Turn object selection on/off Plan window: Ctrl+H Edit text elements Ctrl+Shift+O Turn object selection on/off Ctrl+Shift+S Turn point snap on/off Apr 21,10: When closing the Plan Window, not all modified plans were correctly selected for saving in an M-file. This error has been rectified today. If the plan height exceeds A4, the plan frame will be creat- ed with additional folding marks in the vertical direction. Profile plans are now centered horizontally in the plan area if exact folding is specified. Apr 19,10: A project title (for profile plans) and a date and time (for project comparison) can now be assigned to a CAPLAN project using the "File / Properties..." command. Apr 13,10: The dimensioning of polylines in a plan (Dimension / Poly- lines) and the dimensioning of slopes (Dimension / Gradi- ents) can now be done with the addition of graduation lines at positions where the line segments meet. This option is useful for clearly indicating the individual segments of long polylines. Mar 31,10: The control point transformation "Conformal 2D+H" now pro- vides an individual vertical scale factor. Mar 30,10: The function for averaging the coordinates of neighboring points (Edit / Coordinates / Equal Position) has been en- hanced again: All three functionalities, namely "Plan Mean", "Level Mean" and "Merge Point", can now be carried out either for an individual point group or for "All groups". CAPLAN thus now allows the automatic averaging of coordi- nates for points that have to be surveyed more than once due to their various code features. Mar 29,10: The cycle mode (Ctrl+Shift+S) for activating an object in a Project or in the Plan Window is now obsolete as the new object selection function has been introduced. It will therefore be removed from CAPLAN. M-files can now be opened in CAPLAN by double-clicking the M-file in Cremer Commander or in Windows Explorer. For this, the file type *.M has to be removed from the list "Settings / Launch File With..." in Cremer Commander. The appropriate file types are automatically registerd via the CP Setup program. When updating CAPLAN from our home- page, the filetypes can be registered by calling "CAPLAN_W.EXE / RegServer" in the Windows Command line. Mar 24,10: Similar to the option in the Project Window, the Plan Window now also provides a solution for selecting an element from among many objects located close to each other. The new option "Settings / Object Selection" offers a list of all the objects lying close to the clicked position. While run- ning edit dialogs the list is confined to the relevant ob- jects (e.g. symbols, polylines). Mar 19,10: When loading leveling data from the Zeiss format, the point code was inadvertently assigned to the subsequent point. This error has now been rectified. The epoch comparison was revised once more. For clarity, the pipe displacements have been separated and are now pro- vided by an extra dialog. The epoch comparison can now be found at two different menu locations: - "Report / Compare / Epochs..." - "Plan / Diagrams / Epoch Comparison..." Pipe displacements can now be displayed via - "Plan / Diagrams / Pipe Displacements..." The transformation of profile points to UTM coordinates now also includes points in blind corners. In such cases, a cor- responding message is issued at the end. Mar 15,10: The editing of multiple selected elements in the Plan Wind- ow (using the menu command Edit / Selected Elements / Prop- erties...) now also allows to change the symbol size. The currently selected symbol is now correctly displayed. Mar 08,10: The evenness (planarity) of a surface can now be checked in CAPLAN using the "3D Objects / Plane / Control..." menu command. A surface control is based on measured points pos- itioned in a rectangular grid covering the surface. The sur- face can be oriented in any direction in the 3D space; there is no limitation regarding horizontal or vertical surfaces. As well as generating a control report, the detected offset values can also be transferred to a newly created project where the offsets can be presented in color, depending on the magnitude, with the help of a DTM. Mar 01,10: Grid leveling is mainly intended to check the planarity of horizontal surfaces with grid sizes of between 1 x 1 m and 5 x 5 m, depending on the exact purpose. As the plan posi- tions of leveled points are not determined they must be derived from the point number indicating the position in a rectangular grid. This new function can be found in the menu under "Observations / Leveling / Grid Leveling...". Feb 24,10: If two or more objects lie very close together in the Pro- ject Window it can be difficult to select a specific object by clicking with the mouse. The new option "Settings / Ob- ject Selection" offers a list of all elements which lie close to the clicked position. While running task dialogs the list will be reduced to point objects only. The NTv2 approach is used to transform the older national GK coordinates to the newer ETRS89 coordinates. The reali- zation BeTA2007 comprises Germany as a whole but is compa- ratively rough, with a grid size of approximately 11 x 11 kms. The individual German federal states have therefore published more precise data files with smaller grids (some- times as small as 500 x 500 m) which can be processed by CAPLAN in the same way as the BeTA2007 data file is proces- sed. If you wish to use the more precise data for a federal state, please contact us directly. If a data file exists and is available in that state we will find a way to make the data and the transformation accessible to you. Feb 23,10: A new Elling position is now provided with a suitable hatch pattern in every case. The selection of a horizon ID or an Elling position during profile construction is now persistent and the most recent- ly used setting is therefore suggested. Feb 22,10: In the Plan Window, the "Dimension / Gradients" function now uses the per mille sign (‰ = ASCII 137) rather than the pre- vious "ppt" text label, if gradients are to be stated in per mille. However, one must bear in mind that the per mille sign is not necessarily available in all script fonts. The per mille sign can also be used to label a vertical curve (the gradient band) if the R-57 parameter in the PRM layout file (e.g. ALIGN_P0.PRM) is, for example, defined by "3.2" where the digit "3" represents the number of decimal places and ".2" means the gradient to be stated in per mille. Station points referenced to an alignment can be calculated by applying various elevation options. These options are no longer selected in a sub-dialog but directly from a drop- down list that always and clearly shows the currently sel- ected elevation option. The station dialog (where alignment stations are defined) has been furnished with a preview which displays all the stations contained in the dialog list. The preview helps to check whether the stationing is sufficient for a volume calculation from cross sections or if certain stations must be added to the list. The coordinate system definition has been improved in vari- ous aspects: - The Level reduction of distances needs the elevation of the coordinate system, which is usually 0. For ETRS89, however, the negative elevation of the WGS84 geoid is now automatically suggested. - In the change zone dialog, the central meridian of the target system is now automatically suggested. - In the change system dialog the test point coordinates are now transformed to the target system so that the dist- ance reduction example is always correctly displayed. Feb 17,10: Volume calculations between horizon lines can sometimes fail in cross sections if the horizon lines don't inter- sect with each other even when an extension is provided. In order to clarify the situation for the user, the line ex- tensions are now displayed as dashed light blue lines in all cross sections. Feb 03,10: A new interface to CARD/1 version 8.X has been implemented. Points (.ASC) and lines (.POL) can now be loaded and saved. Feb 01,10: Manually entering of line points (for polylines or break lines) is now supported by a new function that can trans- fer the currently selected points in an ascending order. Jan 28,10: In a best fit circle calculation (2D or 3D), the accuracy of the radius, which is derived from the surveyed points, is poor when the length of the circular arc is short. If the radius is known, e.g. from a prefabricated construction element, this can now be introduced in the best fit calc- ulation to provide a more accurate center point for the circular arc element. Jan 27,10: Further improvements were made to the epoch comparison: - The spatial comparison allows a choice between 2D and 3D display for the vector plans. - The Time-Length diagram for multiple points assigns dif- ferent line types to each point in order to improve dist- inction between the points. Jan 22,10: The processing of leveling data has been enhanced: - When loading raw observations, short lines can be built from point to point. - The rules for computing tolerances in traverses cann now be reported in CAPLAN.LST using [Geo.Traverse5] and [Geo. Traverse9]. - Leveling loops detected by "Observations / Radial / Height Closures" can now be transferred to the project as poly- lines. - If average values are used for computing the orthometric correction, CAPLAN points this out and marks the relevant lines in the report with a question mark. The deformation analysis generally identifies homologuous point by their identical point names. In special cases CAPLAN can identify additional homologuous points by their identical position. Jan 21,10: Datum transformations (via the menu command "Transformation / By Datum / Change Datum...") now also include special transformations if the required parameters are available. Special transformations usually achieve better accuracies than direct datum transformations, and should therefore be used if possible. The special transformation "Potsdam Datum -> ED 50" was the only one of its type until now. It has now been embedded in a more universal solution concept in which the NTv2 approach has also been included. The NTv2 approach was originally developed in Canada in order to transform the old NAD27 to the new NAD83 coordinates. In Germany it is used for BeTA2007 to transform national grid coordinates from the old DHDN system to the new ETRS 89 system. Other trans- formations may in future follow the general NTv2 path as this approach is available in many GIS systems. As the old German coordinates are slightly distorted, the correction values are dependent on the location. The BETA2007.gsa file (located in the BIN directory) contains all the location dependent values in a grid (of size 600 x 360 seconds = ca. 11 x 11 kms). According to the German AdV committee, sub- meter accuracy is guaranteed. The transformation of point files now also includes all special transformations that are available. The coordinate transformation in DXF files has been improv- ed in many respects: instead of a single file it is now al- so possible to transform multiple DXF files in one batch process. Special transformations (such as NTv2) are now also available. Even level transformations can be applied. However, these have only effect on Z-values. Text labels containing elevations (such as spot height labels, block attributes etc.) remain unchanged as is the case with con- tour lines. Jan 20,10: Text elements exported to DXF were always displayed with the TXT font if the User Account Control was activated un- der Windows Vista or Windows 7. This behaviour has been corrected today. Jan 18,10: The new option "Orient text to reader" is now available for improving the legibility of contour line labels in a plan. This kind of contour line labeling can be found on Swiss topographical maps. Jan 15,10: In some cases, MTEXT elements were placed incorrectly when they were exported to DXF as they were moved downwards about half a line. This error has now been rectified. Dimensioning of distances, polylines and gradients may re- sult in texts oriented upside-down. Via the option "Orient texts to the reader" these texts can be turned upright. Jan 11,10: Laser scan files can sometimes exceed the limit of 4 GB. This limit is determined by the address space of a 32 bit operating system. However, if files are read and written line by line in a sequential manner it is now possible to proceed with files greater than 4 GB. Point files larger than 4 GB can now therefore be transformed. Jan 08,10: GEOgraf allows points without point numbers in its projects. Until now, nameless points could not be imported into CA- PLAN. However, from now on CAPLAN will assign new names to all nameless points and load them correctly. Dec 23,09: The epoch comparison now allows distortion rates to be disp- layed for pipe displacements. This enables areas with large displacements to be easily identified. Comparing two projects with "Report / Compare / Points..." allows a new project to be created containing points with z coordinates corresponding to the point differences calculat- ed in the comparison operation. A DTM can then be generated with the differences displayed as isolines. Dec 21,09: The renaming operation for matched control points can now be restricted in scope by selecting the desired points in the matching points list. Dec 08,09: Inclinometer measurements utilizing vertical and horizontal pipes allow underground movements to be monitored (e.g. the displacement of rock formations) and these can be displayed in temporal diagrams. These measurements can now be entered and edited in CAPLAN via the "Edit / Extras / Pipe Displacements..." command. Pipe displacement data are handled in an epoch comparison process in which the data points can be projected onto an alignment, thus enabling generation of a section plan. The auxiliary program CpInfo.EXE (introduced in February 2006) was designed to convert our (at that time) new point data formats back to the old formats so that auxiliary tools used by our customers could still handle our files during a transition period. Almost four year have passed since then so we have now decided to remove the auxiliary program from standard software distributions. Dec 04,09: When alignments are included in the plan creation process, a selection can now be made regarding whether the additional station labels are to be placed on the left-hand or on the right-hand side of the alignment. Dec 02,09: When projecting points onto a reference line, a polyline or an alignment, the report was previously sorted by point name. From now on, a sort order using increasing stations will also be provided as an option. Nov 24,09: The print dialog now offers additional options for aligning plans on paper. For example, the "Bottom left" option may be suitable for profile plans on A3 sheets and the "Bottom right" option may be useful for large format plotters used together with folding machines. Nov 17,09: In a rotated plan, the rotation angle for symbol and text elements can be stated either in relation to the north dir- ection or in relation to the plan. Closed polylines and area elements are now furnished with the "closed" property when exported to DXF. Nov 09,09: The definition of standard errors for network observations has been improved. Each observation type now has a dialog test field in which the effect of various test distances can be checked. For zenith angles, the original parameters (such as the refraction variation) are now entered direct- ly. ----------------------------------------------------------- Nov 05,09: Release and distribution of version 2.7 ----------------------------------------------------------- Nov 03,09: When storing points in a Trimble DC file, the 10.70 format will now be used instead of the 7.70 format. Oct 21,09: In order to enable construction of horizons and Elling lines to be done in profile plans it was necessary for all hori- zons (HZxx code) and all Elling positions (EPxx code) to be assigned unique layer names. This limition has now been re- moved. Oct 19,09: Loading a DTM from a DA 45/DA 58 file sometimes resulted in an incorrect triangulation if the DTM points lay very close to each other. This error has been rectified today. Oct 16,09: In the epoch comparison, a new vector plan is now available showing the horizontal displacement vectors in combination with the vertical displacement vectors. The dialog used for the calculating or setting out of stat- ion points along an alignment has been redesigned to provide a similar "look and feel" to other dialogs. Oct 15,09: The dialog used to enter or to edit alignments has been im- proved with respect to long alignments containing a large number of elements: The dialog can now be "locked" so that the alignment can be clicked on in the detail window and the nearest element is then searched for and activated in the dialog list. An element's station is displayed in the lower area of the dialog box and no longer in the list of elements. If the first element of an alignment is deleted then the alignment's initial station is automatically changed to the starting station of the second element. Oct 08,09: In the report of a bearing and distance calculation in a project, the slope value is now also provided as an elev- ation angle and as a gradient in the form 1:n. Oct 02,09: Points which are newly created in the Subdivide Lines func- tion can now also be numbered incrementally starting at a specified number. Oct 01,09: The Epoch Comparison function has been improved considerab- ly: - The vectors can now represent velocities rather than dis- placements. The velocity unit can be freely selected. - The vectors can be projected onto alignments and then be displayed in alignment related diagrams (in plan view and in section view). - All projects participating in the epoch comparison are checked to see whether their coordinates lie in an over- lapping area. Sep 28,09: When point coordinates are averaged, two or more points are replaced by a single mean point. In the past, this situat- ion often resulted in a partial loss of lines. Now, all the lines are preserved, using the mean point as a vertex. Re- dundant lines that may arise in the process can be selected and also deleted in the Line Directory dialog. Setting out a single lane of a road surface can now be con- fined to only the points on the left hand or the right hand side of the lane. Sep 25,09: Zeiss leveling data files differ in language depending on the language version of the instrument software. Previously, German leveling files could only be processed by the German version of CAPLAN and English leveling files only by the English version. Now, Zeiss all leveling files are correctly processed in both cases, regardless of the language version of CAPLAN being used. Sep 21,09: For the calculation of a single polar point or a single section point (Calculate / Single Point / Polar Point or Section Point) it is also possible to enter zenith angles as an option. Up to now, these were not reduced to take account of the earth's curvature and refraction. A reduc- tion is now applied if the "Reduce" option is activated. Sep 18,09: The new file and directory functions introduced at