updated: 26-Nov-2009

 Copan for Windows

Area and Perimeter Calculations

Note that if you need to check or adjust azimuth (or bearing) and distance traverse data or save new points, you should use the § Map Checks or § Map Traverses modules.

To Inverse Traverse Coordfile Points

1. Calculate | Inverse Brng-Dist Traverse (Area Calc)...
2. Optionally Load... a traverse Data file. (see Map Traverse Files below).
3. Enter or edit the point traverse data in the big edit box. See below for a description of map traverse data for calculating areas and perimeters.
4. Editing traverse data in the big edit box:
   To move the text cursor within the big edit box, use the Arrow, Tab, or Enter keys, or the mouse pointer. Do not use the Space key to separate fields. To delete a chunk of text, select it with the mouse then click Cut (or type Ctrl-X) but be careful not to delete the embedded tabs within a line. To manually insert a tab, Copy and Paste an existing one. The Ctrl-Insert and Ctrl-Delete key combinations act like the Ins and Del buttons, that is, they insert and delete a line of data. To add a Point number automatically to the next blank line, press Enter when in the Distance column of the previous line.
5. Optionally List the map traverse data.
6. Save the Data for reuse.
7. Calculate (or OK) the traverses.
8. To graphically view the traverses: Close or hide the Info Display window if it is open, and minimize or move aside — but do not close — the Map Traverse window. You may turn off the annotations prior to Calculation if desired.

click for larger view

Map Traverse Data for Calculating Areas and Perimeters

• Begin each traverse by a starter line, which must contain both the first point number, under To Point, and contain a label, under T-Label, identifying the traverse.
• A traverse must have a sequence of leg lines. Each leg must contain a To Point number and may contain a Curve code (see § Traversing Curves on how to define curves along a map traverse). Nothing else is allowed.
• All points must already exist in the coordfile.
• The area will only be calculated if the last point is the same as the first.
• If you have multiple traverses, when you Calculate you may begin from a specific traverse rather than from the top by entering the start point number or traverse label.
• Blank lines may be used for readability but have no affect on or calculation.

Map Traverse Files

• The first line must contain only this text:
    Map Traverses
• The next three lines can contain anything as they are not currently used.
• The next three lines contain unused head correction values — Scale factor, Distance factor, and Azimuth correction — one each per line.
• Each subsequent line must be a tab-delimited data line with these six fields:
      Point, blank, blank, Label, blank, and Curve
  Most of those fields are empty but there must be five tabs per line. Which fields are left blank depends on the purpose of the particular data line (see Map Traverse Data for Calculating Areas and Perimeters above).

Example 1: Map traverse file.

Map Traverses
1st dummy line
2nd dummy line
3rd dummy line
1.0000000000
1.0000000000
0.0000000000
101     parcel D
102
103             tbc
104             c
105             tec
106
101         

Notes

• If a traverse is a true loop (i.e., it closes on itself) Copan provides the enclosed area in squared distance units (e.g., m²). Copan does not yet calculate areas enclosed by separate traverses.
• If Copan complains about the data when calculating, and you cannot see what is wrong, visually inspect the data by selecting it all with the mouse. Often, you can see the inconsistency via the selection block outline.
• List All... is equivalent to the sequence List data and Calculate.

Bugs

• Traverse graphics annotations are not always sized properly.

updated: 26-Nov-2009