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.

We're moving!!

There may be a small interruption to Support emails this week as we're relocating the office from Edinburgh to Wiltshire. Obviously we'll try to maintain our normal levels of support as much as possible, but please bear with us during the move.

From the 1st July 2010 our new contact details are:

Wish Software Limited,
Hartham Park,
Corsham,
Wiltshire,
England,
United Kingdom,
SN13 0RP.
Telephone numbers +44 (0)1249 700714/5/6

Mobile numbers and email addresses remain the same.

AutoChart version 2010.00.02 is now available for download

We are pleased to announce that the latest AutoChart version 2010.00.02 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 2010.00.02 contains a number of new commands, modifications and bug fixes and the new install is required for use with AutoCAD 2011.

Please note that AutoChart version 2010.00.02 will be the last version of AutoChart to support AutoCAD 2000 - 2006. All future versions will be compatible with AutoCAD 2007 and above only.

A list of new features is shown below and full details of these can be found within the AutoChart Help File. 

I'll also be discussing some of the major changes and new commands in forthcoming posts on this blog, so if there is anything in the above list that you are particularly interested in then please let me know.

Listing the coordinates of Polygons/Closed polylines in AutoCAD MAP

In my last post, I discussed the process involved in exporting a listing of polygon positions through ArcGIS. So how could you export the same information using AutoCAD MAP?

Again, it's a fairly simple operation, the main trick being how to easily get the centre points of the polygons or closed polyline entities and this involves using the AutoCAD MAP Create Centroids command.

So, the first step is obviously to have your source data that you want to export the positions from. This could be an existing set of entities (with or without object data) or you can use the MAP->Import command to bring in a shp file of polygon objects and their associated object data. When you import the data in this way, you can also choose to convert all of the polygon entities to closed polylines.

Once the data is in AutoCAD, you can then use the Create Centroids command on either selected entities or on all closed objects within the drawing. This will create a point entity at the centre of each polygon that also contains the associated object data. Once the centroids have been created, save and close the drawing and start up a new drawing in which to run a Report Query in order to output the point data coordinates to a text file.

Select the MAP->Define query command and use the Drawings button to attach the drawing created above. Under the Query type, click the Location button and set the Boundary Type to All. Then click the Property button, select the Object Type radio button, make sure the Operator is set as '=' and click the Values button to choose the POINT object type. This will ensure that only the point objects representing the centres of the polygons will be included in the output.

Back in the Define Query dialog, set the Query Mode to Report and click the Options button to access the Report Options dialog. Click the Expression button, expand the Object Data folder to select the required Object Data field and click OK to return to the Report Options Dialog and click the Add button to add the expression to the Report Template list. Repeat the above steps for any other object data fields you want included in the listing. To include the Eastings and Northings in the Listing, again use the Expression button, but this time expand the 'Properties' folder and select X1. Press OK and then use the Add button to include it in the template. This gives the Eastings of the point objects so repeat the operation to select Y1 to add the Northings to the Listing.

Once the Report Template is set up as required, use the Browse button to define the output name and location for the listing and press OK to return to the main Define Query Dialog.

Finally, click the Execute Query button to generate the report. The data will be output as a comma delimited file that can be opened in Excel.

The entire process is illustrated in the video below:

Listing the coordinates of Polygons in ArcGIS

So far all of my Blog posts have been about AutoCAD and AutoChart (primarily because these are what I spend the majority of my time dealing with) but Wish Software are also involved in producing and working with GIS deliverables, so today I'm going to add a tip about working in ArcGIS.

If you have a Polygon feature set, it may not be immediately obvious as to how to produce a listing of the centre coordinates of those polygons. Whilst the polygons are displayed in their 'Real-World' position, accessing their actual coordinate values involves a couple of steps.

1. Firstly, you have to add two fields to hold the X and Y coordinate values, so open the Attribute table in ArcGIS and use Options to Add a Field 'Easting' and a Field 'Northing', both of type Double.
2. Right click on the Easting Field and use the Calculate Geometry option to add the X-coordinate of each polygon centroid. Repeat Calculate Geometry with the Northing Field to add the Y-coordinate of the centroid and you'll then have the E/N coordinates for the centre of each polygon stored within the Attribute table.
3. If you want to produce this information as a listing, you can then just use the Export option from the Attribute Table to output to a Text File.

All of the steps above are illustrated in the following video:

5 Useful new features in AutoCAD 2011

AutoCAD 2011 has now been released and so we’ll shortly be issuing a new AutoChart install that is compatible with the new 2011 platform. In the mean time, here is a brief overview of 5 new features of AutoCAD 2011 that could prove to be useful when dealing with Charts and charting data:

1. Transparency

Potentially one of the most useful features is that entities can now have a transparency property, allowing objects behind a transparent entity to show through. The transparency value can be set as a percentage and can be applied to a Layer, Block or individual entity.

This functionality could mean for example that seabed feature sediment hatching can overlay an image but such that the underlying data can still be seen:

2. Selection Cycling
If you’ve ever run into the problem of trying to select a particular object that is coincident with other object then the Selection Cycling functionality should help by presenting a dialog of the coincident objects from which the required one can be selected:

3. Xref Selection Highlighting in the Xref Palette

When you now select an xref with the cursor, it is highlighted within the Xref Palette (xref manager). This allows you to easily identify the name and location of the source xref simply by selecting an object.