the end of August were mainly designed to cater for the VISTA oper- ating system. However, the new functions were not compati- ble with the older Windows 2000 operating system. This has been rectified today. Hitherto, the user-defined formats interpreted strings with non-numerical characters as having coordinate values 0.0. These coodinates then had to be excluded from the import by means of the validation conditions (X#0.0 & Y#0.0 & Z#0). However, points with valid 0.0 coordinates were also exclud- ed from the import as a result. Now, CAPLAN first checks the strings and marks them as invalid if they are made up of non- numerical characters. The previous validation conditions are no longer necessary and are therefore not proposed any more for new formats. Sep 16,09: The transformation of point files (by datum or with parame- ters) is now reported to the LST file. Sep 15,09: The current coordinate system is now displayed in the status bar next to the coordinates. Sep 10,09: In some cases, the creation of an excavation or a heap in a DTM ended up in a program crash. This error has been recti- fied today. Sep 07,09: Hitherto, the DTM line import process was terminated when an incorrect line was encountered. Now the import continues and all following lines are still imported. All the errors that occur during the import are reported in the ERR file. Sep 03,09: When setting out a single lane, the elevations of the strings were previously calculated erroneously if the lane was on the left hand side of the alignment. The error has been fixed now. The file layout in our File Open dialog has been improved. Up to now, only a single view option was available whether the file list should be displayed with grid lines. Now, there are further three options available in a dialog that can be reached via the "Options..." menu command in the con- text menu: Access of files and directories in the Desktop area (fill virtual folders), use of "friendly" file names (such as CD drive (F:) instead of F:\) and specification of file sizes in KB units. These options may help adapt both the layout and the functionality to the Windows Explorer. Folders that are not required for the file management (such as tools, wastepaper bin etc.) still remain excluded from as tools, trash can etc.) still remain excluded from the view in our directory views. Aug 27,09: The capacity of the undo memory is no longer restricted. However, if an operation consists of many single steps the user is reminded that storing the operation will take a little extra amount of computational time. Aug 24,09: In the Line Directory (Edit / Lines / Directory...), mul- tiple (redundant) lines can now be selected using the "Red- undant" function button. This can be useful if, for example, the redundant lines are to be deleted. The point sequence is the only criterion of whether a line is marked in the list as "redundant" or not. Varying arcs or object types are ignored. If a line (e.g. B-C) overlaps part of another line (such as A-B-C-D) then the shorter line is also marked as "redundant". Aug 19,09: The export of KML files for Google Earth has been moved from the Transformation menu to the File menu and can now be in- voked via the "File / Save / Points..." and "File / Save / Lines..." commands. Cross sections generated from points previously resulted in profiles being created beyond the end station of the horiz- ontal alignment that were identical to the last cross sect- ion before the end station. Now the computation ends at the last cross section before the end station. Aug 14,09: Specific areas can now be defined and extracted from large volumes of point data, e.g. from airborne laser scanning, for loading into CAPLAN. This is done by defining and apply- ing a boundary to restrict the point import scope. Just act- ivate a (closed) polyline before loading the points into a a project. This results in only the points lying inside this polyline being loaded into the project. Aug 13,09: The calculation of the mean coordinate values of neighbor- ing points using the "Edit / Coordinates / Equal Position" function previously resulted in a single point which was furnished with the mean coordinate values. This method is now referred to as "Merge Point". Two further methods, called "Plan Mean" and "Level Mean" are now also available. Both methods preserve the original neighboring points and they are simply labeled with the mean plan and/or elevation values. Aug 12,09: Points and lines from a CAPLAN project can now be exported in a KML file for display in Google Earth. This can be done with the command "Transformation / Export Points / WGS...", as this now provides the additional entry "Google Earth (*.KML)" in the list of available file types. Jul 31,09: The points of a DTM difference model are now assigned the object types from the original points in the participating projects. An elevation shift can now also be applied to the vertical curve of an alignment. The new option is available in the "Edit Vertical Curve" dialog. Jul 28,09: Extreme discontinuities in a DTM surface caused the smooth- ing algorithm to sometimes produce unpleasant bulges when computing contour lines. We have now improved the algorithm so that bulges in the vicinity of breaklines are avoided (if breaklines have been defined and applied for smoothing). Observation data in Leica GSI format usually contains the combined scale and prism constant values in one data word (ID 51) in which case the prism constant must be stated in mm. If a unit other than mm is desired (e.g. prism constant in 1/10 mm) then the values should each be transferred in a specific data word (ID 58 for prism constant, ID 59 for scale factor). Jul 27,09: A scale bar in a plan can now also be oriented vertically (via the menu command Dimension / Scale...). Jul 22,09: When block attributes were exported to DXF, the attributes were aligned with the associated symbol. Now the attributes can also be aligned with the north direction or the plan frame. Jul 20,09: The dimensioning of polylines now offers a new option for labeling the vertex points with their station values. Jul 17,09: A new interface to the Verm/pro software system (files *.KVP) has been added to the CAPLAN point data exchange. The dimensioning of coordinates in the Plan Window now allows the addition of a unit (such as "m", "cm") and the text can be moved in relation to the symbol in order to prevent the new coordinates from clashing with existing text (such as point names or codes). Jul 14,09: The R43 parameter, which is used to diverge the vertical lines in a profile layout, previously had to be set to 2 in order to draw identical profile points only once. This effect is now also achieved with a parameter value of 1. Jul 08,09: Via the menu command "Profiles / Road Surface / Interpolate" the elevation of a road surface can be interpolated at sel- ected or all points located in the range of the surface area. Jul 07,09: The dialog for editing text elements in the Plan Window has been augmented by a new "Search and Write" function, which can be used, for example, to search for elevation labels in the plan (Search: ???.???) and then complement them with leading or trailing supplementary text (Write: H=<*> m). The placeholder is replaced by the (selected) text found whereas the placeholder <*> is replaced by the entire text. In our example, the elevation label 1476.409 becomes the new text H=1476.409 m. Jul 03,09: In the stake out report created from a Trimble DC file, the recorded stations and distances referring to the alignment are now also included. Jun 30,09: Control points are usually identified and matched by means of their identical names. This method is very fast and straightforward, but there are situations when control points must be identified by matching plan positions within a given tolerance. This new, somewhat more time-consuming method is available via the menu command "Transformation / With Control Points / Match Control Points...". An additio- nal dialog option allows the matching points to be renamed so that identical points names are achieved; this allows all subsequent control point operations to be carried out as usual, with matching names. Jun 26,09: The transition curve based on a parabola-shaped curvature (according to Schuhr) was previously not properly calculat- ed if the transition bridged two circles with opposite cur- vatures and different radii (such as +300 and -400). This special case has now been rectified. Jun 25,09: The pedal points calculated by projecting points onto the parallel of an alignment are now referenced to the parallel (and not to the center line anymore). The name mask for the pedal points offers the "SSSS.sss" placeholder for the stat- ion value and "#" to number the pedal points in an ascend- ing sequence. Jun 24,09: The point stack could sometimes take a long time to carry out calculations if a lot of polar points were included in the survey. The dialog has now been optimized so the per- formance is considerably improved. Jun 19,09: CAPLAN linetype definitions are fundamentally different from the definitions in AutoCAD. The CAPLAN linetypes cannot therefore be transferred directly to DXF. As an alternative we provide the CAPLAN.SHX and CAPLAN.LIN files in the EXTERNAL directory on the Setup CD as well as on the down- load area of our internet site. Just copy both files into the support path of your AutoCAD installation and load the linetype definitions from CAPLAN.LIN after you have opened the DXF file in AutoCAD. You will be pleased to see the lines with linetypes 1 through 19 just as they appear in CAPLAN. When points are saved to Geodimeter format the number of decimal places used for the exported coordinates can now be specified. Jun 12,09: When loading a background scene into a project, the coordi- nate ranges will be checked to see if they overlap each other. Jun 10,09: The DXF interface is now capable of importing SPLINE ele- ments. The only limitation is that the spline vertices are linked by straight lines. Jun 04,09: The visibility and color of layers in viewports can be spe- cified independently from the settings in the original plan. When editing a viewport, the layer state can now also be re- set to the state used in the original plan. The layer states can also be copied between two viewports using the data im- port and export capability of the layer list. Jun 03,09: DXF output has again been improved. When exporting text elements from a plan to DXF version 2004, they can now be output as MTEXT elements. The advantage with this is that, since AutoCAD 2006, MTEXT elements have a 'background' pro- perty that can be activated in order to keep text elements free from other elements. This is useful for contour line labels, for example. Both the prefix and suffix of block attributes layers have been replaced by a single layer mask in which the asterisk can be used as a placeholder for the layer name of the symbol. May 29,09: Further dialogs have been furnished with additional mouse pointer symbols that change to indicate the required type of user input. The use of many of the dialogs has, thus, now been made much more intuitive. May 27,09: In the Plan Window, the dialogs for editing a symbol or a text element now offer an additional aid for defining the position, size and rotation of the symbol or text using the mouse pointer. When the relevant input field is activated the mouse can be used in the detail window to define the respective input value. May 26,09: As is the case in the Plan Window, projects can also have elements located very close to each other that are some- times difficult to select by clicking with the mouse be- cause of their proximity to each other. Now it is also possible in a project (as was already the case in a plan) to initiate a cyclical mode, using the menu command "Edit / Activate in Cycle" or the shortcut Ctrl+Shift+S, in order to find one element after another when clicking. The curr- ently active element in the cycle is selected by pressing the Enter key. In order to speed up the graphical display in the Project Window, symbols are only kept free from crossing lines if the Exact drawing option is activated. A polyline with ver- tex symbols so large that neighboring vertex points overlap each other will result in line segments being omitted. May 25,09: A deformation analysis of two plan networks or two spatial networks sometimes failed. Small but significant deformati- ons were sometimes not recognized because the first global test was not correctly carried out and this resulted in a notification being issued that no deformation could be found. This error has now been rectified. May 19,09: The text edit dialog in the Plan Window has a new text in- put area which accepts a plain Enter key to break a line (previously Ctrl+Enter was required) and which allows ASCII characters to be entered using the key combination ALT+ . The text can also be placed and rotated using the mouse if the corresponding edit field is active. If the user cancelled the loading of a background scene, the most recent CAPLAN versions sometimes crashed. This error has now been rectified. May 15,09: CAPLAN sometimes crashed when a line was copied from one project to another using the Clipboard. This error has now been rectified. Station points referenced to an alignment can now be assign- ed an elevation lying above the vertical curve (or above the road surface) by applying a constant vertical shift. May 13,09: When exporting a frame plan to DXF, the name of the frame plan will be used for the layout name. ----------------------------------------------------------- May 04,09: Release and distribution of version 2.6 ----------------------------------------------------------- Apr 30,09: A long or short version of a report can be output from a project's line directory. Calculating point offsets from lines or alignments can be executed in the dialog several times (e.g. by changing the point selection or by selecting another line or alignment). Not only the last but all computations will now be written to the report. Apr 28,09: Zenith angles must be reduced before they can be used for high-precision point determinations, particularly in three- dimensional control networks. The effect of the deflection of the vertical is now taken into account if a geoid model is defined. The dialog "Edit Properties" now offers an additional option for keeping symbols free from crossing lines with regard to a selection of several polylines in a plan. Apr 27,09: Missing elevations in line vertices can be automatically determined by interpolation if the line has neighboring ver- tices that do have elevations. The new task can be invoked via the "Edit / Lines / Interpolate Elevations..." menu com- mand. In the point directory it was previously only possible to report points that had changed. Now, a report including all the points can be generated containing the exact information as it is displayed in the directory list. Apr 21,09: In the dialog for the creation of profile plans, a title text can be entered on the last dialog page. This title text then appears at the top of the results plan for the volume calculation summary. From now on, the title will also be output to the calculation report and can be used to auto- matically fill placeholders associated with the keyword <#TITLE>. In the vertical curve editing dialog an option can be sel- ected specifying whether the elevations refer to the TI points or to the elevation of the projected curve. As the elevations are internally always TI-based, the option is initially set to "TI elevation". If the user switches to the "Curve elevation" option, all the elevations contained in the dialog list are converted accordingly. In this way, the list now always reflects the current option. Apr 20,09: The representation of alignments in terms of plan creation has been enhanced. Additional stations can now be displayed along center lines, and gradient indicators can also be pla- ced at the stations of the TI points defining the vertical curve. Furthermore, all relevant drawing parameters have been made accessible in the new "Options" sub-dialog, where they can be freely edited. Apr 16,09: The Deutsche Bahn (German Railways) is currently changing its procedures in order to deliver its railway data as Access databases created using GND-Edit software. These databases contain points as well as alignments defined with their horizontal and vertical positions. The points and alignments can now be loaded into CAPLAN using the "GND-Edit / DB AG" format. A new function allows the intersection of a plane with a DTM to create one or more intersection lines which can be saved in the project as polylines. This new function can be invoked via the menu command "DTM / Interpolate / Plane Intersections...". The function can be used for tasks such as the creation of contour lines (using horizontal planes), DTM section lines (using vertical planes) and slope sect- ions (using oblique planes). Apr 15,09: Stations with only face right observations were not correct- ly reported in the CAPLAN.LST protocol. This error has now been rectified. Apr 08,09: Coordinates for detail points referenced to a cylinder can now be calculated. The reverse function, i.e. the project- ion of points onto a cylinder, has also been implemented. The relevant new dialogs can be invoked via the menu comm- ands "3D Objects / Cylinder / Detail Points..." and "3D Objects / Cylinder / Project Points...". The infrastructural planning software VESTRA uses modifi- cations of the DA001 (points) and DA21 (vertical curves) formats for data exchange. CAPLAN now takes these modifi- cations into account. Mar 31,09: We have made the first steps in providing support for XML. We have initially implemented an interface to LandXML. At the moment, points and lines, as well as alignments with their vertical curves, can be loaded from and saved to LandXML files. Mar 27,09: All profile points from a specific horizon or Elling posit- ion can now be removed with the new function "Profiles / Remove Horizons..." . Renaming of horizons or Elling posit- ions is further supported by the already existing function "Edit / Object Types / Replace by Table...". Mar 24,09: The station dialog can now transfer the stations from a surface definition to the stations list. Furthermore, a point can be clicked to transfer its station to the act- ive input field. The point attributes in raw observation data from Geodimeter JOB files were hitherto reset for each target point. The att- ributes now remain valid for all subsequent target points, unless new values are set. Mar 23,09: It is now possible to transfer points from a project into a plan via the Clipboard. In such cases, the points appear in the plan as symbols displayed in accordance with the defini- tion of their respective object types. The symbols are label- ed neither with the point name nor with the elevation. The new functionality also permits the pasting of all sorts of generic point data, such as from EXCEL, into a plan. Mar 18,09: When a polyline in the project is edited, an audible signal indicates when a point code differs from the line code. This signal can now