New Features in AutoChart 2010.00.02 Part 2

Continuing on from last week's post, I'll finish my roundup of some of the new features included in the latest 2010.00.02 version of AutoChart.

We've now modified the Create Profile, Create Cross Profiles and Create Events Current Drawing commands so that, when they are run from within a Chart drawing, they will follow the direction of the Chart UCS. Previously when the Current Drawing version of these commands was used, the Kps within the Panel would always increase from Left to Right. Now if the command is run within a Chart that has been created with the Descending Kps option, the Kps in the Profile/Cross Profile/Events panels will follow the Chart direction and increase from Right to Left. This means that should you need to force the Panel Start Kp within a particular chart you can be sure that the Kp direction will be correct for that chart.

The Create Grid command has been changed so that you can now specify separate intervals for the Latitude and Longitude graticules. Previously the same interval would be used for both Latitude and Longitude which was not always desirable for certain datums and work areas. The Create Grid command now has individual entries for the Latitude interval and for the Longitude interval:

We've also fixed a problem in the Create Grid command where if the Geographical graticule parameters were not entered even though the option to use them was turned off, the command would fail with a Bad DXF (62) error.

The Create Cross Profile command has been modified to allow a 'Lateral' Reference point to be chosen as well as the Vertical reference point. This means you can select one of the Cross Profile Flags as the Lateral reference and the cross profile will be centered in the panel based on the X-offset of the selected Flag. For instance, if you were plotting cross profiles from a trenching survey, you may want the scans referenced to the bottom of the trench rather than the pipe position so that you can illustrate how the pipeline is situated within the trench.

The Zero line on the vertical axis will then refer to the selected Lateral Reference Point:

A new command Export SBP Data has been added. This allows the user to output any AutoChart Sub-Bottom Profile horizon data from an existing profile to a comma separated AutoChart format SBP data file. This means that any SBP data that may have been graphical edited within AutoCAD can be re-output to a data file or enables the User to recreate a data file that is no longer available. The SBP data within the profile MUST have been original made by AutoChart so that it it an AutoChart SBP entity Tag (this can be checked using the Show Entity Data inquiry. 

e.g.
Pick Entity to list:
Tag Name : Horizon 3

Export SBP Data can be run in either Current Drawing or Chart Series mode.

The Create Matchlines command has been modified so that it works correctly with North-up panels. Previously the command would only work with Alignment type panels and did not recognize North Up panels as valid entities.

Another New command is Attach Route ID by Layer. This will automatically convert all lines and polyline entities within the current drawing to AutoChart Route entities. It adds a Route ID based on the Layer name that the polyline sits on. 

The command can prove useful when adding labels to existing pipelines/cables within a Chart Series. If the Layers are set such that the layer name reflects the required label values (e.g. Pipe ID) then Attach Route ID by Layer can be used to add AutoChart Route ID information to all of the lines/polylines. The drawing can then be Xreffed into the Chart Series and the Annotate Object command used within each Chart drawing to add the required ID labels to the plan view box simply by clicking on the route entities within the Xref.

Finally, the Help documentation has been updated and revised to provide more information and easier navigation within the Help File.

The full list of Changes in version 2010.00.02 can be found within the AutoChart Help File, on the Wish Software Support website or in this Blog Post. If you require any further information on any of the changes, then please contact us at Support@WishSoftware.com

New Features in AutoChart 2010.00.02

Now that we're settled in at our new office, I thought it would be a good opportunity to discuss a few of the new features in the latest version of AutoChart (2010.00.02) that was released at the end of last month.

Probably the most important feature for those of you upgrading to AutoCAD 2011 is that the 2010.00.02 AutoChart is fully compatible with this latest version of AutoCAD. Indeed, to be able to use AutoChart with AutoCAD 2011, the new release must be installed as earlier versions are not compatible.

So, in this first post, I'll cover a few new and modified commands to do with creating and working with longitudinal profiles.

One of the most useful improvements is that the Xref Profile command has been fully updated to draw the Depth Axis and Kp Axis as well as automatically positioning the profile from the single command. The previous version of the command involved a few workarounds and was not particularly intuitive (until you knew how it worked!) whereas now the command works in a similar manner to the Create Profile command, except that the Profile source is a drawing rather than an ASCII file.

The Xref Profile command can be run as Current Drawing (by specifying the Panel Start Kp) or as Chart Series (where the Profile Xref is positioned according to the Plan View UCS). With either version of the command you can select to have automatic vertical positioning of the profile Xref by specifying an Upper/Middle/Lower position or fix the top of the Profile box to a particular value by using the 'Force Grid Start Depth' option and entering the required value.

As with the previous Xref Profile command the drawing to be inserted must be created in Pseudo Real World coordinates (i.e. the X-axis must be (Grid) Kp in metres with Kp 0 at X=0 and the Y-axis must be depth vertically exaggerated, e.g. Depth 0 at Y=0, Depth of 75m with a vertical exaggeration of 50 must be at Y=-3750. Finally, for Ascending Kp Charts the Kps of the Xreffed profile must travel from left to right, for Descending Kp Charts the profile must be mirrored around X=0 so that the Kps travel from right to left. It is usually easiest to use the Create Profile - Current Drawing command with the Calculate Panel Extents from Data option ticked in order to draw the profile data in the correct position.

Note that one of the profile polylines in the profile Xref must have been designated as the AutoChart 'Primary' profile. If this tag does not exist (for instance if the profile was not originally created in AutoChart) then this can be done using the new Attach Profile Info command.

Once the Profile Xref has been added to the charts, if required, a new command Move Profile Xref can be used to adjust the position of the inserted profile. This command allows the user to drag the profile to a new location within the chart panel and then adjusts the Kp Axis and Depth Axis to match. The command then re-applies the XCLIP around the profile panel and updates the chart's profile dictionary.