4.  Polyline Vertex Grip Editing

Editing of polylines has become easier as you can use the polyline grips to add, remove or move (stretch) a vertex. Additionally you can convert a chord in the polyline to an arc. This functionality is accessed simply by selecting a polyline and hovering the cursor over the grip to be edited.

5. Hatch Enhancements

The Hatch command now asks you to first select an entity or objects to hatch rather than presenting the Hatch properties dialog (it retains the properties of the last hatch) and allows automatic previewing of the hatch by hovering the cursor within a closed area. The Hatch properties dialog can be accessed from the command line before specifying the object/area to hatch if required. A background colour can now be added to a patterned hatch. A HATCHTOBACK command has been added which changes the DrawOrder of all hatch objects within the current drawing so that they are at the back.

The above examples are just an overview of the AutoCAD 2011 features that I could find useful myself. There are numerous other enhancements and changes that have been introduced and there are a number of sources of information on the web that provide more details. See the links below for a few other blogs and websites that discuss some of the changes within AutoCAD 2011.

http://resources.autodesk.com/autocad

http://www.jtbworld.com/autocad2011.htm

http://cadpanacea.com/node/202

http://lynn.blogs.com/lynn_allens_blog/2010/04/autocad-2011-tips-and-tricks-booklet.html

http://autodesk.blogs.com/between_the_lines/2010/03/autocad-2011-system-requirements.html

Creating Descending KP Charts

There can sometimes seem to be some confusion amongst some of our users when it comes to making Charts in that have the route KPs running from right to left on the chart. Maybe the process isn't as clear as it could be until you are aware of the options available in AutoChart, so hopefully this article will go some way to clearing up any confusion.

If your route runs in a predominantly East-West direction, you run into the situation that with the KPs running from Left to Right on the Chart, the Plan view box ends up having North pointing towards the bottom of the page. If you want the Plan view box to have North pointing upwards (generally the preferred option) then you need to make the KPs run from Right to Left on the chart. In AutoChart this is achieved by creating 'Descending KP' Charts.

Part 2 - A few useful AutoCAD Drawing variables

In my last article, I discussed a number of variables that take effect over the AutoCAD application itself, this time I’m going to cover a few of the common Drawing specific variables – i.e. those settings that apply to the individual dwg files rather than globally. I’ve covered a couple of the important ones previously, so also be sure to check out the previous posts on INSUNITS and VISRETAIN.

There are numerous variables available to control all manner of settings within the AutoCAD drawing environment, those shown below are just a few examples that may be encountered during a typical charting project. Further details can be found in the AutoCAD Help documentation.

FRAME – The Frame variable turns the display of frames on and off for all external references, images, and DWF, DWFx, PDF and DGN underlays. When you insert an Image, an underlay or perform an XCLIP around an external reference, the border around that object can optionally be displayed. The Frame setting overrides the individual IMAGEFRAME, DWFFRAME, PDFFRAME, DGNFRAME and XCLIPFRAME settings and can have the following values:

0 - The frame is not visible and it is not plotted

1 - Displays the frame and allows it to be plotted

2 - Displays the frame but keeps it from being plotted

3 - The individual setting varies for all underlays in the current drawing

(i.e. external references, images, and DWF, DWFx, PDF underlays all have different frame settings).

Note this value is used internally by AutoCAD, so the FRAME variable cannot be set to 3 by the User.

IMAGEFRAME, XCLIPFRAME, DWFFRAME, PDFFRAME and DGNFRAME can be set individually to a value of 0, 1 or 2 following the same conventions as per the FRAME variable above.

LWDISPLAY – Controls whether the lineweights of objects are displayed and can be set to either ON or OFF. Note that the setting is controlled separately for model space and all paper space layouts.

LAYEREVAL – Specifies whether the layer list is evaluated for new layers when added to the drawing or to the attached xrefs. Setting LAYEREVAL to 0 turns it off, 1 detects when new xref layers have been added in the drawing and 2 detects when new layers have been added in the drawing and xrefs.

LAYERNOTIFY – Specifies when an alert displays when unreconciled new layers are found and can be set to a bitcode value consisting of the following:

0   - Off
1   - Plot
2   - Open
4   - Load/Reload/Attach for xrefs
8   - Restore layer state
16 - Save
32 - Insert

Note: LAYEREVALCTL overrides the LAYEREVAL and LAYERNOTIFY setvars. When LAYEREVALCTL = 0 it acts like a global off (but not a global on). There is no effect even if LAYEREVALCTL is turned on if LAYERNOTIFY = 0 or LAYEREVAL = 0. LAYEREVALCTL must be set to 1 for LAYERNOTIFY and LAYEREVAL to function correctly.

As explained in the previous article,you can display a Dialog box showing the numerous AutoCAD variables available and their current settings using the System Variable Editor Express Tool.

A few useful AutoCAD system variables

AutoCAD has a number of system variables controlling all manner of options within the AutoCAD environment. Some variables act on a ‘per drawing’ basis whilst others affect the AutoCAD application itself. Today I’m going to run through a few of the common System-wide variables (i.e. those that affect the options within AutoCAD itself).

You can display a Dialog box showing the numerous system variables available and their current settings using the System Variable Editor Express Tool:

Generally most users will want to keep the system variables set to their default values but occasionally (particularly following a fatal crash) the variable may be left in an altered state and needs to be reset to a different value. The System Variable Editor can prove a useful resource to find out what the initial value of a variable would be and reset if required.

The following are just a few of the Registry variables that may need to be accessed and changed if the current value causes AutoCAD/AutoChart to not behave as expected.