be turned on or off using the toolbar for the polyline dialog. Mar 17,09: The selection in a cyclical process of elements lying close together in the Plan Window has been reworked because the key combination (utilizing the Shift key) induced side eff- ects relating to other commands. Now the cycle mode can be entered via the shortcut Ctrl+Shift+S or via the menu command "Edit / Select / In Cycle". The current active element in the cycle is selected / deselected using the Enter key. The cycle can be canceled by pressing the Esc key. The design mode and final mode of a plan frame are now differ- entiated more clearly. The frame can only be saved to a FRM file in design mode whereas it is only in the final mode that viewports can be edited in order to include, for example, overviews or sections in the plan. Mar 11,09: If it is specified during the plan creation process that DTM slope shading is to be displayed then arrows are also drawn indicating the direction of flowing water. These arrows are now drawn three-dimensionally with an optional label showing the gradient (in percent). Scaling of symbols and text elements can now be carried out in multiple plans. The function for changing properties of selected text elemen- ts now includes the text size, which can be set to a constant value (stated in mm). Mar 10,09: After a background scene has been loaded from a file, the source file name is now displayed in the lower left corner of the background. Feb 28,09: If a user-defined format is specified as "free format" then the data row is divided into multiple elements by means of a separator. Each element is then associated with its number, such as 1=point name, 2=code etc. It is now also possible to concatenate multiple consecutive elements and then to define a numeric association for the whole package. For ex- ample 6-8 = point attribute 1. Feb 26,09: The option "Reverse profiles", which is part of the profile layout information, can now be used for both cross sections and longitudinal sections. In this way, hydrological longi- tudinal sections, which are usually stationed from mouth to source, can be displayed with the mouth on the right hand side and the source on the left hand side. Via the new menu commands "Transformation / With Datum / Point File..." and "Transformation / With Parameters / Point File..." it is now possible to read a file point by point, with each point then being transformed and output into a sec- ond file. This functionality is available without the need to have a project. As with the transformation of a DXF file, there are only two files involved in the process, these being the input and the output file. The function is therefore particularly useful for large point files. A further advant- age is that, as well as grid coordinates, geocentric (XYZ) and geographic coordinates (longitude, latitude, height) can also be accessed directly. The data formats can be selected from the list of standard formats and user-defined formats can also be applied. Feb 25,09: If two or more elements lie very close together in the Plan Window it can be difficult to select a specific element by clicking with the mouse. However, if you hold down the Shift key while clicking on the element, CAPLAN enters a cycle mode which detects one element after another. The type and layer of each element found are displayed in the status bar. Hitt- ing the Enter key adds the current cycle element to the element selection. If you press the Escape key the cycle will be exited without selecting an element. Feb 24,09: Elling lines, combined with profile horizons, can give rise to a large number of vertical lines and texts in the profile plans, which can make such profile plans less legible. With the new horizon parameter 36 (layout) in the profile layout (FRM file), the drawing of vertical lines and texts can be suppressed for HZ and / or EP lines. Feb 19,09: Until now, user-defined formats could be defined for point and line files, which were then applicable to the loading and saving of these files. Point format customization has now been developed for point files with geocentric coord- inates (X,Y,Z) and for point files with geographic coord- inates (longitude, latitude and height). All user-defined formats are now managed in a specific dialog that can be in- voked via the "Settings / Formats..." menu command. Feb 16,09: The new frame template FB_A4R.FRM (fieldbook, A4 reduced portrait format without margin) can be used to provide frames for field sketches, drawings etc. The new template is auto- matically copied into the DAT directory during the Setup pro- cess. Deutsche Bahn (DB) AG certification for our CAPLAN network adjustment modules: Since February 2000, our CAPLAN adjust- ment modules have been admissable for the DB Netz AG. In a letter (written in German), which we would like to copy and send to you, they state that our "program modules meet the requirements of the DB guidelines 883.0020 (creation and doc- umentation of control points)". Feb 06,09: The parameter R43, which is used to spread vertical lines in the profile layout, can now be given a value of 2. This causes identical profile points to be drawn only once. The resulting profile plans are thus more legible, particularly when horizons and Elling lines are combined. Feb 04,09: When loading points from the DA001 file format an empty elev- ation is now interpreted as an invalid elevation. Until now, only character '3' in column 44 could indicate an invalid elevation. Feb 02,09: During field surveys, lines are often coded by negative point codes. The resulting lines can now be split automatically whenever the negative point code changes. The resulting line parts each receive the code of the starting point. Jan 26,09: The new "File / Save all" and "File / Close all" commands are useful when working with multiple projects. Jan 23,09: When section plans are exported back to projects it is now asked if other (modified) sections can be included in the export even if they are not selected. Jan 16,09: Today, the new interface for GPS baselines from the Trimble Business Center was implemented. For this purpose the Trimble data exchange format *.ASC is required. Sections displayed in a plan are now optimized in space so that particularly flat inclined sections occupy less paper space. Jan 13,09: Whenever an image is inserted in a plan, the georeferenced position is automatically loaded from a W-file and suggest- ed as the image's position, provided a W-file can be found. Some customers have asked to have a W-file generated in which the current image position can be saved. Now the image editing dialog provides exactly this functionality. Jan 09,09: Splitting an alignment sometimes failed. This error has been corrected. Jan 02,09: If the layer color happens to be (almost) the same as the background color then the complementary color is automati- cally used instead to display lines, symbols and other elements consisting of lines. Previously, the complementary color was used in the Layer Controller and other dialogs to represent the layer color in such cases. This situation was not always satisfactory because SOLID areas are always dis- played with the defined layer color, which in such cases was different from the color displayed in the Layer Control- ler. We have therefore now reconciled both aspects and, from now on, the layer color will be displayed accompanied by two vertical lines that appear in the complementary color. Jan 01,09: The list generating function sometimes produced incorrect reports in CAPLAN.LST when point collisions occured. Follow- ing a reworking of this, all reports are now correctly pro- duced. Dec 29,08: The layer assignment in the function "Write Symbol Attribu- tes" sometimes failed if the layer setting "Assign directly" was activated. All texts were then incorrectly assigned to the currently active layer. This error has now been amended. Dec 18,08: Frame plans created from profiles were all given the same name, which made the distinction of the frame planes diffi- cult. The names of the frame plans are now extended with the names of the first and last profile plan in order to ease the identification of such frame plans. Dec 16,08: A rectangle parallel to the coordinate grid lines can always be created with the mouse in two modes: either with two mouse clicks (indicating the bottom left and upper right corners) or by "dragging" the mouse (from the bottom left to the upper right corner). The dialog for creating a new plan frame has been redesigned. The area of interest parameters are now pre- sented in a more intuitive way. If, in the frame plan creat- ion process, coordinate grid lines were also generated then this viewport should neíther be moved nor changed in scale, otherwise the grid lines will become invalid. This critical situation is now recognized and highlighted by means of a meaningful message being issued to the user. Dec 10,08: The scale of a plan seen through the current viewport can now be changed directly via the "Frame / Viewport / Scale" menu command. Dec 09,08: If a DTM or a volume calculation is exported in the REB data format, the point names are now checked to see if they are purely numeric, as some software packages require numerical point names for REB data. Alphanumeric point names can be converted to numeric point names via the menu command "Edit / Point Names / Renumber...". Dec 08,08: The intersection of two circles previously led to incorrect intersection points if the intersections did not lie between the two center points. This error has now been rectified. Dec 02,08: Via the menu command "Frame / Viewport / Edit..." it is now possible to edit the currently active viewport directly in the Plan Window. This is often more convenient than remov- ing the old viewport and then creating a new one. Nov 21,08: Frame plans can now be generated for plans with different horizontal and vertical scales (such as Time-Length diagrams resulting from the epoch comparison function). In such cases the coordinate grid will not be created. Nov 17,08: Both the comparison of epochs and the deformation analysis now provide the distances in 2D and 3D as new options for the "Time-Length-Diagram", besides the previously available differences in easting, northing and elevation. The distanc- es always refer to the first point in the sequence of points in time. Nov 12,08: The import process for points and lines from DXF into a pro- ject allows all empty codes to be set to default values us- ing the Context Menu of the "Code" column in the layer list. The layer properties are saved in the local project area and are reused in the plan creation process and for later DXF export. In the plan creation process, vector arrows can now be supp- lied with an additional label indicating the vector length - a choice of showing this in 2D or 3D is available. Nov 10,08: Via the "List / Point Modifications..." menu command, chang- ed points can be reported and / or selected. The old point state is loaded either from a point file or from a line file. Nov 07,08: The recent changes made to the process of loading observat- ions from the DC format (loading of attributes) could some- times result in an incorrect assignment of a target height. This error has been corrected. The intersection line of a volume calculation based on two DTMs can now be created without the need to create a diff- erence model. Nov 06,08: The unit for crossfall inclination values (e.g. %, 1:n) used for road surface input can now be selected for subsequent data entries. The setting also affects all previously entered data lines, which are converted to the new format. Oct 30,08: In the station dialog, a new option has been added in order to produce additional station values: if a vertical curve is stated then the starting and end points of the vertical roundings can be included in the list of stations. Oct 28,08: The dialog that provides dimensioning between two points in the Plan Window is now also able to optionally include the differences in easting and northing in the dimensioning task. ----------------------------------------------------------- Oct 20,08: Release and distribution of version 2.5 ----------------------------------------------------------- Oct 16,08: In the plan creation dialog, the selection of lines is no longer executed line by line, but the lines are now grouped in view layers corresponding to their object type. These can then be selected instead of individual lines. Oct 15,08: CAPLAN previously placed fitted and aligned texts from DXF too far to the right. This error has now been corrected. Oct 10,08: The "Save for Handover" function now includes all relevant data pools (symbols, linetypes, patterns, layers, object types and project settings), which can be saved optionally. This enables the source and target computers to now show an identical display of all data. Oct 07,08: To supplement the well established intersection functions line / line and line / circle, a new member function inter- secting two circles has ben added in the Project Window. It can be accessed via the menu command "Calculate / Intersect / Two Circles...". Sep 25,08: Simultaneous editing of multiple plans is particularly suit- able when applied to cross section plans. The following functions have thus been enabled for multiple plan editing: Edit / Selected Elements / Properties... Dimension / Polylines... Dimension / Gradients... Dimension / Areas... Sep 22,08: Contour lines in a plan can be labeled with elevation values if the contour lines' Z values are known (as in the plan creation). The new function is invoked from the Plan Window via the menu command "Dimension / Contour Lines...". Multiple slope lines can be freely defined in the dialog, along which the contour line labels are placed. The ele- vation values are set upon the contour lines without ínter- rupting them. Also, index contours that are labeled in the plan creation process are not interrupted anymore (as was the case up to now). For the processing of coordinates or observations using tacheometry data from Leica (GSI format), Trimble (DC for- mat) and ZEISS (REC formats), the conditions required were extended recently in terms of entry flexibility. Log- ical expressions, as used with the marking of lines in CREDIT, can now be entered using number and text comparisons as well as logical operators (and/or). Sep 18,08: The path names used in the Setup process may now contain any combinations of environment variables and constant text parts, e.g. $USERPROFILE$\Cremer\USR. Sep 12,08: Whilst drawing a polyline in the project window an audible signal indicates whenever the object type of the clicked point differs from the object type of the current polyline. Sep 10,08: The ALT key provides two additional zoom functions that are now available in both the Project and Plan Windows. While the ALT key is held down the left mouse button can be used to define a zoom window. Simultaneously pressing the ALT key and the right mouse button results in the entire plan area being displayed. Sep 09,08: Selecting drawing elements based on properties can now also be done over multiple plans, thus providing a convenient preparatory step for the new dialogs (labeling symbol attr- ibutes and replacing text). Not only the positive (adding) selection can apply across multiple plans but resetting the selection in multiple plans is also possible and can be very useful in the preparatory stage. Sep 08,08: Point symbols in a plan have the same properties as points in a project: besides the point name, the object type and up to 8 further attributes are associated with a point. There is a tooltip that can display all properties of a point - in a project as well as in a plan - which is con- trolled by settings made on the "Tooltip" page of the "General Settings" dialog. In the plan creation process only the point name and the elevation can be added to the point symbol as text elements. All further point attributes can now also be created and displayed as text labels using a new dialog invoked from the Plan Window using the menu command "Draw / Symbol Attributes...". Sep 03,08: Many dialogs in the project window provide lists in which points, polylines, alignments, profiles or DTM lines can be selected (e.g. Point Directory, Line Directory etc.). Clicking on an element in the detail window highlights the corresponding list entry and vice versa. A new feature now enables changing of the selection state of a list entry (i.e. adding or removing the check mark) when the element is clicked on in the detail window while the Ctrl key is held down. In order to provide an optimized dis- play of the element selection, the selected elements are now shown in the detail window with the selection color in preview mode. Sep 01,08: The new function "Edit / Text...", available in the Plan Window, allows carrying out of Search and Replace text oper- ations in the current plan. Other plans containing text elements can also be included in the text operations. Besides the standard "Search and Replace" function, the "Search and Edit" and "Round Numbers" functions are also available in the dialog. Since numbers are purely text ele- ments in a plan, the "Round Numbers" function can be used to conveniently adapt (reduce) the digits. When creating a new DTM, the points marked for elimination can easiliy be highlighted in the detail window by clicking on the relevant list entry. Aug 29,08: The calculation of intermediate profiles has now been added to the profile construction tools. Once the profile plans have been drawn the new function can be invoked in the Plan Window via the menu command "Profile / Intermediate Pro- files...". Between the two given profiles (horizons) inter- polation lines are then added, along which the new profile (horizon) points are interpolated at the desired intermedi- ate stations. Aug 25,08: The function "DTM / Interpolate / Sections..." was improved once more: a section can now include more than one DTM. The section plans can be presented in standard layout mode (as up to now), or a PRM template can be applied (new). Further- more, cut and fill areas can be filled with a hatch pattern and labeled with the area values, provided there are (exact- ly) two DTMs involved in the section plan. Aug 19,08: The new Plan Area Management functionality is now available in the Plan Window via "Frame / Plan Areas...". Plan areas can be freely defined and saved in a VP file. They can be rotated and are allowed to have (small) trapezoidal indent- ations (as sometimes used for special railway plans). The trapezoid parameters have therefore been removed from the list of frame parameters. Plan areas can be used in the plan creation process. Also, and more importantly, previously defined plan areas can be used when creating plan frames, so that identical plan areas can serve different purposes. Hitherto, plan frames were restricted to being parallel to the relevant plan. This restriction has now been removed. Plan frames can now be freely rotated in relation to the relevant plan. Aug 14,08: The GEOgraf interface (using the PAR file) has been improv- ed: in addition to the object types of points, the object types