New Features in AutoChart 2010.00.03 Part 2

In my last post I covered the changes we've made in AutoChart version 2010.00.03 to Custom Formats, this time I'm going to finish my round up of 2010.00.03 by discussing the new Create Panels - Multiple Routes command and the related modifications to Create Charts to allow chart creation from multiple Panel Sets.

These changes are really laying the groundwork for future development to allow more automated charting production of a multiple route project (for instance, charting the cable arrays of a windfarm survey area). In time we intend to add options to automatically add route specific data to charts created from multiple route entities - automating the automation if you like!

The first steps towards this eventual development come in the 2010.00.03 version of AutoChart. The Create Panels menu has been separated out into two variants - the previous (original) version is now called Create Panels - Single Route and works in the same manner as before. This has now been joined by a new Create Panels - Multiple Routes command that allows the user to select one or more AutoChart route entities to create panels along. Both versions of the command work in the same way, except that Multiple Routes version disables the Panel Identifier text box in the dialog as this information is automatically taken from the AutoChart Route ID attached to the route entity. (Note that only polylines that have been imported or assigned as an AutoChart route can be used in Create Panels - Multiple Routes).

To complement the new Create Panels - Multiple Routes command, Create Charts has also been modified to allow the creation of chart drawings from multiple Panel Sets in a single operation. Previously, if the specified Panel Drawing contained multiple Panel IDs then you could only create charts from one panel set at a time. Now multiple panel sets can be chosen in the dialog:

The Panel Set name will automatically be used in the Chart Prefix Name if charts are created from multiple Panel Sets. If only a single Panel Set is used then this option can be turned on if required or the Chart Prefix name can be typed in explicitly.

Note that the Chart Direction is restricted to a common Kp direction for all of the selected Panel Sets. If differing directions are required (i.e. some charts need to have ascending Kps whilst others need descending Kps) then Create Charts should be run in two batches according to the required Chart Direction with the selected Panels. Also, the selected Panel entities should all be of the same type (i.e. all alignment panels) - it is not possible to mix alignment type panels with North-up type panels in the same Chart creation routine.

In time these modifications should evolve along with other AutoChart commands to vastly improve productivity when charting a project that involves multiple routes all requiring a similar final chart format.

New Features in AutoChart 2010.00.03

Last week we released the latest version of AutoChart (2010.00.03). Although it's not been a particularly long interval since the previous release, the 2010.00.03 version sees a number of modifications, in particular to the functionality of Custom Format ini files.

When you define a Custom Format ini file to read in your ASCII data, you can now add a line to the ini Header to define the number of rows at the start of the data file to ignore. This means that you don't need to strip off Header lines from the data, you can simply set up the Custom Format ini file to skip the appropriate number of lines before the command starts to read the actual data by adding a #HeaderLines entry to the start of the ini file definition:

#AutoChartName,ColumnPosition
#Valid AutoChartName values are Easting, Northing, Kp, Description. Easting and Northing must be present.
#To use tab delimiter you can use a tab character or for the avoidance of doubt when perusing this file "\t"
#Delimeter,"\t"
#HeaderLines,2
Kp,5
Easting,6
Northing,7
Description,1

So, in the above example, the first two lines of the data file would be ignored when the data is imported. If the #HeaderLines variable is omitted from the ini file then the import function will start reading from the first line in the data file.

Another option that can be added to the ini file is that you can now specify the units of numerical fields or an actual multiplier value so that unit conversion can be undertaken automatically as the data is imported. This option is activated by adding the unit value after the column number for the field:

#AutoChartName,ColumnPosition

#Valid AutoChartName values are Easting, Northing, Kp, Description. Easting and Northing must be present.
#To use tab delimiter you can use a tab character or for the avoidance of doubt when perusing this file "\t"
#Delimeter,","
#HeaderLines,3
Kp,1,Meter
Easting,2
Northing,3