of lines are now also included in the duplex data transfer. The Code / Object type allocation table therefore needed expansion. Circular arcs in lines are now also sup- ported. Aug 12,08: The new function "DTM / Interpolate / Elevate Lines to DTM" allows you to provide elevations for polylines (e.g. parcel boundaries) so that they lie exactly on the DTM surface. These polylines can be then imported into the DTM, for ex- ample, as an outer border line. Aug 06,08: The location of data sets (e.g. layers, object types, sym- bols) can be managed very intuitively via the context menu (accessed using the right mouse button). The "Edit Data Loc- ation" dialog was therefore removed. Aug 05,08: The calculation of single points (e.g. Polar point, Section) was enhanced again. After applying a point to the project the point number is automatically increased and the relevant dialog field is activated. Aug 04,08: When a network design plan is created, the most recently entered a priori standard errors for each observation group (such as distances, directions etc.) are now included in the report, thus improving identification of different prog- nosis variants. Aug 04,08: When Adjusting control networks with only little redundancy (less than 20) the confidence ellipses become very large if the confidence is based on the empirically determined var- iance. Therefore, a new alternative can now be chosen that uses the given a priori variance rather than the empirical value. This new way has also provided a solution for the special case of a network without any redundancy. Unfortunately, these amendments not only required some new report sections in the list template but also resulted in the need to modify already existing sections relating to network adjustment, network prognosis and deformation analy- sis: - Network.ListTitle1D/2D/3D - Network.ListHzPoints2 - Network.List3dPoints4 - Network.PredictPoints - Deform.StartAdjustment If you have customized any of these report templates to fit your needs then this step must be done again with the new report template. Jul 28,08: Point selections based on the selection of one or multiple object types (codes) is used in CAPLAN in various places: - Network control points - Datum points for a free network - Reference points in a deformation analysis - Identification of TI (tangent intersection) points - Identification of water level points All the aforementioned tasks have now been unified in a new dialog that allows selection from object types (codes) that are actually in use. Jul 25,08: The elevation of a new profile point in the "Insert Profile Point" dialog can now also be defined in relation to the current horizon. Jul 24,08: The calculation of line lengths in the project with the function "Calculate / Bearing and Distance / Of Line..." now also uses exact arc lengths rather than approximating arcs with a polygonal substitute. This change has resulted in an entire new protocol layout with an adjusted report template. If you have customized the original report templ- ate (Geo.CalcLineAzim...) to fit your needs then this step must be repeated once more with the new sections (Geo.CalcLineLength...). Jul 18,08: The loading points from files into a project operation can now be reported in CAPLAN.LST by activating the "Report points" option in the file open dialog. Jul 14,08: Raw observation data from Trimble can be directly converted to a Z-file using the Style Sheet "CAPLAN Z-Format.XSL" which is publicly available at Trimble (www.trimble.com). The file can also be found on our Installation CD in the EXTERNAL subdirectory. Jul 11,08: Center lines provided by DB AG (German Rail) have recently been providing cubic parabolas as transition curves. CAPLAN's import of alignments has thus been extended to correctly load cubic parabolas from the VermESN format. Jul 04,08: The new right angle traverse available via "Calculate / Traverse / Right Angle Traverse" computes the hidden cor- ners of a building via the distances between all corners. A prerequisite is that two coordinated building corners have to be provided. Jul 02,08: The point snap within a viewport was displayed but in some cases wrong coordinates were applied. This behavior has been remedied and the point snap now acts consistently. Jun 25,08: Previously, even when the point snap was activated not all symbols were recognized by the snap function when drawing a polyline in the plan window. The free space available at the polyline vertices was thus not computed in some cases. The symbol recognition has now been improved and the free spaces are calculated accurately. Jun 23,08: Import of WGS coordinates previously required the definition of a global coordinate system. Now a local coordinate system is also sufficient. In order to position the local system at least one point must already exist in the project. With more than one point an orienting angle can also be deter- mined. Jun 19,08: The dialog for editing a lane of a road surface can now process a clicked point as well. The lane parameters calcu- lated from the clicked point are written to the dialog pa- nel. Furthermore, the current road surface is displayed as a preview. Jun 18,08: Every plan in the Plan Window stores its last view parame- ters and restores them when activated again. These view pa- rameters are now also stored in the M-file. So when loading an M-file the previous view of a plan will be displayed. Jun 13,08: When loading leveling data the calculated elevations of multiply observed points will be checked more thoroughly. Jun 11,08: The length of alignment names was extendend to 16 chars. The previous axis format, with eight-digit names, will con- tinue to be readable by CAPLAN. From now on all, A-files will be written with 16-digit alignment names. When export- ing alignments to previous CAPLAN versions the columns 9-16 have to be deleted from the A-file (preferably using CREDIT). The PRM files were modified as well and are available with the CAPLAN workbook download. The conversion of polylines to alignments now ensures unique alignment names and carries out various checks on the name entered in the dialog. The task can only be executed if uni- que alignment names are provided and if the names are not already in use in the project. May 28,08: A best fit cylinder can be determined by at least five sup- porting points that are spread across the surface at suit- able locations. The new function can be invoked from a pro- ject via the menu command "3D Objects / Cylinder / Best Fit...". May 27,08: Data exchange with GEOgraf vertex files (POL files so far) was improved: The new LNE file name extension is primarily used and the polyline object type is also fully supported. May 26,08: The special 'Rote Hose' leveling sequence is now correctly implemented in the Z-format. The original measuring sequence, however, can no longer be verified with data from a Z-file. May 21,08: The display seen through the current viewport can be rotated using the "Frame / Viewport / Rotate..." menu command. The "Rotate" function is available if the viewport is not locked. May 16,08: Some project point operations are now also included in the LST report: - Add / edit single point - Delete points - Point collisions (old / new / average) The line coding method "1-2-3" allows the definition of arcs. In some cases the radii of the arcs were not correct- ly calculated. This bug has been fixed now. May 15,08: The behavior of the "Edit Identical Point Names" and "Neig- boring Points" dialogs has been adapted to make them more similar and thus easier to operate. May 13,08: The calculation of a point section can now also include the elevation of the new point provided that the level differ- ences or, alternatively, the zenith angles (and the differ- ences between station and target height) are at hand. May 09,08: The Plan Window now has a new "Rotate" function which ena- bles selected drawing elements to be rotated around a refer- ence point. The selected elements can also be aligned to a reference line. May 07,08: In some cases the volume calculation between horizons could not calculate a solution even though the horizon lines were extended. The algorithm for calculating the extensions has therefore been improved. May 05,08: Point name comparison is used for various tasks (such as the detection of identically named points). Now lower / upper case is ignored if the relevant option on the "Names" tab of the "Settings / General" dialog is activated. May 02,08: When loading raw data from another folder into a new project it was sometimes the case that the CAPLAN.LST report was created in the original folder rather than in the current folder of the new project. This is corrected. Apr 24,08: When intersecting two lines, or a line with a circle, the report now also includes the intersection points that lie on the extension of the lines. The least-squares adjustment of a network risked crashing when applying the adjusted coordinates are applied. The error dates from April, 11 and was rectified today. Apr 22,08: A further range of plan frame layouts are now available: STD_A2.FRM A2 Landscape format STD_A3R.FRM A3 Landscape format reduced STD_A4R.FRM A4 Portrait format reduced STD_A4W.FRM A4 Landscape format STD_A4WR.FRM A4 Landscape format reduced The reduced formats are designed for printing on A4 or A3 printers without loss of information. You can find these FRM files on our current update CD or you can download them with the "CAPLAN Workbook" available at our homepage www.cpentw.de/download.html. Apr 21,08: When the coordinates of two points with the same name are identical (point collision), it was previously the case that a joint decision to select "Old", "New" or "Average" coordinates for the plan and level coordinates could be made. Independent decisions can now be made for the plan and level coordinates. Note: the "All" button is not available if the decision is different for plan and level coordinates. Large numbers of points cannot therefore be treated very efficiently with this option. Please refer to the CAPLAN Help where you can find the steps necessary to avoid such point collisions in the first place. Apr 16,08: The dimensioning of gradients can now make use of an addit- ional symbol pointing downhill. Apr 15,08: The dialogs "Subdivide Lines", "Approximate Arcs with Poly- gons" and "Alignments from Polylines" always preselect the currently activated line. Apr 09,08: As in the standard 2D plan, profile points in a profile plan now also contain the code, including the attributes, which can then be exported to DXF as block attributes. A prerequi- site is that the profile points must be generated using the profile layout parameters 29-34. When a DXF file is imported into the Plan Window the import dialog now displays the extents of the drawing elements as well as the extents of the DXF drawing. This provides better information with regard to helping to choose an appropriate plan scale. Apr 07,08: Topcon GPS baselines can now be loaded from a TVF file (TVF= Topcon Vector Format). Apr 04,08: The layer priority used for the DTM color gradient is no longer set to zero but is now taken from the layer selected in the plan creation process. ----------------------------------------------------------- Apr 03,08: Release and distribution of version 2.4 ----------------------------------------------------------- Apr 02,08: Orthogonal dimensioning of points from a line in a plan now allows insertion of right-angle signs at the pedal points. These can be chosen to be displayed as single / double arcs or single / double lines. Apr 01,08: 3D objects can be transformed in space by applying a con- formal 3D transformation. The new dialog can be invoked via the menu command "3D Objects / Transform...". Mar 31,08: If cross section data lies far away from the center line then, when drawing such cross sections, the center line can now be prevented from being displayed with the option "Within CS". Mar 25,08: Via "View / To Clipboard", the contents of the Detail Window (either project or plan) can be copied to the Clipboard in a bitmap format. The bitmap can then be pasted, e.g. into MS Word or into an image processing software. Mar 19,08: The UTM coordinate system is allowed to have an origin other than the equator, as a latitude of origin can now be speci- fied. The stereographic projection can be combined with a scaling factor other than 1. Mar 17,08: Detail points can now be calculated referenced to a plane. The new dialog is available via the menu command "3D Objects / Plane / Detail Points...". The boundaries of a plan can now be made visible (via the View / Options... command). A visible plan boundary can be helpful in an empty plan or for detecting distant drawing elements. Mar 13,08: When calculating a volume between two DTMs using prisms, the overlapping region will be highlighted with a hatch pattern, if calculation boundaries in both DTMS are displayed. Mar 12,08: The dialog for trimming profile lines now preselects the most recently activated alignment or profile line. A pre- selected polyline will be taken as the cutting edge. Multiple points in a project with the same name can automat- ically be renamed with an appended subnumber /1, /2 etc. However, some total stations refuse the slash as a valid character. Instead of the slash it is now possible to use another separating character. The dimensioning elements for a distance in a plan can now be moved to a parallel position. In this case two lines are added indicating the original point positions to which the distance value refers. Mar 11,08: During combined portrayal in a section plan of a vertical curve and a longitudinal section, additional intermediate elevations can be added to the curve at stations taken from the longitudinal section. Mar 07,08: The prism method volume calculation report can now contain the coordinates and elevations of the triangle points. Mar 04,08: Section lines through a DTM can now be created with points at a constant interval. Consequently, DTM sections have a similar range of options to the longitudinal profiles. Dimensions placed on distances and orthogonal lines in a plan no longer require symbols as reference positions but accept freely positioned points as well. It is therefore not neccessary anymore to place symbols before dimensioning can be carried out. Mar 03,08: When generating profile plans the properties of the HZ and EP codes (i.e. color, line type, line weight, layer) are now applied. The horizon parameters as specified in the PRM file are used only for mixed horizons. Feb 27,08: The projection of points onto a plane has now been implemen- ted. The new function can be invoked via the "3D Objects / Plane / Project Points..." menu command. All dialogs that are concerned with point projection onto a selected object (such as an alignment, polyline, plane etc.) behave now in a similar way. Feb 20,08: Similarly to filling closed polylines with a hatch pattern, and thus creating area elements, it is now also possible to process the reverse task in the Plan Window via the menu command "Edit / Polyline / From Area...": After the rele- vant area elements have been selected the new polylines are created from the border lines of the area elements. Free vertices of selected polylines can now be adorned with a symbol of your choice. The benefits can be seen when dim- ensioning (of distances etc.) is needed. The new dialog is available in the Plan Window via the menu command "Edit / Polyline / Vertices..." after the relevant polylines have been selected. In large DTMs (with more than 50,000 points) the display of DTM lines is initially omitted (as is the case with invisi- ble lines and triangle numbers). Feb 19,08: The selection of measured points in the project has now been developed into a 'Selection by Significance': besides the measured points it is now possible to select (or to unsel- ect) network points as well as DTM points. Feb 13,08: Any selected drawing elements in the Plan Window can now be transformed by means of two or more identical points. These control points are used to conduct a Helmert transformation providing the parameters transforming the elements. The dialog is invoked via the menu command "Edit / Selected Elements / Transform...". If more than two identical points are used then either the GPUNKT or the KOTRAN licence is re- quired. As images can be part of the element selection the existing image transformation, which was invoked via the "Calculate / Image Transformation..." command, has become superfluous and has therefore been removed from the menu. Feb 07,08: The calculation of point offsets from lines and alignments, and the road surfaces check, now also reports points that lie outside the stationing range of the line / alignment as well as points in blind corners. Feb 06,08: Files with alignments formatted as datatype 50 no longer necessarily have to be preceded by a datatype 00 containing the name of the alignment. Feb 01,08: CAPLAN is now able to display the new 3D objects in a detail plan. All polylines are generated with a valid Z-value (ele- vation) - thus providing full three-dimensional information which can be tranferred via the DXF data interface to any CAD system. Jan 28,08: For special close range surveying tasks the precision of a project can be set to "Laboratory precision". This option is available in the "General settings" dialog via the tab "Precision". The precision setting affects the display, storage and list- ing of data. Jan 25,08: The two-way check of leveling observation data was improved. The selection of pictures in the plan window using a cross- ing window was enhanced. Jan 18,08: A few specialists among our engineering surveyors have em- phasized since years the significance of three-dimensional calculations in CAPLAN. A plane as an individual 3D object was regarded as being particularly desirable. The long a- waited enhancement has now been implemented with the intro- duction of the following 3D objects: - Spatial line - Plane - 3D Circle and - Cylinder. The new 3D objects are most similar to the already well- known alignment elements, as they too are not dependent on points but actually contain their own coordinates. They are saved in an O-file which now also forms part of project data. The new 3D objects have been integrated in the CAPLAN user interface in the same way as all the other objects you are already familiar with. Hence, the standard operations, such as Activate, F4, Ctrl+C etc. can be applied without the need for further explanation. The new functions have been collected under the new "3D Ob- jects" menu command. Existing functions that have always carried out 3D tasks have been moved to the new menu group and have also been redesigned in order to provide a seamless integration in the new environment: - Detail points of a spatial line - Project point onto a spatial line - Best fit circle in 3D space - Intersection of spatial lines with a DTM The two existing functions concerned with alignments - Best fit straight line (2D) and - Best fit circle (2D) have also been redesigned to provide a similar appearance and user interface as the equivalent new / improved 3D dia- logs. Although the new 3D objects are still in the early days of their career, they nevertheless already provide an extensive range of useful functions: - Best fit plane through 3 or more points - Best fit spatial line through 2 or more points - Intersection of spatial lines and a plane - Intersection of radial observation sightings and a plane - New project as view onto a selected plane which means in other words that the local coordinate system of the selected plane (trihedron) becomes the global coor- dinate system of the new project. From a mathematical viewpoint almost all 3D tasks can be described in terms of a transformation. The new 3D object functions therefore require a KOTRAN or GPUNKT licence. Further technical details can be found in the CAPLAN Help. Jan 11,08: The selection functionality for line vertices has been im- proved considerably. The lines of interest can now easily be selected from a list containing all lines in the project. It is also possible to deselect line vertices. Jan 09,08: The dialog for determining a best fit 2D circle was redes- igned and now looks and works like the dialog for a best fit spatial circle. Dec 21,07: When writing elevations to DXF attributes, the attribute values were previously set to 0.0 if the option "Set all Z-values to zero" was activated. Now the actual point ele- vation is always written to the attributes. Dec 14,07: The new print dialog in both the Project and Plan Windows now contains a print to file option. Dec 12,07: The DXF export now offers additional settings for the block attributes. Besides the text height, the text font, the distance from the symbol and the number of decimal places for the elevation can also be set. All dialogs in the Plan Window which create or edit drawing elements used the layer from the Layer Controller so far. Now the layer can be directly chosen in all of these dia- logs. Dec 10,07: A graticule symbol can now be displayed in the lower left hand corner of the detail plan using the Plan Window view options. The graticule symbol represents the orientation of the currently used coordinate system. The old Denker geoid model, which was restricted to the area of the former West Germany, was now replaced by the new GCG05 geoid covering all Germany within the new boun- daries. Dec 03,07: Existing symbols and freely selected spots in the Plan Window can be labeled with coordinates using the new func- tion "Dimension / Coordinates...", where plan values and / or elevations can be selected for display. The dimensioning of a distance and the dimensioning of a polyline can now also optionally be carried out in 3D. In order to improve clarity and distinction, the 3D values have a "(3D)" suffix. Dec 02,07: The locations of configuration data like object types, lay- ers, symbols etc. are described more precisely via tooltips in all dialogs. Nov 19,07: The center point of the best fit spatial circle defines the origin of the circle plane's coordinate system. Nov 16,07: A parallel line, whether created in a project or in the plan window, can now be shifted vertically. Nov 15,07: Our new dimensioning function "Dimension / Polyline Angles" displays and adds a value label to each inclination angle of a polyline that consists of at least three vertices. Nov 14,07: When importing polylines into a DTM, the intersections bet- ween the polylines are now computed much faster. The poly- lines can also now be imported into the DTM despite having existing intersections. However, this can lead to an infer- ior quality of the DTM close to the intersection points. Nov 09,07: Previously, post processed GPS baselines could not be loaded from the Trimble TGO software up to now. The new interface now replaces the Trimble DC format until now. Nov 07,07: The legend of used symbols, line styles and patterns is now displayed as a table and is thus more concise. The legend elements can be created on layers derived from the object types. ----------------------------------------------------------- Oct 22,07: Release and distribution of version 2.3 ----------------------------------------------------------- Oct 17-07: The "Define Circle" dialog recalls the previously used calc- ulation method. Tangent angles and radii can now also be calculated on the basis of clicked points. Oct 16,07: The Verm.esn point format is now also available for loading and saving points. Oct 12,07: As the navigation tools have been simplified the "Zoom Out" function was removed. The "Zoom All" function applied to a non fixed viewport either restores the inital view state or the last fixed view state of the viewport. Oct 11,07: The "Edit Profile Horizons" dialog was removed from the pro- ject menu. The HZ and EP codes of profile points can now be changed via the menu command "Edit / Object Types / Replace by Table...". Oct 10,07: Already existing viewport areas can be used as areas of in- terest when a new frame plan is created in the Plan Window, by just selecting one of the viewport areas. Oct 05,07: In profile construction mode the coordinates of horizon lines and Elling lines, respectively, can now be entered directly in the edit dialog. Oct 04,07: Similarly to the Plan Window, the Project Window now also provides the menu command "View / Options..." for specific- ation of the viewing colors. Oct 02,07: The F4 key used to edit the active element now also works on horizons and Elling lines in profile construction mode. Oct 01,07: Navigation using the mouse (in the project as well as in the plan window) can be conducted without a mouse wheel if the alterative method is activated in the "Settings / General..." dialog on the "Navigation" page. Sep 21,07: In the Plan Window the free space allocated to keeping polyline vertices free from crossing lines can be updated via the menu command "View / Update Free Space". The up- date is recommended after symbols have been changed, e.g., after symbols have been scaled. Sep 18,07: Via the menu command "Profiles / Generate / Single Cross Section..." a cross section can be derived directly from surveyed points without the need for a previously defined alignment. The location of the cross section can be deter- mined by either the best-fit straight line or by a start- ing / end point. Sep 17,07: Via the menu command "Edit / Object Types / Replace by Table..." the object types assigned to points, lines, pro- file points and observations in the project can be replaced according to the allocations described in a table. The opt- ion "All points with object type..." was therefore removed from the "Set Object Type" dialog . Sep 13,07: Via "DTM / Interpolate / Sections..." one or more sections through a DTM can be created in a convenient way. Sep 06,07: The editing process of polylines was improved once again, both in the project window as well as in the plan window: In order to exchange a vertex point in a line just press the Shift key, causing the current vertex point to be high- lighted with a red circle. Clicking another vertex will then replace the old vertex with the new one. As an alter- native to the Insert Arrow, a rubber band can help to supp- ort line construction effectively and intuitively. The only drawback of the rubber band method is that tool tips (such as point names etc.) must be suppressed. Sep 03,07: In profile construction mode a horizon line can now be cre- ated and edited in the same way as a polyline. Aug 29,07: In the project window cross sections which overlap each other in plan view can now be trimmed using other cross sections or polylines as a cutting edge. In this way multiple volume calculations in the overlapping zone can be avoided. A rectangle can be defined by three arbitrary points and generated as a new polyline in the project window. Aug 27,07: Hitherto only points which occured in all of the particpating projects could be included in an epoch comparison. Now it is also possible to include points with "gaps", by activ- ating the option "Include all points even if they do not occur in all projects". Aug 24,07: The internal identification numbers of menu commands and dialogs were changed. Therefore, if you download a recent CAPLAN version from the Internet then you should also down- load the CAPLAN help file in order to maintain a consistent program version. Unfortunately, the "Favourite Tasks" col- lection is not valid anymore and must therefore be recre- ated. Aug 23,07: When editing a road surface, separate lane width and cross- fall values can be entered at different stations. In the DXF data export the block annotations are placed next to the visual block contents. Aug 15,07: Profile templates can now be inserted with a horizontal shift. The report generator automatically reduces long names of files and directories if the placeholder does not provide sufficient space. In each section of the template the cur- rent date and time are available (under the names $CURDATE and $CURTIME). Aug 10,07: In the Plan window a rectangle, passing through three arbi- trary points, can be calculated and used as a new drawing element in the plan. Aug 03,07: In the plan creation process circular arcs forming part of an alignment now remain as arc elements in the plan and are not approximated by polylines. The alignment's name can opt- ionally be placed at the beginning as a text label. If the printing area of a project or a plan is smaller than the print paper format then the output can be centered on the print page. Multiple plans can now be printed in one go even if they have different plan formats. Jul 31,07: By saving DTM data with the "Datatypes 058 + 030" format in conjunction with output of datatype 049, a file can be created for use as an input file to the Wirth machine control system (use filetype "STRAPS DTM *.dat" for loading). Jul 30,07: When calculating a volume from DTMs, a file can be generated which contains all data required for the official check program for the (German) REB 22.013 standard. Jul 27,07: The calculation of surface areas between cross sections can now be invoked from the project window via the menu command "Profile / Surface Areas...". A prerequisite is that Elling lines which are not closed must be present. Jul 24,07: Via the menu command "Profiles / New..." new cross section plans can be created in the Plan window. You can then imme- diately start with profile construction tasks. Jul 17,07: Road surface data can now be exported to the external YXZ format, which serves as input for the Wirth machine control- ling system. Jul 12,07: The plan legend for point symbols was now complemented with line types and hatch patterns. The element colors are derived from the respective object types. For the DTM color gradient and slope shading the number of decimal digits can now be specified. Jul 10,07: GPS baseline setup checks now indicate missing observation times. This is helpful when observation data need to be corrected. Jul 09,07: CAPLAN can still be used as a viewer for M files and DXF files even if no license is available or after the test time has elapsed. Jun 20,07: DTM triangle numbering now includes only the visible tri- angles, with invisible triangles now being assigned the number 0. This ensures consistent triangle numbering even when the DTM is saved in and reloaded from a DTM file with an external format. Jun 19,07: The volume calculation using cross sections with the Elling method has been completely redesigned. During profile const- ruction, closed polylines can be created and assigned to an EPxx position. The new EPxx codes are handled very similarly to the well-known HZxx object types. The Elling volume calculation is organized using positions and is invoked from the project window. Stations with a zero profile can be introduced individually for each position. At these stations the cross section area is set to 0.0. Various outputs can be created, among them profile plans with cross section area values and data output files according to the German REB standard. Jun 14,07: Building a difference model with DTMs including exclusion areas the exclusion area border line could sometimes show unpleasant ripples. This behaviour is now corrected. Jun 11,07: Within profile constructions (shift / cover horizon) a profile line can be duplicated via an offset of 0.0 meters. The recog- nition of profile points and profile lines was also improved. When opening a plan CAPLAN searches for image files not only in the stated directory but also, in case the image cannot be found, in the current directory where the M file is located. Jun 06,07: The application window is now compatible with a set of mult- iple monitors. Collecting traverse points in the Point Stack function was faulty. The error has now been corrected. Jun 05,07: From now on the contents of a viewport are drawn prior to the frame plan contents, thus ensuring that the frame plan elements (such as grid crosses) are on top of all other ele- ments and thus visible. Up to now it was not possible to build a DTM deposit / ex- cavation model if one of the border points lay exactly on the straight connection between its direct neighbours. This particular case is now taken into consideration. Jun 01,07: With regard to detail point calculation, the reference align- ment can be considered as spatial curve, provided a vertical curve is given. The alignment-related values (such as stat- ion etc.) are then related to the spatial curve. The new amendment can be reached via the '3D Special' selection in the dialog. The function allowing import of leveling data from the Top- con format was completed today. May 29,07: Writing points to an Access database is now performed much faster if the target table is empty at the beginning of the writing process. Selected drawing elements in the Plan Window can easily be scaled by rotating the mouse wheel while simultaneously holding down the CTRL key. One increment of the mouse wheel scales the selected elements up or down by 2.5 %. ----------------------------------------------------------- May 24,07: Release and distribution of version 2.2 ----------------------------------------------------------- May 15,07: Creating new layers in the Plan Window is now more intuitive. You can create a new layer from the scratch via "Settings / New Layer...". The command "Settings / Available Layers..." allows you to select layers from the predefined layer table. May 08,07: Horizontal and vertical alignments can now be imported from the TIT and NYL formats, which are generated by the infra- structure planning software Novapoint. Apr 30,07: If a plan was used as a project background then, until now, all drawing elements were displayed, regardless of whether some layers were switched on or off. Now the layer visibility is taken into account when the background is loaded. Raw leveling data from Zeiss instruments contain language- dependent type identifiers. These are now being correctly interpreted. Apr 26,07: Besides setting out a single lane of the road surface it is now possible to set out the points of all lanes at once via "Profile / Road Surface / Setting Out...". Apr 20,07: The export of images to DXF 2004 was improved. Rotated images are now displayed correctly in AutoCAD. Apr 19,07: The display of water level lines in profiles was completely revised. The water level elevation can now be specified on the dialog page "Height". It is possible to enter one ele- vation valid for all stations. Furthermore, an individual elevation can be derived for each profile from a profile point with a special code. Apr 18,07: The dialog where station values can be specified now offers additional possibilities. Stations of center line main points, tangent intersection points as well as apex points can be added to the station list. Apr 16,07: In the course of a volume calculation between horizons a file can be generated which contains all data required for the official check program according to the REB 21.013 standard. Additionally, the cross sectional areas can be dimensioned in the profile plans. Apr 10,07: The automatic exclusion of border triangles in the DTM was further improved and now recognizes extended indentations. Apr 05,07: In the dialog "Select Points by Object Type" you can now save the current setting to file and restore it later from that file. When saving lines in a project you can specify whether a given point selection should be considered or not. Either all of the vertices must be included in the point selection or it is sufficient if the line contains at least one sele- cted point. Apr 04,07: The function "Shift Coordinates" has been added to the Plan Window. Selected drawing elements can be shifted and scaled accurately. Mar 29,07: Calculating a railway line using measurements from a rail- way staff now utlisze only two measured points per station instead of three points previously. With only two points there is no redundancy, so deviations cannot be determined. Mar 23,07: When creating a legend for the DTM levels of a difference model the upper level was superfluous. This has been corr- ected. The report of the transformation with parameters now con- tains the name of the parameter set. Areas with a SOLID hatch pattern are now exported as SOLID elements in the DXF R12 file format. Mar 16,07: Point names in raw observation files (from total stations, leveling instruments and GPS receivers) are transferred un- modified to CAPLAN. Only Leica and Zeiss point names are treated differently as their leading zeros are removed. In every case, the Z file therefore contains the final point name. The new GeoGraf version 4 is now also supported by CAPLAN. PAR files from the older version 3 as well as PAR files from the newer version 4 can be loaded and saved. Mar 13,07: When saving a DTM to data formats DA45 and DA58 the point names are now written with their letters. Up until now only the numerical name part was used. Mar 12,07: If an alignment is inverted then not only the stations of the alignment, including the vertical curve, are transformed but the related profiles and the road surface are now trans- formed as well. In the project window you will find a new menu item "Calcu- late / Intersect / Trim Line..." (the line to be trimmed must have been activated first): In the dialog the line can be trimmed using another line / parallel or the line can be extended until another line / parallel. Arcs in polylines can be approximated by polygons. These approximated polylines can then be integrated in a DTM. Mar 09,07: CAPLAN is now able to load alignments from the new format generated by the external program ProVI. Alignments from CAPLAN to ProVI are still transferred in the old data for- mat as this will still be supported by ProVI and is suff- icient for definition of alignment geometry. Mar 06,07: When loading and saving cross sections in data type 66 for- mat, the sides of the cross sections can be mirrored. This is often useful when hydraulic cross section data are to be produced. The calculation of perpendicular offsets between two align- ments can now store the intersection points in the current project for further use e.g. staking out of these points. Mar 02,07: A plan frame as well as a profile drawing frame are deter- mined by a set of parameters. Also, the plan frame