Alternatively, an explicit multiplier value can be specified rather than the field units:
#AutoChartName,ColumnPosition
#Valid AutoChartName values are Easting, Northing, Kp, Description. Easting and Northing must be present.
#To use tab delimiter you can use a tab character or for the avoidance of doubt when perusing this file "\t"
#Delimeter,","
#HeaderLines,3
Kp,1,0.001
Easting,2
Northing,3

In both of the examples above, the values in the Kp column of the data will be divided by 1000, so converting the input units in meters to Kp in Kilometers. If no units or multiplier is specified then the values in the file will be imported directly. Similarly, if the coordinate values are set to the same units as those used by the coordinate system, no unit multiplication will be performed.

e.g. If the Easting and Northing fields are set to have a unit value of USFoot and the data is imported into a drawing that has a coordinate system with units of S Survey Feet, then the E/N values will be imported as they appear in the file. However, if the data is imported into a meter coordinate system, the E/N values will be multiplied by (12/39.37).

The following units can be specified:

USFoot

IntFoot

Meter

USKiloFoot

IntKiloFoot

USMile

IntMile

Kilometer

Continuing with the Custom Format theme, it is now possible to define and use a Custom Format ini file for Sub-Bottom Profiler (SBP) file types. The SBP Custom ini files must be stored in the \SubBottom sub-folder of the AutoChart Formats support folder (e.g. C:\AutoChart\Formats\SubBottom) and follow the following conventions:

• Positions must be stored in fields named Easting and Northing
• Horizon depths must be relative to the seabed and be stored in a field named Depth
• Nodes and Tag names must be defined in a field named Node and a field named TagName respectively. Node values should be S (for start of horizon), I (for intermediate points on the horizon) and E (for end of horizon). Point values can be denoted by use of an S or E node value, or by any other value (e.g. P) outside of a normal linear horizon definition.
• Optionally a Description field can be used in the ini file and then the values contained in this field will be added to the points and horizon vertices.

As noted above, header lines can be skipped and unit conversion can be performed by setting these options in the ini file definition.
#AutoChartName,ColumnPosition
#Valid AutoChartName values are Easting, Northing, Depth, TagName, Node, Description.
#Easting, Northing, Depth, TagName and Node must be present.
#To use tab delimiter you can use a tab character or for the avoidance of doubt when perusing this file "\t"
#Delimeter,";"
#HeaderLines,3
TagName,1
Node,2
Easting,3
Northing,4
Depth,5
Description,6
In my next post I'll finish my roundup about the changes in the latest 2010.00.03 version of AutoChart by discussing the modifications we've made to allow creation of panels and charts along multiple routes.
As always you can check out the details of all of the recent changes on our website or in the AutoChart Help documentation.

AutoChart version 2010.00.03 is now available for download

We are pleased to announce that the latest AutoChart version 2010.00.03 is now available for download from the Wish Software Support Page:
http://www.wishsoftware.com/AutoChartSupport.aspx

Access to the download page requires a User Name and Password, so please contact your company's AutoChart Administrator in the first instance to obtain the required login information.

Version 2010.00.03 contains a number of modifications and bug fixes, the details of which are shown below:

Type	ID	Description	Command
BG	270	Create Charts Crashes with an 'Invalid' Error if the selected Base Chart is already open	Create Charts
FR	670	Added Innomar SPB Format	Add SBP Data
FR	672	Custom Formats modified to allow user to specify the number of header lines and the units of fields	AutoChart
FR	673	Add IXSEA SBP Format	Add SBP Data
FR	674	Add Triton SBP format	Add SBP Data
BG	675	Bad DXF Group error when importing Route from a single XP.csv file	Import Route
FR	676	Enable Custom Formats for SBP file types	Add SBP Data
FR	677	Use Top of Cover Flag for Cross Profile Lateral alignment if Top of Pipe not Found	Create Cross Profiles
FR	678	Show Top and Bottom of Pipe profiles as a dashed polyline where the pipe is buried (Acergy UK only)	Create Profile
FR	679	New Command Create Panels - Multiple Routes	Create Panels
FR	681	Create Charts command modified to work with multiple panel sets	Create Charts

I'll be discussing some of the changes in a forthcoming post on this blog.