size, whether it is specified or undefined, is determined by these parameters. Now, the plan frame width and the plan frame height can be specified differently from each other. The "Elevation" block attribute in a DXF file is taken from the symbol's Z coordinate. In a profile plan, however, the Y coordinate is taken instead. Feb 22,07: When writing points to ZEISS format invalid elevations will be set to -9999.0 to distinguish them from valid elevations. Feb 19,07: Polylines can now be modified with circular arcs in the Plan Window as well - quite similar to the lines in a pro- ject. Line calculations, such as the line length and the enclosed area, are now calculated accurately - not an ap- proximation with a polygonal substitute. Circular arcs are also preserved during data exchange (import / export) with DXF files. Whenever an excavation, a heap or a terrace is created the original outer border lines, break lines and exclusion areas are reintegrated in the new model. Feb 16,07: All file dialogs provide a new bar where your favourite dir- ectories can be managed - thus allowing fast access to im- portant directories. In the dialog where the vertical curve of an alignment is edited or entered a new option is now available: the verti- cal curve can directly be loaded from a file. This allows loading of an alignment in two steps: first the horizontal elements and then the vertical curve from another file. Feb 15,07: The Setting Out Report did not recognize the GSI format in some cases. This defect has now been rectified. Feb 12,07: In the course of a network adjustment it is now possible to change the Baarda threshold value (3.29) by entering an error probability other than the default value (0.1 %). The function "Subdivide Lines" allows consecutive naming of all dividing points on currently selected lines if you do not use '*' (placeholder for line name) in the point name mask. When merging lines the line highlighted in the dialog list is now immediately activated in the project window and vice versa. Feb 02,07: A coordinate file is loaded in an accelerated mode if the project does not contain any points and if multiple points with the same name are allowed. Up to now the load time for 100000 (200000, 1000000) points was 20 (100, 3100) seconds, whereas the current load time is reduced to 4 (9, 200) sec- onds. The time saved is thus quite considerable if more than 100000 points are involved. However, it should be noted that for such large projects there are still other bottlenecks which remain as CAPLAN was originally designed for middle-sized projects with a maximum of about 100000 points. Jan 30,07: Up to now it was not possible to create and to edit a DTM in a local coordinate system, and then to transform the DTM as a final step. This was because as the point positions changed the DTM became invalid and therefore had to be removed. Now all the point indices are updated according to the transformation so that the DTM remains valid. Jan 22,07: The current task in the "My Tasks" drop down box can easily be repeated by simply pressing the ENTER key if the detail window (project or a plan) is active. In this way tasks can be continuously executed. The dialog for entering a viewing scale was simplified as only the scale number, e.g. "250", is required for a scale of 1:250. Jan 17,07: The graphical output of a geodetic network no longer incl- udes a frame or grid. The legend descriptions now constit- ute a separate legend plan from which the contents can easily be transferred to the frame plan. Jan 15,07: The new profile constructions "Profile / Add Arc To Left..." and "Profile / Add Arc To Right..." now allow the addition of circular arcs and trenches to profiles. Jan 12,07: Alignment referenced detail points (Alignments / Detail Points) can now be entered with an elevation difference that refers to the alignment's vertical curve or to the road surface elevation. Jan 04,07: The profile constructions "Add Point to Left" and "Add Point to Right" are now more user-friendly and offer many more alternatives for construction. Dec 22,06: An individual background color can now be specified for both the plan and the project window. The CAPLAN workbook (CAPLAN.DOC) and the training courses (Training1.DOC and Training2.DOC) are now available via the Cremer website as PDF files. Dec 21,06: Some profile construction operations, such as "Add Point to Left", "Add Point to Right" and "Insert Profile Template" are now more flexible and allow referencing of the const- ruction to any individual point of a profile horizon. The reference points have to be specified in each selected pro- file station at the end of the dialog sequence. Point snapping mode can now also be used when specifying points for profile constructions. Dec 15,06: Network control points can be selected via the point code (object type) in the network setup process. The new feature is available in the context menu. The line surveying method "Link forward negative point code" was extended by a fifth method, "Link backward negative point code". This will certainly please all CADdy users as the new method is exactly what CADdy supported in the old days. Surveyors can thus retain existing data collection routines and the KOR files can be imported to CAPLAN without loss of link lines/feature strings. Dec 13,06: You may now create profiles with empty bands by selecting a PRM file that contains more band definitions than projects involved. Dec 08,06: Working with larger image files is now complemented by a pro- gress dialog which appears during lengthy operations such as loading or recoloring. The current operation can also be terminated prematurely via the dialog's Cancel button . Dec 04,06: Some tasks applicable for an active line in the project are now directly available in the context menu. Nov 30,06: For a user defined coordinate format with separators you can now decide if consecutive separators should be interpreted as oneblock or individually. Nov 23,06: CAPLAN can still be used as a viewer for M files and DXF files even if no license is available or if the test time has elapsed. Nov 21,06: If cross sections (referenced to an alignment) are spread across several projects, resulting station gaps occur, you can select all stations without gaps via the command "Select complete stations" from the context menu. Nov 17,06: When elevation labels are exported to DXF there is now an option allowing the text to be split (leading and trailing characters as well as the actual decimal point are expor- ted as 3 distinct elements to DXF so that the decimal point is correctly positioned). If this option is not activated then the elevation label is exported as a single text ele- ment and so the decimal point is correctly positioned only if a fixed size font is used in the CAD system. Nov 11,06: In the Plan Window a scale bar can be added to plans via the menu command "Dimension / Scale...". ----------------------------------------------------------- Nov 08,06: Release and distribution of version 2.1 ----------------------------------------------------------- Nov 03,06: Georeferencing of an image can alternatively be provided by a so-called World File. Save for Handover: A project as well as plans from the Plan Window can be saved "for handover". This means that all relevant files are packed in a single archive file which can easily be transferred to the recipient. For a project (CPZ file): all project files including the background (X file) with images and georeferencing files. Loading a CPZ project file includes automatic unzip. For plans (MFZ file): all plans (M file) with the included images and georeferencing files. Loading an MFZ file in- cludes automatic unzip. For DXF drawing files (ZIP file): all plans (DXF file) and, for DXF version 2004, also the images and georeferencing files (as far as available). Oct 30,06: When drawing cross sections the stations provided are now collected from all open projects. You may now draw empty bands if you select a PRM file with more bands defined than projects involved. The layout of a longitudinal section allows editing of an additional vertical alignment curve. Three further bands, the gradient band, the curvature band, and the crossfall band may also be included in the layout editing process. Oct 23,06: Up until now, the naming convention for layers, symbols, line types and hatch patterns was restricted to DXF version R12. From now on the naming convention is extended according to DXF version 2004. These conventions allow upper and lower- case letters, many special characters and a maximum length of up to 255 characters. Oct 20,06: Within the plan window it is now possible to transform an image (Calculate / Image Transformation...) by using two control points. In the dialog the actual and true coordi- nates of these points are entered (either manually or by mouse click). CAPLAN then calculates the transformation parameters which fit the image to the global coordinate system by shifting, rotating and scaling. This function can be used for geo-referencing of images. Saving of polylines out of the project (via File / Save / Lines...) can now be restricted to the currently selected points (instead of the selected lines so far). In this case all the selected points are saved along with those lines that have their supporting vertices completely selected. Consequently, it is now much more convenient to transfer any part of a project. Archiving a DTM can now also be done via the DXF format. The saving function (as DXF triangle export) was already available since the DXF loading function was introduced. Oct 18,06: In the plan generation process observations (terrestrial measurements as well as GPS baselines) can now be included (instead of the rather limited ellipses). This was also a customer's suggestion made at the InterGEO. Oct 17,06: Some improvements suggested by our customers at the InterGEO are now implemented: - A spatial circle can also be calculated without prese- lection of points. - You can now store images (e.g. company logos) in the frame parameter files and reload them when generating a plan frame. - When exporting the DXF format it is possible to restrict the output of layer definitions to the layers that were actually used. Oct 06,06: Images (bitmaps) such as orthophotos can now be inserted in plans where they can be freely positioned and recolored. These plans can then be used as background information for a CAPLAN project. The following image formats are supported: JPG, BMP, TIF, GIF, and PNG. Oct 06,06: The long awaited combination of a vertical alignment curve together with a longitudinal section is now implemented. In addition to the section view the alignment's curvature band and crossfall band can also optionally be included in the plan. However, the prerequisite for such a combined plan is a PRM template file as (such as ALIGN_P1.PRM), in other words: there is no default representation available. Via the new menu command "Profiles / Overview..." an over- view of all cross sections can be generated. An overview is particularly helpful for detecting stationing gaps etc. if cross sections are spread across multiple projects. Oct 02,06: The plan list in the Plan Window was provided with check mark boxes in order to provide a clear distinction between the activated plan and selected plans. Selection is enabled via check marks in the plan list. The profile construction has been improved tremendously: The new station lists in the construction dialogs allow the selection of any profile station where construction should be made. You can even browse through the stations (by click- ing either in the dialog list or the plan list of the Plan Window). The currently selected station is always displayed with a preview of the current construction. When browsing through cross section plans CAPLAN tries to retain the current view as far as possible. If the Page-Up / Page-Down keys are used for browsing then the focus will be kept in the detail window. Oct 01,06: In order to individually represent the vertical curve of an alignment and to provide an additional curvature / crossfall band the new dialog "Alignments / Vertical Alignment / Gen- erate Plan..." has to be invoked. In the dialog a template (PRM file) can also be specified. The longitudinal and vertical scales can also be selected. Sep 19,06: The list of plans in the Plan Window can now be edited in a more comprehensible way via a context menu. Sep 05,06: If no point numbers were entered in the "Enter Line Points" dialog CAPLAN crashed after the "Apply" button was clicked. This error is now fixed. Aug 18,06: When loading DXF files into a project you can now merge points even in empty projects. Thus drawing imprecisions can easily be corrected. In the Plan Window you can now dimension the lengths and the gradients of multiple selected polylines and areas in one go. Aug 17,06: The dialog "Assign Object Types" was now extended so that you can select the points via their object type. Aug 11,06: A symbol (point) in a plan can now have - as any other point in a project - up to eight attributes besides the object type code. These attributes can also be edited in the Symbol Edit dialog. Multiple point / symbol properties (such as point name, object code, attributes etc.) are available for DXF export where they can be saved as DXF block attributes. In turn, during DXF import, it is possible to select DXF block attributes and assign them to CAPLAN point attributes. The profile plan layout (which may be Standard or From PRM- File) can now be edited with the help of a dialog "Profile / Layout (PRM)..." where the effect of changed R parameters can be directly inspected in the plan preview. Additional drawing elements can then be specified in the profile temp- late plan and can finally be saved in a new PRM file toge- ther with the R parameters (via Profile / Save...). Aug 04,06: For DXF import of points into the project window as well as for the point representation in a plan creation process it was previously necessary to fill the dialog lists with the same tables (such as the Layer - Code relation etc.). Once you have entered the relations in the list you can now save the completed list data, via the context menu, to an LDX file, from where it can be reloaded later on. Aug 03,06: When creating a plan with lines, you have now an additional option for filling areas, with the option to align the patt- ern to the longest polygon side. Jul 21,06: In the Plan Window it is now possible to intersect two poly- lines (menu command Calculate / Line Intersection...). The intersection points are created as new symbols. Thereafter, the distances etc. can be dimensioned. Jul 19,06: Via the menu command "Transformations / With Control Points / 2-Point..." a new simplified Helmert Transformation is now available, where the coordinates of both control points are just entered in the dialog. This means that the function tion does not need a second project database. The new func- tion is available with a basic CAPLAN license (without an additional module). Jul 12,06: The line coding method specified by 1=Start, 2=Continue and 3=End was enriched by a further alternative method with 5= Start and 6=End. The advantage of the alternative method is that all points following the starting point will automatic- ally be included in the polyline. Jul 07,06: The user-defined coordinate formats can now be organized in such a way that they will be available in Global data loca- tions (in the CONFIG.INI file residing in the global DAT directory). Jul 04,06: The view controller in the project window and the layer controller in the plan window have new possibilities for multiple selection via the SHIFT-Key. The layer controller also offers a context menu (when the list is closed). Jun 26,06: When using the layer manager or editing the object type table you can change multiple lines via the list's edit functions. Jun 23,06: Radial observation data can now also be loaded from TOPCON RAW format. Jun 21,06: Loading or saving of an alignment in the old Leica GSI for- mat required the easting and northing coordinates to be shortened with constant shift values. These can be entered in a new dialog as of now. Jun 16,06: The text windows dedicated to the LST-file and to the ERR- file can both be kept open as long as CAPLAN runs. In this way one can conveniently watch the report generating pro- cess in real-time. Furthermore all printer settings (such as landscape orientation) are retained. Jun 14,06: The dividing points of polylines are not only added to the project but can also be added to the polyline as well. Jun 09,06: 3DFACE surface elements were until now not loaded from DXF files. The element's vertices are however now treated as POINT elements and are thus loaded into the Project Window or into the Plan. The frame templates STD_A4.FRM and STD_A3.FRM provide a fixed size as of now. The width and height parameters can be edited in the dialog list. The area of interest is de- termined with just one mouse click (which is the center point of the area). Jun 08,06: All tasks for setting out of points are now equipped with a variable, user-definable, name mask applying to the point names. Circles and circular arcs can now be defined with variious construction options. Ellipses and parts of ellipses (arcs) can now also be drawn. CAPLAN uses the polyline element for this function. Jun 01,06: The new function "Draw / Circle..." generates a circle or a circular arc in the Plan Window. The circle or arc ele- ment is in fact represented by a polyline. May 24,06: The dimensioning values available in the Plan Window are now available with a range of units(such as m, mm, cm, feet etc.). May 18,06: With the new function "Edit / Names / Renumber..." it is now possible to renumber (i.e. rename) selected or all points (e.g. from 1 through end number). May 17,06: Importing circular arcs as alignments from a DXF file is no longer possible. ARC elements are now loaded as polylines (with bulges). The loaded polylines can then be converted to alignments whenever necessary. May 12,06: Via the new menu command "Calculate / Best Fit Circle..." a spatial circle can be calculated passing through selected 3D points. All deviations are shown in the result list. May 11,06: Via the new menu command "DTM / Calculate / Sum Of Areas..." polylines, defined in a DTM, can be selected as area perime- ters. All areas are calculated and listed with both values, 3D and 2D. May 09,06: Importing points and lines from DXF into the project window was completely revised. Block attributes from DXF can now be transferred to CAPLAN as point names, elevations and object types. As the import of polylines also includes arcs and circles, the DXF import of center lines has now been discontinued. May 04,06: The import of GSI data from the digital level LEICA SPRINTER is now processed correctly. ----------------------------------------------------------- Apr 24,06: Release and distribution of version 2.0 ----------------------------------------------------------- Apr 21,06: Blocks from a DXF file can now be imported into the symbol editor. During the import you can choose which blocks should be loaded and where they should be saved (e.g. local). Addi- tionally, all block definitions are loaded during the DXF plan import for use within the drawing. They are stored as as local symbols (i.e. existing symbol definitions won't be overwritten). Apr 18,06: You can now define a spatial line (3D) directly via the two point names. Apr 09,06: The object type is now included in the data transfer to the plan window and can therefore be used as an attribute when creating or reading DXF files. Apr 04,06: Whilst importing data with unknown object types you are now able to immediately edit all properties of these new object types. The same functionality is available when data are im- ported into a project via the Clipboard. Mar 31,06: The import of polylines into a CAPLAN project can now also utilize user-defined file formats. As with points and link- lines from a total station the line codes must be defined by an additional attribute. Mar 28,06: DXF export of plans from the Plan Window was fundamentally improved. Frame plans with viewports are no longer exported as one plan model because the structure with the different layout and model space is now correctly converted and saved in the DXF file. If CAPLAN shows different plans in multiple viewports these plans are automatically placed one after another to form a single model space. It is obvious that such a composed model cannot represent true coordinates all over its extents. However, this is implied in the AutoCAD restriction to a single model. Besides the older format (R12) CAPLAN is now capable of gene- rating the new 2004 DXF format which has the following ad- vantages over the R12 format: - Full RGB color depth of all elements - Support of line weight - Area elements with all properties - Multi-line text as so-called M-text - True type fonts as text style - Viewport borders are not restricted to rectangles Mar 25,06: The drawing element selection based on predefined properties (Edit / Select / By Properties...) was improved today: Any drawing element can serve as a reference object by simply clicking it. The dialog will then show and consequently use the properties of that reference element. Mar 22,06: When printing from the plan window it is now very easy to output the current view at a scale equal to that of the ori- ginal plan. You just set the corresponding option in the new print dialog. Mar 08,06: From today CAPLAN is capable of managing large UTM proj- ections. With this capability larger regions or countries (such as Europe or Nigeria) can be handled with a single coordinate system. Of course, the distance corrections req- uired can grow rather large at remote eastern or western extremeties. Mar 03,06: The generation of statistical reports concerning the object types were now organized in a new dialog available via the menu command "Report / Object Types...". Mar 02,06: Both the View Controller and the Layer Controller can now be used in a more "intuitive" way: the tick marks are al- ways applied even if you closed the drop down box by click- ing outside it. Only the ESC key can prevent the new selection from being applied. Feb 21,06: When editing a polyline in the Plan Window it was, up to now, not always easy to recognize the line leg where a new point was to be inserted. With the new dialog option "Show insert arrow" the line leg can be clearly indicated in the preview with an arrow. Feb 21,06: It is now possible to select a predefined frame size format format in the "Area of Interest" dialog (with the formats loaded from the PlanForm.DAT file located in the DAT dir- ectory). In this way you can adhere to a required plan frame format (such as ISO or ANSI). Within the project window you can now display the short description of a point's object type via the view con- troller. Feb 20,06: Control coordinates of a network can now be given point attributes: Control points are represented by a specific object type with up to three attributes holding the coord- inate accuracy in all three dimensions. The attributes can can be used for a more automated approach way when a new network is established and they can also be filled with accuracy values during a network adjustment. Feb 16,06: Selecting an object type for a line in a CAPLAN project is now much easier because all object types using the same line style are shown in a concise list at a glance. When editing a polyline in the Project Window it was, up to now, not always easy to recognize the line leg where a new point was to be inserted. With the new dialog option "Show insert arrow" the line leg can be clearly indicated in the preview with an arrow. Feb 15,06: The view layer dialog in the project window (reached via the command "Settings / View Layers...") now allows you to set the display options by object type or by drawing layer. Feb 11,06: The function "Dimension / Gradients...", now newly avail- able in the Plan Window, is similar to the polyline dimen- sioning except for the output, which is not line lengths but rather gradient values. Feb 10,06: Now that the old attribute width restrictions no longer exist the "General Settings" dialog has space again for new settings: Now, the tooltip-texts dedicated to points in the Project Window are configurable. Feb 09,06: The auxiliary program CpInfo.EXE is dedicated to our long- term customers: Conversion from the old object type to the new object type format is done automatically by the new CAPLAN version 2.0, and all new data are saved in the new format anyhow. Many customers, however, have created other auxiliary tools on their own or with external help which require the old CAPLAN data format. In order to enable full functionality during a certain transition time we are therefore providing the auxiliary program CpInfo.EXE which converts the new data format back to the old format. Feb 06,06: Loading a DXF file from the Plan Window was established to- day. Except for a few special cases the entire contents of a DXF file can be represented in a plan. Feb 01,06: Object types, symbols, line styles and hatch patterns can be presented in a graphical form via the menu command "View / Show / Object Types..." etc. As the data elements may come from different directories the graphical diagram may either follow the hierarchical structure or can just show the elements which are available in the current project directory. The diagrams are produced in a handy size with portrait orientation so they conveniently fit in a standard-sized folder. Dimensioning of points in the Plan Window with reference to a polyline was now amended: If the polyline has more than one leg the reference line (i.e. the first leg) can now be selected. Instead of the starting point the leg's end point can now also serve as the origin. Jan 30,06: The list, an element of numerous CAPLAN dialogs, was again improved. The following new features were made available and can thus be used in many dialogs: In order to change a list entry one was forced until now to invoke the Context Menu via the right-hand mouse button from which the function "Edit Entry" had to be chosen be- fore editing could be done. Now a simple double click on the field you would like to change will immediately lead to the mini dialog where the new entry can be made. In principle, a whole list line can now be dragged, using the mouse, to another location (beneath or beyond), where it can be dropped. This generally adopted mechanism of Drag and Drop is now made available in some dialogs. Jan 23,06: While importing profile data from DA 66 format the horizons are now made selectable in a dialog list. In this way it is possible to supply different projects with a specific subset of profile horizons. Jan 21,06: With support of the new function "Edit / Lines / Subdivide", which was now added in the project window, straight lines can be divided with a middle point. The sequence of all middle points may then serve the basis for a new alignment. Jan 17,06: When a DTM is saved with datatype 58 a horizon number can be provided. Furthermore, datatype 49 can (optionally) be excluded from being saved. Jan 02,06: Within a polyline it's now possible to have arcs with an apex angle greater than 180 degrees. Dec 28,05: Besides the object type you can now assign further attri- butes to the GPS baselines (as is already possible with radial observations). Dec 20,05: The management of object types was completely redesigned. The object types are now held in the OBJTYPE.DAT file which may occur in different directories (global, regional and local). The existing files KLASSE.DAT (from the DAT folder) and *.KLS (from the current project folder) will be auto- matically migrated to the new format. The new object types provide more and signifcantly improved functionality: - The lengths of the code and the further attributes (now eight) are no longer restricted. The attributes are thus stored in a new format in the CAPLAN project files (K,L, V,6,7,8,N). You can easily migrate to the previous format via a new conversion program. - You can now assign a fill pattern to an object type. When creating a plan closed polylines can then be converted to areas with fill patterns. - The dialog for entering point attributes has been redesign- ed and simplified. - It is possible to define different attributes for each object type (the attribute definitions of the default obj- ect type are used if no definition is made). Data types can be assigned to each attribute. - Symbol names and line type names are no longer restricted to 1-999 and 1-99 respectively. Dec 19,05: When exporting points from the project window to DXF format DXF blocks with attributes are generated. The point name, the elevation and the object type are written as block attributes. Dec 16,05: Whenever symbols are exported from the Plan Window in DXF format the DXF blocks are now enriched with attributes. As attributes both the point name (if available) and the elevation can be chosen as options for output. ----------------------------------------------------------- Dec 15,05: Release and distribution of the intermediate version 1.8b ----------------------------------------------------------- Dec,13 05: The dialog for editing profiles now allows copying of a sel- ected cross section which is assigned a new station value. Dec,12 05: All symbol related displays during a running task dialog now take the active snap mode into account. Not only the co- ordinates but also the result text as well as the preview reflect the symbol being snapped or not. Nov 29,05: The Clipboard functions in the Plan Window are now clearly distinguished according to the type of coordinate system they work with: The 'classical' functions transfer global coordinates (such as UTM) via the Clipboard. This corresponds well with the transfer of elements in the Project Window. The global coordinate transformations include scale and rotation, depen- ding on the plan scale and the grid direction. These functions are to be used to copy measured objects whilst re- taining their correct geometry. The new functions, however, work directly with plan coordin- ates. They are all invoked via shortkeys that include the shift key. These functions are particularly useful for trans- fer of drawing elements in cm units, as seen on the paper The 'Insert' function now allows repeated paste operations at different locations (defined by clicking with the mouse). Nov 26,05: The Plan Window function "Dimension / Distance..." was im- proved. Nov 23,05: Whenever the angle units are switched from 'degrees' to 'gons' or vice-versa, the standard list template in the BIN directory (CAPLAN.TPL) is updated correspondingly. Nov 22,05: Text elements consisting of a keyword / placeholder combi- nation can now also be employed when profile plans are created. The standard templates STANDARD.PRM etc. were ad- justed accordingly. Nov 17,05: For volume calculations between two DTM models there is now an option to take into consideration the exclusion areas, which are possibly contained in the previous model. The same option is also available when creating a differ- ence model. Nov 12,05: During spline generation a vertical alignment can be added optionally if all constituent points have a valid elevation. Nov 11,05: Point and line files in the MAS80 format can be used by CAPLAN for transfer in both directions (import and export). The column ranges can be set via a dialog to accomodate special allocations. Nov 28,05: The following errors have been eliminated in a corrected version (1.8b): If a drawing element, which was already selected, was to be copied to the Clipboard via the context menu then the element was first deselected so that effectively nothing was copied to the Clipboard (Nov 28, 05). The function "Dimension / Distance..." in the Plan Window provided erroneous distance values (Nov 24, 05). Exporting area elements to a DXF file could lead to a crash under certain conditions (Nov 19, 05). Nov 19,05: The following errors have been eliminated in a corrected version (1.8a): CAPLAN crashed during profile construction with a new pro- ject (Nov 16, 05). Exporting area elements to a DXF file could possibly cause an unending loop (Nov 16, 05). Erroneous paste of points via the Clipboard was corrected today (Nov 10, 05). ----------------------------------------------------------- Nov 07,05: Release and distribution of the new version 1.8 ----------------------------------------------------------- Nov 02,05: The new function "Frame / For Profiles..." in the Plan Win- dow has now closed the deficiency which had existed for so long in comparison to the old LQPLAN program: At last, lon- gitudinal and cross sections can now be embedded in a frame with a proper titlebox etc. The frame for a 2D plan as well as the frame for profiles both originate from the same template file, which was prev- iously called RAHMEN.DAT but is now changed to STANDARD.FRM. Similarly, the old PROFIL.DAT file now has the new name STANDARD.PRM. Although you can load the parameter settings from the old RAHMEN.DAT and PROFIL.DAT files it is now rec- ommended to use the new filetypes *.FRM and *.PRM to save modified frame parameters. In order to improve data management for certain data types the following name extensions are supported from now on: *.STA Station values *.STO Offset values *.TRV Point sequence for traverse The creation of profile plans was improved as follows: - The horizontal bands can be labelled with a name different to the project name (alias name). - The frame parameters were loaded from the old PROFIL.DAT file (which is now STANDARD.PRM). You can now also select any other PRM parameter file. Oct 27,05: From now on the definition of individual elevation intervals and slope classes along with their colors can be loaded from and saved to a file. Additionally, individual color gradients can be defined for any part of the elevation intervals or slope classes. Oct 25,05: A CAPLAN project (CP file) cannot be open twice at the same time, as was possible up to now. In fact, the CP file is locked (kept open) for as long as the first instance of the project is open and running. The menu function "Save As" can be called directly via the short key F12 (or Shift+F12). Oct 20,05: With the new menu command "Plan / Legend..." a plan legend can be created. The folder-sized intermediate plans can contain (optionally) a point list (2D or 3D) and a summary of all used symbols with a description and explanations to the DTM color gradient as well as to the DTM slope shading. The completed legend can then be transferred via the clip- board to the final destination (either in the plan or at a suitable location in the plan frame). Oct 14,05: The Project Window and the Plan Window will work in the near future in very similar ways with the main emphasis on an effective data transfer between both. Today we have come closer to this goal: the "symbol" and "polyline" drawing elements can now be transferred from a plan to any CAPLAN project via the Clipboard functionality. The "area" drawing element is handled as a "polyline". The new points or lines are named according to the scheme #.Plan where # represents an incrementing number starting from 1. Oct 11,05: At last, the DTM Color Gradient and the DTM Slope Shading options, including the flow lines, can be tranferred to a plan. The two Slope Shading options are complemented by a third shading option where the DTM model surface is made clearly apparent through use of light and shade effects. In a similar way to the contour line generation, the DTM model surface can be smoothed during the plan creation process. Sep 23,05: The recently implemented frame / viewport functionality was used as a base to generate a plan frame as an independent task in the Plan Window. Thus, plan creation and frame generation are now two separate functions. The template file is no longer bound to the name RAHMEN.DAT but can be named and selected freely. The additional drawing elements (for title box adornments etc.) can be edited after the frame plan has been prepared. Finally, the modified frame plan can again be saved in a new template file. All requests from our customers have now found an appropriate solution, particularly the following: - Free selection of the template file (RAHMEN.DAT until now) - Clipping area can also be loaded from a file - Placeholders with automatically updated text Sep 08,05: In order to show areas with their calculated area value the Plan Window now provides the function "Dimension / Areas..." which adds a text element with the area value, such as 567.12 sqm, to each of the preselected polylines and area elements. The text elements are placed at the centroid of the area element they belong to. As an option, all areas can be hatched with a unique pattern. Sep 01,05: As with the symbols also the linetypes can now be managed in a more flexible way: the old number range from 7 through 999 has dissolved in favor for arbitrary names, although the old restrictions are still valid for a short transition period. The definition of a linetype is allowed to contain any symbols (even the user-defined ones) as well as text elements and the newly introduced area elements. As far as lines are part of the definition these have the continuous linestyle (style "1") which means that a linetype defini- tion must not contain another linetype. All linetype defi- nitions can be stored in a global, regional or local version of the LINIEN.DAT file whose format is very similar to the format of the M file. CAPLAN automatically migrates any ex- isting linetype definition files to the new format. Aug 22,05: The Plan Window was enriched with the new area drawing ele- ment, which is basically a closed polyline filled either with a unique color or with a hatch pattern. For the setup pro- cess a PATTERN.DAT is delivered for installation in the DAT directory in order to provide CAPLAN with a standard selec- tion of hatch patterns. Area drawing elements evenly filled with a specified color (SOLID style) are prerequired to manage Color Gradient and Slope Shading representations of a DTM. Many customers have asked for these features to be included in the DXF export. Aug 03,05: When saving plans in DXF format the layer definitions (e.g. color, linetype, on/off) can also be exported now. Aug 01,05: The management of symbols was completely redesigned. From now on alphanumeric symbol names are allowed. For compatibi- lity reasons the symbol names will be restricted to numbers 100 to 999 until our next update. The new symbol generator allows creation and editing of symbol definitions in the same easy way as other editing operations in the Plan Window. Text can also be part of a symbol. The symbol definitions are held in the SYMBOL.DAT file which may occur in different directories (global, regional and local). The file format was changed according to the meta file format. CAPLAN automatically migrates your user defined symbols to the new format. Jul 29,05: The third reconstruction stage of the Plan Window has star- ted with frames and viewports as prerequisites for layout multiple cross sections in one superior frame plan. Also the ground plan should be generated without a frame in the near future. A frame can then be added just before the plan is finalised. Jul 13,05: All network adjustments (in plan, level and spatial) were now provided with a Chi-Square-Test for the total error factor. Jun 13,05: In order to define the vertical curves of an alignment it is now possible to enter tangent lengths instead of radius values. Jul 04,05: During the second reconstruction stage of the Plan Window the following improvements were made (up to now): In both the Project and Plan windows it is possible to load a background scene. In the project window the background helps to locate all survey objects but cannot be edited It is saved in an X-file as part of the project. In a plan the background scene is held in the BACKGROUND layer and therefore automatically integrated in the database of a plan. When creating a plan the individual themes (such as contour lines) are now normally assigned to a layer, which defines the color, line style and line weight. The Setup process provides a set of predefined layers dis- tributed in the LAYER.DAT file for installation in the DAT directory. The new Layer Manager allows two types of layers to be dis- played and edited: The first layer type persistently stored in file(s) LAYER.DAT and the second type created temporari- ly when a plan is loaded from file. Up to now the layer colors were saved along with the layer names in the INI file CpUser.INI, section "ColorOfLayers". Because more properties were added to the layer structure this persistency is not supported anymore. The traditional 2-digit pen as a combination of line weight (0-9) and color (1-8) was enhanced: - The scale of line weights was extended by the "1 pixel" option at the bottom end. All drawings performed on screen can only be done with this option. The other line weights can be applied only during printing. - The old color palette was now replaced by a new RGB color system (R=red, G=green, B=blue). - The colors and the line weights can either be defined individually or by referencing to the corresponding layer ("From Layer"). Conversion of old colors (0-8) found in M files: The colors 0 and 8 (black) are interpreted as "From Layer"; all other colors 1-7 as "individual". The introduction of a new layer as well as editing an ex- isting layer is done with the same dialog, which therefore clearly shows all the properties of a layer. The follow- ing properties are new: - Weight (1 pixel, 0.13 mm ... 2.00 mm) - Lock (elements of layer cannot be modified) - Print (elements of visible layer are printed) - Priority (uppermost text element has highest priority) All layers including their attributes are stored in the M- file. During the M-file loading process these layers will be restored with the same attributes as they were stored before so that the plans will appear as they were seen when saved. A new plan with various properties can now be created via the function "File / New Plan...". The empty plan can be filled with arbitrary drawing elements. The surrounding rectangular area of a plan can now be re- calculated via "Zoom All", provided that a further "Zoom Out" won't be possible and that the plan type allows a change of extents (no frame plan). Jun 08,05: When generating cross sections "From DTM" and "From Road Surface" the offset values are now entered in a new sub dialog which allows definition of individual offset values. Jun 04,05: Via "Settings / General..." a new option "Longitudes west of Greenwich = positive" is available which will certainly be appreciated by our customers in the USA, Canada and Ice- land. May 31,05: As an additional type of transition curve the cubical para- bola was implemented to support railway alignments. May 24,05: Whenever new points are added to an existing DTM the mesh- ing process is now automatically followed by an improvement of triangle shapes according to the method "Best triangle quality". Existing break lines, however, are not changed. May 10,05: Similar to the restructuring of lines in CREDIT, the parameters for instruments, prisms, staves and profile tem- plates can now be held in different directories (global, regional and local). May 09,05: The Plan window is expected to be thoroughly renewed in time for the the Intergeo exhibition (October). During the first reconstruction phase the following news were implemented: A new menu shows the main entries "Edit" and "Draw" separa- tely. The "Draw" menu contains all functions that add new elements to the plan. All "Draw" functions (e.g. add slope hatchings etc.) are previewed directly in the detail window. In the dialog managing both the loading and saving of draw- ings the file type can be selected. When saving, a valid file name will always be suggested. Instead of one activated element it is now possible to select multiple elements. As well as the standard functions Ctrl+A, Ctrl+Shift+A more selecting possibilities are available: - Selection in a rectangle (also crossing) - Selection in a surounding polygon - Selection in polygon (within and crossing) - Selection of elements crossing a line The selected elements can be copied or moved to the Clipboard (via Ctrl+C or Ctrl+X) from where they can be reinserted (via Ctrl+V = true position, Ctrl+Shift+V = arbitrary). Addition- ally the selected elements can be moved with the mouse or they can be deleted (Ctrl+Del). Selected symbols / text elements can be scaled (magnified) with a scale factor. Selected symbols / text elements can be rotated (newly dir- ected). Among other options a polyline can serve as a reference for directions. Selected elements can be attached to a layer via the View Controller: When selecting an element the corresponding layer is shown in the View Controller. Multiple selected elements with different layers are labelled as "Various Layers". If a certain layer is selected in the View Controller whilst elements are selected then all selected elements will be as- signed to the new layer. The edit functionality was optimized internally which results in much faster operations (up to 4 times as quick). Text elements can be multiline now. The special anchor posi- tion 10 was reintroduced. Consequently, a spot height is one text element - no longer three distinct elements (symbol + 2 text elements). New text styles are: underlined, double underlined, and with frame. However, the underline styles is possible only in com- bination with a one-line text. Symbols were provided with tooltips revealing the symbol's name. A special symbol highlight indicates the nearest symbol in "snap" mode. Apr 11,05: When loading points from the Leica ASC format the coordina- te type (31-39) is now scanned in a larger column range (between 68 and 100) and will hopefully be found there. Apr 09,05: New development in the Plan Window: multiple drawing elements can be selected simultaneously (using Ctrl+mouse click). The Clipboard functionality as well as the displacement func- tion can already be applied. Apr 08,05: Longitudinal and cross sections can be embellished with gradient values in percent. In order to achieve this the profile parameters R135, R235 etc. have to be defined in the parameter file PROFIL.DAT, where the values represent the desired text height in cm units. Mar 31,05: New development for displaying the DTM: From now on you can set the contour line interval, the density of contour lines and the color gradient independently. It is now also possible to display contour lines at specified elevations in a diff- erent color. Mar 25,05: Via the menu item "Edit / Names / By Table..." points can now be renamed using a table. The table may either be entered in the dialog or loaded from a previously prepared file. Mar 23,05: The function "Report / Compare / Points..." can optionally select the matching points. The polyline coding method "1-2...2-3" was extended with code=9 which not only terminates a line (as code=3) but also closes the line as a loop. ----------------------------------------------------------- Mar 16,05: Release and distribution of the new version 1.7 ----------------------------------------------------------- Mar 12,05: Distances, regardless whether they are part of the radial observations or contained in the network, can be scaled via a common dialog where also a constant value can be set to be added to all distances. Mar 11,05: Besides slope shading the DTM triangles can now be displayed in color according to the slope class they belong to. It is also possible to report the DTM triangle areas falling in the specified slope classes. These reports can be used for submissions or clearings. Mar 10,05: The long expected deformation analysis is now completed in all dimensions (plan, level and spatial). Unfortunately, only a few specialists can take full advantage of the impl- ementation following the congruency model from Pelzer. Feb 24,05: Project names are now forced to be unique. The situation of two different projects with identical names would lead to the same project files which would overwrite mutually if care is not taken with the naming. Data deleted from a project (such as alignments) are now also deleted from files (e.g. A file) for consistency rea- sons. To avoid inadvertent deletions CAPLAN compares the current project status with the status the project had when it was opened: Files which have no reference in the opening CP file will (obviously) not be loaded but updated (or even removed) when the project is saved. Therefore, in such cases a warning is given. Feb 17,05: When plotting the vertical alignment of a route the apex points (needed for drainage) are now added to the drawing. Feb 11,05: When writing the network equations into a file the lines can now be formatted for Excel. With Excel the matrices can then be operated on for further investigations. Feb 10,05: As with the polar point calculation the point stack also did not modify any existing coordinates in the project. Now the point stack shows a message which can be answered with "Modify" if the existing coordinates should be replaced. Feb 09,05: The adjustment of an unconstrained network can now be carr- ied out with partial minimum norm. The datum points can be selected with the help of an additonal sub dialog. Feb 03,05: In any list where checkboxes precede the rows the tick marks can now be set or removed within a certain range by click- ing with the mouse and simultaneously pressing the shift key, in a similar way to a common standard selection. Selecting and unselecting rows in a list (such as the point directory, table of object types etc.) with the help of the filter dialog can now include jokers "?" and wildcards "*". Jan 31,05: Distances from Trimble DC file were meteorologically corr- ected up to now. However, if the air pressure is recorded as zero in the DC file the distance must not be corrected. Jan 26,05: Selecting and unselecting of points was improved once more as the name of any selected point will now automatically appear in the entry field. Consequently a range of point names such as "From" - "To" can be produced by clicking the "From" point followed by entering a minus sign and finally clicking the "To" point . Jan 22,05: Both DTM functions "Swap Diagonal" und "Line from A to B" will now repeat their task automatically until the user cancels by pressing ESC. Jan 05,05: A point selection can now also be defined with a name mask (such as 2??? or *1). Jan 04,05: The center line directory can - in a similar way to the polyline directory - be used for renaming, reporting and deleting center lines. Jan 03,05: A DTM difference model - either directly or via volume cal- culation - will now be generated with an additional inter- secting line (elevation = 0). Optionally, the 'following ing model' can also be given the intersection line (but with a different elevation). Dec 30,04: When generating a plan with center lines the spiral elements are now labeled with their parameter A = xxx. Dec 27,04: Under the term "Perpendicular Offsets" the location of a second center line in cross sections referring to a first center line can be calculated. Dec 17,04: Setting out a road lane surface through string lines on both sides is now implemented as an individual function. The calculation of level points was now extended so that multiply observed radial points can be determined via a mean value of individual results. Dec 16,04: The road surface can now be checked with surveyed level points. As well as the written report the level differences can also be saved in a new project so that the vertical deviations become visible via a DTM. Dec 15,04: It is now possible to use an Access Database (MDB file) as a point repository. After the database colums have been linked to the corresponding CAPLAN fields the points can be loaded and saved. Dec 10,04: Different raw data formats (versions) from Trimble DC must be handled with individual settings which caused some requests to our hotline support. In future the format ver- sions 7.7, 10, 10.7 will be detected automatically along with the correct presettings. Dec 09,04: A new function is available in the plan window: A distance between two points (symbols) can be dimensioned. Nov 26,04: The dialog for editing an individual profile was completely redesigned. Thanks to a combination with the former profile table it is now possible to select, edit, list or delete not only one profile but multiple profiles. Via the new menu item "Alignments / Single Center Line / From Polyline" any activated polyline can be defined as the template for new center line, which may also have a vertical alignment if all polyline vertices are valid in elevation. Nov 19,04: From a DXF file CIRCLE elements can also be loaded as center lines. Nov 12,04: A DTM can be loaded from the binary Trimble TTM format. It is also possible to save a DTM in a TTM file. Oct 29,04: From today CAPLAN is capable of loading and saving a center ter line in Trimble DC file format. The vertical alignment is also included. Output of contour lines can be suppressed if their length is less than a given minimum value. Oct 26,04: A new function is now available via the menu item "DTM / Interpolate / Gradient...": Starting at a given position the route taken by downward flowing water can now be traced with a polyline. At your request the polyline can be stored in the project. Oct 21,04: In order to generate hydraulic cross sections two options were added in the Layout dialog page: turning on the left and right side of the profile and labeling offset values referring to the leftmost profile point. Oct 20,04: Handling of a horizontal / vertical alignment with Zeiss Elta CU / Trimble 5600 can be done with a program from Sinning / Intermetric using a TRA-file for the horizontal elements and a LGS-file for the vertical elements. Both files can now be loaded and saved by CAPLAN. Oct 18,04: All points in the project window can be labelled with their easting and northing coordinates using the view control box "Point coordinates". Visibility and size of this additional label is stored in the project file (CP file). Oct 16,04: The function "Report / Points..." is gaining importance for generating formatted point files. Therefore up to 20 alterna- tive sections in the list template (TPL file) are available from now on. To support identification of these TPL sections each section can be given an alternative (alias) name. If a center line (alignment) is saved in the datatype 40/50 format then a small dialog appears with the question whether the center line name should be saved in a comment line. Some applications have trouble with a comment line. Oct 12,04: Whenever a DTM is displayed with slope shadings arrows are now additionally drawn showing the slope direction (i.e. direction of water running downhill). This information is helpful for all who are concerned with sewage planning and water related issues. Oct 11,04: As we would like to bring CAPLAN to the British market we are going to provide some amendments in the next months. Today the LSS file format was implemented as a first mea- sure. Oct 05,04: Editing or new entry of polar observation data and GPS baselines is now done in two separate dialog boxes. The target points of each station can be viewed clearly thanks to the resizable dialog box. Sep 27,04: Bug fixed: Neither error ellipses nor displacement vectors were generated after a plan control network was adjusted. Sep 17,04: Persistent project settings are now saved in a simplified way: As before all project settings are basically saved in the CONFIG.INI file located in the current project directory. This measure ensures identical settings when the same project is later be re-opened. To supply even a new project with the current values all project settings are now additionally stored in the file CpUser.INI (new measure). The values from CpUser.INI are always applied when no CONFIG.INI file can be found in the current project directory. Some companies, however, prefer to apply uniform standard settings rather than the most recent values from the file CpUser.INI. Even this behaviour can be achieved: a a CONFIG.INI file has to be manually created in the DAT directory, e.g., as a copy of the CpUser.INI file. The ent- ries are then edited according to the company's preferences. The file CONFIG.INI has precedence over the CpUser.INI file. Loading and saving is governed by the following priorities: Loading Saving CONFIG.INI Priority 1 Yes C:\Cremer\DAT\CONFIG.INI Priority 2 No (manual) C:\Cremer\MNU\CpUser.INI Priority 3 Yes Sep 15,04: Point name ranges (from-to) had to be defined using exist- ing point names until now. This restriction is now removed. For example, the definition "100-199" is now valid even if the points "100" or "199" (or both) do not exist. Sep 13,04: Bug fixed: The disturbing message of a missing KOTRAN lic- ense during a point stack calculation is now removed. Aug 26,04: Up to now it was possible to output all observation equat- ions during a plan or level control network adjustment. Now the normal equations and the inverted equations (variance-covariance matrix) can also be output similarly. ----------------------------------------------------------- Aug 23,04: Release and distribution of the new version 1.6 -----------------------------------------------------------